stapfam

One of the problems of doing your own maintenance is the amount of work you do on the bike. On the mountain bikes- I strip the bikes down to a bare frame each year. On stripping I check all parts for wear and clean them. It is surprising how many parts are still in servicable condition on that strip down and are not replaced. Problem is that a bit of wear now will cause a problem later on when it fails so do you replace it now- Or Wait till it causes a problem and has to be replaced.

Did this with the Tandem earlier in the year and Chainrings were worn just a bit. I replaced the small ring and the chain and went for a gentle settling in ride. Checked the bike again for loose bolts or misaligned parts and we went for a Testing ride in anger. Could not use the middle ring with power so did a 35 mile offroad in big ring or granny. Back home and got it replaced. Next ride and we could only use the Lower gears on the cassette. The rear cassette was worn so another 35 in the wrong gears and lots of crosschaining. Back home and I thought about the crossover rings- Never caused a problem but after the other Ring problems- I changed them and put a new Chain on that bit.

So 3 weeks after a major rebuild- we went and did a long ride. Got home checked the bike and I had not tightened all the chainring bolts and lost a couple- It was a miracle that we had survived the ride.

So if you are doing your own maintenance- be prepared fto spend a bit of time waiting for parts to come in and for the bike to be offroad between visits to the LBS. Oh And get a bigger wallet- I may only want a $30 chainring so why do I buy yet another pair of gloves and 4 tubes to add to the 6 tubes already in the shed and the 4 pairs of gloves I already have.