You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I seem to have the ability to turn even the most straightforward bike maintenance task into a bad tempered epic.
For instance, last night I had two easy jobs:
- Give the road bike a thorough clean to get rid of the road grime which had stuck to the spilled energy drink residue
- Stop the front brake squeal by sanding down the pads, lightly sanding the disc and clean up with disc brake cleaner
First job went ok but I noticed some latex on the back of the seat tube so I assumed I'd had a small real tyre puncture which the sealant successfully dealt with. Great and no sign of knicks in the tyre.
Second job went ok apart from, obviously, dropping and temporarily losing the tiny anti-rattle widget for the pad retainer bolt.
I then went for a quick test ride..and now BOTH brakes squeal like banshees and then the rear tyre puncture unsealed itself and sprayed sealant all over the back end of the bike and me....
This story is not atypical of me and doesn't include the obvious palaver of finding sufficient space to work on the bike, finding the right tools/equipment, putting the tools down and "losing" them and being just out of reach when you're on the other side of bike or lockup, or the batteries failing on the torch you are using cos the lights are shite.
So, a half-hour job turns into a multi-hour epic, again...
its infuriating but that's the best bit always some reason to tinker with it
I’m fine doing jobs I don’t have to do. For instance I recently swapped suspension and wheels from one bike to another because I wondered how they would ride. Not so good at doing jobs that actually need doing. It has taken me months to get round to replacing my trashed transmission even though all the parts were there waiting.
Hate? No, but I can procrastinate for England meaning I sometimes have to half-arse a job just to go riding and it inevitably fails in some small and annoying way...
Yes!
There was a time when i loved it. Built wheels and everything.
Couldn't give a shit now.
I don't mind, even quite enjoy, working on other people's bikes but go into a blind panic/fury if the bike I love riding isn't ready to go. Currently I am stressing about a broken spoke because I can't get one until after the bank holiday
Nope, love it. I'm just as likely to buy new bike tools as I am bike parts.
How many home mechanics have bottom bracket chasing tools, full set of bearing extractors and presses, blind bearing pullers, shock bush burnishing tools, fork bushing burnishing tools, 3 different chain wear tools, disc mount facing tool, 3 work stands to name a few.
I might have a bit of a problem.
Ask me when I have swapped rear tyres from the trainer to a normal tyre on my road bike.
And cleaned five months of salt off it.
And worked out why the gears don't change.
Hard relate but not so much hate as procrastinate.
I enjoy cleaning it properly and making it all shiny again. It's very satisfying when you scrub up a cassette, fit a newly waxed chain, have a lovely spotless frame. Very much a rainy day task.
Actually *fixing* anything, no I just take it to my LBS, buy a couple of coffees and some cake from the cafe down the street then he'll sort it for me.
I hope you pay too?!!
The level of enjoyment is directly proportional to how smoothly it goes.
Even if it is a long job, a nice calm fix/service is very satisfying.
A rapidly escalating bit of a mess, not so much.
I hate working on my own bikes at home now (I've very limited space) after being spoiled at work with a very well setup workshop.
Maybe that's the key. Have a bike shop like work area where everything is at hand and it makes life easier.
I like working on bikes almost as much as I like riding them. Except ******** internal hoses and cables.
An idea that can only have been conceived by the marketing department of the Sirius Cycle-netic Corporation who had just been commenting on cyclists and red lights on the Daily Mail letters page. Come the revolution....
No, I LOVE it!
LOVE working on my bike. HATED the two three-month stints I did running bike maintenance D of E courses! Why do kids choose to store their bikes in a swamp?
I don't hate working on my bikes but I'd sure as hell rather be riding them than working on them.
It depends on how much I want to get out on the bike or if there’s a particular ride coming up that I need it done by. If I can take my time on it rather than having time pressure then like most things, it’s far more enjoyable.
Although everything I touch does seem to turn into an Apollo 13 style mechanical epic.
I think I’d like it if I didn’t have so much other stuff to do for the family and thus working on bikes gets treated just like MTBing time (which I don’t have enough of!) So as much as possible I pay my LBS to do it (which is pretty much the only reason I’ll ever clean either bike!)
I am more than happy to pay for an expert to have the stress rather than me.
