Bike Repairs.

[grovesy]

Wondering how many of you maintain your own rides?

[CHEWY]

i try to do as much as i can with the tools i got... but u need all them crank pullers and bb loseners and all that crap.
i did almost everything on my motobikes but, from oil changing to top end rebuilding

[nicklouse]

most of my rides i have built from scratch chosing what parts i wanted etc. its not the cheepest way. some times i'll buy as supplied. because say the frame and fork is what i want then i'll buy a cheep noname frame and shift the parts i dont want onto that and then sell it to pay for the parts i need. unfortunatly some times i decide to keep them as they are fun in there own way. Hence i now own too many bikes. but i do have them spread over three countries!!!!!! 8)

[Dan]

i basicly do everything but build wheels. i like my wheels to be built nicely so their strong and stuff.

but i pretty much do everything else myself. i dont wanna pay 30bucks to a shop when i can learn myself and fix it.

[Simo]

i do minor stuff.

[S.]

I do everything cept headset pressing and wheelbuilding. I do it poorly tho, sometimes I still need a mechanic to do it properly.

[Dan]

i have pressed like 2 headsets. just use a block of wood and a rubber mallet. and gently bang it in. u gotta be real carefull tho as we should all know :)

its a pain pressing headsets

[S.]

It's the "careful" part I have problems with, I'm too impatient :)

[Dan]

haha. trust me, i was impatient when i got my XLR8 frame and just wanted to ride it!! me and my mate got everything on (and off the old frame) the bike in about 2 hours :D that was including cleaning some shit.

[wombat]

Eh, one of the upsides of working in a shop.

Nicklouse, please put me out of my misery, who is that quote from in your sig? I keep thinking of a poem called "The Road Not Travelled" but I don't think that's right, just similar. Who said it?

[RaID]

i basicly do everything but build wheels. i like my wheels to be built nicely so their strong and stuff.

but i pretty much do everything else myself. i dont wanna pay 30bucks to a shop when i can learn myself and fix it.


i do the same as Dan, i leave the art of wheel building to others
maybe one day ill learn
rest is done by me
oh and rebuilding rear shocks, just the equipment is too expensive

[nicklouse]

for info on wheel building if you want to have a go have a read of this web page http://sheldonbrown.com/home.html he has lots of good info and a few gags just check the dates of some of them (april 1)

nick

[Ryan]

I do pretty much everything bar wheel building, which is too much of a black art for me to grasp just yet.
Here's a tip for the homemade headset press courtesy of the "Farkin.net ghetto toolbox*";
Two pieces of 2x4 with a Headlock bolt through them set up as a press, with one block going below the lower cup and the other above the upper cup.
Just pop one cup in, thread through the headlock, tighten down graudally and repeat for the other side for the perfect headset insertion every time.

*Ghetto Toolbox is copyright Farkin.net 2003

[josh]

Eh, one of the upsides of working in a shop.

Nicklouse, please put me out of my misery, who is that quote from in your sig? I keep thinking of a poem called "The Road Not Travelled" but I don't think that's right, just similar. Who said it?

Muriel Strode

[nathan]

I try to do as much as i can, nearly everything but wheel building and trueing as its a pain in the butt. Most things on a bike are pretty basic read lots, experiment, and learn from others.

[wombat]

Eh, one of the upsides of working in a shop.

Nicklouse, please put me out of my misery, who is that quote from in your sig? I keep thinking of a poem called "The Road Not Travelled" but I don't think that's right, just similar. Who said it?

Muriel Strode

AHA! Cheers. Definately not who I was thinking of, but good to know all the same.

[curtisrider]

I do as much as i can without taking the risk of stuffing anything up.
eg greasing cranks,headsets. Changing wires. etc

Not bleeding brakes :oops:

[Ty]

yeah i do everything on my bike(and anyone one elses bike if they need a hand), i've build a few wheels that have been checked my our local wheelsmith before being installed and all have come up good. there isn't really anything that you can't do at home. alot of bike shops project the image that alot of stuff is too hard for your average mtber to do by his/her self but when you sit down and think it's notmaly not to hard. there are only a few specical tools that i can think off, chain whip, cassette lock ring tool, BB tool, crank puller and a chain tool, everything thing else is pretty basic.

