Ive done all my own wrenching for as long as I can remember (.....~30 years).
I am not an engineer nor a mechanic, I'm an IT Systems Analyst.
I've built up a decent collection of bike tools over the years, and I just started a project to build myself a custom tool kit using a Nanuk 935 case and Kaizen foam inserts...

Compared to having my LBS do work:

1. If I do it myself, I know its done right, everything is tight, torqued right, etc. And if I can't get it right, -then- I take it to LBS.
2. Saves a lot of time of not having to drive to LBS, leave bike for a week, drive back to pick it up.
3. Saves a lot of money. I did have to have the brake cables re-done on a Speed Concept recently - normally something I could handle, but for some reason I just could not get them to work smoothly, so I just said f*ck it and took it in. It cost me about $150.....(and a week)... :(

One last thing I should note - I actually enjoy working on my own bikes, so that makes a big difference too.

I hate to admit it, but I'm like the WORST bike mechanic. Even on stuff I've done several times before!

I've messed up so many easy repairs and installs in ways that one would only dream of and STILL not come up with the amount of stupid required to do it....

And yes, I'm riding 2 bikes that I completely broke down completely and rebuilt back up and have been essentially self-servicing the whole time. There were definitely some dangerous moments yikes!

If it makes you feel any better, I know several people that have 6k+ bikes that -literally- do not know how to adjust the seat height and even taking a wheel off/on is a major undertaking for them........I'm serious. So maybe you aren't doing so bad! :)

I'm not even joking -

One of the biggest reasons that I'm not buying a $7-12k superbike right now (Yeah, I'm the chump that posted about my $$ windfall 2 days ago!) is that I have no interest in learning to wrench all the super-awesome-customized aero parts that go along with it.

So not surprised in the slightest that folks buying these bikes are totally clueless for wrenching. I suspect that if something went wrong with a bike in that range for me, I'd not trust my lousy janky Star-wars duct-tape repairs and skills, but take it in for the pros to look at. Even for simple stuff.

My older bikes require way more time to source the appropriate parts than to actually do the job...using generic tools.

My modern bikes require more time (and specialty tools) to actually do the job right.

Replacing shift cables versus wiring/finding the error in DI2 comes to mind. Or adjusting cable brakes versus Hydro.

In the end, I think it comes down to the question: "Do I enjoy working on my bike?".

Just because you know how to do it, shouldn't make it an obligation to do so.

I do my work mostly for my own safety and peace of mind, because the mechanics in my area are either ridiculous expensive or do a shoddy job.
.

I do all my own work now, because;

- the LBS in my area is run by a set of old school guys who believe they know better. Basically patronising wankers who want to tell me what does and doesn't matter.

- my LBS refuses to book in an accurate time slot to do the job. I'm expected to drop it off and have it sit there unavailable to me until they can do the work. Fuck off, I'd rather the bike stayed in my possession.

- my LBS wouldn't do as good a job as I have done with my carefully optimised mods on my P3C. In fact, they probably wouldn't have been willing to do some of it (very careful routing of cables through Tririg Sigma stem to Tririg Omega brake, drilling the frame, top tube cable mod, custom cut extensions fitted in reverse, angled pads etc)

- in the long run (10+ years now) it has probably been cheaper to buy the tools

- I'm an engineer (broadcast, not mechanical) and like to understand things fully

- I like doing it

- My bikes are my babies

I've basically got all the tools I'll ever need to maintain my bikes forever, with the exception of a headset bearing press... only because I've never needed one. But I've got everything else.. I even have a steerer tube cutting guide which I've used 3 times I think.

As above my background is engineering, but electronic (broadcast) not mechanical. I just have an enquiring mind and have been content to learn as I go, mainly picking things up from the internet.

My P3C is awesome.

Cheers, Rich.

I have been wrenching my own stuff for about 40 years (holy crap, where did the time go?!). I use the shop when I don't have time or tools, I have a lot of stuff but there is so much proprietary equipment around that it makes sense for the shop to do a particular job.

That said, wrenching on my own stuff while time consuming can also be relaxing. I love, love, love redoing cables and bar tape in late winter. Put some music on and shut the brain off for a couple hours, granted I had to do a lot them to be proficient but the reward of a smoothly shifting and braking bike is so worth it.

