Guest Article: What You Don’t Know Will Eventually Kill You
@prowrench is throwing down the greasy gauntlet. There is truth in his words. We already understand the gap between the professional cyclist and us civilians extends somewhere over the horizon. We can ride the bikes, wear nice kit and ride the race routes but that’s about as close as we can get. No one is paying us to ride. We are not Pros. But we can work on our own bikes can’t we?
Please also see the required supplemental reading, All You Bike Pricks.
VLVV, Gianni
You got a new bike a few years ago and something magical happened. You realized that when your legs aren’t languishing under a desk at the office or basking under the blue glare of the television that, by some unknown miracle, they can propel you to astounding speeds on your bicycle. You took heart, rode some more and you got quick. You joined a club, subscribed to every magazine and every blog, you learned The Rules and quickly ascended to the ranks of the initiated cyclist. Good for you!
You, the tinkerer, are one savvy fellow. You have examined the simple steed beneath you and with your god given mechanical prowess turned a few screws, fiddled with some barrel adjusters, squirted some lube here and there and tamed a few squeaks and calmed the wild mis-shifts that embarrassed you in front of your friends. You maintain your bike, your brother-in-law’s bike, your neighbor’s bike and the kids’ bikes from the neighborhood. Fueled with a few small successes and powered by the unlimited knowledge bestowed upon you by YouTube University and several forums you are now an expert mechanic. You can turn a wrench with the best of them…right?
Let me introduce you to an idea that may not have crossed your mind: You can’t.
Before you take offense, lend me your ear and I will try to help you to comprehend the vastness of all that you don’t know. As a professional mechanic of 12 years, I would like to introduce you to the subject of bicycle maintenance repair from the point of view of the greasy handed elitists who you have come to defy and will avoid paying at all costs.
Every morning I wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed and go to work; just like you. When I get to work, however, I am greeted by the aroma of tires and a spacious shop filled with expensive specialty tools and all manner of bikes. From the wobbly beginners’ bike to the bike you wish you had but probably never will, I work on them all, every day. Your hobby is my bread and butter.
I have installed thousands upon thousands of tires and tubes and threaded countless cables through more shifters and brake levers than you can begin to imagine. I have turned a million spoke nipples and skillfully negotiated the careful equilibrium of the perfectly trued wheel more times that you have tied your shoes. I remember to meticulously check the tension of every nut and bolt on your bike with precisely calibrated torque wrenches: a thought that you wish had occurred to you and a tool you wish you had. I wrap handlebars with confidence and great care so that the tape overlaps with an even, artful twist and tightens as you grip it instead of unraveling after your first few rides. I obsessively position every component just as it ought to be because every bike deserves to be in tip top shape and it is my livelihood to make it so.
I know you think you understand how your bike works. How hard could it be right? There is nothing hidden. Your bicycle sits before you baring all and yet you could take your bike to your neighborhood shop right now and they could find a thousand things wrong with it and just as many ways to charge you in order to fix it. There is a reason for that and the explanation is on its way.
It has taken me years to hone the skills involved in my craft. I can hear when your rear derailleur hanger is out of alignment by a degree or two and that has only come after listening to thousands of derailleurs ticking away in my work stand. You may as well be stone deaf when it comes to that. I know that dropping your front derailleur a millimeter or so and twisting it out just a hair will help it decisively slam and lock your chain to the big ring in the blink of an eye. You might as well be trying to pilot a spacecraft through an asteroid field with a blindfold on. The mechanics at your local shop have paid the price for the precious knowledge which you have supposed could come so easily. Rather than beleaguer you with further examples of how I am right and you are wrong, I will endeavor to make the process of outsourcing the sacred task of maintaining your bike a smooth and painless one.
Bridging The Gap
Successfully communicating with your local mechanics will be key to finding happiness in this process. Mechanics are a fickle bunch and if you haven’t figured it out by reading thus far, some of us might be a tad egotistical and maybe a touch insecure. I will do my best to set you up for success as you repent and and take your bike in for its first much needed, legitimate service.
