I build & maintain my own bike except truing wheels.

same here

+1
It's the whole Zen, body, mind and machine as one. I like sew-up tires because of the feel of the ride but also the hands on gluing and mounting of the tires. I like leather saddles. Again it's the tensioning, applying conditioners, and massaging the saddle. Building a wheel. It's getting the tension, keeping the wheel round, through feel not tension meters. Using old socks and a toe strap for my spare tube and tools. It's all part of the experience. And please there is no need for computers, power taps, HR monitors, garmins. Get to the soul of cycling and enjoy.

You must be new here.

You can buy the short, 3' tall Oxygen/Acetylene cylinders. No rentals, although they seem to always be going out of hydro dating on me.

I haven't had to do a lot of welding on my bike other than the one broken rack on the road halfway around the world incident. But that is coming... soon. Oh, and I suppose the hack-job on my cargo bike. :)

Same. Can't justify the money for a truing stand, and wonder if I have the know-how to use one anyway.

Sorry, I thought I implied as much. New to road cycling, yes.

I do maintenance, assembly, wheel building, welding, and machining. Hopefully going to add carbon work this year, and I'm working on building my own wireless pedal power meter, but I probably won't succeed.

You can't flip your bike upside down and use the brake pads? I have an old set of wheels that are perfectly dished and true. Those were my "calibrators". It worked great until someone gave me a truing stand.

I do everything else that doesn't require expensive and/or specialized tools ie, bearing presses, BB facing, frame alignment and wheelbuilding. I'll probably invest in or diy a bb press when it comes time to change mine next time. Wheel truing maybe someday would be cool to know, but living in an apt. I'm good taking my wheels to the shop when needed.

Sometimes I just drop off the bike for a tuneup, other times I do it all myself. I bought the Trek Care when I got my Domane so I'll just drop the bike off next week; it's about time for some replacement parts which will be covered by Trek Care.

I've built several bikes from scratch and fixed up several others for friends and coworkers that needed a cheap bike.

When I finished building up my '84 Pinarello, I had my LBS mechanic go over it just to make sure everything was okay. I don't have any wheelbuilding tools so he made sure the used wheels I'd bought were true and evenly tensioned. He also got the DT shifter cables a bit tighter than I was able to do.

My bike shop has no problem with me doing my own repairs; I support them in many other ways.

+1 i do all my stuff but truing wheels or stuff where the tool cost a tob that i wont use enough to justified buying it. I did have them chase a bb last year if that counts.

Trueing wheels = brake pads or something taped to the frame or forks. Dish stick = piece of 5/8" plywood with a chunk cut out of the middle to go over the hub and a couple of flats to rest on the rim, and a cheap vernier caliper to measure the offset. The tension meter I cheated and bought from the UK, even though it was Park Tool and made in the US , it was cheaper there.

I don't build or repair frames, but I do everything else including wheels. Haven't had a bike in a shop in decades. Having been an engineer for a big part on my working life, and a tinkerer since childhood, I enjoy the work and have become pretty proficient if I do say so myself.

Getting "to the soul of cycling" is possible, even with all the newfangled doohickeys. It's also possible to never catch a glimpse, even without.


Edit: And yes, I do all of my maintenance, other than wheelbuilding.

A spare, back-up, trainer, or rain bike saves the day when a bike goes back to the shop for warranty or repair work.

A bicycle work/repair stand makes normal maintenance and repairs a lot more convenient. Get a bicycle tool kit and maybe a manual (along with YouTube videos) and you can learn to do "the basics". Add a classic old bike from Craigslist.... and you've got the beginnings of a great hobby.

I live where we have actual winter. So I like to have a nice winter project.

I perform about 90% of the maintenance on my bikes. I don't bleed the hydraulic brakes on my MTBs, don't rebuild forks and don't true bladed wheels otherwise, I pretty much do it all. I've done several frame-up builds, lost count how many. Some of it is trial and error so you have to be willing to live with an occasional "OOPS" or "AW Crap" and a few cuss words. There's also learning something new each year. As an example, I just learned this year that Mavic freehubs require occasional maintenance/lubrication. For the most part it's fun and rewarding.

I do my own maintenance, upgrades, bike builds and wheel builds. I can't imagine waiting for an LBS every time a bike needs a little TLC, especially since my nearest LBS is 45 miles away. I haven't done any frame repairs but I do have a background that includes oxy-acetylene welding, silver solder and brass brazing so that will likely be in my future as well.

I do most of the work to save time and money - it's 10 miles to my usual shop, which is a long way in Boston. That said, I don't particularly enjoy doing it most of the time. I'm not totally incompetent, but I'm smart enough to acknowledge my shortcomings as a mechanic, and they are many. And I don't like the time it takes, which means there's a lot of maintenance I end up putting off. Which isn't good. When I can, or must, hand a task off to the shop, I'm usually happier about it. Most shop mechanics are a lot more skillful than I am. Obviously, there are exceptions, but generally they will do a better job and I get to spend my free time in the morning or evening sitting on the couch rather than cursing down in my basement.

Yes.

That would be stupid. Apart from wheel building it takes less time to service a bicycle than to drive to an LBS, park, drive home, and probably repeat the process for pickup. LBSes can't be trusted to build wheels right so that's not an option.

I don't build frames yet, although if Tim Sanner still taught frame building in Palo Alto I'd be tempted to learn. I can run milling machines (manual and CNC) although I've yet to use that for a bicycle. Some time I'll get around to picking up metal lathe use.

Wheel building, group swaps, none of it is a big deal.

MY LBS's never stock anything much, and when they do it's so ludicrously priced I run screaming from the store... plus the blank looks for anything out of the ordinary...

I think you protest too much and set up a “straw man” to show your toughness…HTFU usually refers to riding, not wrenching.

What's up with bladed wheels?

Build and maintain my own bikes. The only thing I haven't ventured into is wheel building, mainly because I can get the same wheels I would build already built for less than parts plus proper tools that I don't own (like tension meter, dish tool etc).

Bikes are not complex and working on them is fun. I am confused about where ethics come into play?

I work on my bikes. I'm no mechanical expert, but somehow I keep my junky bikes rolling.
Either that, or take the bus...!