Bike maintenance learning

[boydj]

When I bought my first racer for doing triathlons I knew nothing about bike maintenance and rode that bike until the whole drive train needed replacing, which was done by the lbs. When I got into cycling properly, I started by building up a bike from a bare frameset. It took a while to discover and acquire all the parts that you don't immediately know that you need, and to acquire the minimum toolkit to get the work done. But it's very satisfying when you finally get it out on the road and you know that you'll be able to handle just about any repair.

It's also a bit addictive and no doubt part of the reason why many of us have multiple N+1's. (Or maybe it's so there is a backup while you fix a bodged repair.)

 

[keithmac]

Actually, that's exactly what I would do - as that's how you learn how things work and go together. All those of us who pre-date the internet and youtube, who rebuilt our own bikes as kids, learned by trial and error - so that tinkering with bikes as an adult is second nature. I would not dream of taking any bike of mine into a LBS for a run of the mill fault or maintenance job. I would consider that an abject fail on my part not do deal with it myself.

I did that with bikes as a kid, which lead on to motorcycles and cars.

Can't beat learning by doing imho.