Batavus

Annoying: Big jobs like complete overhauls. I lose focuss after a while, especially when interrupted all of the time by customers. Also, working on busted up three-speeds doing a job you know will yield very little result but will still cost the customer enough for you to have to explain yourself. Front derailer set-up on an indexed triple. I spent too many frustrating hours tuning only to discover that the bike will only shift right with a brand new derailer. Now I replace as soon as I see signs of wear or a jammed chain having warped the cage.

Favorite: wheelbuilding! Such a soothing activity, except when you have a crappy rim or that one too-short spoke that sneaked its way into the bunch ( i know, you should check beforehand...) The focuss in our shop is pretty heavily on speed of repair as well as quality and I am the slowest guy around usually, so I was especially proud when I built a XT/Rigida touring wheelset 40/36 in an hour and 10 minutes, yay!

Also, complete overhauls... I especially enjoy shimano equipped derailer bikes with Deore/Tiagra and up. Strip bike down completely except maybe headset. Clean, reinstall , replace everything. Replace hub cones etc. Then tune the gears, brakes to perfection. Such a joy!

Discuss...

fosmith

Annoying: "My bike makes a noise".

Favorite: wheelbuiliding.

Batavus

Annoying: "My bike makes a noise".

Forgot that one, though I have become quite good at solving most 'noises'. My boss now hands me all those jobs.

LarDasse74

My bike skips when I pedal hard.

"Lardasse - take this bike for a test ride and see why it skips!"

More than once I came back in picking gravel out of open wounds after that.

Favourite job - adding upright handlebars to old road bikes.

due ruote 

Favorite: working on bikes.

Most annoying: putting a new wax seal on a toilet.

Batavus

Thank you so far! Come on, I know there are more wrenches out there! Spill your beans!

Bikewer

I think one of the most frustrating things I ever tried to do was fixing a flat on a bike with one of those Nexus internal-gear hubs. Not only a PITA to get off, but an even worse one to get back on and get the cable tensioned properly.
When I pulled the tube out, I discovered two! Someone had been so frustrated by the idea of doing what I just did that they popped the tire free of the rim while it was still on the bike, and somehow contrived to stuff a second tube in....

cnnrmccloskey

Most Annoying: Working on any department store bikes/kids bikes, disc brake bleeds, frozen bottom bracket removals. Also not a fan of threaded headsets,

Favorite: Complete Overhauls, specifically hub/BB overhauls on nice old bikes olike the set of campagnolo record sew-ups I did the other day.
I also quite enjoy frame prep and wheelbuilding (but my current job doesn't have any wheelbuilding work)
oh and I have alot of fun painting frames, but that falls outside of a mechanics day to day

Batavus

Why no threaded headset love may I ask?

wheelgrabber

When the guy who has a 10 year old used $3000 racing bike that he bought for $500. He complains that the its going to cost $700 for a new set of bfriters, and $500 for a new cassette, chain and chainrings. He doesn't even care about the bling. He would have been better off buying a brand new $2k bike. He knows it. He hates us because we know it too.

Favorite: The 5 minute KROIL job on a part that no one has been able to get apart. They look at you like you are some genius. I love the "we tried this" and "the other shop tried that..."

noglider 

I also love wheelbuilding and find it immensely relaxing.

I love when I try many different ways to do something and they fail and I eventually succeed. I had a heck of a tight lockring on a track hub. I couldn't get a grip on it. I did insane things like using a hammer and punch, vise grip, vise, channel locks, etc. Eventually, I used a vise grip with a 3 ft breaker bar. The good news is that it was a Dura Ace lockring, and it's made of such hard steel that all my abuse didn't wreck it. It still looks almost new. I was doing it for a 17 year old kid, and his eyes bugged out as I worked. He was impressed in the end. I did a lot of grunting and groaning.

shadowsbiker

Most annoying: working on department store bike brakes. Those things never work brand new let alone after people have beat up the bike.

Favorite: complete overhauls on older bikes. It's always fun to breath new life into an old bike.

unterhausen

I never counted the "bike like objects" sold at dept stores as actual bikes. So I discount that.

I remember putting as many parts in an old Peugeot U0-8 as the bike was worth. I wasn't very happy about doing that

My least favorite job is cotter pins on a bike where the old cotter pins failed. I was never happy with the results.

I like to build and true wheels

Retro Grouch 

My favorite job has to be a derailleur hanger alignment: Somebody brings in a bike that has stumped him and all of his "pretty good bike machanic" buddies. 15 minutes and I have it shifting "like butter". Makes people think that I'm smarter than I really am.

Least favorite is ANYTHING on a bike that has 1 3/8" tires. It's pretty much the opposite. They always leave thinking that I'm dumber than I really am.

JTGraphics

Most annoying: Removing crank pins as I did today on someones bike.

Favorite: Still working on bikes even though I had to do the above.

noglider 

I agree that cotter pins and crappy brakes are annoying.

On the subject of impressing your customers, I remember a customer complimented me on my strength, in putting the lockring on his BB. The truth is that I have finesse. I'm not that strong, but I can tighten things very well. And really, any mechanic with experience has techniques like mine.

Sixty Fiver

Just finished fitting some hard to find 26 by 1 1/4 tyres to an old Raleigh for a customer and the other day tuned up her other Raleigh 3 speed at the co-op... working on older bikes seems to my niche here even though I can fix anything on wheels.

English 3 speeds... mmmm !

Earlier this morning I fitted a gently wheel into an old Raleigh mtb for a local guy who is short on cash but big of heart... had picked up an LX hub laced to a Mavic wheel a while back and had just tuned it up so now his old bike is rocking an 8 speed freehub, new chain, and I gave it a little tune up. The charge on this will be what I paid for the wheel plus the cost of the new chain and a six pack of my favourite brew...

The most annoying jobs are where people have tried, failed, and f'd things up beyond repair and I don't work on bike shaped objects as they are an exercise in frustration.

Nicest thing is to be able to fix the things other shops won't or can't and have people roll away saying their bike has never worked better because it probably wasn't set up right in the first place.

I love building wheels and people love my wheels.

Soon, I will be building complete frames and am loving this work so far.

noglider 

Sixty Fiver, I hope you blog your frame building learning process. Are you going to weld, braze, or both?

zachdees

Installing chains and when your dam pedal strips from the crank ohh how that pisses me off

zjk

Favorite: bikes that work.

Now for a real answer: I have a growing respect and awe for the old school steel frame road, but as of now I love workin on new things that i haven't seen before or don't see often. ex. FFS (Front Freewheel System which we got to work on today)

Least Favorite: TRIKES

Sixty Fiver

Kicking things off with filet brazing... will be taking the torch to my folder next week so will document those little upgrades.

noglider 

Isn't filet brazing the hardest of all?

bikinfool

Most annoying bleeding my Elixirs. Favorite building wheels.

reptilezs

most annoying are old brakes, half of them have little to no adjustments for centering and the pad adjustments are afwul. also dislike smooth post brake pads on cantilever brakes. dont have a real favorite but overhauls and recabling are pretty good.

madpogue 

Not a pro wrench (okay to butt in?), but I do 80% of the work myself (== bad LBS consumer, I know...). Interesting reading; relief to hear that I'm not the only one who finds triple front derailleur setup to be . Qualifies for my "most annoying", this week anyway.

Indeed, wheelbuilding is zen. Meditative. Haven't done one in way too many years.

Favorite (besides wheelbuilding): cleaning it up and pushin' it out the door for a test ride.