Narhay

I started flipping bikes both because I decided I liked working on them and it provided a bit of money. The first...10 bikes I wish I could take back and give them a proper knowledgeable overhaul. I did my best but I'm much more capable now. Otherwise I would often have the thought when trying to fix something and it wasn't going well - I can just bring this to the shop. Then the reality of driving the bike there, paying for the repair, still not knowing how to fix it, waiting for the repair and picking it up were big disincentives so I would stubbornly research my problems on this and other sites. I haven't had the "drop it off at the shop" yearning for quite some time now and I've amassed a pretty decent collection of tools in that time.

AngeloDolce

Over time

1. Instruction from other bicyclists (mostly for changing flats when I was a kid, minor adjustments)
2. Inspection - bicycles are fairly simple and parts are visible
3. Manufacturer's owner and shop manuals, and books, including Glenn's
4. Internet (for new bicycle)

Shahmatt

This forum and Youtube....! All the best!

exmechanic89

I was trained in a bike shop around '81 or so and went on to work in several shops on the East and West Coast. The cool thing about working at a shop from a learning perspective, is that you're forced to work on things you probably never would on your own, plus you work on many different types bikes and gear teaching a lot of different ways of doing things.

That said though the internet and forums like this one can be a huge learning aid. When I got back into riding about 2 years ago I hadnt ridden or worked in a shop in 25+ years, and I was pretty rusty. I used this forum, Youtube, and online articles to help me get up to speed again on working on the bikes my wife and I ride. I still use those resources regularly in fact..

Ductbust

As with most I learned trial and error. Buy you a $25 yard sale or thrift store bike . If you can get a low grade bike tuned then high end components will be even easier . Just saying

Camilo

Yea, that's the one I have. In my imprinted brain, that bike represents my ideal of traditional bike beauty. (note I'm not saying "bike beauty" but "traditional bike beauty". There are beautiful modern bikes too)

Northwestrider

Poverty helped a bit, desire to do things myself another . Plenty of mistakes, but taking time to correct them .

Rowan

Trial and error, books of various sorts, instructions sheets that come with new parts (even though I am male, I learned to read instructions as a short cut to success ); and now of course the internet, but not as frequently as some, and I haven't ever had the need to watch a YouTube video. Having a fleet of hire and tour bikes for my own small business meant a lot of maintenance work that I did myself.

Some say that to learn, a person should get a beater or crapped out old bike to learn on. I tend to disagree, and there are others who do, too. Old bikes with rusted-on components aren't really going to do you much good in the context of (a) getting them apart because they can destroy good tools and your hands! and (b) the components generally are outdated and not worth the effort (except some good-quality ball-and-race BBs and hubs). Same comments apply but moreso with Walmart and similar big-store bikes.

Get a well-priced, reasonable quality second-hand bike that fits you, adopt it as a back-up, and work on that. You will find it much better.

The exception to this is if you find a good quality older frame that can be stripped of old components, and rebuilt with new ones. My best-riding bike is a Shogun 400 that I picked up at a dump for nothing. I kept the frame, fork, seatpost and BB, and ditched the rest so I could rebuild it with new components as a fixed gear; I've toured Europe on it, and done a year of century-a-month and other rides.

All in my own opinion, of course.

Rowan

Oh yes, Barnett's Manual was available at some stages on the internet for dowloading (somewhat illegally). I do have a copy of it and while I think it's a great resource, it's bit too finicky with the adjustments procedures, and a little outdated in the version I have.

Bike Gremlin

Father. We'd disassemble all our house bicycles each spring, clean and grease/lube all the bearings, tune everything. From about 10 years old I could do it most myself.

When bikes with speeds came, before I got Internet, I was in bit of a trouble. But I figured most things (like limit screws) on my own. With Internet and on-line downloadable PDF books and manuals, it's easy now. Sheldon Brown's site was also a great source.

dedhed

I don't know, just did. Growing up in a DIY family you just fix stuff yourself. Yesterday I put a control arm/ball jt, axle seals, and a hub in my explorer. Never cracked a manual once. I have a distributor on the bench right now from a 1940 Ford flathead that needs rebuilding.

Newer bike repair on stuff I didn't grow up with like index shifting, freehubs, newer BB types I learned on this forum (after I figured out which posters knew their stuff and which didn't) as well as Park tool and other internet sources.

John707

I am new to this bike world. One thing that helps me is to take it off, spend time looking at it from all angles, then put it back on before moving on to the next piece. So you are really taking parts of twice. Learning how to lay out the parts in a first off order is also a help for me. Some people are naturals and then there are the rest of us!

cyccommute 

First off, if you really never have had to repair a flat on the side of the road, you are very lucky and your lack of flats is probably the cause of all of mine You need to step up and take your share! I've had flats in every conceivable place and every conceivable means. I've had flats from our local seeds from hell...goat heads...but also from glass (ho hum), nails, screws, random shards of metal, rock impacts, blowouts, pieces of car tire steel belts (not to be confused with the random shards of metal), and a whole host of other objects too bizarre to mention. About the only thing that hasn't cause me a flat is a meteor falling out of the sky and I'm not sure it hasn't happened.

