Road Cycling - Park Tools bike repair class

As a roadie (or a biker in general), how useful would it it be to take one of these classes. Cost is $100 for a day session where the instructor says you will be able to disassemble and put together a bike. Ofcourse there are home tools to consider once you know how to fix a bike so I'm just wondering if I'm opening a can of worms or it's really worth it (considering that the usual tune up costs about $65).

Any thoughts?

I got the Park Tool School manual on E-Bay for like $20.00 or something. Has the whole shebang right there. It's pretty nice, but I think that Zinn's books on road and MTB repairs are better.

If you are somewhat used to wrenching, and don't mind reading that manual, or Zinn's books, or any of several others that are quite good, then you should be able to do a lot of routine maintenance yourself; and if you want to buy a few specialized tools then you can do even more.

If mechanical work is fairly new to you, then the class might be of more use, I would think.


Whit

For one day? Not worth it. I always thought the Park Tool classes were held over time, like a few weeks or something like that. I paid for 6 weeks, two times per week, for $200 when I took the Park Tool class.

Koffee

As a roadie (or a biker in general), how useful would it it be to take one of these classes. Cost is $100 for a day session where the instructor says you will be able to disassemble and put together a bike. Ofcourse there are home tools to consider once you know how to fix a bike so I'm just wondering if I'm opening a can of worms or it's really worth it (considering that the usual tune up costs about $65).

Any thoughts?
Are you going to be working on YOUR bike for most of the day? If so, with professional instruction, it'd probably be worth it. At the end of the day, you and your bike are better off. Perhaps bring a new bottom bracket to the class.

If you're working on someone else's bike, well, that's a pretty good scam they got going on there ;) :D

I'm a old mechanic and don’t have any problem keeping the bike running and rebuilding it. But I broke down and bought the Barnett's paper Manual for $115 and subscribed to the “DX” version It is the whole book in a linked "PDF" version. They update the “DX” 4 times a year.

I have learned so much from that book! And most Maintenance shops could too. I now check out the high end bikes at all the shops to see how they set up pads on the double pivot brakes and a lot are set up wrong…just like I use to.

Having it on the computer allows me to print out the pages/ steps that I want to use when I’m helping some less mechanical friends work on their bike.

Maybe just one copy in the club or neighborhood would be enough.

If you’ve never worked as a wrench at a shop. Getting some hands on tool training would help.