Originally Posted by
Eyenigma
It's fair to say the people on this forum are avid cyclists, probably at the sharper end of the spear when it comes to overall cycling population. I'm curious – do you work on your own bikes
Yes.
or entrust the LBS to do it?
That would be stupid. Apart from wheel building it takes less time to service a bicycle than to drive to an LBS, park, drive home, and probably repeat the process for pickup. LBSes can't be trusted to build wheels right so that's not an option.
And to what degree do you get hands on? Changing group sets? Doing your own tune up and maintenance? Building your bikes from scratch? Ethically and logistically I struggle with what the right thing to do is. I (somewhat) buy into the whole "support your LBS" thing, but when you're out of a rig for a few days it's no fun.
I don't build frames yet, although if Tim Sanner still taught frame building in Palo Alto I'd be tempted to learn. I can run milling machines (manual and CNC) although I've yet to use that for a bicycle. Some time I'll get around to picking up metal lathe use.
Wheel building, group swaps, none of it is a big deal.