Amesja

Was a time 150 years ago when folks took their families over the mountains in covered wagons, winching and pulling the wagons up and back down steep grades using pulleys and ropes, without any help from AAA or the local po-po & tow trucks. They then set up a farmstead and built and maintained all their own farming implements out of that wagon. If a wagon wheel broke they fixed it on the spot or died.

Today, the average bicyclist can't even change a spoke.

Humanity is devolving...

HillRider

Those people also had a ferocious infant mortality rate and died early of diseases we only read about in history books. Anesthesia was non-existent for all medical and dental procedures. Want to go back to those times?

Amesja

That is unrelated -unless you are saying that the infants who died were the "weak" ones.

Matariki

Back to the original question: You can do quite a lot for yourself. All it takes is the ability to think things through, the courage to dig in, and the acceptance that what seem to be failures are actually learning experiences. There are some specialized tools and some of them are a good investment; however most work can be done with basic tools.

Good luck

davidad

I do almost all of my own work and wrench for my friends. The only job I can't do is facing the BB or head tube. Those tools are too expensive for my limited use. I have built many wheels for myself and friends. None of the work is difficult as long as you do regular maintenance and pick up decent tools.
One thing you need to know about is the bike standard. There are almost no bike standards.

well biked

Or put another way (I think it was Sheldon who said it this way): "the problem with standards is that there are so many of them."

davidad

A big amen to that! And we will have a few new ones in the next minute or two!

Amesja

I've got the Ice Toolz BB and Headset facing kits. They were not very expensive @ $200 each. Too bad they are not available any longer. The Park ones are 2-3 times as much!

I face just about every frame I take apart. You'd be amazed at how fuxored most frames are from the factory. Facing makes a HUGE difference. At $200/tool it only takes a few trips to the LBS and have them charge you $40 for the job plus your time and expenses back and forth. And the LBS wrenches aren't very good at using the tool. I have to complain and badger them to do a full facing instead of just a half-ass job of it.

They don't want to do it right according to best practices. Park Tools has a lot of good help on their repair blog on how to use these tools. When a BB is properly faced the milling should go ALL the way around (but not necessarily the full width) I'm sick of arguing with a mech I'm paying $40 to do a job that they aren't willing to do right!



Since the Ice Toolz BB and headset tools went off the market so fast I decided today to snatch up their fork crown race cutter/facer tool before it is no longer available either. It's another $200 but I've had the same problems paying $40 for a LBS wonk to do it wrong. I'd rather have the right tool and be able to do it right without wasting over an hour (or more depending if they can get to me right away) taking stuff to the LBS for them to screw up.

Call me crazy or old-fashioned, but I like to have my own fully-stocked shop, and I don't like to be beholden to some snot-nosed hipster kid mechanic who doesn't have enough brains to not stretch his earlobes out to the size of table coasters. I really don't want brain-dead ironic doped-up zombies messing with my stuff...

rekmeyata

If he's an average mechanically inclined person in todays electronic world probably means he's below average mechanically inclined person from 40 years ago! but he should be able to do almost anything on a bike as long as fear doesn't set in, if he can fix his own flats without frustration he should be ok. Today you can find any subject in regards to repairing anything on a bike on You Tube and book how to's on Park Tools website.

bikeman715

I do it all and have the tools to do it with . The best thing to do when buying tools is to buy when the job need them and don't buy tools in set . There be tools in the set you never use . Don't buy cheap tools they are waste of time and money .

Dave Cutter

When I was a child my Dad had a tractor sales and repair shop. I grew up around tools and was taught how to use them correctly. I've always done some mechanical repairs and even wood working to save a buck or two. I already had a reasonability well equipped garage. When I bought my road bike.... buying a repair stand, a set of bicycle specific tools, and a repair manual seemed only natural.

What I didn't expect.... was to so completely enjoy wrenching on the bicycles.

nymtber

How much work do I do on my bike(s)?

Everything except re-build a shock, or play with hydraulic disc brakes (Don't own them, don't want them). I've built a wheel and re-laced another. The re-lace went well till I warped the rim during stress relief. I got it straightened out and its been fine, the first wheel i built from scratch has never had the slightest of issue, as true and tensioned as the day I finished it. I've even re-packed a coaster brake with grease. I was surprised GREASE is used in them, but it makes sense once I thought about it. That was a learning experience!

Working on bikes is rather easy. I enjoy it, actually! I can say one thing: invest in torque wrenches. Harbor freight are good, inexpensive and do what they have to: Keep you from using gorilla force on small fasteners. As well as the other end of the spectrum, they allow you to PROPERLY torque cranks and BB cubs ENOUGH! I check every bolt on my bike with a torque wrench. Even water bottle cages

Also, invest in a Bike repair stand. I have a Park...the cheapest model ($110 or so). It isn't fancy, but it works very well. Not fast to adjust, but I'm in no hurry, I do this for myself, not for money.

