Signing up for Scary Things: Intro to Bike Mechanics

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

It’s winter here in Michigan and business at the local bike shop is slow. The shop had a brilliant idea to host a class for a small number of students to teach basic bicycle maintenance/mechanics. Students were to bring their own bikes, which was wonderful because we would learn to work on what we actually have. Our teacher was quietly brilliant, extremely patient, and, well, dreamy. (I would love to set him up with my friend from my women’s club ride and then be in their wedding. Unable to ascertain his marital status without committing harassment, I am still in the throes of scheming.)

I digress! 

He taught us how the shop gives each bike a once-over. It’s an M shape, starting at the front wheel, going up to the bars, down to the pedal/chain ring, up to the saddle and down to that rear wheel. From there we moved on to wheel truing, derailleurs and shifters, and finally, brakes. 

There were three of us in the class; one aluminum Trek with flat bars, a steel Jamis that had been ridden hard on the trainer in covid, and my raspberry Platypus. We all had V brakes. They had indexed shifting and I had friction. When examining our bikes, we/he found several problems (though not on the Platypus because I drag that bike in for every little thing) that we then observed our teacher fix. I now know what a loose headset sounds like (the Trek). Though, ironically, if you hit my front wheel to elicit the sound, the German mirror will respond with an identical sound. There are some skills that I still see best left to the experts - wheel truing, for instance. I audibly gasped when he took after the spokes of a wheel to mess them up for demonstration. I am leaving my new spoke wrench in the packaging because no good can come from that thing.

I am still not brave enough to do a lot with tools to my bike, but I’m working on it. I like that some of the mystery was taken out of it all and I can see how parts work. Do I dare disclose here some of what I thought beforehand? Oh, fine. I thought a wheel out of true meant they had to bend a rim back into place. I had NO idea spokes were the culprit, nor did I know you could adjust them. 😬 And so on and so forth.

Our mechanic was so encouraging and told us we should experiment at home - don’t worry, he assured us, you won’t break anything. But I wonder if he will feel the same when I show up with my collection of redundant Rivendells; pieces and parts left over and collected after rolling around on my garage floor. “I have been fixing my bike and now it won’t work.” 

Anyway, it’s a small step of self-betterment and I’ll keep walking that direction. I’m sure some of you out there can relate.

Leah

[Joe Bernard]

I can't true up a whole bent-outta-whack wheel and won't even try. I can true one very small section that's wobbled a little off center and that's about it, any more and it's going to the bike shop! 

[John Rinker]

Good on you, Leah! Being able to maintain and fix one's bicycle is just shy of the fun had in pedaling it. Carry on and one day you'll be building your own wheels!

Cheers, John

[Luke Hendrickson]

Ah wonderful! Riding has taken on a new dimension with the ability to wrench on my bike myself. Stoked for more updates. 

[Ted Durant]

On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 9:31:40 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:

 I am leaving my new spoke wrench in the packaging because no good can come from that thing.

I have built my own wheels in the past, and stopped trying to do that a long time ago. You need good tools and a lot of practice to build a wheel that holds up. That said, being able to make a "good enough" tweak after slamming a pothole is a valuable skill that can save a ride, or even get you to the end of the biking season when you can leave it at the shop for a full workover. 

If you are interested, _The Bicycle Wheel_ by Jobst Brandt is THE book on spoked wheels, why they work, how to build them, etc. It will take away most of the mystery.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee WI USA 

[Roberta]

Sounds like a wonderful class. I wonder if you’ll start riding towards the potholes or if you hear a noise just think “I might be able to fix that!”  I’m going to look for a local class like that. 

On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 9:31:40 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:

[Jim Whorton]

Wonderful, and yes I can relate.

[J J]

Great story, thank you Leah. Bike repair and maintenance is a forever learning process, but I don’t want to mess with spoke tension, truing wheels, or building wheels up from scratch. These are skills I deeply admire in other folks.

[Eric Marth]

Good for you, Leah! Enjoy the wrenches :) 

[Takashi]

Now I'm expecting, in the near future, seeing "Ask Leah Anything About Your Bike Problems" thread in this forum.

Takashi

2023年2月20日月曜日 7:49:57 UTC+9 eric...@gmail.com:

[Doug H.]

My wife keeps telling me to volunteer at our local bike nonprofit, Bike Athens but as an introvert I keep avoiding that. My mechanic skills are quite limited and mostly self-taught via the internet and more specifically YouTube. It is satisfying to be able to make adjustments, replace brake cable, shifter cables, etc. One thing I've learned is that as you do repairs your tool collection grows and that is part of the fun too!!

Doug "not dreamy" Amateur Mechanic Wannabe

[Leah Peterson]

Takashi, (Side note - my dumb autocorrect tried to change your name to Takashita, glad I caught that! Also, how in the world did it make that name up?!)

