Originally Posted by
Rootzilla
That's one way of doing it and certainly the least stressful IF you can trust your LBS to do good job. I had such a bad experience of the shop not even fixing the things I specifically pointed out (such as the practically inoperational rear brake - which you do need on a freewheel bike in the wintertime - plus selling me a new rear derailleur when they should have straightened the hanger...) and also generally botching the service (mismatched bb/crankset, rearwheel QR open when I took the bike for a test ride, I could go on...) that I decided it's best to learn enough so that I can do most of the things myself and at least evaluate the quality of work on stuff I can't actually do on my own. So even if you have the LBS do all the work, it is a good thing to know enough to be able to tell when you're not getting what you paid for (still would like to learn to build wheels, though).
Building a bike from scratch is going to be expensive, but if you have patience and start with 2nd hand stuff (both frame and parts) it's not necessarily too expensive, considering the amount of learning involved. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have one bike to ride already, though.
I see what you mean. My point was lost amid the wall of text I produced. In short: What everybody here who has experience building, wrenching or maintaining their bike has is a beginning. But we found ways to add to the bicycling communities we are in, specifically, through co-opting our time, funds by asking questions and buying locally or breaking things and going through trial and error (which isn't the best). I'm not even close to the best wrench, but my passion for bikes developed alongside my apprenticeship with my friend and local wrench. That friendship grew from my willingness to do menial tasks like parts washing 30 year old wheels, cranks and other crap. You can't learn why if you just order some parts on eBay, open a box and say "this looks like what Sheldon meant!" Start from the beginning, always.