Self-servicing - How to get started?

acurno

Hi all,
I'm a beginner cyclist with a couple of bikes already, am about to pick up a new Bianchi in a couple of weeks. Already I'm spending quite a bit on servicing, spent a small fortune last week in one of the local shops getting parts replaced.

I'd love to start servicing my own bikes and really getting involved in maintenance and building. My question is, how did ye all get started? Is it a case of buying all the tools, and taking an old bike apart and messing around with it? Or are there courses one could do in bike maintenance? I'm based in Galway.

I always thought it would be great if more bike shops trained in servicing and let you service or build your own bikes (for a small fee of course). I know there's loads of youtube vids out there but their mostly on very basic bikes from what I can see.

Halfords are doing a bike tool set would this be any good to start with?

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_522915_categoryId_212639_langId_-1?cm_sp=Intelligent_Offer-_-Product_List_Zone_1-_-Blank&iozone=PLPz1

Cheers!

Zorba

Anyone can do basic maintenance, for me i learnt through trial and error, probably not the best way to learn. Most things on a bike are easy to fix a good place to start would be here:

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

Just click on whatever part of the bike u want to fix and follow the links.

As for tools it depends what groupset your running, u need different tools for say a campag than u would for shimano. Most basic maintenance can be done with any normal toolkit, ie allen keys and spanners, it's only if your changing cassettes or bottom brackets or headsets or something like that that you'd need specialist tools, personally i'd only buy them if i need them and if they're too expensive to buy and let the bike shop man do it.

Captain Havoc

I use bicycletutor.com, I also have the Park Tools Big Blue Book. Look out for Lennard Zinn videos on youtube. I think the Big Blue Book is good, even if you only use it for one job, it'll have paid for itself.

GlennaMaddy

the tools are important but the right lube is too

murph226

Interested in this aswell, I'm a car mechanic by trade so have all the car specific tools.

I just bought a chain whip and cassette tool and will be changing my wheels during the week.

Hope to build up the bike tools bit by bit and eventually be self sufficient, any othe reccomendations for diy tools?

Will probably end up doing a maintenance course so I know what I'm looking at!

easygoing39

murph226 wrote: »

Interested in this aswell, I'm a car mechanic by trade so have all the car specific tools.

I just bought a chain whip and cassette tool and will be changing my wheels during the week.

Hope to build up the bike tools bit by bit and eventually be self sufficient, any othe reccomendations for diy tools?

Will probably end up doing a maintenance course so I know what I'm looking at!

You are kidding??Youre a car mechanic and you think you'll need to do a cycle maintenance course so you can fix youre bike??If you can do a head gasket on a car,you should be well able to build up a bike from a bare frame.As has been said on this thread,a bit of internet video watching,plus getting hands on experience on your bike is all thats required.Plus unlike a car, its all light easy work.

Coronal

For picking up the tools, something like this or this would probably be the best bet. The sets include more or less everything you'll need, and probably for a lot less than you'd pay individually. I have the LifeLine one and it's pretty decent.

markdrayton

Trial and error. With a small toolkit bikes are very easy to maintain. Get some basic tools and start fiddling! A simple toolkit might contain:

* decent allen keys
* cable cutters
* chain breaker
* chain whip and cassette locknut tool

With these you'll be able to tackle a lot of bike maintenance at home. Add a spoke key for wheel truing, cone spanners for hub adjustment and a BB tool and there won't be much need for the bike shop at all.

It's worth buying reasonable quality tools. Cheap allen keys in particular are a false economy -- they'll slip or round off quickly and will soon need replacing.

Websites: Park Tool site (as above) is has photographic guides.Sheldon Brown's site has lots of useful info, particularly on older/more esoteric bits.

briano

I think at a bare minimum you could probably get by with something like this. I mean, only in a pinch, obviously.

In all seriousness, if you have the time and are based in Dublin you should head out to Rothar. They get volunteers in, and you'd learn an awful lot

murph226

easygoing39 wrote: »

You are kidding??Youre a car mechanic and you think you'll need to do a cycle maintenance course so you can fix youre bike??If you can do a head gasket on a car,you should be well able to build up a bike from a bare frame.As has been said on this thread,a bit of internet video watching,plus getting hands on experience on your bike is all thats required.Plus unlike a car, its all light easy work.

Not kidding at all, I know I'd have the ability but I wouldn't be familiar with setting up the gears and brakes and a lot of other things that I wouldn't be comfortable learning from a vid off the internet!

I would also have a good few questions I would like to ask a bike mechanic and what better way to do so than on a maintenance course?

doozerie

There is nothing complicated, as such, about bike maintenance. As with most things it just requires a methodical approach for the best results, plus the right tools. If you are a trained car mechanic I would expect that you wouldn't be intimidated by taking apart and putting together anything on a bike, which immediately gives you a very good head start over someone not accustomed to tackling anything mechanical. There is certainly still a learning curve of course, it's just not as steep.

I've learned through just working on my bikes and obviously this is a route that anyone can take. The disadvantage of this approach though, apart from the obvious risk of doing some damage if you are careless (you'd need to be very careless though, or just very ham-fisted), is the time it takes to develop the skills. A maintenance course has the advantage of getting you further along faster, and depending on your circumstances that might be a huge benefit. That applies regardless of whether you are someone who has never turned their hand to something manual before, or whether you are a trained mechanic.

One issue that you'll encounter early on is trying to figure out whether you can do what you want to do with the tools that you already have. First time round for some tasks the answer to that question may not be obvious at all. For example, you might have the best stocked workshop in the world, but if you don't have a cassette removal tool (and the right one for your particular brand and type of cassette), you will not be able to remove your cassette. No matter how large a hammer you might have! For that level of information about what tools are needed for a particular task a good book, or a decent website (such as Park Tool's one), is very useful to help save you time scratching your head and/or damaging parts by trying to use the wrong tools to remove them. Again a maintenance course could be a convenient opportunity to ask questions about what you'll need for your particular bike parts.

acurno

Thanks for all the replies, that lifeline one looks pretty good think I'll pick it up. Im guessing that it is 'slightly' better quality than the Halfords one.

Last question, is there any need to pick up a bike stand or do you just whip your bike upside down?

07Lapierre

There's no "need" for a bike stand, but it does make bike mechanics/cleaning much easier. ( clamp the bike by the seat post, not the frame).

SteM

There's a workstand here if you're looking for a cheaper option.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/minoura-ds30blt-workstand/

ciotog

Hopefully not breaching any rules posting this here but as the OP is in Galway, might be interested in the workshop we're doing at the 091 Labs Hackerspace, kicking off this Wednesday at 6:30pm. I'm not claiming any mad bike maintenance skills but a few people at the space have said they really would like a workshop to cover some basics like puncture repair. So, inspired by Cycle on Wednesday I'm going to try to appear authoritative with a spanner and allen keys in hand