My bike was in need of new brake and shifter cables and housing. I decided that rather than pay the bikeshop $100+ to do it, I’d buy the stuff myself and figure it out.
After about 90 minutes of tinkering I finished and was surprised at how easy it was.
Some thoughts:
Measure Twice, Cut once (I didn’t have any issues, but if you did - oops)
The cable “kits” make it simple and come with everything you need. Was about 50 bucks for brake and shifter @ my LBS.
Next time I will buy the Parktool cable cutting tool - I had to resort to a pair of tin snips to make the cuts (on the housing atleast) - and they weren’t the cleanest, but they function.
So in summary - save yourself some cash and learn how to do it yourself. I spent about 90 minutes on it yesterday, but I figure the next time I’ll be able to do it in about half that.
Or you can do like me. Buy the Park Tool thingy, learn how to do it and realize how easy it is, and then take it to the mechanic to do it from that point forward…kinda like that weedwhacker and blower I bought for no apparent reason…
wanna sell your park tool cable cutter on the cheap 
For me it’s more about timliness. If I can do it myself - I can ride my bike the next day.
If I take it to the bike shop - to get that fast of turn around I’ve got to spend another 15-20 bucks on beer to bribe them…
I am fortunate to have a mobile bike mechanic who comes and picks my bike up, changes cables and checks and cleans everything, then brings it back home.
Oh and I have found other uses for the cable cutter - toenail clipping and pulling my kids’ teeth…
I’ve been doing my own builds/maintenance for years. like you said it really isn’t rocket science. The only time you’ll find one of my bikes at the LBS is when I require a special tool I’m not willing to purchase for a one time gig (like a BB30 press).
I got left with a bad taste in my mouth when one LBS did a “Tune up” on my wife’s hybrid. Dropped it off for the $75 service and picked it up a week and a half later and was charged $350 for additional parts. I coudl have bought her a new bike for that. To add insult to injury, half of the things included in the ‘tune up’ were not preformed. If I can’t trust them with with my wife’s beater bike how am I supposed to trust them with a $$$$ racing bike. -Oh and not to mention they never had anything campagnolo available.
I’ve since switched to a shop that is about 10x further away but at least I trust them to do a good job when I require a little assistance.
BTW-bulk cable is about as good as any of the other stuff you buy in the package (jsut make sure you get the right ones) and will only cost you about $20 to do a whole bike. it’s usually available at the shop by the foot.
Measure Twice, Cut once (I didn’t have any issues, but if you did - oops)
I don’t bother measuring. I take the old housings off and use those to mark the length the new ones need to be trimmed to.
i agree. shops around me charge an unreal amount for a tuneup & recable, call it the “pro build”, especially for internal routing.
so i took it upon myself to do it, having never done it before. learned the hard way to tape string when pulling out internal cables, but in turn had the benefit of learning how to fish a frame with a wire hanger.
i couldn’t justify buying cable/housing cutters for $30…then halfway through the build i went out and bought them b/c they are clearly necessary.
like somebody else said, cables can be had cheaper online, but i got the kits from Rei for I think $15/ea.
i’m still afraid of playing with bottom brackets & headsets, but that’ll be the next project.
here’s to DIY!
It’s depends on how much your time is worth to you. I could see a doctor/lawyer/ibanker getting his/her bike tuned by bike shops simply cos it’s not worth the time to do it themselves.
I could also see a doctor/lawyer/ibanker tuning the bike up himself/herself, simply because they enjoy doing so.
I do my own bike work out of necessity (it’s just so much cheaper, even if you have to buy the tools yourself) as a college student, but I really enjoy it now, and will probably continue to do my own bike work from now on. It really makes it hard to ever get on good terms with any bike shop, cos you only ever go to them with your worst problems that you can’t solve yourself (I mean… $10 for removing a cassette? please…)
No need to buy a $50 cable set from the LBS unless you want some special color or like to spend money. Just buy 2 derailleur and 2 brake cables they have in the box for like $2.50/ea (but don’t get cheapie galvanized cables). And housing from the bulk box too. Some LBS’s will throw in ferrules, cable ends and donuts free too.
Agreed on the Bottom Brackets and Headsets.
Cables, cassettes, chains, etc. can all be done at home. The right tools are important. I found that out the hard way when recabling. Borrowed a neighbors Park Tool cable cutter about half way through.
I do want to pick up a trueing (sp?) stand to be able to keep the wheels right.
I am relative newb to cycling and not super handy. With the internet and a little patience, most people can do it.
You may not realize it, but you are measuring, the reference being the old housing length, instead of some arbitrary units expressed in cm or inch…
thanks for the advice. Trying to get up the confidence to do more (read any at all) on my own for the reasons you set forth.
Rubber side down this weekend…
Another great thing about doing your own maintenance is being able to be self reliant. If you have a bike issue the day before a race, you may actually be able to fix it. I’ve started taking my tool kit with me to each big race I attend.
Oh, and if you haven’t had the joy of working with internal routing yet, an important tip is to always leave either a cable or housing extending through the frame so that you can avoid the hassle of trying to feed a line in by itself. Apparently many newer frames are well designed enough that internal routing isn’t a hassle, but it’s still good practice to leave a line going through the frame.
Holy crap, you pay $100 bucks to have cables and housing changed?!? I need to take back all the mean things i said about my LBS. They suck at most things, but at least they only charge $40 for a tuneup, which includes new cables and housings.