Getting to Know You...Question #9...

I can pretty much take apart and put back together anything on my bikes(except wheel building) and even without those bike specific tools, I have a rollaway full of tools from my aircraft fixing days that I've found to be enough. I even built my own bike stand from an old bike rack and mounted it on the wall of my garage. Only thing that keeps me going to my LBS is for adjustments like on my derailleurs. I've been into this biking thing for about a year now and I still cant get that down. Someday I'll be able to and then I'll consider myself 100% DIYer.
:D
 
If anyone gets their hands on an old worthless fork, thats a great place to jump into suspension. It takes the fear away from opening up a new one.
 
I have installed and worked on pretty much everything mtb and bmx related. I have pulled apart forks, which is about the scariest thing I have done since meesing up can cost you big bucks. I hjave replaced all the bearings on the trance I had myself.. I don't have a truing stand and don't need one enough to really laern how to do it although I have take hops out of wheels using brake pads or whatever has a guide. Deraillers do trip me up a bit but I can adjust them, but not set 'em up fresh that well.

Since I have started to going to halter, I have gotten lazy. While I enjoy working on my bikes, I can take anything in there and have something installed and work perfectly in 1/4 the time it would take me. As my time has gotten more pressed, I have taken this route.....
 
ArmyOfNone said:
it usually requires J or Chris to recheck my work before leaving the shop. Why not have them do it in the first place? :D I enjoy it and it gives me more of an excuse to spend time at the shop. Who doesnt want to spend more time there?
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I'm with AON on this one('cept I break things a lot less often:p). I'm also fortunate to deal with a shop where I started as a customer and became a friend. I get to play at a bench when I want and hang with a bunch of great people I really like. Why, just yesterday, I got to assist in putting on my new cassette, chainrings and chain and tuning and polishing my bike. And they didn't even charge me extra for self-service:D.

What incentive is there for doing it at home?
 
I try to do as much as I possibly can. My best friends Bryan (fastbandit) and Ryan (timekiller) are phenomenal heads with bikes too, so between us there are only a few spots where the line gets drawn:

-Fork rebuilding
-Wheel truing
-Wheel dishing


I picked up a Park Tool PK-63 63-piece tool set off eBay, in addition to the host of other tools and spare parts I have, and bought a Craftsman toolbox to store it all.

As with seemingly a lot of skills I have picked up, I learned from the bottom without realizing it. My buddies and I started chopping bicycles about 6 or 7 years ago, using a basic set of ordinary tools, crap welder, bicycles from the dump and a lot of WD-40 and cheap spray paint. We kind of had to use our heads to disassemble, modify, and reassemble everything, and didn't have a lot of crank pullers, headset tools etc. It was kind of trial by fire, but when we finally started getting into legitimate biking, we could look at our bikes and understand how everything worked right away.

Sometimes I still get stumped (i.e. trying to install a chain guide), in which case I rely solely on John Nicholson at Cycle Works to perform his magic. Sometimes I will bring something easy down to him just to have an excuse to chew the fat with the crew down there for a while...
 
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Do you want a list of certifications or something? After 15years as a bike mechanic I think I've done everything to every kind of bike and/or suspension ever made:D. I haven't made my own frame yet, but I think that's going to happen over the winter, I gots plans;)

-Jim.
 
jimvreeland said:
Do you want a list of certifications or something? After 15years as a bike mechanic I think I've done everything to every kind of bike and/or suspension ever made:D. I haven't made my own frame yet, but I think that's going to happen over the winter, I gots plans;)

-Jim.
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UTOH, now were in trouble, Jim V got plans :D

RC ... :)
 
I do all my own wrenching. I'm a little anal retentive about letting other people fix my bikes. My Titus HT was assembled be me one night after work in the garage. My wheels were built by my buddy Marc who used to manage Planet Bike in Old Bridge/Matawan.
It certainly helps to have mechanical ability & common sense. I've got plenty of the former and enough of the latter to get by :D. I basically learned by doing,
My switchblade needs a new rear wheel and I've decided I'm gonna build it myself. What could possibly go wrong....:rolleyes: I know I can do it. I'm a machinist amongst other things by trade.
My tools are the usual mix of park, craftsman, & some homemade stuff like chainwhip, headset press, cup remover. I made a hanger tool but I ended up buying a park one.
I've always thought that if I could afford to I'd be a full time bike mechanic.
(no offense to the full time wrenches here, you guys are awesome)
 
jimvreeland said:
Do you want a list of certifications or something? After 15years as a bike mechanic I think I've done everything to every kind of bike and/or suspension ever made:D. I haven't made my own frame yet, but I think that's going to happen over the winter, I gots plans;)

-Jim.
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Jim - are you going to a build school or doing it on your own? If on your own are you buying or building a frame jig? Sorry for all the questions - sounds like a great project and I'd really like to build my own frame at some point.

For the winter I want to swap the vert drops in my Rhygin for some SS joints from Henry James: http://www.henryjames.com/productlug.html#laserdo
 
i can do the easy stuff, like bars, seat, seat post, forks, tires/tubes, aka simple replacements, but i have people do the tunings and such for me
 
not really good at maintaining or cleaning my bikes...I do simple stuff but usually I bring my bike to the shop...I am also not that patient and most of the time I don't have the time to try to fix it, therefore I take it to the shop.
But this must change as it is getting expensive since I am always breaking my bikes :(
 
I'm a cheap bastard. If I can do it myself I will. I draw the line at trueing(sp?) and building wheels and some bottom bracket stuff.
 
i own a Park bike stand, some tools, and Zinn's Art of Mtn Bike Maintenance.

light repairs and maintenance so far

not ventured into taking the tricky stuff apart like forks.

next project is learn how to replace cables, and maybe just maybe peak inside the bottom bracket.

if i have time. if i don't have time, it goes to the shop
 
I have only been biking for about a year, but I have taken a couple of my bikes apart so far. Everything minus building wheels and taking forks/shocks apart thus far. Im sure I will get to those two since I refuse to pay labor to anyone when I can learn how to do it myself.
 
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