First, take everything that you have come to know about working on bikes and stick it in your pocket. Mechanics know how to work on bikes and they don’t care much for hearing what you think it entails. From the moment the mechanic lays eyes on your bike, seeing your terrible attempt at wrapping bars, your grossly over lubed drivetrain or the hack job that you did running and ugly web of too long or too short cables and housing all over your bike, he will know, and it will go without saying, what it is that you have been up to. Don’t be too proud of your work because it will only result in heartbreak.
Second, bear in mind that time and expertise are never on closeout and it will cost you to have the pros lay their hands on your beloved bike and resuscitate it to full health. It will be important for your mental well-being to consult with your cohorts and settle on a mechanic that everyone can agree bills repair work fairly and is worth the money that you’ll spend. Since you have been maintaining your bike, you have been letting basic things go through the cracks. The mechanic will want to fix all of these before you get your bike back so your first visit could cost a small fortune. Take heart though, because once this is out of the way, subsequent visits will consist of simple adjustments mainly and will be relatively inexpensive.
Thirdly and most importantly, be kind. I provide whatever service is due to every customer based on what they pay, even if they treat me like scum. For the nice customer however, I always go above and beyond. As the owner of my shop always says, “It is nice to be nice to the nice”. Kindness is currency but even more importantly, currency is currency. A little gratuity goes a long long way at the bike shop. Cash or beer are customary.
Taking your bike to the shop can be a hard step for the committed and self-assured home mechanic. Before the sum of what you don’t know piles up and results in your untimely mid-club-ride death, consider my words and come to the light! Hang up your mail order toy toolset and take your bike to the pros. You deserve it. Your bike deserves it. A-Merckx.
Preaching to the choir here… I am very happy to limit my bike skills to tube changing and necessary cleaning and lubrication.
Bottom brackets, derailleurs, cables, shifters, hubs and headsets are totally left in the hands of the pros.
Some nice words and thoughts, here. But let’s be clear: not all mechanics are equal. I’m not challenging the post, but I do take issue with the notion that working on bikes will kill me. My additions to the above post:
1. Cultivating a good relationship with a good LBS and the shop’s mechanic(s) is crucial. But it pays to know whether you are dealing with a good mechanic or not. This requires some felicity with working on bikes.
2. The biggest difference between professionals and amateurs is hours. Whether it is plumbing, riding, or wrenching, what separates the professional from the amateur is the amount of time they devote to the practice. I will struggle with the wiring or drywall or whatever in my house once; the professional does it daily.
3. But let’s not mistake familiarity with care. Professionals do it quicker and often better, but not always. Being able to do it with their eyes closed does not necessarily render a better finished product.
4. A good mechanic will teach you what you can do on your own (and how to do it) and what requires specialized expertise or tools.
I do take my bike to a professional mechanic, but I also do much of the minor work on my own. Retightening, lubing, minor adjustments, etc. happen regularly and as needed. Cleaning at least a couple of times a year, taking apart the whole bike and making sure everything is spick and span.
The other side of this that deserves emphasis, though, is that worldwide local bike businesses are struggling. Above all: Rule #58 as and when one can.
From bike mechanics everywhere as well as myself…. THANK YOU.
What a tool.
Rule #6 No matter how good you think you are at what it is you choose to do, there are many thousands out there better than you.
Entirely agree. I can do a few basic things myself, the things that allow me to keep going on a ride, or not have to cancel a ride for a minor mechanical issue. Beyond that, my LBS and I have come to an agreement that if they don’t start practicing in my field, I won’t practice in theirs.
Nice! As I read this one of my bikes sits behind me in the stand, still not finished being worked on, even though I was positive it would be done weeks ago. A second bike is at the shop. Why? The NDS crank was seized. Why? I’ve never worked on BB30 BBs and thus was too scared to pull it often enough for upkeep. Being a cross bike, seeing mud and water, I couldn’t get the arm loose. I was happy to have one of my four local mechanics work on it.
