I do most of the basic things myself, but I have a brilliant LBS in Rhayader with an outstanding and meticulous mechanic who does a much better job than I can when setting up my gears - which are a combination of MTB rear mech and Ultegra shifters and front mech.
Anyone else leave the fettling to the LBS ?
- Thread starter Cuchilo
- Start date
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slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
I used to use the LBS but, here in London, they tend to be awfully expensive. Now I do it all myself. Not only do you save on labour charges but you can get the components at discount online. Most importantly, it's fun and satisfying to have a go yourself. You can find advice for pretty much everything here or on Youtube. I'm not particularly good, but I get by.
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Deleted member 1258
Guest
One of the most important skills a bike fettler has to learn is where their limits lie, being able to recognise when a job needs the LBS tends to save a lot of grief, I do my own maintenance and repairs, but if I feel the job is beyond me I'll put the bike into a local LBS.
shouldbeinbed
Rollin' along
- Location
- Manchester way
Horses for courses. Things like hubs I leave to LBS, cassettes,mechs,brakes,cables etc I'm happy to do myself. I'm gravitating towards Popup Bikes as my service LBS. If I'm handing over money rather to a cracking start up business with a decent brew thrown in than some corporate monster.
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Deleted member 1258
Guest
The last couple of jobs I've had done have been done by Albany Cycles in the Earlsdon area of Coventry, near where I used to live and the other side of Coventry to where I live now, they've been very good.
Banjo
Fuelled with Jelly Babies
- Location
- South Wales
If you do your own repairs you gain knowledge that can be usefull when your bike is broke down on the side of the road in the middle of no where.
Cubist
Still wavin'
- Location
- Ovver 'thill
I'll only go to the LBS with stuff that needs expensive tools I wouldn't buy for a one-off job, so crown race fitting, bearing fitting, although i now have some threaded bar and washers for next time, BB facing and brake mount facing
marcusjb
Senior Member
- Location
- Twickenham
This is the important thing to me. I do pretty much everything myself (facing BB shells and the like, which require expensive tools that I would only use once in a blue moon, that goes to a pro mechanic).
If you do your own fettling, you learn to recognise when something is wrong, and how to deal with it before it becomes a big issue.
Should something go wrong, you'll know how to fix it and get home.
There's nothing particularly complicated with a typical bike (hub gears and electronic gears are probably a couple of exceptions) and with the help of Sheldon/park tools, pretty much anyone should be able to tackle all routine jobs.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I also don't trust other people. I don't want to be bombing down a hill at 50mph to find the shop hadn't done something. I expect all my bikes to work perfectly and be squeek and rattle free. An LBS won't do that. I have the tools and equipment to do everything. I'll even build my own wheels now.
Teuchter
Über Member
- Location
- Erskine, Scotland
To me, one of the attractions of pushbikes is their (relative) simplicity and ease of maintenance when compared to, say, the cars and motorbikes that I've worked on.
Spending 40 hours a week sitting at a computer for a living, getting out to my shed and fixing something with my hands and some good old fashioned mechanical tools is immensely satisfying.
Spending 40 hours a week sitting at a computer for a living, getting out to my shed and fixing something with my hands and some good old fashioned mechanical tools is immensely satisfying.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
most bike related jobs I'll happily do myself... pumping up tyres, changing gear, pedalling, that sort of thing. More complex jobs I'm not too confident doing i'll use the LBS.
No, I took it in once because I ran out of time prior to a tour, picked it up with the gears all over the place, snagged cables, front wheel on back to front and both axle springs on one side on both wheels. £35 and there was nothing wrong with it when I took it in!
