Bike Shop People Vs the rest of Us

[Rockinthecasbah]

Just wondering how many people are like me and ChewiYeti and are do it yourself mechanics. I dont take my motorcycles to the shop and I dont take my bike. I've allways wrenched my own bike , car, motorcycle, etc.. How many people out there are pure take it to the shop for a new chain types?

[gil_caz]

i do what i can like chains, cranks, but when it comes to truing wheels, and adj my derailer, i have no clue, so thats when i take it down to the good ol bike shop.

[slowSSer]

I do nearly everything on my own. the only items that i dont do are wheel builds and fork rebuilds.

I was taught by my dad at an early age to wrench my own bikes and knew everything that i needed to know to work at REI as a wrench for over a year.

I'm also the type that wrenches my own cars and I'm totally mr fix-it at home. hell, sometimes I'm even pimped out to my mom-in-law to fix things at her house.

Originally Posted by gil_caz

i do what i can like chains, cranks, but when it comes to truing wheels, and adj my derailer, i have no clue, so thats when i take it down to the good ol bike shop.

wheel trues and dérailleur adjustments are easier than you'd think- we need to have some sort of a STR "get learned about fixin bikes" day...

[J_Sims]

I don't do wheels... but other than that I am all over it...

[gil_caz]

ha i need to get learned...

[mazer75]

I do VERY basic stuff: chains, tires, brake pads. Adjusting anything else is beyond my skillset, but I could (and want) to learn. I'd like to be able to bleed brake lines and change out/clean my fork and rear shock, etc.

[EMrider]

Originally Posted by mazer75

I do VERY basic stuff: chains, tires, brake pads. Adjusting anything else is beyond my skillset, but I could (and want) to learn. I'd like to be able to bleed brake lines and change out/clean my fork and rear shock, etc.

+1 my situation exactly. I have the desire, but not the time to learn this stuff. For now, I'm keeping my LBS happy and am glad I'm riding SRAM.
R

[ericfoltz]

I've been wrenching on bikes for 30 years. I can't remember the last time I let someone else work on one of my bikes.

Shocks & Forks are easier than they look. Most of the manuals are online.

[jschwart73]

Taught myself how to install and adjust derailers this morning. Rear was easy, front took me a while.

Park Tools tutorials were marginally helpful...

I grew up wrenching my bikes, motorcycles, cars and now my RC cars, made sense to learn my way around my MTB.

[allison]

Justin does mostly everything, except shocks.

He learned to build wheels from a few sites.

I can wipe my bike off

I did used to build my own r/c cars, though!

Jeff - check out Sheldon Brown's site also for info. He's got a ton of it.

[.8down]

Im learning, the other day I took my Sram Shifters apart and popped the coil off and had to open the other one to see how it fits back, I just ran some housings and cables...but I have no clue how to tune Dérailleurs, and cant rebuild wheels hubs or shocks...everything else I feel ok doing.

[northshore]

"try" to do everything on my own to save money but that's me.

[.8down]

Originally Posted by northshore

"try" to do everything on my own to save money but that's me.

on top of that I really enjoy it, its kind of relaxing quite time...except when I cant get something to work...Im also collecting quite a few tools, and one got storage solutions?

[Rockinthecasbah]

I do everything the only thing im not sure about is wheel building, on another note I hear R/C cars come up often did anyone out there race at MnM hobbies ???

[gil_caz]

Originally Posted by Rockinthecasbah

on another note I hear R/C cars come up often did anyone out there race at MnM hobbies ???

what city is that in? i used to race at pegasus, the dirt and revelation.now that is an expensive hobby.

[allison]

Originally Posted by Rockinthecasbah

I do everything the only thing im not sure about is wheel building, on another note I hear R/C cars come up often did anyone out there race at MnM hobbies ???

Never heard of it... I know there was one up in Corona that was more built toward electric trucks than the 8th scale nitro cars.

We used to race at The Dirt in Hemet (no longer the Dirt). Also KZ Speedway in Sun Valley. Joey was da man when it came to r/c tracks, though.

Jeff - btw, where is he at now? Is he gonna help out with the Banning track for the Nats?

Originally Posted by gil_caz

what city is that in? i used to race at pegasus, the dirt and revelation.now that is an expensive hobby.

We spend more on mountain bikes, I think. But, race fees did add up.

[Rockinthecasbah]

Yea i lived at mnm i used to walk my giant cart of cars down theyre

[kamaekia]

I did all my own work on my RC Cars back in the day, including all the soldering or batteries, motors, etc. Although, I gave up that hobby, but it was a lot of fun and I have great memories from it. Now I do all my own work on my bike except for tire truing and forks/shocks. I suppose it isn't hard if you had the right tools and some time.

[jschwart73]

Joey is an independent race promoter/track builder - He helped with Silver State, RCPro, etc... On and off for the last couple years. He still runs the Saturday series, but the Babcock series gave him a run this year.

I haven't raced in SoCal since April of 06, so much family stuff going on, plus I promoted that series up here for a couple years...

Now I just want to race and ride my MTB. F the politics and drama.

[allison]

Originally Posted by jschwart73

Now I just want to race and ride my MTB. F the politics and drama.

Nothing ever changes!

We'll have to hook up for a ride next spring/summer.