The Great Mechanic Within
 

Hey guys,

Today, I stumbled across a great article about our desire to wrench our own bikes. I highly recommend this read!

http://bicycling.com/maintenance/fea...echanic-within

I bought that issue in an airport and read it on a flight to dc over Christmas. that article was pretty cool, I thought it was the best one in the magazine.

Affirmation and Admiration
 

I built and assembled our touring bikes from older steel frames early in 2010. On a training ride with my wife this past summer, she complained that the 9-speed indexing wasn't stable while in her smallest chainring. Taking unnecessary pride in my work, and maybe being just a bit defensive about it, I followed behind her and watched every shift, every combination. I even suggested (wrongly) that she needed to find other ring/cog combinations to get the same gear number. What was apparent was that is was a chain tension issue. But I had carefully set the number of links, hadn't I?

Finally at the crest of a steep climb, the unthinkable happened...her chain broke.

The link pin was lost and I broke out the chain breaker from my multi-tool and removed a link. Grimy and sweating on the side of the road, my wife standing over me, I admitted to her that this was an act of Providence, and that the now shorter length of chain might benefit her shift stability.

She looked down and said "you're my hero". No joke. I nearly cried.

Well, the rest of the ride was uneventful, except for her bonking with about 15 milest to go. We weathered that, too.

In the end, though, that affirmation meant a whole lot. Is that also part of the mechanic within?

Phil G.

Oh yeah.

I have special powers. I can heal the sick (machines) : )

I became a home mechanic for simple economic reasons. I have 7 kids and all have had at least one bike and or raced at one time or another between road, BMX and MTB. We have had as many as 16 bikes in the stable. If I had to pay a professional for every bit of work from simple adjustments to major tune ups and crash damage repairs, I would have been out a bunch of cash. I was doing most work myself when I started to run into some wheel problems 6 or 7 years ago. My LBS did quick repairs and truing but never properly tensioned the wheel or in retrospect recommended a rebuild. Frustrated with continually paying others to do this "black magic", I decided to learn and have never looked back. The three bikes I ride are all on wheels I built. I build and tune wheels for friends and relatives as well.

Today, the only thing I would need from my LBS from a mechanical standpoint is facing of head tube or BB. I still buy some parts and accessories from a few LBS's to keep decent relationships and keep some money local.

I would say the greatest satisfaction for me in tapping "The Mechanic within" is that barring complete catastrophe, I can make it home on any ride. My road rides are routinely 35 - 70 miles whether on my single our our tandem so this is important. I'm more of a preventative maint. kind of guy so stops are pretty much unheard of but the knowledge that I can do anything I am call to do is very satisfying. I regularly stop to help others and that is pretty satisfying as well.