Old 02-19-12, 07:54 PM
  #11  
eepok
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Davis, California
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Bikes: 2012 Jamis Aurora

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Originally Posted by recumbenttoad
When I have to replace a spoke it's always on the drive side (more tension). I'm a heavy rider and because of that I do have to replace a spoke now and then (I tend to ride less expensive bikes - less than $700). I got tired of needing to depend on my LBS, so I bought the tools I needed to do the work myself. After all, nobody cares about your bike as much as you do. So, if you have any mechanical aptitude at all, and can afford to get the tools needed, I would learn to do the work. And, when you need to, you can build your own wheels if you want.
Originally Posted by [URL="http://www.bikeforums.net/member.php/192132-Drew-Eckhardt"
Drew Eckhardt[/URL];13873405]I read _The Bicycle Wheel_ and started building my own wheels after folding a poorly tensioned front and having a rear that failed to stay true from a formerly reputable shop. It takes moderate patience and a little mechanical intuition but isn't the black art some shops (through ignorance or desire to sell you a wheel build for $70 in labor) make it out to be (Jobst tested his book by having his grade school sons each build a wheel set with no other help). My wheels don't break spokes for at least their first 15 years of life (Jobst is up to 300,000 miles on a set of 15/16 gauge spokes so I don't expect anything different to happen in the second fifteen years), stay true from when they're built until crashed hard enough to bend a rim and when that happens or I wear out a brake track it's $65 to fix things.

Doing the same would be prudent. You could also find a competent local wheel builder (just finding a shop that does good work isn't good enough when there's more than one employee because you might get a set built by the new guy in his last week on the job) although in high cost markets labor can hit $70-$90 a wheel and you'll be buying new spokes each time for $40-$50 a set on a 36 spoke wheel on top of rim costs.
I've been building up my tool kit over the past year of mostly mid/low-range gear. I've considered just truing my own wheels and looking into building my own wheel(s), but the cost of screwing up makes me rather hesitant (though I've done pretty much all other types of upkeep, saving bunches of money). I'll likely buy The Bicycle Wheel within the next couple of weeks so that this experience will, hopefully, be one of the last I'll have. I just need to the bike rolling again for now. (Correction -- I found The Bicycle Wheel, used, online for $12 shipped. So it's on the way!)

I jumped on a Groupon a while bike to get $40 of service/parts for $20 from the OC Bicycle Service & Garage (Laguna Hills), but they're never open when I can get to them (Sundays, Holidays). I've read some good things about Bicycle Discovery (Fountain Valley) in my area and I've purchased a good bit of gear (including my partner's bike) from them, but never thought to use them for repairs since they're so far away. They're one of the few places open tomorrow, so they'll likely be getting my business.
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