Everything about it is a terrible experience; from stuff that should be easy, but never is (bottle cages, mudguards etc) bits that need removing by walloping seven shades of shit out of them, (every bearing in every carbon frame, SRAM cranksets) to stuff that you can't fit/remove unless you have the exact tool (everything all the time), teeny tiny bits that as soon as you remove, you will drop somewhere inaccessible, stuff that's covered in mud, stuff that's corroded together, stuff that should fit but doesn't because; standards/Cannondale, stuff that needs "black art" - Cup&Cone bearings, tensioning spokes...
make it stop
User error.
Decent tools, YouTube videos and a bit of patience is the answer.
Haven't had that experience although have had some things that seem more fiddly than I'd hoped. Probably depends on what work needs done and how often it needs done.
I find bike spannering to be very enjoyable. Compared to an old car where a 5 min job becomes a 2 day epic, due to one sheared bolt.
Stop working on filthy bikes in stupid places with wrong/crap tools and maintain it properly in the first place.
I usually enjoy it. Most stuff can actually be fixed rather replacing a few parts and hoping for the best. There's also some nice jobs, like wheel building, that are very satisfying. Undoubtedly some stuff is rubbish, eg stuck bearings, alloy nipples, but they can be dealt with
I think the secret is to start out working on cars, or motorbikes. Then when you start working on bikes- holy crap, you can just lift it up and put it in a stand instead of contorting yourself or lying in a puddle! If you drop a part, it just lands on the floor instead of vanishing into an undertray or random bracket. And no plugging anything into a bloody laptop- well, that's changing but still.
I like working on cars and motorbikes despite all that so working on bikes is AMAZING.
I find bike spannering to be very enjoyable. Compared to an old car where a 5 min job becomes a 2 day epic, due to one sheared bolt.
Exactly this. My son's all drive cars that need looking after. Bicycles are a total joy to work on comparison. All my bikes are built from the frame up or stripped and re-built after purchase to grease & re-torque all the future problems. I love working on bikes, writing down train numbers etc :o)
Everything about it is a terrible experience; from stuff that should be easy, but never is (bottle cages, mudguards etc) bits that need removing by walloping seven shades of shit out of them, (every bearing in every carbon frame, SRAM cranksets) to stuff that you can’t fit/remove unless you have the exact tool (everything all the time), teeny tiny bits that as soon as you remove, you will drop somewhere inaccessible, stuff that’s covered in mud, stuff that’s corroded together, stuff that should fit but doesn’t because; standards/Cannondale, stuff that needs “black art” – Cup&Cone bearings, tensioning spokes…
Absolutely. That's why bike mechanics are all on at least £30k,
Oh hang on...
I think the secret is to start out working on cars
I was going to say this. Seriously, try getting the DSG gearbox out of a Passat, or changing all the suspension bushings or something, on your drive in the rain, then you will never complain about doing your bike again.
My experience from working in a shop is it's a doddle there as you've got plenty of space and all the right tools.
At home with limited space it's a ball ache
Bikes are ace
Bikes are so, so simple and joyous to work on.
Aa per above, anyone moaning that bikes are tricky has never sheared off a captive but holding the front subframe on, hidden in a an unaccessible void under the drivers footwell of a fifteen year old mildly corroded car on a Sunday before you need to drive it to work at 6am Monday.
Bikes are a piece of piss. You can even do it in your kitchen if you want.
As an ex spanner weilding person bikes are nice!
Admitted suspension can be a faff and delicate but christ I'd do forks all day rather than pads and discs on an iveco hgv
I effing hate working on bikes.
Other than lubing the chain and changing pads every job - every job - is a pain in the anus.
Like a deep and lasting pain. As if you've been fingered by an elephant.
Sounds like the op needs a new bike.
I love doing bike stuff, I even get people to bring bikes over just to do theirs too
make it stop
I have heard there is a miraculous place called an "Ell Bee Ess" where you can take a bike, and for a small donation of money, they will indeed make it stop. Or rather, they'll make the bike go, but make the pain stop for you.
What a time to be alive, eh?
Forgotten you'd taken the saddle off and sat on the seatpost eh OP?
My experience from working in a shop is it’s a doddle there as you’ve got plenty of space and all the right tools.At home with limited space it’s a ball ache
Depends if it's your own bike or not.
Working on your own bike in a shop with all the right tools is generally fine. Working on other people's bikes, especially ones that are weird, have proprietary and/or obsolete parts, are in shit condition, etc can be far from a doddle.
Never worked on a modern car? No space special tools, hard to find simple data like wiring diagrams.
Bike are nice and light easy to access, lift etc
every job – is a pain in the anus.
