Get involved at your nearest bike coop, assuming there’s one near you. (Hint: put your location in your viewable information. We can help with specifics much more easily if we know where you are, including face-to-face support, tool loans, and the no-longer-made little parts from our many stashes.)

You might find a bike repair class through the coop, and a coop will have the bike tools that you might only need rarely, as well as the instructions on how to use them.

I’ve been assembling my own bikes and wheels for decades, but find I’m constantly learning by repairing the diverse bikes of many quality levels donated to the local bike non-profit (www.bikeworks.org). Last night, for example, I discovered that Campagnolo bottom brackets (abbreviated around here as “BB”) orient their caged ball bearings backwards from the usual orientation, while coaching others on the nuances of adjusting the crude BB’s found on children’s coaster brake bikes.

And for the bike(s) you chose to “restore”, be sure that the result will be something that you enjoy riding!