Originally Posted by
GeneO
It is the cost of the specialized tools to do anything besides routine maintenance.
I am slowly building up my tool kit - buying what I need as needed. I did this out of necessity as I could not find a bike shop in the area that did a good job for any reasonable price. There is a definite great satisfaction in being able to true your own wheels or fixi a bottom bracket issue or doing bearing maintenance, etc.
I look at it this way, will a tool pay for itself? A chain breaker, example makes a lot of sense, they are not that expensive and you will probably use it every few years at least. The tool to chase bottom bracket threads, is something I might use once and it's very expensive, so it's a job better left to a shop.