Also a mechanical engineer, but I was a mechanic way before I was an engineer.

Rich

Not an engineer, but have done all my own wrenching since I was a poor grad student. Yes, wrenching can have moments of frustration. but in the big scheme of things, it’s very satisfying to work through problems and develop competency. It’s actually become cathartic for me to work on my bike.

...what kills me is hearing some of my training buddies spending nearly a grand at a bike shop for installing/replacing ~$400 in parts. But then again, to each their own.

Outside of very minor maintenance my lbs does all my work for a few reasons
1. I can't afford to break my bike
2. I don't want to buy a million tools
3. I break stuff
4. They are cheap and do good work
5. They are .5 miles from my house

To piggyback on this, if you have a question on say the seatpost of a P3, you can email/contact Cervelo or whoever the manufacturer is and they can tell you the answer. They may also have some pieces lying around somewhere and send it to you for cheap/free. I have had a few issues with various things and a quick email to the company themselves has resulted in a quick answer and sometimes a replacement part for free (or a part number which can be found on ebay etc.). I have had very good interactions with Cervelo and Trek personally, but unless the company is crap or they are out of business, they should have all the information available. TBH I get the information much faster than a bike shop does too. They seem to ask the distributor, who in turn does who knows what (and has proved to be an "I don't know" or wrong information). I like to get information from the horses mouth as well; trust but verify

TBH depending on what super bike you buy, the $7-12k might actually make your life much easier (or ultimately the mechanics life easier in this case). I have worked on a Trek Speed Concept and my Cervelo P5x and I can tell you the P5x is stupidly well thought out in terms of maintenance and breaking the bike down to transport. I kind of laugh because most people buying the Px series bikes will likely throw it to their bike shop, who will in turn rejoice due to how insanely easy this thing is to work on. Every time I take this thing apart I find something new that was designed specifically with maintenance in mind. For example, headset bearing on integrated cockpits typically go through the headset bearing itself. If its a disc brake bike, that means a headset replacement requires you to disconnect the brake lines... which will need to be flossed through whatever you put them in before. I have a Look 795 RS Disc that has this issue, and I can only assume most super bikes have this exact same issue. The Px series bikes don't as they actually bypass the headset bearing entirely, so you can just pop the headset bearing out and never touch the lines. Thats just one of the few "treats" I found wrenching on this baby which is one of the ways I enable myself...

Depending on the bike and how well its designed, I can honestly say the super bikes can actually save you a ton of time. It might require you to do research or know what you are looking for though, kind of a catch 22 as you need to know what is hard to realize the well designed solutions...

Not an engineer but I have 3 technical degrees.

Do all my own stuff unless I don't have a tool or can't make the tool. In the past 5 years I've had my LBS remove an ISIS BB (cheaper than buying the tool), cut a carbon steerer (didn't want to buy a new blade and my steerer cutting fixture got stolen) and chase a titanium bottom bracket (threads were a mess, they had to dig up the tool and then wait for the senior mechanic with 30 years experience to do it). I've built up maybe 7 bikes in that time. I do call in at Christmas or St Patrick's day with a 12 pack and a cake to remind them who I am and keep them on the sweet side.

They've also given me small parts for free that I can't locate - such as straddle cable holders and tokens for Rockshox forks.

I've learned everything from Zinn and post on bikeforums.net.

My biggest regret is never doing a course on shop skills. Would love to be able to machine up some parts and have a good grasp of fasteners and threads. Have figured out quite a bit now but wasted a lot of time.

The one thing I can do very well is build wheels that are as good as any pro can build - I just do it a lot slower.

Youtube is amazing - learned a ton about hydraulic brakes and servicing suspensions for MTB. That even got me into doing stuff on my car that I would have never imagined me doing - saved a lot on changing rotors and brake fluid and cleaning out various sensors every time my check engine light goes on.

I do all my own bike work, and car/motorcycle maintenance. Like others that posted, I get some satisfaction and peace of mind knowing that I’ve done it right. I don’t think most mechanics would put in the care that I spend on my rides. Some of this comes from disappointing experiences reviewing ”professional” work on a few occasions when I may have been short on time or tools, but frankly a shop mechanic would likely always feel too rushed to put as much care as I would. I am an aerospace engineer, but I would give more credit to having to wrench on my car as a teen to keep it running.

