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Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair
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Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair -


You'll end up spending a LOT more money than you expected and find so many more things to update/fix/repair that you'll be out even MORE cash!


I started out last month intending to just replace my aerobars, which were completely rusted out after 7 years.


I'm now at new aerobars, new bar end shifters, new cables, new chain WAXED (not oil, wax is awesomely clean - I have a crockpot for the wax), and probably new brakes in the near future. (Self-discovered pro-tip: a $40 ultrasonic cleaner can totally rejuvenate a front and rear derailleur since it gets into all the nooks & crannies!)


Then I continued the crazy streak, and went to update my rusted-out entry-level Giant bike which ended up getting a full Tiagra group upgrade, now it's at the shop getting a headset replacement since I can't free it up as well as a fix for the frozen seat, - that's the only LBS fix I've needed. I have new carbon handlebars for it now, too. The groupset upgrade involved removing a square cartridge BB and upgrading to a Shimano Hollowtech (an easy swap but I can't believe I even know what this is now - wasn't remotely on my radar of interest beforehand)

Spent over $250 in bike tools, and have used all of 'em except a $50 Park tool internal cable routing kit, which I might return since I haven't had any problems with internal cabling of my Cervelo without it.


Next I'm gonna have to replace my Powertap wheel hub since the splines are seriously nicked (another $100).


I'm approaching $1000 in tools+parts now, and I'm not even counting all the hours I spent teaching myself how to completely disassemble and reassemble a bike down to the BB.

Despite the cost, I'm hoping it'll pay off down the road as I can now maintain the bike in a near-new state from top to bottom now and swap out worn/broken parts without taking it to the shop. (I embarassingly brought my bike to the shop 2 years ago when I froze my front brake due to sweat, and was completely lost on how to replace it. It now takes me 5 mins to install and adjust if I'm not recabling it.)


So be forewarned - its a fun, but potentially pricey hole to go down! (I still think it's worth it just for the knowledge.)
Last edited by: lightheir: Apr 16, 17 10:00
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Awesome, never a waste of money to teach yourself a skill you may use for life.

Note: tools themselves can become as expensive as what they work on...just gotta try these bling Allen wrenches ;)

My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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You can start fixing and building other people's bikes to make the money back. That's what I have done
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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If you travel to races, it is essential to be able to know how to fix things on your bike. I've had headsets come apart, brakes cease to function -- you name it. All in foreign countries far from bike shops. If you can't fix stuff, it's a wasted trip.

My latest book: "Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire" is on sale on Amazon and at other online and local booksellers
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [jens] [ In reply to ]
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Lol! Im in the same boat. Ive only been involved in this sport barely 2 years and already sport a box van with enough shit to be a legit moblie bike repair shop. And I only do sprints !!! Is there a tri bikes anonymous somewere ? I need help!
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [ridenfish39] [ In reply to ]
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ridenfish39 wrote:
You can start fixing and building other people's bikes to make the money back. That's what I have done


I need a mechanic
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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How did you spend $250 on tools?
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Other than going to the shop for the headset, I don't see a problem with this! ;-))
Last edited by: FatandSlow: Apr 16, 17 12:05
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Can you recommend your tool starter kit?
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I've run into another problem with maintaining my own bike...knowing just enough to take stuff apart and make it worse! This is followed by taking it to the shop in pieces so they can laugh at me
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Awesome story. I just built 2 bikes-- 100% upgrade to my tri and a road from parts. It is so rewarding.
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [Calvinbal6] [ In reply to ]
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Calvinbal6 wrote:
Can you recommend your tool starter kit?


I didn't buy a kit, but the Park Tool "Advanced" Kit has pretty much everything you need. It's $300, but if I was starting literally from scratch, I'd just get that if you were planning to do a complete build or breakdown that goes all the way down to the bottom bracket. I think $300 is a fair price for the outstanding quality of Park tool. I don't have all park tool stuff, but the more I use it, the more I'm convinced it's worth every penny in the long run, and I don't think their tools are overpriced at allfor how high quality and specifically shaped for bike repair now that I've used some of them (I used to think they were crazy high priced, but the Nashbar or other knockoffs are invariably a bit harder to use or get dicey when you really push on it, and the generic Home Depot tools often drive you nuts because they 'almost' do the job, but are just wrong enough shaped to make you really suffer whereas the Park tool would have solved it in the first try.)

I had some allen keys, pedal wrench, chainbreaker and a few other tools from my ignorant days so I didn't buy the whole kit, but I ended up recreating the kit in near entirety without eve knowing it.

The most useful tool bar none, would DEFINITELY get it if I lost it - the Park tool allen key for $13. I have another general toolkit with allen keys for the house, and I ended up buying another $15 set of 'long' allen keys with nice handles, but none of them are as good for the bike as the Park tool. The park tool length is perfect, and having all the keys at once at fingers length is important (it sucks to dig through 8 allen keys separately to find the right one) and it's so tough that it gives the most leverage of all my keys. Just get this one - you'll use it forever.