I am fine with simple stuff but prefer to delegate anything more complicated to the professionals. I guess if I was getting in serious miles and hence needing to do the more esoteric stuff regularly I might bother but most of the time its trying to remember how the hell to do something.
Back when I was a student I enjoyed it more but then (insert when I was a lad...) the bikes were a tad simpler and also I had sod all money and more free time. Whereas now I am lucky enough to be paid enough it makes more sense to pay someone to do all the time consuming stuff (basically if it takes longer to take it to the shop than do the job then its one for them).
Nah. Love working on them, mainly as it's only me working on them and building them, so everything is put together properly and works. When it doesn't work, it's easy to work out where and why it's broken.
Hate working on other people's bikes though, especially those straight from the shop/factory. Almost always something put together wrong.
Very few things cause me more rage than fixing bikes - my workstand bares the scars of my frustration.
Ironically, workingon bikes is a moderately common part of my job.
I'd rather spend an hour in excel than fixing/replacing something. I hate it.
The thing that really annoys me regarding bike maintenance is spotting something or thinking about a tweak I could do, but then doing nothing until I've decided I'm going to go for a ride and then the job makes me decide to cancel the ride.
Classic case tonight, I've not ridden in a week because of a chesty lurgy, my new ebike has so far done just 6 miles. Decide I'll try a ride at sunset, but then remember I haven't moved the bottle cage from under top tube to seat tube, concerned about bidon leaking on its side. By the time it's sorted, it doesn't seem worth heading out as it will be dark in ~30mins. Ride cancelled.
So now it's hoping on a miracle to wake and get out by 0900 tomorrow, to try and get an hour ride in before the Good Friday rain.
Nope, love it. I'm just as likely to buy new bike tools as I am bike parts.
How many home mechanics have bottom bracket chasing tools, full set of bearing extractors and presses, blind bearing pullers, shock bush burnishing tools, fork bushing burnishing tools, 3 different chain wear tools, disc mount facing tool, 3 work stands to name a few.
I might have a bit of a problem.
Yes, no, yes, no, no, yes, yes, only 2.
I'll counter with seat tube reamers, bottom bracket facing tools, bottom bracket dies, and pedal taps.
I do everything myself apart from wheel building and rear shock rebuilds. Reason being it's so far and so much hassle to get the bike to someone it's quicker to do it myself. I wouldn't say it's fun but it does mean I'm more capable of trailside fixes than mates who would just give in.
Added bonus is fixing bikes gets done away from other people.
I can see the problem, you over complicate the simple stuff,
Instead of
"This story is not atypical of me"
You could have just said "This story is typical of me"
But in reality I'd say the real problem is the lack of a beer fridge in close proximity.
This will allow you to happily spend 3 hrs over what in reality is a 20 min job 🙂
TBH I actually prefer working on the bikes to riding them sometimes!
I’m a competent mechanic and all of my bikes are well maintained to the point I can go and grab any one of them, put air in the tyres and ride them writhing 5 mins, but I don’t LOVE maintaining them. It’s just another job, but if they need something, it gets done and done fast. I hate adding things to my list.
Possibly the only job I really loathe these days is bleeding brakes on internally routed bikes. I despise having to repeat something and these things often need a few goes to get them right, especially on a road/gravel bike.
Depends what it is, and whether I have a tool. Example; I used to not look forward to cutting fork steerers and setting a star nut, but then I bought a guide and a star nut setter and what did take 30 mins and be an exercise in frustration is now 10 mins and a piece of piss.
I prefer to do preventative maintenance though rather than fixing things. So, mostly I'm swapping things rather than mending them, which to my mind isn't 'working' on my bike
Finding the space and time is the hard part. Most of what I do is rushed with a cramped space leaning over other bikes and then it’s no fun at all! And if I have enough time to do a decent stress free job I’d rather be riding
I generally enjoy it. The problem is that it gets squeezed into time slots not long enough to complete the task.
It's either cold and dark and 1/2 the time is spent moving kids toys out of the garage. Or the kids are in the garden pestering me.
I do have some now clean bottom bracket bearings ready for a regrease then to be popped back in to try and cure an intermittent creak.
I used to love it and took great pride that every ride started with a perfectly clean and maintained bike.
The I did it for a living for 6 years. In that time my bikes worked fine, but I couldn't be arsed to spend a minute more than absolutely necessary on them.