Hand injuries I can understand but this, what are you and OP up to? You're doing it wrong.
I think the secret is to start out working on cars, or motorbikes
Y'know, I'd rather work on any of the rusty Spitfires I rebuilt. I'd even work on Molly's Mercedes
I will agree that I hate changing frame bearings. Bearings and bushes on cars I can beat the crap out of or attack it with fire if I need to.
A bike frame bearing removal you just can't be anywhere near as brutal.
The only thing that’s as nice to work on as an mtb is a trials bike, especially an air-cooled twin-shock. Like working on an oversized toy....
Compared to working on pretty much any car or van that I can think of they’re a piece of piss. I used to enjoy working on series Land Rovers but even then, at this time of year, you’re out in the cold, more often than not.
I find it quite therapeutic, especially figuring out how to do stuff you haven’t managed before. I am a relative beginner so I suppose there is time for that to change! 🙂
The definition of annoying was changing the turbo on my 200sx, on the drive, in the snow. I may have cried a bit. That one elusive nut.
I was going to say this. Seriously, try getting the DSG gearbox out of a Passat, or changing all the suspension bushings or something, on your drive in the rain, then you will never complain about doing your bike again.
Try finding a fuel leak within a 360 degree one piece fuel manifold that houses 18 fuel nozzles, surrounded by all sorts of 8th/14th stage cooling pipework, wiring looms, jaggy brackets etc, and the whole lot is around 300 degC.
And it's 4am, your ****ed, its freezing, and your boss is asking how long it'll take.
Testing aircraft engines, oh how I miss you. 🤣
they’re a piece of piss.
Can I just say, all my bikes are adjusted perfectly, and everything works as it should on all of them all of the time, I can't stand bikes that don't work as they should. I agree bikes are a piss of piece to work on, this doesn't stop them being a PITA to work on. Riding bikes is excellent, the rest of the ownership experience just gets in way.
I find bikes are easy to work on. Access all round, you can lift em with one hand, relativey small torque values, simple technology, nice and relaxing job. Used to stripdown, clean and rebuild my old Rock Lobster in a shift, bearings out and cleaned in an ultrasonic well within an 8 hour shift, every 3 weeks (every nights rotation).
Having spent all day drilling a hardened stainless sleeve out of a 5 ton press tool at an awkward angle, bike soannering is therapy compared to that.
I quite enjoy spannering on bikes, some jobs can be really fiddly the first time if you've never donw it before, but once you've figured out the right way to do it, it's a breeze next time. I've changed bearings on a few frames and it was a bit tedious (SC Blur had a lot of bearings), but pretty easy.
Plus, I benefit directly from my labour, not some ungrateful mul tibillion pound corporation who hate their employees, but thats a different story.
Bikes are ace.
I will agree that I hate changing frame bearings. Bearings and bushes on cars I can beat the crap out of or attack it with fire if I need to.
A bike frame bearing removal you just can’t be anywhere near as brutal.
Exactly.
Seized on freehubs (caused by poor/damaged often unreplaceable seal ring) can be PITA for similar reasons. If you don't want to replace all the bearings you have to tease it off, otherwise it's full nuclear and smash the lot out and start again.
I'm not mechanically inclined, so it's all a massive ballache. Putting a reversing camera and new stereo in my van has taken nearly a month of faff and buying stuff. I killed the fork on my gravel bike trying to remove an expanding plug thing that had disassembled itself and last time I went on holiday with my bike I turned up with a loose headset.
I lack the patience, feel and knowledge to do thongs properly. I'm not as bad as some people, but getting a wheel tubeless and dicking around with gears and the like is pretty much the limit of stuff I can do without cocking it up.
As with anything like this where you ship the bike off to someone else there's a calculus involved with variables like your riding availability, money, your ability to get to said shop, shops availability to cater to you, parts availability, weather and god knows what else. And that's how people who should know better end up doing cack handed brake bleeds and knackering headsets.
Spannering bikes is amazingly satisfying. Riding them, on the other hand, is a complete ball**he 😀
If only there were some opportunistic, enterprising soul who, in exchange for a few quid, could solve all these problems for you all? Surely one or two in each town across the country is possible? Even maybe some mobile ones?
Crazy talk I tells you.
I lack the patience, feel and knowledge to do thongs properly
I can understand that being
a pain in the anus
I lack the patience, feel and knowledge to do thongs properly
I can understand that being
a pain in the anus
I was about to agree with the original post, so thanks for pointing that out!
Bikes can be a little frustrating at times but is no where near as much fun as working on an original Mini. They were hard to mend and broke a lot.
