Evans maintainance courses

[Twinks]

Am really enjoying my cycling but have read enough on here now to realise I know diddley poo about bikes! Am learning a lot from reading on here but a lot of stuff leaves me mystified. Sooo thought of doing a basic course such as Evans maintainance course. Has anyone here done one of these courses and can recommend or is there anything better I can do? Gotta start somewhere....

 

[User33236]

I did a course a couple of years ago at a local community college. It ran one evening a week for ten weeks and by the end we were fully stripping and rebuilding a bike. Might be work checking out similar night classes near you.

 

[Twinks]

Thanks, haven't been able to find anything like yet but will keep looking.

 

[User33236]

I had trouble finding the one I did due to the huge number and diversity of courses in my area. I ended up making a couple of phone calls and it was during one of those I was directed to someone that could help me find what I wanted.

 

[nilling]

Check with your local council sometimes they offer free maintenance/training course covering the basics.

 

[Twinks]

Thanks, I work for the council (Derbyshire) and nothing doing I'm afraid.

 

[Nicola10]

I did the evans course in the Glasgow City centre store. The guy taking it was really good and didn't stick to a time limit, it lasted well over 2 hours and he never finished until we had no questions left to ask. I was really clueless about basic maintenance and it helped me, especially looking after my chain etc. they also gave us a pack which had a few handy bits and bobs like bicycle cleaner, chain oil and a small multi tool. I thought it was value for money.

 

[xzenonuk]

depending on the price of courses you might be cheaper to buy a muddy fox bike and try to use it, then when trying to get it work properly with the help of the internet you will have a good working knowledge of how every thing goes and works together thats what happend to me lol

 

[Boon 51]

I'm off on a course shortly on a two day basic.. I got the course from a google for courses in Kent where I live, so you might try googling your area and see what come's up..

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Or, get an almost scrap bike and some basic tools. Consult YouTube and here and strip the thing down and then rebuild it. Minimal outlay and plenty of hands on. That's how I learnt way back when. We couldn't afford bike shops so had to maintain our own bikes back in the early days of mountain bike racing.

Make sure you 'victim' has a Shimano cassette as Campag isn't the one to start on. The basic Shimano hasn't really had to evolve that much, just the number of gears has grown.

 

[User33236]

Or, get an almost scrap bike and some basic tools.

This is something I thought about doing myself. Only reason I didn't was due to me finding the ten week course I did for the bargain price of £65 for the 20 hour course.

It was listed as:-

"Intro to Bicycle Maintenance

The course content will include:
Bicycle maintenance- full strip down and rebuild a bicycle. Tyre and tube installation. Headsets disassemble overhaul and installation. Bottom bracket disassemble overhaul and installation. Gear serving and indexing including fitting of fitting cable and removal of mechs.
Drive train servicing. Crank removal and installation. Wheel truing and spoke replacement.
Brake servicing fitting. Tyres and tube installation. Headsets disassemble overhaul and installation. Bottom bracket disassemble overhaul and installation. Gear serving and indexing including fitting of fitting cable and removal of mechs. Drive train servicing. Crank removal and installation. Wheel truing and spoke replacement. Brake servicing fitting.

I am sure other 'colleges' will run similar classes.

 

[Dave7]

Am really enjoying my cycling but have read enough on here now to realise I know diddley poo about bikes! Am learning a lot from reading on here but a lot of stuff leaves me mystified. Sooo thought of doing a basic course such as Evans maintainance course. Has anyone here done one of these courses and can recommend or is there anything better I can do? Gotta start somewhere....

I did an Evans 1 day course followed by a Edinburgh Bikes 2 day course.
Both were very good and helpful.
The only problem with "crash courses" is that..........if you dont actually use the knowledge i.e. don't have problems so as to need it............then you tend to forget a lot of it. You remember things like changing tyres etc. but as to fiddling with gears & brakes it's so easy to forget.
If you can do it I would recommend going with Scotishgeeks advice and try to find a 10 week intensive course.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I did an Evans 1 day course followed by a Edinburgh Bikes 2 day course.
Both were very good and helpful.
The only problem with "crash courses" is that..........if you dont actually use the knowledge i.e. don't have problems so as to need it............then you tend to forget a lot of it. You remember things like changing tyres etc. but as to fiddling with gears & brakes it's so easy to forget.
If you can do it I would recommend going with Scotishgeeks advice and try to find a 10 week intensive course.

Just do it every so often so you don't forget, besides its not difficult, not even head sets and BB (well most BB's these days are cartridge), but the principle of both headset and BB is the same