What was your very first fix? What bike and what was the repair? Do you miss that bike with the vast knowledge you have now? Was it a lambo in your eyes back then but a piece of poop compared to what you know as quality now? Did you start the game with top tier product?

Mine was a frankenstein bmx style. The fix was just an inner tube swap. I was a kid and it was my access to freedom. It was indeed poop.

A Huffy Mark 10 in about 1968. My first derailleur bike and a brake cable broke (while trying to stop in the rain).

While most people I have come across think Huffy was a junky POS bike. But the Mark 10 had a Wright leather saddle and Huret Allvit ders. Andy.

The first fix I can remember was probably lubricating my chain, I had fun with that. Wish I had the knowledge I had now but I recall doing a decent job but wish I had used a wax lube rather than the wet lube but it worked.

patching a rear inner tube on the 26" Columbia step thru, age 6... My Dad coached me, but never touched a wrench or screwdriver.
i was never able to sit on the seat and pedal that 55 lb. beast. Mom bought it for me at a rummage sale, price of $2.. "You''ll Grow into it!"
it broke my ankle just before school started, in a crash, racing the neighbor.... i received the Coast King 20" tire "Sting Ray" that Christmas... HAPPY DAY! it fit.

The first time I worked on a bike was in the early 1970s. It was a Raleigh competition. I’m sure it didn’t really need any work, I was just in love with the bicycle and took it all apart so I could make sure everything was clean after the first year of riding it. I’ve been hooked ever since.

I don't recall, but it probably had to do with screwdrivers and a tire patch kit or an oil can and a chain.

The earliest Huffys were pretty decent. The manfs. hadn't really figured out how to cheapen things up so much.

Bottom of the barrel quality was still generally adequate. (In general)

The kids were all changing out their stingrays to ride dirt in the 60's. Pulled the fenders, sissy bar, ape hangers and banana seat on a Hawthorne and traded with a local bike guy for a seat and touring bars. Rode great until I jumped off a hill and bent the pedals and crank arms. All we had was pliers, screwdriver and a pipe wrench. Wasn't pretty, lol.

We were always scavenging parts to keep our bikes mobile for newspaper delivery. My first speed build was when I was 12 years old. It was an English 3 speed (donated from my uncle) with a flat straight handlebar and a 26x 1 3/8 rear wheel. The front wheel was bent so I put a 20" front wheel from my Mustang on it which dropped down the front of the bike. No front brake of course. The handling was interesting and you needed to be careful of crank strikes but I was very proud of my "racing bike".

Simply putting a dropped chain back on the chain ring. That was a big accomplishment at 5 years old. I had help from an older brother. I know only that it was a tiny kids bike with hard rubber tubeless tires, my only tubeless experience. No flats, even with holes worn through to the steel belts.
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I remember messing with cotter pins at about 11 years old. Not sure what I was doing with them

I was utterly mystified about what might be inside the 3 speed S-A internal hub gear on that bike. So that hasn’t changed in all those years.

My older brother showed me what a spoke wrench was but not how or why to use it. So I decided to tighten up all my spokes. We all need to learn somehow.

Schwinn Stingray. probably a loose nut. not "fixes" but played around w/ lights, bells & speedometer. & of course baseball cards in the spokes w/ a clothespin for sound effects ;-)

dunno if I miss the bike, I certainly have fond memories. don't think I started replacing my own tubes until I got a Varsity 10-speed

As a young pup, I had found a ~20yr old bike and decided to whip into shape. Was a "Schwinn cruiser" type bike, so it was all rather simple. Simple bike, single speed, kick brake. Once the maintenance was done, it kept chugging along. A perfect "beater bike". Kept it several years until I went off to college. I suppose it was eventually gifted to some interested kid in the neighborhood.

No manuals or guides, or anything like that. Just dove into it, one part at a time. Removed all the components, de-rusted and sanded, then primed and spray painted (paint + clear), cleaned all the components, re-packed the hub bearings and headset bearings, then reinstalled everything. Wasn't all that pretty, I suppose. As young as I was, I had no spare money for buying any parts, but thankfully all it really needed was basic maintenance and TLC. Dad's tools, my elbow grease and time, a few cans of spray paint.

Didn't need anything with the wheels, IIRC, though I did a basic spoke tightening ... without measurements of course, other than eye-balling it (the ol' "finger" tension test that a kid might do if there wasn't anything else that could be done). Am betting any tech at a shop would have winced at the tension measurements on those wheels, but they ran fairly true, quietly and reliably.

Nothing else was bent out of shape or clearly "off", aside from needing cleaning/repacking.

A flat tire. I remember not having tire levers so I used a screwdriver like I saw my dad use and one of those dog-bone wrenches to remove the rear axel nuts. Aired it up at the gas station next door. It was on my Flying-O from OTASCO.

Great story

I remember those gas station days lol. It was a walk for me.

I vaguely remember disassembling and regreasing the headset on my Raleigh Twenty when I was about twelve; I'm sure I did other stuff, but I don't remember. The Twenty was an iconic bike, although just a three speed roadster really, and mine was the top of the range with a sprung leather saddle and metallic paint. I have a rusty one in the yard that I might rebuild/upgrade one day.

The owner of the local bike shop, who declined to procure my Airborne for me, needled me about my "Huffy". Apparently, Airborne was owned by Huffy at the time I bought mine.
I paid him no mind; Huffy or not, I've been happy with my Carpe Diem for 25 years. Sadly for the shop owner, I was able to buy the bike on line.

Huffy? Who cares?

I'm working on my first fix right now! Got a Bridgestone 400 that needed the bb refurbished (just finished that) and the headset is next up in need of a refurbish once I get some more tools.

I sense a custom tool box in your near future.

Changing and/or patching a tube on my bmx bike. That was necessary to keep riding, and as a kid growing up in the 80's that was my freedom. We didn't have any bike shops near us (maybe an hour at the closest), so I'd had to go to Western Auto to get any bike related stuff. Good times!

I was 8, living in New Mexico, where goat head stickers are common. The first repair was a tube repair, and I was helped out by my grandfather. He liked to use vulcanizing patches, these had to be lit with a match, which bonded the patch to the tube. I got pretty good at this repair, each tube had more than a dozen patches on it.

about 2021-2022 I had a tube that had about eight patches on it lol.

Probably bending my fender so it wouldn't rub when I rode my bike into a tree.

Or after playing Evil Knievel in the driveway.