I find some things on bikes a bit "vague", like centering calipers over rotors (why so much unlimited adjustability? Have notches, or just have caliper mounts and rotor mounts that match up when you put them in). And why do rotors go out of true so much?
Or headset adjustment. Why can't you just screw it down to the end of a thread and then "voila', it's perfect?
I quite enjoy spannering on bikes
If only you could use spanners, eh?
Even if you decide that you want to start working on your bike to save money, the first thing you need to buy is a specialist tool to stop it moving about. That specialist tool takes up huge amounts of workshop space (if you've even got a workshop) isn't useful for any other purpose, in some cases of working on your bike is an actual hinderance, or won't hold the bike firmly enough, and costs a chunk of cash. At least working on cars they don't need clamping to stop them from falling over
we've all got Stockholm syndrome.
Stop working on filthy bikes in stupid places with wrong/crap tools and maintain it properly in the first place.
Yeah... I get that.
But sometimes that's the hand we're dealt. I love working on bikes... in Summer. Winter is a ballache, my Garage is cold, wet and dark. I'm working on replacing it with a lovely nice new cabin/posh shed with power and light and more importantly heat, but even then and even with a decade and a half of accumulated tools I still don't have everything.
I’m not as bad as some people, but getting a wheel tubeless [snip] is pretty much the limit of stuff I can do without cocking it up.
Getting a wheel tubeless is frustrating because although you can have the right parts / tools / techniques, there's always a chance it'll go wrong for some reason. Like the rim / tyre (+/- insert) combo just doesn't work that well.
And mudguards are annoying because the bolts are always corroded and seized because of where they are. Similar to spannering on cars in my v limited experience of that.
On the other hand, lots of bike jobs are lovely. A fork* rebuild is quite pleasant, assuming you know what you're doing (which these days is just watching a Youtube video in advance). It seems intimidating, but is easy.
*Provided the fork itself is decent.
I'm with the OP, I used to enjoy it, but now limited time and limited space means anything beyond basic is given to someone else.
I still don’t have everything.
I've got two cassette removal tools, because the original one I had, while perfectly OK on Shimano/SRAM cassette for years and years, has a chamfer on it that means it won't grip hard enough on Eagle cassette lock-rings...
Never worked on a modern car? No space special tools, hard to find simple data like wiring diagrams.
Bike are nice and light easy to access, lift etc
This was going to be my sort of response, compared to other stuff with wheels they're dream.
I find some things on bikes a bit “vague”, like centering calipers over rotors (why so much unlimited adjustability? Have notches, or just have caliper mounts and rotor mounts that match up when you put them in). And why do rotors go out of true so much?
Or headset adjustment. Why can’t you just screw it down to the end of a thread and then “voila’, it’s perfect?
I'm guessing you don't work in any kind of mechanical engineering/manufacturing discipline?
The simplest answer would be you could have it all "perfect" but then nobody could afford a bicycle and fewer things would be interoperable...
TBH I enjoy working on my bikes (and my immediate family), in my Garage, with my tools, on my own time.
If it was my actual job and I had to do it for other people and deal with their expectations and needs I don't think I would like it half as much.
I consider myself a 'capable' bike mechanic, but I very much doubt I could do jobs fast enough for a proper LBS workshop. I think "home spannering" benefits from being time rich and having some patience and is a very different thing to doing it for a living... if you lack time, tools and patience take it to the LBS...
I love working on bikes. I think half the things I buy are just so I can spend time fitting and messing with them rather than an actual improvement to the bike.
I love working on bikes. I think half the things I buy are just so I can spend time fitting and messing with them rather than an actual improvement to the bike.
Imagine how much fun you’d have with something that wasn’t a brakeless fixie?!
In the kitchen. With a workstand. And all the right tools. With good music on. And a good cup of coffee. Or a fine malt. This is my happy place.
Unless re-routing internal cabling is invovled. Or it still creaks after you've put it back together for the seventh time with enough greate to launch the Titanic. Or if a bolt makes a break for freedom under the washing machine.
But mostly my happy place.
Also, for pete's sake, clean your bike!
I don’t mind building and working on bikes and even enjoy it sometimes… but I have a habit of starting a job too late at night and finishing things at some ridiculous time in the morning with the floor covered in tools and the old parts that I removed and the
glasses I now need smeared in grease.
My main complaint is not so much the work itself, rather it annoys me how quickly some stuff wears out, especially in the winter/wet.
If only you could use spanners, eh?
Brakes, forks, Shimano hubs, pedals, mudguards and dropper require spanners or a socket.
I love working on bikes they are mechanically quite simple and best of all problems are easy to diagnose. Different standards for wheels and forks etc. Are making it more complex however to source the correct replacements
