Originally Posted by
BikeArkansas
After several months into biking I realized how much maintenance and repairs are needed on bicycles. I try to ride a minimum of 100 miles each week, and have done that except two weeks since the first of March. I have found that parts wear out, seemingly quickly. I was taking my bike to the LBS. The problems I found with that was the number of times the repairs would take at least a week. This time factor was mixed with some hefty hourly rates, so I bought a basic set of tools along with a bike stand and a bike repair book. So far, this has worked very well. I was wondering if most of you do this, or very few of you do this. For those that do have their own tools, are you glad you did this?
This is buried so deep nobody's ever going to read it, but if you're wearing out parts quickly, you may be doing something wrong. I built up my Atlantis (bought the frame, fork and wheels, everything else is out of the garage) almost four years ago, ride from 0 to 200 mpw with an average of about 70, and the only thing I've replaced is one spoke and a pair of tires I cut on a rocky trail. I'm about due for a new chain, but everything else seems to be working--I haven't even repacked the headset or hubs.
FWIW, I do all my own maintenance and repairs except wheelbuilding. I can replace a spoke, and I'm OK at truing the wheel afterward, but building from scratch intimidates me.