B'way Bicycle School Classes -- or others in Bos. area?

[BostonRoadee]

Anyone in Boston/Cambridge area have a bike repair class to recommend?

Have you taken the Broadway Bicycle repair class? I'm thinking of the $110 five-class series (10 hours total class time). Good or bad experiences?

I considered the Belmont Wheelworks Park Tools class series, but it's the same money for only six hours, teaching fewer, more basic repairs.

I used to be able to take apart and re-assemble most of my bike, but that was 25 years ago, and I've forgotten everything. I want to start with re-learning basic wrenching -- adjusting brakes & derailleurs, removing cassette, total clean & lube, replacing cables, etc. After that, I'll know if I want to learn more.

[ldesfor1@ithaca]

Bikes not Bombs in Jamaica Plain.

they have a decent website.

[BostonRoadee]

Bikes not Bombs in Jamaica Plain.

they have a decent website.

Thanks, Ides -- I'll check them out. Appreciate it.

[mudmucker]

I just took a Park Tool School for roadbikes class up at Goodales in Nashua. I did the 12-hour complete overhaul one and it was well worth it. I went to Goodales, because they offered it on 2 back to back Saturdays. I couldn't do a class on weeknights over a couple of weeks in the Boston area. As I said, it's well worth it to take the overhaul class (and the cost of the class is basically the same charge if you were to bring your bike to a shop and have them do it) - and now I can do these things on the 2 other bikes I have as well. Belmont Wheelworks offers this same course.

On the first day in the morning, we completely stripped the bike down to the frame and cleaned our parts nice and thorough. In the afternoon, we assembled the parts back on to the bike. We also repacked hubs, headsets, and bottom brackets, etc. On the second day, the next Saturday, we trued our wheels, strung the cables back and made final adjustments to the brakes and deraillers.

There were 4 of us and there was a nice assortment: one guy had an older commuter bike that had different tool requirements, there was a cyclocross bike, and two of us had Specialized. Some of us had v-brakes and different bottom brackets and cranks that needed different tools, some needed new cables so those were replaced, some needed new chains, some needed to use a derailler hanger adjustment tool so alot of different things were covered.

[BostonRoadee]

Thanks for the thorough breakdown, Mudmucker (great handle, btw).

I thought about the overhaul course, but it's a little spendy for me right now. It sounds just terrific, though -- those are all things I'd like to know how to do.

I talked to a guy at Wheelworks this weekend about their course. I asked about it vs. buying Zinn's book and having a go at the work on my own. (I used to be pretty confident taking apart a bike, but that was decades ago and I don't remember any of it.) I especially noted that I've got a very tight budget right now. He recommended I get as far as I can on my own (with book or web site) and then, if I get stuck, I can get a friend and together we'd pay $60 for an hour of one-on-two instruction about exactly the problem I got stuck on. This made sense to me -- as a teen, I never did find the problem I couldn't resolve eventually on my own, so maybe I'll get lucky this time around, too. If I do get stuck, with luck, I can pay $30 to get out of it.

Thanks for your input guys, and I'm still open to other ideas.