cyclinfool

I just signed up for classes in Open Heart Surgery, the way I figure it I'll get no respect as a human if I can't do my own repairs.

The Weak Link

It's really not all that tough. First you split the sternum. You can use a Park tool SS 4 if you can't find an appropriate surgical device. Then you open the pericardium. When it's time to do the jumps, go to the Park tool website and go to the "Install your own fork" section. Where ever it says "star-fangled nut" just replace that with "tiny little artery" and you should do just fine.

JanMM

If you're replacing a heart valve, you have to know whether you need Presta or Schrader.

cehowardGS

Couldn't be said any better!

I roadrace motorcycles, and can't turn a wrench even in the smallest way.

Ditto for bicycles. Yesterday, I bugged my next door nieghbor to change my seat on my Raleigh Competition..

At one time, I owned 4 sportcars and two motorcycles. Never worked on nary one of them. Some of us got the knack, and some of us don't. We are all RIDING!!
I did find out that I needed a 6mm..

BengeBoy 

I did the Park Tools course at REI 3 years ago. I think it cost me $100 or so; it was 8 hours spread over two days (Saturday 8 to noon and Sunday 8 to noon). For whatever reason, all the other students cancelled at the last minute, so it was just me, and the instructor, all alone in the bike repair department of the REI flagship store in downtown Seattle. Over two days, we basically disassembled my bike, inspected, cleaned and adjusted every part, and put the bike back together. We also took some old ratty wheels they had lying around and replaced spokes and trued wheels.

The instructor was *great*, and a total neat freak when it comes to bike -- we put every part into an industrial-strength parts washer and my bike was gleaming when the class was over.


I then rode it home in the rain....it hasn't been that clean since....

Anyway, at the school I got the confidence to do several things I'd never done before, but I also learned much more about how to diagnose things. I'm much quicker now about sorting out problems I *can* take care of and then leaving for the pro's the things that I know I don't have the time, tools or patience to deal with.

pipes

Since Iam back I might as well start posting :O) I have a great shop by me who has always done all my work ! BUT since I been buying bikes there 50 + yrs unless its a major repair I don't pay much if anything . Ya IF i need a part or somthing major they charge me . I can do my own work But I chooose NOT to . ymmv

BCRider

Yes it's fine. And I don't think any less of folks that choose not to wrench their own bikes, cars, toaster or whatever. However as a dedicated wrencher and tinkerer I don't understand it. But to each their own.

What DOES drive me crazy is folks that not only choose to not wrench but choose to deliberately remain ignorant of anything to do with their bicycle, motorcycle or car to the point that they just never check any of the vitals and will blissfully ignore any new noises or problematic issues that their vehicle may have. It's one thing to choose to pay someone else to do the work but it's an entirely different thing to choose to remain totally divorced from the most basic understandings of their mechanical mount.

Yes, yes, I understand that you know about YOUR bikes and that wasn't the question. It's just that it drives me crazy that they are allowing their bicycle, motorcycle or car (and usually all three) to just run themselves into the ground out of ignorance and the thought that because they don't want to understand EVERYTHING that they then think it's OK to take on NOTHING to do with it.

Philipaparker

Sure there I great mechanics at LBS that will really keep your bike in top form. I do my own wrenching simple because the bicycle is the one bit of technology I truly understand.

Digital Gee

I do NOT wrench. Put tools in my hands and I become dangerous. I once poked a hole in a car battery trying to get the connectors off. I also destroyed an old refrigerator way back when, trying to speed up the defrosting (remember when they didn't defrost automatically?) by using a screwdriver and a hammer. I was convinced I'd poisoned myself when the freon started escaping. Back when I was married, I managed to turn a simple leak under the kitchen sink into a $1,000 repair from a plumber by trying to fix it myself first. I simply wasn't born with the mechanical aptitude gene. A few years ago, I bought a very old bike for $30 and thought I'd use it to learn how to wrench. That plan lasted a couple of weeks and turned a bike that badly needed this and that into a bike that had to be given away. If it wasn't for the fellows at my local LBS, I wouldn't be riding bikes. Sure, I pay more than those who have their own tools and the aptitude and skills to do their own repairs, but that's the price I pay to have my bike in good shape. I admire those who can wrench just like I admire those who can write their own software, but I know I'll never be one of them.

Red Rider

I do absolutely no wrenching. If I have a flat and fumble with it usually someone will stop and fix in it 1/2 the time it would take me. I'd take my bike to the LBS for the least amount of tweaking, if it weren't for Mr. Fixit, aka cgallagh. He loves a challenge and can usually solve the most vexing problem.

I've never been a mechanic, it's not been a goal to become one, and I will resist becoming one. I'm good at what I do (sell real estate, grow plants, write) and I firmly believe in seeking experts in the fields at which I'm not proficient.

Robert Heinlein said that specialization is for insects, and I respectfully disagree.

genec

While I quite enjoy wrenching, and fully appreciate the concept of Zen and the art of Bicycle Maintenance, I also fully understand that some people have no mechanical aptitude... their talents lie in different areas.

My wife and I are ying and yang. She is art and craft, I am engineer and mechanic... she is far sighted, I am near sighted. She doesn't know a screwdriver from a hammer, I don't try to sing.

There is balance in our lives together. Some people should not wrench. It is that simple.

sportmac

I work 9 to 5, have a home business on the side, play tennis 4 to 5 nights a week, play guitar and sing (poorly) and between commuting and general riding do probably 5 to 6 thousand miles a year.

I'll learn to wrench when I retire.

xtrajack

I like wrenching on my bike, I like knowing that if something goes south at the corner of 40 and Plumb, I can fix it and get home.

I used to work on my ICE vehicles too. I am not a mechanic but I can replace parts. I quit working on my ICE vehicles when I had to replace the ball joints on my '03 Ranger. Turns out that you don't replace just the ball joints anymore, you have to replace the whole freakin' A arm (I think that is what they call it). It is an 8 hr job in a well equipped professional garage.

a77impala

If I couldn't do my own wrenching I would probably only have one bike as all but two have been rescued from the
dumpster at Yellow Bike or rummage sales. I have also put together bikes for my three children and two of my
grandchildren.
There is no way I can afford to pay someone to work on my bikes.

billydonn

The total collective post counts are clearly higher among the "pro-wrenching" posters in this thread. Therefore the proposition "It is okay not to wrench...." is clearly not agreed to!

donheff

But the correct answer to the OP is still yes!

big john

Riding bikes and working on bikes are two different things. Some of the best/fastest riders I have met have no interest in working on the machines.
Some of the women I know have long fingernails and I wouldn't expect them to fix flats if there was someone else there to help. I don't mind doing it for them.
Some of the guys I know are so inept that it's much faster if someone takes control and fixes the flat for them. Again, I don't mind if he's a friend.
I have helped many people on the side of the road over the years, no big deal.