The Bike Doctor

[Trumpettom001]

Someone on here must know about the Warwick Cycle races (were held yesterday)... Basically, I was there as one of the bike doctors (one of the people that offer a "free bike MOT"... what we'll do is take the bike, put it up on the stand, check all is tight, and check brakes and gears and such... Now normally I'm used to Dr. Biking 100 quid raleighs and apollos, so when people start coming up to you with their £3k carbon bike, it's a little un-nerving.... as some of them have no clue on maintenance... (rich parents I'll guess)....

If you're gonna buy a bike, make sure you know how to fix it, don't just get someone else to do it!!!

 

[Will1985]

Erm...so you prefer to tighten up BSOs rather than carbon race bikes?!?!

I agree though...if you have the gear you should at least know how to fix it and have at least some of the tools. The only thing I'm not to sure about is headset installation and fitting star-fangled nuts.

 

[Trumpettom001]

I'm not saying i prefer to play with apollo rather than boardman...., settning up the brakes on a bike with a PERFECTLY true wheel is a joy.. just it's a little scary, (I.e bike could fall out of stand, wheels get out of true, so then angry bike owner tries to true wheels, than fails (because they dont know leftie loosie), and then hold me accountable for their £1000 pringled wheel.....)

I'm not saying this happened... jsut a sort of what if...


Most annoying thing was watching some cocky kid doing bunnyhops on a full carbon... not that I think he'd damage the bike, but he clearly didn't pay for it, so had no reason to keep it in good order...

 

[Dave5N]

Those kids are fine. They know bikes and know how to race. I timed the laps. The U16 did around 1.14 - fast laps when JF got away were 1.13. Fastest elite lap in the first half hour was 1.07 - typically 1.12 - 1.13

One of our coaches caught one of your lot unscrewing restricted youth gears - the fella had no idea that children race on restricted gears.

Quote: Your gears don't work, I'll fix that.

WTF was he doing servicing kids bikes at a race if he doesn't know the basics?

 

[Dave5N]

Most annoying thing was watching some cocky kid doing bunnyhops on a full carbon... not that I think he'd damage the bike, but he clearly didn't pay for it, so had no reason to keep it in good order...

Incidentally, I know the rider you refer too. And I know how hard and how long he has saved up for that bike. Even more impressive, his first love is mountain biking and he has also pretty much (petrol aside) paid his own way there, too.

 

[Young Un]

Trumpettom..........I agree with Dave here, so shhh


Doing bunnyhops aint going to do naff all to a frame - a lot less that hitting a pothole whilst out training etc

 

[Trumpettom001]

hmm.. i didn't know about the restricted thing before i went, but i did ask the owner of the bike, why is this set up like this.... I didn't actually de-resristrict any gears myself as i was being careful about peoples expensive bikes... and before i ajusted anything on any particularly nice bike, I'd ask the owner if they wanted it ajusting, or just inspected..

as for what the guys were doing servicing bikes, we were asked by one of the race organisers to go and do this, and it's up to them to tell us that kids bikes are restricted... (it's not the sort of thing that you assume when working on a bike - "this guy has ten gears, but is only using 6 of them.... must be restricted" most of the time we look and see the deralieur hanging off the wheel at a mad angle and barely guiding the chain into place so we are used to working with poorly serviced stuff..

don't get me wrong about the bunny hop kid, i was chatting to him about his bike and everything, he was great at spotting faults on our mechanic training bike (has had 30 deliberate faults put into it), he spotted a buckled back wheel without even spinning the wheel, its just that because I have a MTB and have never owned a road bike, I'm assuming that they're gonna break at the drop of a hat.. 'speshly carbon, as that apparently has a nastly habit of shearing apart under stress.. (again I'm speaking without any proper knowledge of road bikes here, so I may be entirely wrong)

 

[monnet]

hmm.. i didn't know about the restricted thing before i went, but i did ask the owner of the bike, why is this set up like this.... I didn't actually de-resristrict any gears myself as i was being careful about peoples expensive bikes... and before i ajusted anything on any particularly nice bike, I'd ask the owner if they wanted it ajusting, or just inspected..

as for what the guys were doing servicing bikes, we were asked by one of the race organisers to go and do this, and it's up to them to tell us that kids bikes are restricted... (it's not the sort of thing that you assume when working on a bike - "this guy has ten gears, but is only using 6 of them.... must be restricted" most of the time we look and see the deralieur hanging off the wheel at a mad angle and barely guiding the chain into place so we are used to working with poorly serviced stuff..

don't get me wrong about the bunny hop kid, i was chatting to him about his bike and everything, he was great at spotting faults on our mechanic training bike (has had 30 deliberate faults put into it), he spotted a buckled back wheel without even spinning the wheel, its just that because I have a MTB and have never owned a road bike, I'm assuming that they're gonna break at the drop of a hat.. 'speshly carbon, as that apparently has a nastly habit of shearing apart under stress.. (again I'm speaking without any proper knowledge of road bikes here, so I may be entirely wrong)

Erm, I'm sure you're a great mechanic but were you really the right person to be doing this job?

 

[Trumpettom001]

Lol, I seem to be digging a deeper and deeper hole here...

1. When I say no proper knowledge of road bikes, I actually mean knowlege of carbon frames. (read sentence above)

2. I must have done about a hundred bikes whilst Dr. Biking... four of these bikes have been road bikes, so the only previous experience of working with road bikes is when I'm putting one together in the bike workshop that I volunteer for...(some of you may know about charities that take donations of old bikes and refurbish them to a fairly decent standard...)

3. I'm pretty darn clued up about MTBs, so I'm just saying that I know alot less about road bikes, compared to MTBs... (but I do now own a road bike, as of a week ago, and am looking to buy another, so I'm hopeing to clue myself up about them also)

4. One of the guys working on the team at the races has been working on road/racing bikes at Saracen for 20 odd years.. he didn't know about restricted gears either.... Neither did any of our LEv. 2 cytech trained volunteers.....



Right, my poll now:

How many of you guys that know how to work with bikes in general, and would feel competent to do basic ajustments on low end bikes belonging to the public, knew about the fact that childrens bikes are restricted as to how high the gears can go before you read this thread?

 

[Young Un]

Yes!

 

[2Loose]

Comptent to work with bikes Yes, know about race restrictions without being told, NO

 

[longers]

*numpty question*

I knew about the gears being restricted but how is it done on the bikes?

 

[Dave5N]

Screw off the derailleurs.

 

[Dave5N]

Comptent to work with bikes Yes, know about race restrictions without being told, NO

That isn't competent then, is it? It isn't just about racing. Kids needn't be riding those big gears.

 

[Trumpettom001]

I think what 2Loose is saying here is that he's in the same position as me here... I can get a bike working smoothly, and am happy to put my name on it, as I'm confident that the bike is safe to ride, and works smoothly. When the people that built childrens (road/racing) bikes built them, they probably didn't supply them in the restricted state.....why are the gears on there might I ask, if they're not intended to be used? Is it for people that are child sized, but that don't need the restrictions?

Ok, Poll over, next question:

Are there any other restrictions I should be looking out for, (i.e. not making the brakes too powerfull so that kids don't go over the handle bars), so that should we do one of these dr. bikes again, I wont find myself in the same situation???