-=free style wrenching=- (as taught by Gavin Finlay)

[wombat]

Ty's right. Save for wheel building and suspension tuning, most of it is all pretty simple if you have the right tools. You have to ask yourself though, how often are you going to be using a dropout aligner or fork spreader, and is it often enough to justify buying them for home use?

[Ty]

yeah theres a few thing i have to go to the shop for, i can't justify owning a rockshock bushing removal tool, spoke tenstion tool (you don't really need one IMHO) and chain streach tool (i'm thinking about buying one, it answers alot of shifting problems.)

and always remember if worst comes to worst you can always stop and take it to your LBS and they can sort it out, ask to watch so you can do it yourself next time, my LBS supports DIY work, ie, they won't take a cassette off for a MTBer they know is pretty experenced, they'll sell you a chainwhip and lockring tool cheap coz it's better for both parties in the long run.

[wombat]

A chain checker is a good idea. Some of the tools are so rediculously expensive though, even to the shops. Park, nice stuff but god forbid you have to pay for it!

[curtisrider]

I got a really good bike tool for around $40 which has some things on it that come very usefull like a torx bit, chain tool etc. by the way what a chain hook meant for? just holding the chain in a posistion?

[Ty]

you use a chain hook when you are putting a chain backtogether, this way there is no pressure on the links so they line up better in the chain tool (you can also line up the pin better)

[fastrider gus]

i dont do much.. just get new stuff when it stuffs up..

[curtisrider]

How does that work?
That'll help alot i've been doing it without one.

I also managed to get a pin back in once when it had fully come out. It was hard

[Ty]

well i've always just used a bit of bent wire, but just hook it 2 links before and after the link you are about to join.

send a pic of it and i'll draw some pictures in if need be.

[nicklouse]

Eh, one of the upsides of working in a shop.

Nicklouse, please put me out of my misery, who is that quote from in your sig? I keep thinking of a poem called "The Road Not Travelled" but I don't think that's right, just similar. Who said it?

Muriel Strode

AHA! Cheers. Definately not who I was thinking of, but good to know all the same.

thanks i had no idea just seen it on a web site and felt that it summed up what i feel is mountain biking is all about.

nick

[Grip]

OK... this topic gets me thinking... lets use a headset press as example. There seems to be three distinct groups of "buyers" out there. One set wants THE flashest gear available... doesn't want to pay for it though and consequently ends up with no press. The second wants THE flashest gear available and DOES pay a couple of hundred dollars for a mega-flash Park Headset Press that they're gonna use maybe twice a year. And the third would prefer a $30 looks-like-crap-and-will-probably-even-rust-but-works-bloody-fine press.

Which one are you?

Cheers

[Ty]

the 4th group who makes a headset press out of a long bolt and 2 blocks of wood for $5, but i like the idea of the 3rd group Grip.

[lupine128]

that headset press idea is great, beats the hell out of the beat the hell out of it method.
i made a cup remover by cutting a length of pipe lengthwise for about 5 inches, then spreading the ends and flattening them slightly. took about an hour, and cost about $10. it only cost that much cause i wanted to use some good pipe that would spring slightly.
any other home made tool tips?
possibly a new thread?

[Grip]

the 4th group who makes a headset press out of a long bolt and 2 blocks of wood for $5, but i like the idea of the 3rd group Grip.

Ahhhh... but I did say BUYERS, Ty. There's always DIYers out there wanting to put me out of business. The bugger of it is the DIYers often come up with the sweeeeetest ideas.

Tell you what, convince me that it's worthwhile doing a batch of at least 20 and I'll sell those EXCLUSIVELY to farkin members for $30 including GST and postage to their door anywhere in the country.

But yeah I agree that the $5 block of wood bizzo sounds like it might shoot this idea in the foot a bit, especially when you consider that one of my other posts offered a free frame repair to a farkin member... and despite that word "free" I don't think we got one reply. Jeez... if my ego wasn't reasonably intact I'd worry about that.

Cheers

[S.]

The bastards here at Farkin aren't breaking their frames... how DARE they! :P

[lupine128]

i didn't know about the free frame repair!!!!
that sounds like a cool idea for making the tools tho. i'd be in for one.

[Grip]

The bastards here at Farkin aren't breaking their frames... how DARE they! :P

Yeah!!!! Go bigger... HIGHER... HARDER I say. It wont hurt... I promise you (now where have I heard that before?)