Iainj837
Guru
- Location
- Shepton Mallet Somerset
How often do you get your bikes services, and do you do it yourself or a LBS ? I am going to service mine in the new yr I may do it myself if I feel confident enough.
Servicing
- Thread starter Iainj837
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
mickle
innit
- Location
- 53.933606, -1.076131
I very rarely give any of my bikes an actual service, I just keep the chain lubed and clean and fix any issues as they occur.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I don't have a set period I just tinker with my bike, service bits over time my self.
mr_hippo
Living Legend & Old Fart
Just had one of mine serviced, cleaned & polished - about £9. I'm thinking about putting it in about every three months at that price!
freewheelwilly
Senior Member
- Location
- London
i can never tune my gears so i pay to get it done. otherwise the rest is looked after by me.
Lazy-Commuter
New Member
- Location
- Bottom Right Corner
I do what I can. Which boils down to: cleaning, lubing, replacing tyres, tubes and brakes. The rest goes to the LBS for now. I hope to learn more.
I am making myself do all my own, plenty of info on the net, Youtube has some good videos, I clean and lube the chain/gears once a week, pump the tyres up and check the brakes and all bolts, after all, its your safety, I have started checking the quick release before every trip after reading about people messing with them for a laugh, how f*ckin hillarious ?
Had a to change a spoke the other day, wheel off, casette off tyre off, tube off, rim tape off, disk off, quite a faff but dead easy, there is nothing that challenging on a bike, its just a case of having the right tools, I got a 25 quid kit from Decathlon, chain link extractor, BB tool, cassette tool etc, well worth it.
The kids, for some reason, found a dumped bike and decided that it was a good idea to bring it home, quite what I was to do with a knackered "Strongbow" MTB I dont know but its good to practice on, to get the feel without jeopordixing my bike with ham fisted attempts at doing stuff like truing wheels.
In fact I have considered it as a theraputic sideline, I like working with my hands and am pretty good at it compared to most people I know, I work with computers so I love repairing bikes, I have a cabin in the garden that would be great for it, make a few quid as it amazes how lazy and clueless most people are, I got my MTB cheap as the young lad couldnt fix a puncture and the can of slime he had unloaded into it hadnt worked, also the LBS is expensive and usually booked up. I dont need the money though it would be handy but its more doing something in the evenings to keep my brain going. I could possibly do some free work to learn in the LBS ?
Do you think its worth a go ?
Had a to change a spoke the other day, wheel off, casette off tyre off, tube off, rim tape off, disk off, quite a faff but dead easy, there is nothing that challenging on a bike, its just a case of having the right tools, I got a 25 quid kit from Decathlon, chain link extractor, BB tool, cassette tool etc, well worth it.
The kids, for some reason, found a dumped bike and decided that it was a good idea to bring it home, quite what I was to do with a knackered "Strongbow" MTB I dont know but its good to practice on, to get the feel without jeopordixing my bike with ham fisted attempts at doing stuff like truing wheels.
In fact I have considered it as a theraputic sideline, I like working with my hands and am pretty good at it compared to most people I know, I work with computers so I love repairing bikes, I have a cabin in the garden that would be great for it, make a few quid as it amazes how lazy and clueless most people are, I got my MTB cheap as the young lad couldnt fix a puncture and the can of slime he had unloaded into it hadnt worked, also the LBS is expensive and usually booked up. I dont need the money though it would be handy but its more doing something in the evenings to keep my brain going. I could possibly do some free work to learn in the LBS ?
Do you think its worth a go ?
Lazy-Commuter
New Member
- Location
- Bottom Right Corner
Might be worth a go, J4CKO. Depends on how big your local "customer base" is likely to be, I guess.
I'm not at all good with my hands and so limit myself to the basic safety stuff in your first paragraph. Although I did surprise myself by doing a reasonable job of changing brake blocks the other week.
But, anyway, if I knew someone local that I could trust to do the stuff that I can't for a reasonable fee, I'd go for it I think. After all, that's what my LBS does for me now. Although they're probably a bit more expensive!!
I'm not at all good with my hands and so limit myself to the basic safety stuff in your first paragraph. Although I did surprise myself by doing a reasonable job of changing brake blocks the other week.
But, anyway, if I knew someone local that I could trust to do the stuff that I can't for a reasonable fee, I'd go for it I think. After all, that's what my LBS does for me now. Although they're probably a bit more expensive!!
BentMikey
Rider of Seolferwulf
- Location
- South London
Here are some extremely useful websites for this sort of thing:
http://www.parktool.com/repair/
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
http://www.parktool.com/repair/
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
gb155
Fan Boy No More.
- Location
- Manchester-Ish
mickle said:
Ditto, 1000 Miles later it "touch wood" seems fine.
It’s very rare that I would take my bikes to a shop to be serviced. As others have said information is available on the net. The more you service your own bike the more you understand how things work, and are therefore more competent when out cycling to fix the odd problems.
mickle
innit
- Location
- 53.933606, -1.076131
I cannot imagine taking my bike into a shop to be worked on! If I did though, there are only two mechanics I would trust to work on any of my bikes unsupervised.
Rob 'Box' Cooksley @ Bad Ass Bikes
Giles 'Giler' Meaden @ Bracknell Cycles
Two guys I look up to, proper old-school pros.
Rob 'Box' Cooksley @ Bad Ass Bikes
Giles 'Giler' Meaden @ Bracknell Cycles
Two guys I look up to, proper old-school pros.