Good morning,
I sort of rode the wrong bike for my commute (the frame cracked during the last week so I will be using something different for a while) and I had to smile at the above as my maintenance schedule seems to work out as;
Every 2 months
Replace chain (£20-£30)
Replace front tyre (£10-£20)
Every 3 months
Replace rear tyre (£10-£20)
Replace front brake blocks (£5-£10)
Every 4 months
Replace cassette (£30)
Every 6 months
Remove chainset and replace BB30 bearings (£30)
Every 12 months
Replace outer ring (£100), I also do the inner ring as it was only about £30 even though it would have lasted another 6 months
Replace inner tubes (£10) if they have lasted this long which is rare as they will be close to an abrasion punctures soon.
Replace toe straps (£10).
Every 24 months
Replace rear brake blocks (£5-£10), what does the rear brake do?
Replace bar tape (£15-£20)
Replace pedals (£25-£40)
Replace toe clips (£15-£20) as they have been scrapped on the ground so often that they look naff, been bent by wearing big MTB shoes and snap when bent back into shape, or I just bought new ones to get free P&P!
Remove chainset and replace Shimano to BB30 BB shims (£30)
Rarely
Replace brake cables, Bike was Di2 so no gear cables.
As the Halford's plan gives 10% of parts it would have been close to free if I had had one.
If you are not into bikes then not having the right tools can be a pain, chain splitter, chain whip, cassette removal tool, BB spanner, most but not all can be picked up from Halfords. Most people probably have some allen keys, but are they the monkey metal ones that round off when you use them? Some bikes need 8mm (crank) and 10mm (Shimano freehub) allen keys and these are much less common sizes.
So buying the tools can seem expensive and that's before the more obscure tools such as cone spanners, BB presses and removers if you unfortunate enough to have a press fit BB. Or a torque wrench for any carbon fibre bits, CF forks are pretty much everywhere now on road bikes once you get to around £400.
Bye
Ian