I received a voice message from him this morning. During un-seizing he chipped the pain near the BB shell and to atone is cutting me a discount. I intend to pay him in full, knowing how much pain and suffering he saved me.
Every single time I do any significant work on my bike I realize that bikes, while seemingly simple, are not simple at all. It’s kind of like baking: not that many ingredients, but it’s all about the fucking technique.
And to second some of what you wrote, ‘punk…yes, all mechanics are not created equal, just like all cyclists. Some people might not care if their rear wheel gets rebuilt with black nipples because that was all you had on hand. Me? I’m still not happy about it a few years later.
Oh, and I also always begin talks with my mechanic by saying: “I can tell you what I think the problem is…or you can just look at it yourself.” I try to respect their wishes but usually have a decent idea of what is happening.
And, I have a good relationship with all three mechanics I frequently use. Cash money, liquid gold, even grocery store gift cards when they really hook it up.
I have no problem taking my bike into the shop I prefer. I recently took my MTso after a ride to deal with the loose rear hub. The mech tlol my bike right away, adjusteit the hub, adjusted the rear brake, and checked the shifting. He even explained what I was doing wrong when I adjusted it myself(I need a 15mm cone wrench for the drive side) as then told me to GTFO. No charge. Not the first time I have gotten free service at that shop.
A friend is in the market for a real entry level mtb and I’m leading him towards buys at that shop cause its great service and I want them to get the buisness
And I will say this. I have been going to school for 2 years to be an aircraft mechanic(almost done) ad bikes are hard. Planes are easy.
A-Merckx!
Well written and expressed, and thank you. I only wish I could get half or more of my customers to read this excellent article.
Great stuff! I do what I can (which is pretty basic to be honest) but accept my limitations before going to the professionals. Some things I doubt I’ll ever feel comfortable doing – truing wheels for example. That is a skill and no mistake.
My LBS is staffed by spotty teenagers. And when I took my Di2’s in they started looking for screws to adjust the alignment. Don’t get me wrong. I buy my parts from them, and I fear the day the LBS loses out to the internet bandits. But you have to know your mechanic, not just blindly trust them because the owner of your LBS hired them and handed them a spanner.
So if you don’t mind I am going to put my 30 years of doing my own bike maintenance up against them and only go near them when I need specialist one-off tools that I don’t want to pay for.
And yes, maybe you can hear a noise and diagnose it in seconds to my minutes, or build a wheel better than me. But I don’t mind spending those few minutes checking other things and only a micrometer would ever be able to measure the difference, no-one who rode it would be able to tell.
@Steampunk
This is a very important point. It’s how I learned to do more than just the basic BS on my bike. I’d try to fix something, bring it in, when the mechanic had time I’d ask what I did wrong and how he fixed my error. Slowly, over the years I’ve built up quite a nice skill and tool set that allows me to tackle most any issue in my stable. There are things that I won’t do, wrapping bar tape, pulling sealed bearings from hubs, rebuilding suspension forks, or building wheels. Everything else I can do and enjoy doing; but moreover I’m quite good at. I’m no pro, but I’m not going to have one of my Campy skeleton brakes come flying off at 70km/hr or rub on the way up the HC at 15 km/hr. There are certain things I won’t pay to have done, nor will I go through the bother of bringing my bike in to my LBS, waiting for it, going to get it and so on.
In some ways this article smacks of this one, written by an uppity NYC bartender.
Bike mechanics, like any other service professional are a necessary evil. None of them, for any amount of money or any amount of “niceness” will care as much for your or your instrument’s well being more than you do. Avoid them at all cost and if you must engage them treat them as you would a learning disabled child: short concise sentences, don’t ask questions, don’t make sudden moves and no matter what don’t make eye contact.
