Yeah, I might be able to do a few things but I'd be more likely to respray the bike or whatever. Mechanical stuff where you get your hands dirty... that stuff takes me days. I figure I can take the Giant to the LBS to get the brakes adjusted or I could totally bugger then and then take them to the LBS - or I could do the job but take the weekend to do it.

Last time I tried adjusting anything on my Speargun Blue Malvern Star Boys Bike it took a sheila to point out something very obvious. Luckily I'd only wasted several hours on it :D

When I first herd of talk about cassettes at the bike shop I thought they were talking about my Barry Manilow collection!! :eek:

Seriously, if you're a computer geek you shouldn't have any problem servicing your steed and wheels. And yes, I am talking about your bike! :D After all, this is a family forum. All it takes is a modicum of mechanical ability combined with a few reading skills and you can do 90% of the routine maintenance that goes with.

This winter I've stripped down 3 road bikes to the frame, cleaned and regreased them, repacked every bearing with fresh new grease, and put them back together with all of the ginger and care of a proud father. Two years ago I would never have attempted any of that but I got bit by the bug and that's all it took. The obsessive compulsive disorder took over from there. Besides, it would have cost me a fortune to have had all of that done at the local bike shoppe.

There are still a few things I'm not quite ready to attempt, but fortunately haven't had a need. They are building a wheel from scratch, servicing STI levers, and servicing derailleurs. Perhaps in time I will have a need to do these things but for now they are still fairly new and working well.

You give me too much credit. I'm no slouch with computers, after all, most of that stuff is just routing, IPs, lat tables, networking, IIS blah, blah http://www.cripplefight.com/smileys/blah.gif I don't mind reading instructions either, all that routing and IP stuff, I taught myself. Just hands on thingos get me flustered. The first time I took my airbrush apart it took me three hours to repair.

This cassette stuff and deraileurs and stuff, look more complicated than I can manhandle. It's not the reading or complexity, I understand quite well how a jet engine works. When it comes to a pile of parts though.... utterly useless.

I will try to change though. Next copper's auction I'll buy something and look at it a long time.

At least they will have already cleaned it for you. Don't you suppose they'd dust it for prints? :D

On the other hand the dust might have set, making it look as though mum had to shift the bike out of the kitchen whilst she was whipping up some scones.

I'll go to the auction but I'm afraid I'll get a lemon. So many bikes in town and I can't even figure where they're coming from. All sorts of brands and models and only one LBS.

Oh crap... my dream... pick a bike like some folks decide on what to wear. I wisely did double up though... my road bike is red.