Some tasks may seem intimidating at first (worst may be bottom bracket bearings and related tools), but it feels good to know that if I ever have to do them again i’ve “been there,” and can take care of it fairly quickly, at home, before a training ride, and don’t ever have to work around a shop’s schedule. I tend to add, adjust, or remove a lot of parts experimenting with fit/aero (maybe not so much recently, but when I sort out a new build) and can’t imagine doing it as freely if I had to take it to a shop for every change or adjustment.

With YouTube, going to the LBS is the last resort.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

If anyone involved in bike shops is reading, this is a primary reason I do not use shops.

I do my own car work but at least most vehicle repair shops can tell you “drop it off Tuesday, pick it up close of business Wedneaday”.

Every lbs has always been “shoulder shrug, we’ll call”.

I gave up one month after owning my first adult bike to do my own stuff.

It would be nice to once in a while pay for some stuff like a recabling and such. But that whole lazy inaccurate booking thing makes me just DIY.

This is probably one of my biggest gripes. If the bike needs to sit somewhere waiting for attention, it could just as easily sit at my house or under my backside.. with a little planning on their part. The concept of customer service is practically non-existent in some LBSs, it almost feels like you are asking them to do you a favour, and you are lucky they are gracing you with their wisdom and magic. No thanks, these are bikes not space rockets and I'll figure it out myself.

They have also misdiagnosed problems more than once, which I've subsequently sorted out myself. The latest being a noise from the back wheel "just ride it lad, you'll not notice in a headwind, it'll just be the spokes rubbing". It was a failed bond between the carbon fairing and the rim. Sigh.

Cheers, Rich.

I think the biggest misperceptions about working on a bike is that it requires a lot of tools and that they are expensive.

In reality, the number of tools is fairly small and very cheap.

"Amazon.com : BIKEHAND Bike Bicycle Compatible with Shimano Bottom Bracket Removal Remover Tool : Bike Hand Tools : Sports & Outdoors" https://www.amazon.com/...;smid=A1C9T7ACO5T769

Proud to say that in 53 years of cycling, the only time any of my bikes have ever been in a shop's workstand is when I worked at the shop and was upgrading/repairing on my lunch break. And the only time someone other than myself has done any work on my bikes was when I was 7, and got my first flat. My dad bought a patch kit, fixed the flat while I watched, and then told me "Now you know how to do it yourself" and gave me the patch kit in case I ever needed it again...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Fortunately, none of the various shops I worked at in my retail days were like that. We always told the customer when they dropped off the bike what day and time (usually next day) that it would be ready, and would call if it got done earlier. The only times we didn't have a definite pickup time was when we knew up front that we had to special order a part, and the only time it wouldn't be ready on schedule was if there was another issue discovered during the repair that needed additional time and/or special order parts. The last shop I was at (as service manager) had a reputation for being able to fix the problems that the other local shops couldn't...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Chalk me up as another Mechanical Engineer. I half agree with one of the earlier posts that a lot of a mechanical engineering degree (90% of which hard maths for those who aren't mechanical or electrical / electronic engineers, nowt practical) is irrelevant e.g. there's not much thermodynamics in bike spannering (though there is plenty of fluid mechanics in aero !). But it can help with a fundamental understanding of what is happening (or not) as far as structural stuff to know what is actually important or not.
It probably also lends itself towards a rational logical approach faults finding.

I've never worked in a bike shop.
But compared to building / rebuilding say gearboxes or engines (which I did when younger on a rally car) a push bike is ever so simple. I always repaired my own car until I was about 35 or 40 (since I 1st got one one when 17, because that was the only way I could afford to run one when I was 1st working and when I was a student). I do now use a car garage for repairs for the car as I've moved area and don't have the access to more specialist equipment these days, and usually can't be without a car for 4 or 5 days when something isn't right, or a bolt is seized and needs drilling out, or the car parts bought don't actually fit.

The push bikes... I do about 95-98% myself.
Why?

- parts are 2/3 or 3/4 the price from Wiggles / CRC etc than a LBS (and actually we haven't the had a real LBS where I live for about 25years).

- its such a fheckabout to get a bike to a repair shop. They open after I start work. Closed when I've finished work. Book it in for next week or the week after.
Repeat the faff to collect it again at an indeterminate point in the future.

