Let's Talk Bicycle Mechanical Ability Here

[PaulSB]

@mudsticks @swansonj

In my club each rider is left alone to change tubes on the road. Sometimes everyone gathers round and takes the piss but mostly we all move 20-30 yards up the road. One rider usually hangs around to hold bits etc. If it's a real mechanical, rare, then a couple of skilled individuals will offer encouraging advice. It doesn't matter if you're male or female.

I have a great friend who loves a manicure and brightly coloured nail polish. One of my favourite cycling memories is her grabbing a wheel from a fumbling male, whipping out a Crank Brothers lever and whizzing the tyre off in a blur of brilliant red!!

No one really approves of machismo in my club.

 

[Levo-Lon]

If you rearrange the " lwtters" in Cyclist you get tight sods.. Wel you do if your Dyslexic


I do everything i can as i trust no one with my cars bikes or plumbing.. Ect
Only the law stops me and technology of course when it comes to modern cars and their gizmos


I do like to buy stuff tho so the bike shop gets as much business as i can offer.

I want to try wheel building sometime as ive not tried that yet, just truing and odd spoke replacement

 

[fossyant]

Wheel building can be very relaxing - good to do with a few glasses of wine. A jig helps massively as you haven't got an up-turned bike in the way. My first set I did in the bike, then decided to get a jig. Just need through axel adapters now if I decide to build MTB wheels.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I think I could probably use my wheel-on-turbo for a jig. There’s even the potential to fashion a trueing gauge of sorts for the rim.

 

[Threevok]

I think I could probably use my wheel-on-turbo for a jig. There’s even the potential to fashion a trueing gauge of sorts for the rim.

I used the rear triangle off an old Halfords full-suss MTB.

It had V-Brakes too, so the holes for these where great for fashioning a truing device

the entire thing had to be held in a vice though

 

[Venod]

I have built a lot of wheels using one of these, the plans are in the Musson Book. https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/support/truing-stand-gauges.php

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I do my own maintenance.

I've been into self supported ultra endurance rides since about 2012. On one ride I broke a rear spoke going up a steep hill. At the next control point I took about three hours messing around trying to replace the spoke and tension it right. I even put the spoke through the valve hole at one point. It almost ended my ride. So the following Christmas as a present I went on a one day wheel building course in Cambridge. We built three wheels, stripped two more, and trued a couple that day. Sticking to the basic three cross spoke pattern, no messing around with different patterns etc.

Since then I've built all subsquent wheels. First time you think the wheels are going to pringle as soon as you do that first ride. But as long as you are patient and put the wheel away, if you start to get tired or take short cuts, you'll fine. Who cares how long it takes you to build a wheel, when it is for yourself? Just take your time, stop and backup a little if you make mistakes, and everything will come good. Like others I find building wheels rather theraputic.

I also do all the other maintenance, wheel building was the last thing to learn. So I generally will buy a frame these days and build a bike up from what I already have in the spares box adding to the bits as necessary. I get the exact build I like.

For me the maintenance is really about understanding how my bike is put together, know that it well maintained, to recognise any noises I hear, and have confidence that I can fix things in the middle of nowhere if necessary. I switched to bar end shifting last year as I found the cable would keep breaking in dual control shifters, and was next to impossible to sort at side of the road, that is if the shifter was still functional. Bar ends are just so much more reliable, and replacing cables a 5 min job at the side of the road.

I will not automatically jump in, and take over, if some one is having a problem fixing something. I personally find that annoying when someone barges you out the way and takes over. But I will ask if they'd like help. Generally I try and offer advice if asked for, and let the other person learn how to do something. Barging in, doesn't teach them anything about the problem they trying to fix. You are not trying to prove how superior your mechanical skills are. You are trying to help them improve theirs, if they ask.

I still hate punctures in the wet and / or cold though!

 

[Globalti]

I recently re-rimmed my old Mavic Ksyrium SL rear wheel with new spokes and a more recent Ksyrium Elite rim, having worked out that both rims were identical. Despite my fears it turned out to be a simple, enjoyable job and the great thing is that I've beaten Mavic's planned obsolescence.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I will not automatically jump in, and take over, if some one is having a problem fixing something. I personally find that annoying when someone barges you out the way and takes over.

Had that happen to me last year. I had a regular problem with the bike at the time, which I won't bore you with, and had plans in hand to get it fixed. When it occurred it just took a bit of patience to sort. I was doing so at the roadside when an insufferable arse jogged up and started trying to take over. He was also had no social skills and refused to take the hint and stayed and hindered me for a while.

Fortunately both his legs have since dropped off. (Well, that's the curse I put on him when I eventually did get rid of him, so I'm assuming that's what has happened)

 

[Reynard]

I do as much as I can.

As long as I have a suitable manual / set of instructions, I'll give it a go. On more complicated tasks I'll lay things out on a tray as I dismantle, taking photos as I go. And keep the cats out of the way. Cats and small, fiddly mechanical parts don't go together. DAMHIKT.

If I'm not sure, I have an old MTB that I can practice things I've never attempted before on. Only once I've figured out how to do stuff will I work on my two good bikes.

 

[GuyBoden]

For better or worse, I've done all of my bike maintenance and builds of complete bikes since I was a teenager, but I've never built a full wheel yet........

If needed, I will fix another cyclist's bike out on the road.

 

[Globalti]

The worst thing is when somebody asks you to fix their bike up and it's such a pile of garbage that you actually can't or you have to do a half-assed bodge.

A friend of mine bought a £99 supermarket special "for my girlfriend to pootle around on" but she couldn't pootle because it didn't really work. After an hour of wrestling with the pressed-steel brake arms I admitted defeat, by which time it was beginning to dawn on him that he had wasted £99 on a BSO.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I'm that useless at anything practical that even the LBS has told me to stop trying to fix things as it costs me more for them to fix my bodges before they can fix the original problem.

 

[DCBassman]

I do as much as I can.

As long as I have a suitable manual / set of instructions, I'll give it a go. On more complicated tasks I'll lay things out on a tray as I dismantle, taking photos as I go. And keep the cats out of the way. Cats and small, fiddly mechanical parts don't go together. DAMHIKT.

If I'm not sure, I have an old MTB that I can practice things I've never attempted before on. Only once I've figured out how to do stuff will I work on my two good bikes.

Exceptionally good method. Know about cats, too, although the current boss is not interested in such trivia...

 

[Reynard]

Exceptionally good method. Know about cats, too, although the current boss is not interested in such trivia...

Having, over the years, seen my dad attempt mechanical repairs and ending up with weird bodges / bits left over because he thought he knew better than what it said in the manual, I'll stick to doing things by the book.

Things like Haynes (or equivalent) are great to have knocking around.

One of the current feline overlords isn't terribly interested in things mechanical (she prefers fabric-related doings) but the other is a right royal pest.