How Much Of Your Own Maintenance Do You Do?

[bikeperson45]

Was just curious and thought it was different to trials maintenance.

Edited October 17, 2010 by bikeperson45

[Tomm]

100% of it. At first I did my own work because I couldn't afford to give my money to bike shops. Now I just do the fiddling because it's quite therapeutic sometimes.

My car just goes to the garage though - I wouldn't ever dream of fiddling with the important bits of that!

[craigjames]

Doing all the bits myself I find half the fun of owning bikes. Only thing I haven't played around with is servicing a rear shock...

[Shaun H]

I do everything I can myself. If I don't have the tools and it works out much cheaper to use the LBS than buy the tool (disc mount facing, BB thread chasing etc) then I'll do that but generally I'll do as much as I can.

[craigjames]

I do everything I can myself. If I don't have the tools and it works out much cheaper to use the LBS than buy the tool (disc mount facing, BB thread chasing etc) then I'll do that but generally I'll do as much as I can.

The joys of previously working for your LBS and having the mechanic as a mate and your next door neigbour..... access to expensive tools!

[Gibbon on an Orange 2]

I do everything exept new wheel builds and rear shock servicing. As above, its very relaxing spending some time tinkering tweaking.

[Dwarf Shortage]

Now I just do the fiddling because it's quite therapeutic sometimes.

This. I love tinkering around, it's just like "Oh yeah, I'm here, with my bike, just fixing and shit."

[Shaun H]

The joys of previously working for your LBS and having the mechanic as a mate and your next door neigbour..... access to expensive tools!

If Halfords didn't have such a quick staff turnover I'd still be able to do this

[Matthew62]

Everything. Never done shock servicing, nor do i think that i ever really will.

It's partly due to not trusting bike shops to do a proper job. When it comes to trials bikes i've always done everything myself as sometimes trying to explain to a bike shop how a trials bike should be set-up is often met with confusion.

When i started/was young and didn't know too much about maintenance even getting a chain set-up properly was a nightmare. Mechanics would always say the chain was too tight and would set it up really saggy. Locking out rear mech's again wasn't even contemplated by mechanics and so on..........

I know how to do pretty much everything on a bike so now i see no need to visit bike shops.

If you find a good trusted LBS then i can see why you'd use them - i used to when i lived in places like Nottingham which had good local bike shops.

Now i live in Central London it means i'm gouverned by the bullshit monopoly that is Evan's Cycles. Not only would i not trust most Evan's mechanics but i appalled by their prices.

A couple of weeks ago i did actually take a visit to Evans get a headset fitted (as i needed a new one and didn't have a press and wasn't going to use a block of wood on my full-suss frame) and they quoted me £40 for labour. I was genuinely shocked and disappointed as i thought this is what the commuters and cyclists of London and other who have to use Evans are subjected to. I then said to him that i could buy a headset press and headset remover for £40 and he said ''yes you can'' so i told him thats exactly what i'd be doing and left. For the same money i now have the tools to do it whenever i need to again and for anyone else who might need it done.

I think LBS can be good, Evans cannot but above all i think it's best to learn for yourself and get the right tools for the job - works out cheaper in the long run.

[Skoze]

Literally everything but wheel builds as one of my LBS' (little independent one near the Kursaal, none of this Evans/ Cycles UK shit) does the most incredible builds cheap for me. 2 sets of stock wheels and my old 24" set, never had the slightest problem - front even stayed fairly true when i put my foot through it going down pier hill at 20mph

Taught myself how to do the majority of things, but having superstarengineerdad™ on hand has helped a fair bit - if i couldn't do something when i was younger he'd show me how to do it and from then on i've done it myself. Think that's the best way, it pains me to see kids on here who go to their lbs for literally anything - how do they ever expect to fix something if they're out on a ride or just somewhere a long way from home? Bag full of tools, some cable ties, few spares and i'll sort 99% of problems one way or another.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Skoze

[Tomm]

There's a Leisure Lakes near me and they want £120 + parts for a full service of a full-sus bike. That seems like a hell of a lot to me, but when you think of the labour times involved with a skilled mechanic and a workshop, it's not too bad, particularly if you don't have any knowledge at all. Compare it to a car workshop - they'd charge that much for something like an exhaust and that almost certainly takes less time than a bike.

[Matthew62]

That's cheap compared to a lot of places!

[dirt jumper jake]

i do all my own, as i dont see the point in owning a bike if you cant even fix the f**ker

[Matt Burrows]

The shop I used to work in charged £32 an hour labour. I think the biggest service job I ever did came to about £600 in total which included £200 ish for labour. Services were between about £80-£120 on average I would say. I have never known anywhere to work upto the high level of detail we did though, the manager was a bit obsessed with standards to say the least!

[Tomm]

No bike is worth £600 for a service.

[Matt Burrows]

Probably not, but the customer wanted it done! It was almost brand new afterwards and just about worked out cheaper than replacing it.

[davey1991]

Easily all of it.

[aener]

Only visit the LBS for grips/cables/tubes/puncture kits now - and even then all except the grips come from wilko's

Had the deciding moment a few year back when Halfords asked £17.50 to fix a puncture.

[Muel]

I've never once used a shop for any of my bikes or motorbikes. I have a sick Daddy with a sick workshop who tends to help if I get stuck.

[ogre]

i do my own maintenance upto the point where i risk the chance of f**king something up and the potential cost of replacing a part is more than paying someone to do it, like headset fitting

[matt rushton]

I do all of mine on DH bike, even setting up and servicing rear shock and forks.

[Tomm]

How far have you gone with a rear shock? It's about the one thing I don't really want to mess with.

[Krisboats]

I've stripped and resealed forks but again, have never messed around with a rear shock yet. Though i never go to the bike shop for maintenance. Mind you i'm the same with all things. Computer, bike, speakers, household things. I'll do it all myself rather than buying or paying someone else to do it.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

I find that most LBSs shouldn't be trusted with anything more taxing than a puncture on a rusty old Raleigh and even then I'd expect to get it back with one brake not working and loose pedals. I've done all my own maintenance for as long as I can remember. Learned fairly early on that I knew better than most LBS bicycle mechanics (especially when it came to anything remotely specialist) so never went back.

[AdamR28]

I find that most LBSs shouldn't be trusted with anything more taxing than a puncture on a rusty old Raleigh and even then I'd expect to get it back with one brake not working and loose pedals.