Great example- I decided to try a shorter crank on the bike about 3 weeks ago. Ultegra. Wiggle £180 vs a RRP of £260. Collected from the grocery store 2 days later after a school run. Fitted, derailleur readjusted and pedals swapped etc in an hour inc cups of tea and faffing. Now how would that have panned out if I decided I didn't like the shorter crank ? A 3rd + 4th trip to the bike shop to get them to refit the original. Whereas I could swap everything back again in 20 or 30 mins without having to get the car off the drive again.

- I actually don't trust the quality of work in some places - a view reinforced after I saw a buddie's disc brake caliper lose 1 bolt and have the 2nd loose on the 1st ride out (on a brand new out the shop Santa Cruz at circa $8k - FFS) and then found the other caliper ready to fall off when we checked that. I've also know someone's handlebars slip / rotate down in the stem on the 1st ride. Both incidents (totally different shops) could have seriously injured or even killed the riders. If my bike falls apart after I put it together, its my own fault and nobody else's. But it doesn't because I know what I'm doing !

- In a race, if it goes wrong I will have a good idea how it is assembled and so have a better chance of fixing it. As a 'completer' imagine having dropped $2-3k to do an IM (entry, hotels, travel, etc) and a shedload of hard training just to DNF because something went a bit wrong with a brake or shifter cable or jockey wheel etc
Imagine that if you've KQ for the 1st time and that happens at Hawi. (Some things can't be fixed roadside. But much can.

- I have a mountain biking background. MTBs DO go wrong, and bits get broken at the most inconvenient place. Rip off a rear mech 31 miles from anywhere, what are you going to do? Its an awful long way to shove a bike back to the start. The experience of spannering on bikes gives a higher chance of being able to bodge a fix to get home.


The things I have used someone else ?
- wheel rebuilds. Whilst I could get the tools and learn, the need is so infrequent that it really doesn't pay back. And there is defo a skill in a good wheel build.

- rear shock + front fork 'heavy' services on an MTB. As I don't have the special tools, its difficult to get all the parts, and I don't have the nitrogen repressurisation equipment. I'll send those to specialist repairers (to Fox or to a company like TF Tuned).

- facing the BB. If needed (a debatable point). Again the cutting tool is about £500 so not worth buying that for the
infrequent use (once per frame).

I do everything on my own except wheel build and BB pressfit.

Why won't you install a pressfit bottom bracket?

I do everything, including wheel building, apart from bar taping. Honestly, that does defeat me.

For all the electrical/mechanical engineer comments that say there's nothing relevant in there, I think it more speaks to a logical thinking type of mind. I'm technically a civil engineer, albeit work in a fringe field of that now. But as a kid the petrol lawnmower wouldn't start one day. So I took it full to pieces, as in fully - crankshaft, piston rings, cleaned it all and reassembled. No instructions, no previous understanding of an engine and this was in the 1980s so pre you tube / google. I had a basic understanding of the theory of an engine from school, but this was a great way to really see how it all worked. I got lucky, and once reassembled then it stared first time and worked for years after. Only issue was that I must have slightly advanced the timing as you did need to semi jog to keep up with it from that point.

The advantage of doing your own work is that if something happens on the side of the road you have a much better chance of being able to come up with a fix yourself. Also I think a better chance of knowing if something is about to break - based on feel, noise, etc.

Whilst 95% of bike jobs can be done with a 6 piece hex set, the other 5% can be a PITA for tools. For example I've just had to buy a new chain tool. Not because I lost or broke my last one. But I've now got a collection which unfortunatly are god for 8 speed, one that's 9-10 speed and now one good for 8-12. Ditto the shimano bottom bracket tool. Needed to replace not because the BB splined part didn't fit, but because the axle size changed and so the tool was fouling. So bizarely the tools you use all the time (hex keys) tend to stay consistent, but the ones that you use rarely seem to end up being the ones that you need to upgrade every 5 years after 2-3 uses.

I always do my own work. After some pretty bad experiences with 2 LBS, I'd rather make sure it's done right, with care, and acquire some knowledge, tools, and confidence in the process.

In the era of You Tube and the internet, there's really not much that can't be done by yourself, and this applies to much more than just bikes.