Originally Posted by sunburst

I recently decided to advertise myself as a mechanic due to the pandemic supply/demand situation at my local shops. We've lost 3 of my small town's shops in the last few years and are left with a chain store, Mike's Bikes, that was so backlogged that they hung a sign saying they would only service bikes they sold. It has eased a bit now but still there is a two week wait.

Anyway, two or three months into my wrenching career, and a lot of happy customers later, a bike-wrenching/flipping friend says something like "I would never do that due to liability". This jives with a letter a woman wrote to a financial columnist wanting her retired husband to either get liability insurance or stop being the neighborhood handyman. This is my situation in a nutshell.

Can I get sued if a bike I work on breaks down and causes a crash? For that matter, what about bikes I flip? Any potential liability there?
What do you home mechanics do? Buy insurance? Not worry/think about it?