Another tool that I think is required if you are installing your own carbon handlebars/stem - torque wrench. I bought one on Amazon for $50 from Venzo and it seems to work well (I hope it's calibrated correctly though!) I know folks think this is optional, but if you are putting on a new handlebar/stem combo, you really, really want this. It's too easy to overtighten the stem bolts, or just as bad, undertighten them and have a catastrophic handlebar downward slip in the middle of a high speed effort when you pushes down on the bars hard (you'll go flying - almost happened to me when I was riding at walking speed with an undertightened stem with my 6-year old daughter and my bars suddenly rotated down!) I've been amazed/horrified with how little torque 5-6Nm for the stem bolts is to hold all your weight on the bars - you REALLY need the carbon paste to make it work.

I think it's funny that I find the park tool 'advanced' kit not advanced at all anymore. I used every single item (equivalent) in that kit except the spoke wrench / adjusters. Seriously, I'd call it 'early intermediate' at best - in my book, if you can watch a youtube video a few times, and then do the repair pretty easily, that's not 'advanced'.

Oh, and if you are buying a pedal wrench, pay the money and get the $35 one from Park Tool. Thank me later when you save your knuckles and back. Even greased pedals can be really tough to remove. (I thought the BB would be the hardest thing to get off, but that was actually the easiest of all the parts to remove.)

The one thing that I thought would drive me nuts but was actually one of the easiest and fun parts - installing and adjusting derailleurs for shifting. If your parts are good or new, it's a total cakewalk - you really have to make big errors to screw it up. But unfortunately, if your stuff is old and worn (esp cassette or crank), there's almost nothing you can do to get that perfect-new smooth feel of the shift/pedaling.
Last edited by: lightheir: Apr 16, 17 12:54
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [ridenfish39] [ In reply to ]
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ridenfish39 wrote:
You can start fixing and building other people's bikes to make the money back. That's what I have done


I've thought about doing this. I'm not worried about my friends suing me if something goes wrong...I'm worried about families. If someone crashes, dies, and the family finds out you were the mechanic, things can get ugly. I'd recommend taking a course (eg, Barnett's), incorporating, and getting business insurance.

To the original poster, welcome to the club. $250 on tools in nothing. Give me a call when you get a $300 tensiometer or $150 sockets from Abbey Tools...;) Seriously, it does start to pay off in the long run the more you learn. Also, know what your limits are. I can do about anything (apart from carbon repair), but still take my bike to the shop at times. I recently had a bottom bracket cup stuck in the frame. I probably could have really pounded it out, but would rather the shop do it for $15 and not worry about damaging the frame.

I started with a tool kit like this one from Performance. I think I got it for <$100 on sale. Of course, I got better tools over time, but it was a fairly inexpensive way to get going and the tools aren't that bad. I still use many of them as my portable tool set:

http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10052_10551_1122045_-1_400154__400154

"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond wrote:
How did you spend $250 on tools?

Not a complete rundown but quickly:
$50 Torque wrench
$35 Park tool pedal wrench
$40 Ultrasonic cleaner
$25 BB tool
$20 BB #2 tool
$50 - Slow cooker + wax for chain
$15 - Crank puller park tool wrench
$13 - Crank bolt wrench park tool
$10 - Carbon paste
$10 - Orange citrus cleaner
$10- Polylube grease

That's only part of it, and that's already $280.

I'm using a Spin Doctor bike stand that itself costed $150+ that I bought 6 years ago (and never used)
Other stuff - general toolkit, bike cleaning stuff, etc.

Easily $300+ on tools alone if I had to buy everything brand new again all over. I'm hoping I don't have to do this kind of mass tool purchase again!
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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exxxviii wrote:
Awesome story. I just built 2 bikes-- 100% upgrade to my tri and a road from parts. It is so rewarding.

Dare I ask how much such an upgrade cost you? Parts are expensive!
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Fishbum wrote:
ridenfish39 wrote:
You can start fixing and building other people's bikes to make the money back. That's what I have done



I need a mechanic


Youtube has EVERYTHING in there. It's amazing. Without youtube, I think it's extremely hard to learn bike repair just using a manual like Zinn. I'm extremely good with learning all sorts of stuff from books, but there's no contest compared to the youtube videos which are usually much more current and relevant to your situation/parts.

I'm convinced that I could learn 70% of bike repair now by just spending hours watching and rewatching/studying/memorizing the youtube videos. You still need real-world experience for that last 30%, but it's far more valuable to know the 'right' way to fix something the first time - you can figure out everything else, whereas if you're clueless going in, you can mess something up so badly that you waste more time fixing your screwups.
Last edited by: lightheir: Apr 16, 17 13:07
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
Dare I ask how much such an upgrade cost you? Parts are expensive!
I did not add it up, but the tri bike was a lot. Flo wheels, Alpha X cockpit, Omega X brakes, and used Red 22 crank probably nearly matched the original price of the bike. Then, the rest of the bits were mostly used and inexpensive.