Your idea is the absolute best idea I have heard in recent memory. I am FOR SURE going to start this thread, maybe the first parody thread we have ever had on here. Thanks for this small stroke of brilliance! I hope I don’t get banned over this…

Leah

On Feb 20, 2023, at 7:26 AM, Takashi <lachry...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[velomann]

I'm (mostly) self-taught as far as wrenching goes. I started decades ago maintaining my own bikes, then buying and repairing and re-selling bikes from CL. I eventually got to the point where I could strip a bike to the bare frame and rebuild everything. The only formal class I took was a wheel building class from Jude K. when she owned Sugar Wheelworks (One of the best birthday gifts my wife ever gave me) and now that's a skill in my quiver. I worked 30 years as a middle school LA/SS teacher (bike commuted every day) and hanging out with the bikes in the basement was a form of therapy and decompression. Now, I'm semi-retired. I work as a substitute teacher 2 days/week, and a professional bike mechanic (!) 3 days/week at Go By Bike, "North America's largest bike valet service" https://www.gobybikepdx.com/  I'm living my best life.

a few months ago I had a valet client who was complaining that she couldn't get her seat low enough. I pulled the seat, put the post in the vice, cut 6 inches off the bottom, touched up the edges with a file, and remounted it in the position she wanted. I took the remaining section of seatpost and stuck a piece of tape on it where I wrote "It's not Rocket Science."  This reminder is still on a shelf in the shop. And as anyone who reads Grant's Blagh knows, Bikes shouldn't be too precious. Don't fear wrenching - it's empowering.

Mike M

[Stephanie A.]

I love this, Leah! I've been doing what I can on my bike, and now that I'm really starting to change components I'm starting to learn more and more. My hope is that once I'm done adjusting components on this bike I can be in an okay place to eventually build up my own from a frame and fork (wheel-building excluded--I'll leave that to the wheel pros).

[Luke Hendrickson]

Mike! I love what you’re doing. Working on bikes and getting paid to do it… plus the ability to tinker and play around.

[lconley]

I started lacing my own wheels using the bike frame with reversed brake pads on the caliper arms as the truing stand (the brake pad nuts were the side to side guides, a 10mm combination wrench rubber banded to the pads for up and down), and a spoke wrench because that was what I could afford at the time - 95% of my net worth was my bicycle and the other 5% was my few tools (back in the mid to late 70s). I cannot recommend that to anyone. A truing stand is a wonderful thing, a truing stand with dial gauges is much, much better. A tension meter is also a wonderful thing, but one of the best things that I have added to my wheel-building tool collection is the $16 Mulfinger Nipple loading tool from Efficient Velo Tools. I think I would recommend it as the second tool after the spoke wrench. The dish gauge and Park nipple driver just gather dust nowadays.

It is really helpful to be able to think and visualize in three dimensions if you want to build wheels - not everyone can do that. I have even had wheels built by bike shops that specialize in wild twisted spoke wheels screw up on wheel builds - extreme differences in flange sizes can require different spoke crossings on the different sides of the same wheel. Look at an old Model A wire wheel for an example  1X on the inside and radial on the outside. I am no Rich Lesnik nor Peter White, but I can now build a pretty respectable wheel.

Learning how to work on your bike is a great thing, don't stop. Like the Boy Scout Motto - Be Prepared.

Laing

[George Schick]

To those responding to this post who are saying they're gradually learning to do most everything (adjusting, changing components, etc.) except wheel building, I say don't underrate yourself!  With a good resource (personally, I'd recommend Sheldon Brown's step-by-step methodology available on-line) and a little fooling around and practice you can do it!  

Also, as you go along and figure out how to do replacement and maintenance of various components, be prepared to buy some specialized tools.  Just like almost everything on a bike, you'll discover that a specific tool is needed to do the job correctly.  That's not to say that you need anything more than a small screwdriver and some hex key wrenches to make minor adjustments to deraillers or to change brake cables...you don't.  But when it comes to things like replacing headsets or bottom brackets you'll need some unique tools.

[REC]

There’s someone in the Philadelphia area (I’m not connected to seller) who is selling intermediate/advanced toolkit.   We could get up a collection and present it to our BBDD!  :). 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 20, 2023, at 3:10 PM, George Schick <bhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

To those responding to this post who are saying they're gradually learning to do most everything (adjusting, changing components, etc.) except wheel building, I say don't underrate yourself!  With a good resource (personally, I'd recommend Sheldon Brown's step-by-step methodology available on-line) and a little fooling around and practice you can do it!  

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[Joe D.]

It's neat to see others going through the bike mechanics learning too. 

I've found the book "Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance" to be super helpful, especially in combination with the Park Tool videos. I'm sure Zinn's road bike book is good too.

[Drew Saunders]

Leah,

Brava! I've done most of my own bike work for the past mumble-mumble years (about 30 or so), and I did twice try to build wheels, only to realize it's best to have someone who knows what they're doing build wheels. I did get better at truing wheels after trying to build them. If you think of it, most bike work involves threaded things, so just tightening or loosening threaded things to get what you want. Other than the left pedal and right BB cup being left-handed threading, it's not too difficult to learn how to fix things. (Old mnemonic to remember the two left-hand threaded parts for when every bike used loose bearing BBs, where the fixed cup is on the right and the adjustable cup is on the left; "left is loony, fixed is funny", but that doesn't work too well with cartridge BB's). 