@Kevin Morice
Yes. This is the rub. Many places are devoid of a decent shop with a great mechanic.I always work on my own bike, and like Steamy says, it’s not going to get me killed. I do admit to botching some things. I’m not a great mechanic. I do fuck things up.
I was lucky. With the help of my friend and cycling mentor, I purchased my Peugeot PX-10 LE way back when, my first racing bike. We brought it home and before I rode it once, he showed my how to completely strip the bike down to the ball bearings. He didn’t trust the French factory guys to do a proper job. We took it completely apart, regreased BBs, brakes, derailleurs, hubs and reassembled it. Besides blowing my mind it let me see just how real bikes work. Back then it was a necessity, we had to work on our own bikes. It would be two hours just to get to Boston to find a real bike mechanic.
But I like @prowrench’s advice from the other side of the bike stand. It’s good to be reminded we aren’t Pros.
@Gianni Im lucky, Tucson has some really great shops. some of the best in the country.
A-Merckx to this. I’m lucky enough to know that I’m ham-fisted and also to have a fantastic shop fairly close to me. They have a truly excellent team of mechanics who are always happy to chat , advise and help. Not many visits go by without a tip going their way. Am I proud of my lack of skills beyond my daily and weekly routine checks; no. But I’m honest enough to know I’d be sunk without the professional mechanic.
You describe my wrenching to a T, but I must say that for all but one or two mechanics within 30 miles of my house, I trust them less than I trust myself. I can think of a sum total of one guy who might come close to the professional skills you describe. He gets all the work I know better than to do myself, and he knows me by name. This article is a good reminder to stop by with some beer.
this reminds me of this FB page and blog. written by a pro wrench here in AZ somewhere.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yourbikehatesyou/244725472237310
Yes, indeed. Not all mechanics are equal. And, your thesis echoes Gladwell’s theory in the tipping point, that somehow all those hours and hours of day in day out work you do on bikes will somehow make you a master. A quick Google will bring you with theory busters, challenging the 10,000 hours rule. Some people just never improve their art or craft no matter how many hours they put into it. Some people don’t care to be the best they can be. A good mechanic, heck, a great mechanic doesn’t need to toil over his craft for 10,000 hours, but that mechanic needs to care about what they do, and keep learning. Some do, such as yourself, perhaps, and some don’t. But to call every casual home mechanic incompetent is foolish thinking and is exactly why many avoid the ‘expert mechanic’. The attitude that the bike owner is by default and idiot mechanically.
Case in point, I recently had a friend go to a so called ‘expert’ mechanic at his LBS. He was experiencing drag on his brand new rear hub, a Hope Pro 3 mono. The mechanic attempted to repair it, lubed it up, charged a small fee, and sent my friend on his way. He called me, lowly home mechanic saying there’s still drag. I took a look at it, diagnosed the issue and resolved it. The problem was the pawl seal wasn’t pressed in firmly enough and created the drag he was experiencing. The ‘expert’ mechanic said, and I quote, “sometimes these higher end products just never work right.”
It takes the right aptitude to be great. If you have it, then awesome, if you don’t well leave my bike alone. But to generalize that since you toil over bikes all day gives you the right to call yourself and expert, a master, or more importantly that you’re ‘better’ than the caring home mechanic, well then I challenge that thesis.
Passion is what leads to mastery. Passion. For many, a job as a mechanic is just that, a job. But since they are expected to be the ‘expert’ the dribble out nonsense like the statement above.
I spent two days with the mechanics in my local shop a couple of years ago, to learn from the pros just how I could take care of the jobs I needed to and leave the real mechanicing to them when needed. Yes I paid them for the privilege but it was time and money well spent. It’s served me well, as do they whenever my bike goes to them. Vive the good mechanic; the majority of us would be screwed without them.
My feelings on this matter are as follows:
1. Know your mechanic. You have to know your mechanic and in a shop with multiple mechanics know which one is going to work on your bike at any give time. The shop where I bought my frame has a myriad of them, some of which I’d be horrified by if they touched my steed. For that reason, I prefer to go to a one man shop run by someone I trust, even if that means it may take a little longer when I need do need a repair.