When I walked away from the bike industry I didn't really even like riding bikes let alone fixing them. I commuted on a bike that just about worked but looked like I stored it in the sea.
Four years on, the joy of riding is mostly back and am happy to work on the bikes again but only to make sure they work reliably and quietly. There's not a hope in hell that I'm going back to cleaning cassettes after every ride again, I scrape the worst of the gunk off every few months and that's it. Can I tell the difference? Yes, the chains last longer.
Oh, and OP - You don't need brake cleaner, you need a blow lamp and a degree of care to clean your discs and pads. If you aren't careful on the pads (slow heat to just hot enough to burn off the contamination) then you risk pad / backing plate separation. If you don't trust yourself on this rub with fairy liquid. But use a blow lamp on the disc, just keep it spinning so it heats evenly.
I definitely don't hate it; the key I find is making sure you always have enough time to really tinker, because any job done in rush invariably ends up going wrong.
So then I find I don't have enough time to do it properly so don't get started...
I like building and riding bikes, I cba repairing or maintaining them.
I'm not a fan. I don't mind cleaning it now and then.
But I already have hobbies that i enjoy, and bike fettling just takes time away from them.
Also i don't have a garage. My bike lives under the stairs and fixes - inevitably it's a dark winter evening - need to take place in the living room, next to the dining table, trying not to break stuff.
Also also, i rode the same bike from 1994 - 2022. It was easy to fix. I now have no idea how anything works on the new bike, except for inner tubes, and I'm not entirely convinced about those either
I now have no idea how anything works on the new bike, except for inner tubes, and I'm not entirely convinced about those either
Part of the reason I cba with fixing stuff is the tools - I still have an ISIS BB tool, a few other random bits and pieces that cost a fair bit to acquire and are now useless / superfluous to requirements.
I'm fine with general improvements, I accept that standards will change but I can't justify buying tools for stuff that won't be around in a few years time, it's a lot easier to let the bike shop buy the tools and do the repairs. And to be fair, there's actually not a lot to "repair" - kit these days is pretty reliable, just needs the occasional bit of upkeep like a brake bleed r bearing replacement and even that is infrequent.
Nope—I love working on my own bike. Nine times out of ten times it’s cheaper to just buy the tool and do it yourself than pay someone else. Aside from a few specialized tools, like expensive facing kits, there’s very little I can’t handle on my own at this point. It partly comes from being tight a tight Yorkshireman, but also from the frustration of paying “professionals” for shoddy work.
I reckon it's considerably faster to fix most things at home than it is to make the return trip to a bike shop twice.
Plus you can fix them out-of-hours, i.e. it doesn't cut into riding time.
To follow up on my OP...
Obviously I've had a (tiny) puncture which the sealant has "fixed". Do I now need to plug this small hole with a bacon strip/worm?
(I'm REALLY reluctant to take the tyre off the rim and patch from the inside as I'll never get the bloody tyre back on the rim! LBS installed the tyre and even their experienced mechanic struggled. NB Giant SLR carbon rims are shit. Mine must be slightly over-sized as EVERY.SINGLE.TYRE that has been mounted to those rims has been impossibly tight - theres no way to re-install at the roadside 🤬)
If the sealant has sealed it and it's holding pressure, there's no point in attempting to plug it any further, imo.
there's no point in attempting to plug it any further, imo.
Agree. The strips and crap are for when the sealant doesnt work. Weird slices which get semi sealed aside for which a patch seems best. Unless it loses air overnight/midride I would leave it alone.
On a related note I had a mixed afternoon post ride when I decided to do some work I have been putting off.
Full sus: all happy refreshing sealant, general clean especially of the chain and relube of chain.
hard tail: change to tubeless. complete pain in the arse. One wheel all happy but the other saying sod it and emptying all air. Will go back to it tomorrow.
road bike: admittedly I was running low on chain cleaner (especially after the full sus) but my god I am not sure how it ended up like that. Ordered some new cleaner and will try again.
Nope, love it. I'm just as likely to buy new bike tools as I am bike parts.
How many home mechanics have bottom bracket chasing tools, full set of bearing extractors and presses, blind bearing pullers, shock bush burnishing tools, fork bushing burnishing tools, 3 different chain wear tools, disc mount facing tool, 3 work stands to name a few.