The road bike was a total joy. It is probably close to 14 lbs. and under $2K. I got the frame and as many parts as possible used and leftovers from my tri bike. It was funded by selling off other stuff. It was a fun exercise in economic and performance optimization.
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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exxxviii wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Dare I ask how much such an upgrade cost you? Parts are expensive!

I did not add it up, but the tri bike was a lot. Flo wheels, Alpha X cockpit, Omega X brakes, and used Red 22 crank probably nearly matched the original price of the bike. Then, the rest of the bits were mostly used and inexpensive.

The road bike was a total joy. It is probably close to 14 lbs. and under $2K. I got the frame and as many parts as possible used and leftovers from my tri bike. It was funded by selling off other stuff. It was a fun exercise in economic and performance optimization.


I'd love to do that as well!

The only thing stopping me from conceptualizing a literal from-frame build is the hassle of installing a headset. Stuff like crown race and star fangled nut installation. Did you do that yourself, or did the bike come with that installed?

All the other stuff I can handle now! Amazing!

As an aside, for now I'm leaning a lot more toward 'ease of maintenance' for bike parts as opposed to uberperformance, mainly because I'm far from my speed limiter on the bike (which is training, not the bike), so I'm opting for parts that I can swap in/out easily and clean easily. But it still can't be too ghetto for a Cervelo p2c!
Last edited by: lightheir: Apr 16, 17 13:38
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Most frames are integrated headsets. They are the easiest thing to install on a bike. I bet I could R&R a headset in under 5 minutes with only and Allen wrench to remove and reinstall the stem.
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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exxxviii wrote:
Most frames are integrated headsets. They are the easiest thing to install on a bike. I bet I could R&R a headset in under 5 minutes with only and Allen wrench to remove and reinstall the stem.

Oh wow. I'm showing my out-of-dateness. I had no idea that bikes now came with headsets where the bearings just 'sit' in there. No star-fangled nut, no crown race needed. That certainly makes things easier and much more pleasant!

My p2c still has a star-fangled nut, but at least it's a threadless headset, which means I could take out the cartridge bearings clean them and put them back without much fuss. I wouldn't be able to install something like that though.

My next frame will DEFINITELY have an integrated headset!
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [allenpg] [ In reply to ]
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allenpg wrote:
ridenfish39 wrote:
You can start fixing and building other people's bikes to make the money back. That's what I have done


I've thought about doing this. I'm not worried about my friends suing me if something goes wrong...I'm worried about families. If someone crashes, dies, and the family finds out you were the mechanic, things can get ugly. I'd recommend taking a course (eg, Barnett's), incorporating, and getting business insurance.
...

I used to offer to work on friend's bikes, but recently stopped. Not for the exact reasons you stated, but because there seem to be a lot of folks who think bike parts never wear out, never need to be cleaned or adjusted.
So if I install a chain for them, and they ride in the rain, never clean it never lube it, and it breaks a year later, first thing they'll do is point the finger at me as the person who installed it a year ago. Nice, eh?!

I've been wrenching my own bikes for a while (20 years +/-). Its rewarding, and its nice not having to pay someone else to do it, nor take the time to take it and leave it at the LBS for several days.

To the OP - you won't face all those expenses if you take care of your bike -from the beginning-! :) Headset and BB bearings need to be replaced every so often, and if you learn to do it yourself, the cost of the bearings is very low. New chain once a year, new cassette every 2 years or so (personal pref. I've used others for 5+ years, they still worked perfect), etc etc.

Cheers
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond wrote:
How did you spend $250 on tools?

how do you NOT spend $250 on tools?
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [James Haycraft] [ In reply to ]
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+1
Snap On truck won't even drive by for $250 ;)

My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
jimatbeyond wrote:
How did you spend $250 on tools?


Not a complete rundown but quickly:
$50 Torque wrench
$35 Park tool pedal wrench
$40 Ultrasonic cleaner
$25 BB tool
$20 BB #2 tool
$50 - Slow cooker + wax for chain
$15 - Crank puller park tool wrench
$13 - Crank bolt wrench park tool
$10 - Carbon paste
$10 - Orange citrus cleaner
$10- Polylube grease

That's only part of it, and that's already $280.

I'm using a Spin Doctor bike stand that itself costed $150+ that I bought 6 years ago (and never used)
Other stuff - general toolkit, bike cleaning stuff, etc.

Easily $300+ on tools alone if I had to buy everything brand new again all over. I'm hoping I don't have to do this kind of mass tool purchase again!

I'd add in Allen and Torx wrenches, chain breaker, chain masterlink open/close pliers, a high quality cable cutter (Park's my fav), teflon tape, hacksaw with a fine blade and a cutting guide (for carbon extensions and steerers).

I work on pretty much everything but the BB and headset. Those standards change frequently enough that I don't want to make the tool investment.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: Warning to all you folks who are aiming to learn how to DIY your bike maintenance/repair [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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How's that Park cable cutter working for you? I have a Nashbar version that cuts normal wire fime, but it tends to crush the brake cable housing when I cut it, to the point that it actually catches the cable. It's pretty tough to reopen it - I've had to recut several times.
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