2. Know your shit. If you want to work on your bike, get some skills. Parktool and Youtube are great resources, but before you dive in and start wrenching on your $5,000 bike nothing beats learning hands on from someone who really knows what they are doing and learning on someone else’s bike. Being taught by a real cycling sensei – someone with some legitimate credentials – is worth its volume in liquid gold when it comes to learning how to do things the right way. Take classes at your LBS if they are offered or see if your city has a bike co-op.
3. Know your limits. There are some things that I could probably do, but don’t because they could be pretty expensive should I screw them up – cutting a steerer tube, installing headset cups (since I don’t own a press), dealing with any seized part, building wheels. However, I enjoy working on my bikes and have built all of my stable up from framesets. I don’t hesitate to take my bikes to the shop, however, when what’s needed is something more than I’m comfortable doing on my own.
Provided that you know your shit and know your limits, I don’t know that there is much that you risk in taking on the bulk of your repairs yourself. Will they be as good as what a pro mechanic could do? or completed as quickly (provided there isn’t a queue) probably not…but I’d much rather work on my own bikes simply because I enjoy and find satisfaction in doing it. As the cliche goes, if I die, at least I’ll die doing something I love.
Those of us who are LBS know to tithe 10% of our income, and we get to go to the temple.
Having been a ski tech, I tend to agree. There are some skilled amateurs but a good pro will always ace them.
choose your shop as carefully as your bicycle.
You just defined “bike snob.” Geez, get over yourself. You’re a pro, great. Nice to see you bask in it and look down your nose at those of who don haven’t put In the 10K hours it takes to be certified experts. God save us from experts, in whatever field, who tell us what’s good for us.
I love it when a mechanic says, “I’m not sure, but I can definitely figure it out.” There is nothing wrong with not know everything about every little part out there, but I appreciate it when a mechanic confidently says he’ll take the time to inspect it, do it right, and get it running again.
I do not love it when I bring in a bike with pristine Leader’s Tape and a mechanic with greasy paws grabs the tape to put it in the stand. C’mon dude.
VeloVita – good list, good points!
@Michael Mann
I don’t think he was doing this, Mr. Mann.
There is no greater joy than working on your bike, getting it from a heap into a working mechanical piece of art. But it is not easy, despite how simple it looks. And it keeps getting more complicated and the consequences of mistakes more severe.
Basically, each of us should learn as much as we can about bike maintenance, but the secret to living a long life is knowing your limitations; I would never be too proud to ask questions or bring it into the shop when I’m stuck, no matter how much experience I have and how many times I’ve done something.
And, it never fails to amaze how quickly the pros solve the problem I’ve been struggling with. Truly a craft that should be admired.
But finding a good shop is key, and a good mechanic – which is not easy. But the good ones are so awesome they’re fun as hell to talk to, so it makes going into the shop that much easier.
@Steampunk
Aces all around – +1 badge to you for that one, matey.
@frank
Sweet! But can I get the Clint badge instead? Because that would be even awesomer. Dude’s so cool he can even talk to chairs…
They’re bicycles not jet planes. When dad bought my first bike he got out the spanners and told me how to maintain it. I spent 4 yrs at college learning engineering and seven years working on the shop floor. Give me a pile of bits and a set of instructions and I can assemble ANYTHING not just a bicycle. I do agree that non mechanical people shouldn’t repair bikes but I’ve lost count of the number of bikes brought to me 2 weeks after a service and barely functioning. Mechs incorrectly installed, cables not lubed, Cantis incorrectly adjusted and on and on. I value the good mechanics at my lbs but all mechanics are not created equal. Not by a long way. Oh and by the way any competent engineer can hear/feel the sound of an incorrectly adjusted machine and so diagnose what is wrong with it. It isn’t some zen like superpower just the common sense to count the clicks ,find the clicks, use your eyes and THINK before you act…
@Aaron Thanks for the kind words!