I might have a bit of a problem.
Oh I have way more than that so you’re in a safe space here, but I've been working in bike shops and at home on bikes since the 70's.
Plus all the cars I’ve restored/raced and their associated kit along with engineering being my trade you tend to build up an obscene amount of kit to "just get it done right"
My late wife was incredibly tolerant of my “hobbies” to the point where I built a workshop a meter longer than our house.
At the end of the day if it makes you happy and your not causing any hardship for your household just go for it.
I’m with the OP.
I’m 43 with two youngish kids and a stressful job. I’m time starved. If I have to waste an hour in the garage it’s an hour I could be riding, which some weeks may be my only chance to get a ride in.
Small jobs I can put up with but otherwise it goes to the lbs as I don’t have the time or patience to bother with it.
I enjoy working on my bikes and get a little frustrated when all are in 100% condition so there is nothing to do to any of them. I find it meditative and relaxing.
I do preventative maintenance after riding if I notice anything needing doing on a ride so every bike is sorted and ready to go at all times
I love the feel of a silent well set up bike.
I had a lovely hour in my tidy shed with the freshly installed lights and electric last night fixing a couple of surprise punctures and installing new brake calipers on my DayOne. A nice beer to sweeten the deal. I'd say no, I generally like working on my bikes.
Need a new puncture repair kit though.
I quite enjoy working on mine if the job goes smoothly, it gets incredibly frustrating if something doesn't work how it's supposed to or some bolt gets rounded (happens way too often) or something gets stuck and impossible to extract (I'm looking at you freehub bearings).
The only job I really despise is trying to fix poorly shifting gears. For some reason for me it NEVER works or lasts for more than a week. I can replace cables, service my clutch, make sure hanger is straight, index them properly, check chain/cassette wear and everything in-between but it STILL won't shift nicely or reliably.
The thing that’s gets my goat, is when manufacturers supposedly improve something and that improvement requires a whole lot of news tools.
otherwise I find it quite cathartic..
expect bleeding brakes, takes several attempts for me to get right.
The thing that’s gets my goat, is when manufacturers supposedly improve something and that improvement requires a whole lot of news tools.
otherwise I find it quite cathartic..expect bleeding brakes, takes several attempts for me to get right.
It's not just the tools, but the amount of reading you sometimes have to do to work out what part you need (currently trying to work out what chainring offset I need for a certain set of cranks, for a good boost chainline).
I hate working on my bikes but only from the perspective that I don't have much free time so any time spent fixing is time that I could have been biking for a change. Failing to keep a bike running is one of the reasons climbing has taken over as my main sport
It's funny, one of the main reasons I got fed up with climbing is that you spend way more of your time faffing than actually doing the activity. Biking has a much better faff to activity ratio.
OP here...the saga continues...
I noticed the rear tyre was soft yesterday, long story short was the wheel had to be taken to my LBS to install a new tyre (it took two mechanics to unseat the original bead as they'd had to wrap extra tape on the rim to get the original tyre to seat - yes, they installed my last tyres).
Moral of my story is Giant SLR1 rims are a monumental pain in the arse to deal with and it's best to leave it to the professionals every time.
(I wish I had a large, well lit, clean workshop/man cave with all tools, and supplies like bearing, fluids, spare parts all to hand with a beer fridge in the corner. I'd be more inclined to spend time learning how to work on bikes [I've got the time now] but the reality, I'm generally in a bad mood before I really get to work because I haven't got a proper space for everything, or I can't find what I need to at that time. Luckily, I have a REALLY good LBS a 5 minute stroll from my house...)
Yep but only cos I lack the patience. Can do the basics fine but if it starts going wrong I the swear jar gets filled and I'm in a pissy mood all night 😆 The full suss is creaking/clicking like a **** at the moment so that needs attention. Still rides fine though.
I love working on bikes, but there are 3 specific things which I hate:
1. Bleeding brakes
2. Indexing gears
3. Truing wheels
Happy to pay someone else to do those, although I am capable of 1 and 2 if it makes the difference between riding or not riding.
I hate taken on a small task when I have limited time, when that small task goes wrong. But if I've set aside a decent amount of time to do something that goes more or less to plan, I can really enjoy it.
I particularly dread changing tyres on tubeless set ups.
