Let's Talk Bicycle Mechanical Ability Here

[Pat "5mph"]

Since I've started cycling, I've discovered I'm not mechanically minded.
Well, you don't know until you try!
I would love to just give my bikes to a LBS, pay for the repairs, ride happy ever after.
Only, because I work shifts and don't have a car to transport me or the bike, it is all an enormous faff.
So I've learned to do the basic myself, knowledge gained from You Tube, on here, from two women bike mechanics, one of them being our own @flyingfifi.
Major harassment I find with this bike mechanics pavlava is that invariably I don't have the strength for some jobs (cassette removal!) or the patience for others (cables!!)
Nowadays what I do, if I'm not sure I can do it well, I go do it at the local hub's fix your own session, get them to check my work for safety.
I really do wish I was better at the bike mechanics, but I fear I need to spend much more time learning: working full time, sometimes more than 60 hours a week, if I'm off on a nice day I'd rather go riding than stay home tinkering.

 

[Thomson]

Having had just one bike for work if I got a puncture I would take it to lbs. just for easy ness. After a couple times spending money I thought I can do that myself. Have a cannondale as well now that I keep good and that will get a upgraded group set in time. Probably do have the skills to change it but not the tools. I don’t think there’s a point in me having fancy bb tools and cassette tool. just to do the jobs once. As long as I have the skills and tools track pump Allen keys. to do the everyday maintaining I am happy.

On the other hand I would be really proud if I did change my group set myself. Feel like I have learned and accomplished something.

Need to buy a second shed first to have room to work on the bikes in. Having the work bike and the good bike in the shed full off diy stuff and kids bikes toys etc. Half the time I keep the good bike in my attic so it doesn’t get damaged. But having more bike space I would do more myself.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

On the other hand I would be really proud if I did change my group set myself. Feel like I have learned and accomplished something.

Yes, there's that.
First time I changed my disk brake pads I was so proud they worked, half expected to crash

 

[Vantage]

I've always had a mechanical mind and love tinkering with things, but I once visited the lbs and asked for some gear outer cable. He handed me some brake cable. He asked me what the difference was between the two when I queried him on it. That pretty much killed any trust I had in letting other people work on my bikes.
I can do most things. I haven't a clue about electronic gears, modern bottom brackets, hydraulic brakes.
My first wheel build was a simple rim swap and later built a complete wheel for a friend when I was in my late teens. I knew nothing about stress relieving them, hammering the ends flat to the hub flange etc but it was still spinning true a few months later.
Despite owning disc braked bikes in the past, I've only just learned how they work and fettled them.
Wheels aside, my bike was completely and utterly built by moi

If it has nuts and bolts holding it together, I'll have a go at tinkering with it. Even stripped and rebuilt an LX sti shifter once. There was a couple bits left over but it worked!

Can't do maths though. I struggle with even the simplest sums.

 

[Globalti]

Yes I'm the same. I was once tested by an educational psychologist who said I had one of the highest mechanical aptitudes she'd ever seen along with one of the dismally lowest mathematical abilities, which was rather unusual!

 

[CXRAndy]

I do all my own work, except wheel-building. Its not that I cant, its just another tool which gets used infrequently. I'm happy to pay my local mobile cycle chap to build wheels. In fact he will be installing Shimano dynamo hub this week, whilst I strip down brand new Nexus inter 8 IGH to lube with semi fluid grease-poor shifting from new.

 

[screenman]

I like saving jobs so I put mine into a bike shop and despite being very able I also get somebody else to service my cars, now that will certainly go against the grain with most cyclists it seems.

 

[Globalti]

I used to service my Landy because that was a simple spannering job, mostly changing oils in 7 different places, but I can't service my Volkswagen.

 

[heliphil]

My daughter at University had the freehub jam ( ie no drive), she took it to the local bike shop and they said it needed a new hub. When i got there they had taken the hub apart and said it was 'knackered' . 30 minutes later it was cleaned and assembled and has now done another 1000 miles or so on my bike with no problems whatsoever!!!!. I don't trust bike shops

 

[winjim]

I'd just like to point out that 'wrench' as a verb does not mean what our now sadly departed OP intended it to mean. I certainly wouldn't want to wrench my bike.

 

[Smokin Joe]

My daughter at University had the freehub jam ( ie no drive), she took it to the local bike shop and they said it needed a new hub. When i got there they had taken the hub apart and said it was 'knackered' . 30 minutes later it was cleaned and assembled and has now done another 1000 miles or so on my bike with no problems whatsoever!!!!. I don't trust bike shops

The motor trade get a lot of flack over dodgy servicing and incompetent mechanics, but in my own experience over the years the cycle trade is far worse in that respect. I've been told things in bike shops that are so wrong that I initially thought it was a wind up.

There are brilliant cycle shops around, but there are a hell of a lot I wouldn't trust to service a shopping trolley.

 

[rivers]

I do a fair bit of tinkering with my bike (changing tubes, chains, tyres, brake pads, indexing gears, and the like), however, I'm quite happy to pop my bikes in for a service once a year to have it checked over and cables changed if needed. Mainly because I can't be asked. My carbon bike is getting a full rebuild next month at the shop because it's done some mileage and feel it could use one, even though it's still running smoothly. I could do it myself, but I just don't feel like it.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I've been told things in bike shops that are so wrong that I initially thought it was a wind up.

A man in Evans once told me that disc brakes were more powerful than rim brakes because they gripped closer to the hub and thus got better leverage on the wheel. He got a bit angry when I told him levers don't work like that. Perhaps I hadn't been able to contain my expression of dismay well enough.

I really hope he was just a salesman and didn't work on people's bikes.

 

[vickster]

I'd just like to point out that 'wrench' as a verb does not mean what our now sadly departed OP intended it to mean. I certainly wouldn't want to wrench my bike.

Oh dear what happened to him?

 

[winjim]

Oh dear what happened to him?

You were about yesterday morning weren't you? He seems to have left the forum since then.