The best YouTube videos are from Park Tools. 

I've built up a good tool kit over the years, and just today had to buy a new crank puller, because my beautifully made 1980's Sugino crank puller doesn't work on modern cranks, so I was in a bind with my bike mostly disassembled. I found a bike shop open before 11, and open on a Monday, and got the Pedro's tool, so now I have yet another bike tool! Yay!

Drew

[Garth]

Yep, three cheers for not underestimating your abilities !

In regards to wheel stuff, watch Jim Langley's video on wheel building, it's an hour, and you can watch it in parts of course. He has a rather calming way of showing you how he does it, and he's encouraging. Even if you have no confidence or desire to touch a wheel, at least watch it to see that it's not so mysterious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqul03hbZ8

And in print from his website.

https://jimlangley.net/wrench/wheelbuildfull.html

I have to say for an independent bike mechanic I always find "RJ The Bike Guy" on YT to have good videos for how to adjust/overhaul anything bike related.

[James Whorton]

Yes, RJ the Bike Guy is great.  Especially when he’s making his own tools, like the homemade bottom bracket thread chaser, the homemade headset press… it takes some of the mystery out of these processes.  

On Feb 20, 2023, at 6:58 PM, Garth <gart...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Tom Goodmann]

Excellent post, Leah, and the thread it has inspired; kudos to your LBS and mechanic too. I can only do a few things at this point, but mean to change that by signing up for a class at the United Bicycle Institute in Oregon sometime in the next year, once I step off the work wheel here in May.  Like many, I expect, I've always found even modest mechanical, plumbing, household, or electrical fixes satisfying, especially since I'm at a screen for so much of every day.

Tom in Miami

[Bill Lindsay]

Learning is always good, but in my opinion the first lesson to learn in any new area of knowledge is just how badly one underestimated the magnitude of what they did not know.  The stages are:

1. I know nothing and I'd like to know something 

2. I'll devote [small amount of time] to learn something and then hopefully in [X amount of time] I can be an expert

3. Takes class, watches video for duration of [small amount of time]

4. Hoo boy, now I know something: I know that I knew a lot less than I thought I knew!  Maybe it'll take 10X, or 100X, but it'll take a while to figure that out!  Let's go!

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 6:31:40 PM UTC-8 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:

[JAS]

Leah, way to go, RivSister!  Bravery counts; good job stepping out of your comfort zone and encouraging others to do the same by your example.  

Thanks to everyone who posted resources for learning more mechanic skills.  Park Tools has been a good source; now I'm going to check out  RJ the bike guy.  I usually have to watch a "how to" video numerous times, then take the iPad to my bike and stop/start to make sure I'm going step-by-step correctly.   

I'm looking forward to the "Ask Leah" thread!  Great idea.  With your writing skills and wit, and perhaps help from your personal videographer (son),  it's going to be  entertainment we'll relish during these grey, cold days of winter.  

--Joyce (still laughing over a Charlie Berens video I watched on YouTube...midwest humor at its best)

[st nick]

I add my congratulations on trying something new and  out of your comfort zone, especially skills that can add to your love of cycling.

 I've thought since first reading of your Nevada bike adventures and mechanical challenges you should try learning to work on your bikes .

I guess it was around 2008 that I decided to stop paying for bike mechanic work and learn to do it myself.

I bought a half dozen bike repair books, appropriate bike tools to get me started and took a couple classes at my LBS.

I started out with basic stuff like installing a derailer or swapping cables and gradually added to my skills from there.

Sometimes I would get stuck and head up to my LBS to ask a question.

Also RH the bike guy rocks .

I still check his videos when trying something I haven't encountered before like blasted grip shifters, so many models and different cable threading in many.

I don't like' em but some of my family and friends do so I occasionally work on them.

Eventually I bought the extra tools for removing and installing headsets and bottom brackets and learned about the tricky French bike idiosyncrasies.

I'm a slow mechanic and couldn't keep up the pace expected in a bike shop but can now strip down a vintage frame in 30 to 40 minutes.

It takes me about a day or day and a half to build it back up to a rideable bike depending on 

'Murphy's Law' challenges the rebuild throws at me.

I like riding best but wrenching has become a bit of therapy for me.

It's very satisfying to have a bare frame/fork and parts everywhere that I build back to a whole bike with my own hands and then go out and enjoy riding it with a big  smile on my face.

In this chaotic world it's satisfying to take the chaos of a bare frame and fork and a myriad of scattered parts and bring it all to nicely functioning order.

All that said ...if someone gave me a modern carbon fiber wonder bike I would not know what to do with it. I would be concerned I would break something on the expensive thing.

The vintage bikes are tough and I don't worry about breaking stuff although I occasionally in the learning process have done that.

I've learned not to 'gorilla' stuff.

I would just encourage you to be patient with yourself and steadily add to your skills.

Buying a cheap vintage bike in need of love and repair is a good way to learn .

Get the appropriate tools , take it apart and then put it back together at your leisure.

You might even team up with your sons to learn together.

One thing about the bike community in general is a large number of us are willing to provide help if needed.

Good riding and wrenching,

Paul in Dallas