Mending other peoples bikes for free ,good idea or bad ?

[Gunk]

You might just want to mention something about damage and breakages. Nothing worse than working on someone's property, then a part breaks becasue it's mullered or just badly made rubbish, then the person says you broke it and need to fund the replacement

I agree, the last thing you’d want to do would be to cross thread their bottom bracket 😮

 

[ren531]

All advice duly noted, it is a very small operation limited to just our village and interest is limited and if i got to many i would stop completely

 

[carlosfandangus]

You might just want to mention something about damage and breakages. Nothing worse than working on someone's property, then a part breaks becasue it's mullered or just badly made rubbish, then the person says you broke it and need to fund the replacement

Same here, last year neighbors son had an issue with his back wheel and crank, one of the bolts snapped as I was fettling, luckily for me there was a stub sticking out, slot with a dremel and screwed out, new bolt fitted, if I had not done this it would have meant a trip to the LBS or an engineering firm to extract

 

[12boy]

I have never seen so many people outside walking, running or riding bikes as the last month. Lots of families and lots of teens and tween. My bud at the LBS says there have been no more repairs than usual for this time of year. Usually when I encounter a young person the do not make eye contact and don't speak. Now they are polite and do. Go figure. There is a scene I enjoy from a film "The 13th Warrior" where the hero is praying to Allah before a battle in which he will surely die. Instead of praying for forgiveness for those things he should not have done he instead prayed for not doing the things he should have done but did not. Maybe spending a few bucks on bike parts and helping people out actually is a good bang for the buck in terms of a recreational expense. If you doing it for any reason other than just wanting to and you are expecting praise or gratitude you may be disappointed, though.

 

[ozboz]

I have helped. Damsel in distress this week , she said the Mudgard was touching the wheel , easy fix I thought, what I got there it was the tyre ? The tyre had popped out of the rim for about 8”, so no wheel damage hard to guess what had happened but any way easy fix in the end and checked brakes shifting etc , she was very happy and offered to pay but I wouldn’t accept , she must have took it for a spin along the cycle path as she messaged in the evening with all kinds of thanks

 

[EltonFrog]

When I’m fettling with bikes I’m usually doing it on my drive at the front of the house. We live down a dead end track but it’s a bridleway (more like a footpath really). A woman on Monday walking past noticed me fixing my bike and told me the brakes on her bike were broken. LSS , I fixed the brakes on her nice 1991 Cannondale SM800. I had buy a new cable. Just charged her for that.

 

[silva]

I have never seen so many people outside walking, running or riding bikes as the last month. Lots of families and lots of teens and tween.

Yea lol everyday when returning from work it now feels like I worked on a sunny sunday.