Should I service myself?

[CentralCommuter]

Thank you for all the very wise advice.

Took my bike along to see a guy from work yesterday who is quite handy with his bike. He checked the chain (fine) and indexed the gears. Whilst watching him I realised that I had put a wall up and written all bike maintenance off as too complicated.

So I gave the drivetrain a proper clean and ordered a bike tool kit. It’s a bit stupid waiting months for things I could do myself today if I took the time to learn. Also, I reckon putting my bike in for a big service was possibly to satisfy my bike stuff buying urges when I should be cycling more instead😂

So thank you, one and all.

 

[simongt]

A few years ago, the Edinburgh Cycle Co-operative had a three stage service available; gold, silver & bronze. I can only recall the gold in which your bike was stripped down to it's basic components and then everything was checked for wear, lubed as required then reassembled / adjusted if needed. Any worn components would be replaced and charged extra for. The bike was then test ridded to ensure everything was okay before handing it back to the owner. I think the price was £85 for the service itself, but that was a while back - !
I'm collecting my Galaxy from my LBS this week after it's full service, so I'll let you know how much he charged me - !

 

[Punkawallah]

They run a similar ‘Bronze, Silver, Gold’ system at my f l b s with a £30, £50, £100 price tag.
Bronze you get free air & lube, and it runs (safely) when you pick it up.
Silver is as above, plus free cables, wheel trueing, and take the running gear to bits to re-lube.
Gold is as above, with the bike cleaned and the seat post and stem in bits.

 

[Lovacott]

Thank you for all the very wise advice.

Took my bike along to see a guy from work yesterday who is quite handy with his bike. He checked the chain (fine) and indexed the gears. Whilst watching him I realised that I had put a wall up and written all bike maintenance off as too complicated.

So I gave the drivetrain a proper clean and ordered a bike tool kit. It’s a bit stupid waiting months for things I could do myself today if I took the time to learn. Also, I reckon putting my bike in for a big service was possibly to satisfy my bike stuff buying urges when I should be cycling more instead😂

Once your gears are properly set up and indexed, any adjustment is usually just a case of turning a barrel adjuster a quarter of a turn or so either way. It can be tricky getting them right in the first place, but once they are right, they tend to stay that way unless you inadvertently knock something.

Disc pads are easy to check. Shine a torch into the caliper and you will clearly see the remaining wear surface.

The chain is also an easy one to check (the easiest of the lot). A simple chain checker tool costing a few quid only takes a few seconds to use and will ensure that you get the most from your chain without letting it get so worn that it destroys your cassette or chainrings.

Bottom bracket condition can be checked by simply trying to wobble the cranks side to side and feeling for play (there shouldn't be any). Same goes for wheel bearings, pedal bearings and headsets.

With tyres, you simply need to look for signs of damage and wear and if the wheels are out of true, you will see that when you ride.

One thing which is well worth doing, is listing out the make and model of all of the major components. The easiest way to do this is to download the spec sheet for your bike as soon as you buy it. You can then buy the exact same parts either online or from your LBS and you won't have to worry about compatibility. Also, buy some of the parts in advance like a spare chain and some spare brake pads.

 

[DRM]

Thank you for all the very wise advice.

Took my bike along to see a guy from work yesterday who is quite handy with his bike. He checked the chain (fine) and indexed the gears. Whilst watching him I realised that I had put a wall up and written all bike maintenance off as too complicated.

So I gave the drivetrain a proper clean and ordered a bike tool kit. It’s a bit stupid waiting months for things I could do myself today if I took the time to learn. Also, I reckon putting my bike in for a big service was possibly to satisfy my bike stuff buying urges when I should be cycling more instead😂

So thank you, one and all.

Park Tool - YouTube
These are excellent videos, they are clear concise and even discuss the basics for those who don't have an engineering background

 

[Lovacott]

These are excellent videos, they are clear concise and even discuss the basics for those who don't have an engineering background

I prefer the Park Tool series over the others. I like the way they link to alternative videos if you find you are maybe watching the wrong one.

 

[DRM]

I prefer the Park Tool series over the others. I like the way they link to other videos if you find you are maybe watching the wrong one.

that's right, the rim brake one for example has a video to help identify which your bike has, then provides a link to go straight to it.

 

[Lovacott]

that's right, the rim brake one for example has a video to help identify which your bike has, then provides a link to go straight to it.

I was about to order a new cassette for my MTB and watched a Park Tool video for how to swap it out. The guy pointed out how to identify if I actually had a cassette and also provided an in video link to changing a freewheel. Turns out that I had a freewheel so watching five minutes of video saved me from spending £25.99 on the wrong thing.

Highly recommended.

 

[rivers]

I do most of my own bike maintenance and servicing myself. Chains, cassettes, brake pads, disc rotors, bar tape, bottom brackets, cranks, tubes/tyres/tubeless, and indexing adjustments are all things I do myself. With the exception of removing a press fit bottom bracket, none of the jobs take very long. When the time comes to replace the brake fluid in the hydraulic disc brakes, I'll buy the kit and do it myself. Same for any bearings. Every two years I do take my summer road bike into my LBS for a strip and rebuild. I'll do the same for my TT bike (although probably every 3 years due to the low mileage it does) and winter bike. I could do it myself, but quite frankly, I'm lazy. All my bikes are internally cabled, and I can't be asked to thread the cables through the bikes.
Bikes aren't particularly complex pieces of kit, and with a bit of preventative maintenance and cleaning, should be fairly trouble free.
My wife, on the other hand, books her bike in every year for a general service. She doesn't do much to her bike besides check the tyre pressure. If I have all of the bikes out for a cleaning and maintenance day, I'll check hers over as well and do a few bits on it. But she likes the peace of mind by having it get a yearly once over.

 

[Sniper68]

Every two years I do take my summer road bike into my LBS for a strip and rebuild.

I strip and rebuild my summer bike every winter.It's not a long job,couple of hours Internal cable routing on my Canyon was a bit of a faff but easy once you've done it.Not sure it made a difference to the general running of the bike but it made me feel better!
I haven't done the Lynskey yet as I only built it last year and it only had about 1500miles on it at the start of Winter.The Di2/Hydraulic brakes are more or less maintenance free so that will cut down the time it takes
TBH there's probably no reason to do it at all but it's just a habit I've gotten into