Amesja

If you have the Park PCS-9 it has gone up in price a little bit in the last year or two. Bikes are getting more popular and so it working on them. Park has been raising all their prices on tools lately I've noticed. That is why I'm buying most everything I think I'll ever need now.

The PCS-9 is not easy to adjust for height. It's a simple fix to remove the top allen bolt and replace with a longer one, a sleeve, and a knob so it can be adjusted on the fly with one hand.

nymtber

Yep, the PCS-9 is what I have. I never adjust the height... seems where I set it works well for me, but thats me! Even still, its not that bad to adjust, but I like your idea!

I'll never need another stand, i'm sure this one will last me the rest of my life

Amesja

I'm constantly spinning the bike in the stand. I bring the work to me rather than bend and move to where I need to work.

That's why I usually clamp on the seat tube rather than on the seatpost. If you are hanging the bike via the seatpost that's OK for basic stuff, but if you want to flip the bike upside down to work on the bottom it's going to twist out of the grip of the stand. Clamp near the CG of the bike and you can flip it anywhere.

I am also constantly raising and lowering the stand to bring what I'm working on to comfy height too. No reaching.

When I strip a bike down to the frame it only takes like 5-10 minutes flat. Building it back up a bit more -but not a lot more. I've worked a few production assembly jobs. The trick is to move the work, not your body.

TeamCNY

I'm just going to pile on to what the others have said.....

My father took my bike to a bike-shop for a flat-tire when I was about 7 years old. It took a couple of days to get him to go back and pick it up. Couple of days to a 7 year old without-a-bike = a lifetime.

I think that was the last time a bike shop was involved in any work I've ever had done. All my own maintenance for the last 40+ years.

nymtber

I'm never in that much of a hurry... If I'm tearing a bike down, its during winter! But, I CAN work on a bike fast if need be, even without a stand!

Most bikes I clamp the seat post. Works well enough for me.

CACycling

I do everything myself except build wheels (but will probably tackle that at some point). My family of four has 11 bikes between us and I take care of them. I also help out friends with their bike issues. And I pick up CL bikes when they are cheap enough to fix up and give to people I know who need them. I've got a Park PCS10 (which is worth the extra money over the PCS9 IMHO) and have put together a pretty complete set of tools that will handle just about anything from old school to modern except Campy (which I've yet to run into).

seedsbelize 

All of it

Amesja

I don't do Campy either.

jj1091

After a quick scan of the other replies, I didn't see anyone direct you to sheldonbrown.com, there's a link to a shortcut at the top of this forum, Bicycle Mechanics. I started working on bikes seriously about a year ago, and I ran across Sheldon's site fairly quickly, and then on to here. His site has loads of how-to information and you can quickly navigate the terms and lingo by visiting his site. Start there, it's specific, detailed information on about everything you'll run into, in good general language.

I do everything myself on my bikes, except the occasional freewheel which I need a different tool for than those which I have, and for $3 I can get my local bike shop (LBS) to do it.

Good luck.

lord_athlon

Last time I took a bike to the LBS was when I was 11 and I didnt have a chain tool. Ive had north of 50 bikes since then.

CustomSteel

I do everything I can short of things requiring expensive specialty tools. If I had such tools, I'd do those things as well. I only take my bikes in to the shop when I absolutely can't do something myself without the more expensive equipment. Honestly, once mechanics at any particular shop get to know me, they just set me up with what I need to do any work myself. They won't take my bikes in for service unless they know I don't have a way to repair or service something. Most LBS have enough bikes coming in for service and repairs to keep them constantly busy, they're not going to mind you working on your own bike(s).

My generation, along with those younger than us, don't normally work on anything mechanical or physically constructive because those skill sets just aren't being taught in modern society. Instead kids are raised without much expected from them, and for whatever reason(s) prefer to just lounge around and watch TV or play around on computers and smartphones. I hate talking to my peers about real world stuff, anything that allows one to be self-sufficient, because they just can't comprehend what I'm talking about. I usually have to hang around people in their 50's or older to talk shop.

Don't let anyone discourage you from doing something, including yourself. Computers, wrenches, whatever... they're all tools and there's no reason you can't learn to use any of them.

fishymamba

I've only gotten stuff done by my LBS twice.
1. I took out the fork from my CAAD9 and all the bearings fell out and broke. Took the bike to the shop to get the proper sized bearings, guy put them in for free in a couple minutes.
2. Got a new set of wheels and the spokes kept breaking, got them trued by a shop because it was taking me too long to properly true them.

Only thing I will get done by the shop in the future is a bottom bracket overhaul/replacement. I heard you need some expensive tools to do that on your own.

neurocop

Me too. I've got a well equipped machine shop, including a 6" metal lathe, welding gear, etc., so I can do just about any sort of bike repair you can think of. I don't have a frame straightening jig, so I'm SOL at repairing seriously bent frames. My main problem has to do with finding replacement/repair parts.