That can be a 5 min job, it the new tyres go up first time with a compressor.
But if the rim tape fails on tyre removal and needs retaping, that's an extra 30 mins for me.
If the old tape leaves a load of residue, that can be another 30-60 mins to clean up (Muc off once did that terribly for me).
Then if the tyre doesn't pop into place first time, that can add 15 mins of frantic repressurising of my compressor and trying again, plus a mess of sealent if I was optimistic enough to put it in the tyre before seating it (rather than through the valve).
If it's a hard rim to tape, and I find the tyre at 5 psi next morning, then I have the same to look forward to again and feel like quitting cycling.
It's funny, one of the main reasons I got fed up with climbing is that you spend way more of your time faffing than actually doing the activity. Biking has a much better faff to activity ratio.
This is why I used to love indoor bouldering, and soloing big easy mountaining routes
From a child,a curiosity for all things mechanical was hard wired into my tiny brain.
Show me any form of machine and I will immediately start to try and figure out how it works/comes apart.
Bicycle maintenance feeds this fixation 😀
I also have no fear of a front derailleur 😉
I love working on bikes, but there are 3 specific things which I hate:
1. Bleeding brakes
2. Indexing gears
3. Truing wheels
Happy to pay someone else to do those, although I am capable of 1 and 2 if it makes the difference between riding or not riding.
Never tried 1, but sure I'd screw it up and make them worse
2, I'm generally fine at
3, I tend to have a knack of being pretty good at
Front derailleurs never had an issue with and always managed to get V Brakes working well
Just cannot be bothered with tubeless - but have it on my new bike, with cushcore. Dreading anything happening trailside
I just did the stupidest possible home mechanic job....
took apart my 15year old slx shifter to see why it wouldn't return- turns out that it was full of crud, liberal gt85 spraying, cleaning with cotton bud and then add some lube, then repeat the above till working
and seemed to be fixed, but now one of the little ratchet arms wont return.... so i have to dismantle another shifter to see what orientation a tiny spring should be and then twist it round the ratchet arm and hook it back on
thats 2 hrs of Sunday i wint he getting back, BUT my shifter is now working again!
so while i hated the job im feeling quite chuffed, now if it would just stop raining i could go for a ride!
one of the main reasons I got fed up with climbing is that you spend way more of your time faffing than actually doing the activity.
Ate you including time getting to the climbing in your assessment?
If so I totally concur. If not then I don't find it faffy at all if you have the right partner.
After a day skiing in la plagne last month I dragged the kid off for an hour's climbing and managed 6 routes, which was ok. Then off to beer and pizzas.
It does get nightmarish if your partner faffs though. Luckily my main climbing partner is super quick so not too much faffing.
As Mark Rainsley used to say...." Faffers don't get invited back"
(I wish I had a large, well lit, clean workshop/man cave with all tools, and supplies like bearing, fluids, spare parts all to hand
Same here. Reality is that bike maintenance happens in my kitchen which is why I do the bare minimum.
When I was a poor student, I used to clean my MTB in the communal kitchen (5 of us in a flat) and initially my flatmates were not happy with this arrangement.
Then they realised that I swept up after myself and actually it was the only time the kitchen floor got cleaned..So along with the local flora and fauna that I'd brushed off my bike, I'd be sweeping up their spilled food and general dirt!
one of the main reasons I got fed up with climbing is that you spend way more of your time faffing than actually doing the activity.
Ate you including time getting to the climbing in your assessment?
Yes. Sometimes the walk-ins/outs seem to take more time than the actual climbing!
People also seem to spend an inordinate amount of time squinting at guidebooks and going "is this the right rock?"
Not a fan of doing bike maintenance myself. Mostly as I have a poltergeist in the garage that hides my 4 & 5mm hex keys and also instantly vapourises anything that accidentally falls on the floor. I'm also not very mechanically minded, once I've done something a couple of times I'm fine doing it but trying to figure out something new either by eye or from crappy printed instructions I struggle with (YouTube videos can be good though, although many make the mistake of assuming I have a certain level of competence to begin with).