As for mechanical issues, again, you aren't bearing your fair share of problems and they seem to all come my way. I've broken frames (4 actually), pedals, cranks, spokes, wheels, cable housing, axles, assorted nuts and bolts, etc. I've never had a shifter fail but I'm not done yet I've even folded a chainring on a tandem in half!

But, as for learning how to work on my bike, I took a class long, long, long ago (1981 to be exact) and just kept working on bikes. The class was comprehensive...more then REI covers...and went from soup to nuts on bike maintenance and repair all the way up to building wheels. But building wheels was about the only thing I didn't practice until 1986 when I read an article on wheel building by the founder of Wheelsmith. I've been building wheels ever since along with learning about bikes and bike repair all the time.

Every Saturday, I learn something that I thought was impossible to do to a bike at my local co-op where I am the shop lead and teach people how to work on their bikes. Sometimes it's amazing what can be done to a bike and it will still keep on working.

rmfnla

Do you still have it? If so, post a pic of the cover; I'd love to see that bike again...

ExpertTools

When I was about 10 or 11, I was given a 5 speed Schwinn Stingray. I absolutely rode the wheels off that thing, both on and off road. I ended up at the bike shop almost weekly. I would watch carefully as the patient older gentleman got me back on the road again. One day, my Dad said to me, "I'm done! You break this bike one more time, and either you pay to get it fixed out of your allowance, or you fix it yourself." As a kid with very little money, I learned very quickly how to fix my own bike; and the dozens of times I'd watched it get fixed didn't hurt. I quickly moved on to a UO8, then PX10, and then my first Campy bike, a Raleigh Pro; and learned to fix them all. As a teenager, I had a few summer/weekend jobs working at different bike shops; but the pay sucked, so I only did this when I was desperate. As I got into bike racing, and touring, I was contantly tearing down and servicing bikes; building wheel sets; swapping components. Back then, I could fix pretty much anything on a bike short of replacing a frame tube.

Having not been an active biker for about 15 years, I have some catching up to do now.

andr0id

Starting when I was about 7, when I would get home from school, my dad would have taken my bike completely apart and the parts were scattered on the garage floor. I had to put it together before dinner or I didn't get dinner. At first, I spent many nights sitting on a cold, concrete garage floor figuring out how to put a bike back together. Eventually, I could reassemble a basic bike in about 30 minutes. So then he made it harder, I'd have to put a Puegeot with stupid French parts back together, or a Sturmey Archer three speed hub from a box of parts. Then fully disassembled wheels and freewheels. I thought that would be the end of it, but then he made it harder. I'd have to do it in the dark, or with one hand tied behind my back. One day, in 7th grade, I got home from school and there was a box of tubes from Reynolds and a brazing torch and I had to build a bike from scratch. I didn't even get to use an end mill, I had the miter the tubes with a bastard file.

deacon mark

I am jazz guitarist so I had to learn to work on guitars since I like nice handmade guitars. The guitar maker I learned from told me if I could repair guitars most other things would be easy. True, working on bikes is much easier than guitars. I read all of Sheldon Browns stuff built my first wheels from his page. I watch many youtube videos and basically it is not all the difficult. The skill is experience and you need tools. I buy tools as I need them and it is cheaper than having the LBS do it. As much as I do not like it have to keep learning as things change. I hate press fit BB but seems they are going to be what I have to deal with so get the tools and study up what is needed. This is the case for things as bikes change and new things come up.

Camilo

There is a web image of that book if you type the title into an image search. I'll try to post a photo when I get back home next week.

ericoseveins

I'm surprised no one has talked about their bike co-op experiences. There are many similarities with working in a shop (minus the time pressure) but also the added dimension of having to explain your thought process to another person in a jargon-free way. I've learned something new every time I've volunteered, largely from turning thoughts around in my head.

Delmarva

I got a good foundation in repairing things by watching my dad and asking him questions. Then I tried it myself on my bike and asked more questions as I went. I've been reasonably adept with hand tools so working on a bike for me is not all that difficult.

striker65

I got a book from the library but there are plenty of videos to help with repairs, don't really need a book in my opinion. Video's are easier to understand.

Camilo

I took a photo of my old, well used, beat up copy and see it's a Condor bike, not a Raleigh. Unfortunately, my book is so beat up, the picture isn't very good. But you can search for Condor images and might see similar in better quality.

rmfnla

Yeah, the Raleigh on mine had some green but that Condor is nice, too...

Booger1

Well let's see......Must of been Dec 25,1963.....Got a new Sting-Ray.....Rushed outside,threw my leg over the center bar and rode to the garage,where I used my dad's tools and took the whole bike apart.........Been downhill ever since.

Jarrett2

This for me. I like to know how things work. Compared to other things I've tinkered with for career or hobby, bikes are super simple. Especially something like a steel touring bike. The simplicity of the bike is one of the many things that draws me to them.

I just kept looking at bikes and messing with them and watching you tube videos when I got stuck. I asked around here a good bit. And in the last week, I built my first bike from the frame up. I was actually surprised and frankly a little disappointed how easy it was

These days, I'm offering my (free) services to friends and family to tune up and fix their bikes. Another acquiantence is going to have me build a bike up for him soon. Well, rather assemble a Bikes Direct bike for him, then tune and fit it to him.

It gives me something to do in my free time when I'm not riding