I also have some dumb moments, the most recent being after digging my old MTB out of the back of the garage (where it had sat for over 5 years) I couldn't get the dropper seat post to work so took apart the remote (figuring the cable wasn't pulling enough) but that didn't help, eventually took the post out and couldn't understand why pulling the cable at the remote wasn't moving the cable at the post. Eventually I realised the remote I was trying to use was for the Dryad rear shock and the dropper remote was on the other side of the bars. I lost part of the dropper remote in the process to, yay (I now have a non dropper post fitted until I can summon up the willpower to take another look at it). Usually my warning that I'm being stupid is picking up a rubber mallet to hit something that's 'stuck', I've learnt to put it down and think more about what I'm doing...
I wish I had a large, well lit, clean workshop/man cave with all tools, and supplies like bearing, fluids, spare parts all to hand
TBH, i found this was the biggest issue, having to find space, tools, illumination, parts, fluids, rags, clean the floor once you've dropped a greasy bearing and it's left a line across the kitchen/living room floor. Or doing it in the garage/shed and having to move round the lawnmower, chainsaw and a load of partially uncoiled hosepipes... And trying to move your fingers when it's 3 degrees and damp in there.
Workshops rule.
I have a large well lit workshop and plenty of specialist tools. What I don't have is any mechanical competence or patience. This nis not a good combination when expensive mountain bikes needs fixing. I'm just about safe to do basic stuff - tubeless, swapping drivetrains, cutting bars down as long as I check 3 times. etc. Anything above that where something needs 'fixing', I hand it off to my mate who both enjoys and is very good at all things practical and mechanical.
His view is it'll take less time for him to fix it once, then have it fixed twice after I've had a go. Pretty much anything with a bearing or a bushing is considered a skill to far for me 🙂
I build up all my bikes from frames, so I must be OK at doing the basics. It takes me a long time to do some simpler stuff like bleeding brakes though, as I don't do it often enough to get good/quick at it. I'd far rather be riding too, and with family life being pretty hectic, time for riding is hard won, so fixing bikes gets neglected or avoided at times. Plus I've filled up my shed with too many bits, so it's not easy to work on a bike at the moment.
I've contemplated going to the LBS when I just want something done and have no time, but it's not that convenient really, would take longer and cost a lot. Also, i'd have to talk to someone in a bike shop who is inevitably gauging my relative bike ignorance - so i'd rather save an unnecessary social interaction!
I did actually take my bike to a well known bike shop last year or the year before as I wanted some brake mounts faced and didn't have the tool.
Went in to collect the bike, was told their facing tool wouldn't work on my frame but told they'd set the brakes up better than before, I begrudgingly paid for the "superior setup" and took the bike away. The brake rubbed worse than before.
So, back to my previous philosophy of don't trust anyone else with my bikes and money on tools is never wasted.
That's the story of how I reminded myself of a lesson I'd already learned and why I bought the brake mount facing tool.
internal routing? Fine. Hydraulic brakes? Fine. Both? Off to the shop for someone else's problem. See also press fit BBs.
SRAM wireless FTW!
Hate is a strong word, but I will admit that I dislike it a lot of the time.
Unless everything goes right with a job and then I walk away feeling awesomely competent.
Totally depends on the bike for me. My G1 is easily the best bike I've ever had to work on - its a joy. My gravel bike though with through headset cable routing is a right pain...and its wireless! Disconnecting the brakes to swap out headset bearings is ridiculous.
I hate working on my bikes but only from the perspective that I don't have much free time so any time spent fixing is time that I could have been biking
+1, although agree with others that 'hate' is the wrong word.
It's taken me over two decades to learn, but the key to happy spannering is just to spend slightly more money on it. Have ALL the bits in advance, have some stock of spares, have the right tools in advance.
Things like BB, headset, brake pads, bleed kits, cables, ferrules, brake olives/barbs, I tend to buy ahead of time either in sales or from ali-express. Because even a £5 BB or headset will save a weekends riding and a £40 one in a shop miles away is useless.
And have a bit of a routine. Either by doing monthly / quarterly / 6-month / annual services where you dismantle, clean, check and replace everything. Or at least do it ahead of when you suspect a problem is going to occur. It's a lot less faff to just replace chainring, cassette, chain, jockey wheels and cables when you think a new chain is a bit marginal, than it is to spend several subsequent rides dealing with skipping gears and chasing shifting problems and multiple trips back into the shed to fix it. “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” ― Benjamin Franklin.