Point of the article is well taken. Don’t be a dick. Know your limits. Pay for value. Revere bike tech and keep it Holy. Appreciate the skill of others. Acquire knowledge.
But yeah, I’m sure Evelyn Stevens puts in buttload of time maintaining her own bike(s). Lotsa grease under those finely manicured nails she had done at the spa, I’ll not bet.
Odd, isn’t it, that the ones who say, “Yes, this article has merit, there’s more to maintaining a perfect bike than first meets the eye…” are mostly the people who have been around for a while and the, “…this guy is a full shit of bike snob who thinks hes working on rocket ships instead of bikes…” folks all have [4] next to their names.
I am a veterinary surgeon, skilled with a scalpel to a reasonable level. Put a spanner in my hand and you’re just asking for trouble. The torque wrench I recently bought sits in it’s case, pristine, only having been stroked several times, and not used in a functional way at all. How hard could it be to replace the BB30? Once it became apparent that not all BB30s are created equally (and I thought it was a standard), it was straight down the LBS with the ceramic bearings and carbon fibre cranks proferred humbly, nay, shamefacedly for installation.
So, just as I wouldn’t want a mechanic to remove my mutts nuts, I feel the reverse also applies.
great article
@DwtnBkln
Bullshit, plain and simple.
Not only am I not evil (I’m trying really hard though!), nor “an evil,” but I will take as much or more care in working on your machine than you do. Not only is it my job, but I consider myself a professional and am judged by my work. If I did not take great care in what I do, my customers and the shop’s owner would recognize it and I would no longer be employed.
For those that bring me their beaten-down old junkers and dump them in a heap on the floor, I will admit I do not devote the greatest care or attention to detail – the owner of the bike does not wish for me to do so, and is not prepared to pay for the service. For those who care enough to occasionally clean their rigs, who take the time to ask questions and acknowledge that they would not only like for their bicycle to function adequately, but run properly, I spend as much time and effort as I do on my own bikes. I want their bikes to run perfectly. My reputation depends on it, and it’s a thrill for me to see someone screaming down the road on a well-maintained, whisper-quiet machine and know that I had a part in making it happen.
I’m a pro. It stands for professional. I will treat you and your bike professionally. If you observe Rule #43, you’ll get great service, and maybe even learn something when I explain what happened to your bike to require my attention. If not, then don’t bother. Go ahead and fix it yourself, and good luck.
Thanks, prowrench, and VLVV!
Well said and well written. As a former bike mechanic (first got the job at 15 1/2 years old to support my racing habit) who has done all of the above, I find great pleasure in helping and teaching friends to maintain their own bikes including doing wheelbuilding clinics (in exchange for food & wine…) and full teardowns. I now have friends who are proud that they built their own wheels and can true them in a pinch. How cool is that? :)
In our shop we had a sign (bear in mind this was the 1970s…) Labor: $10 per hour. If you watch: $20 per hour. If you help $40 per hour. It’s reads like a joke (although an updated version is now adopted by my local shop Bicycle Odyssey) but not really – watching or helping means explaining and that slows things down. A lot. But it can be well worth it and if the shop was quiet, we, of course would never actually charge those rates because we knew we were building loyalty with a customer.
Similarly as a racer (Junior then Cat. A – now known as Cat 1.), I enjoyed huge coaching privileges in the early 1980s in So Cal being coached by Eddy Boryczewicz (aka Eddy B.) and Eddy Merckx who came over one summer – I think 1981 more or less gratis. When they said, you asked no questions, you just did. And everything they said to do worked once you had figured it out. Think about that: Eddy Merckx Velominatus Supremus comes and does coaching in California essentially for travel costs. He fixed my pedaling style (my nickname was pretzle legs) with a couple of definitive recommendations which felt awkward and then felt oh so perfect. “Put your seat up 1 cm. & rotate your left cleat out.” Yessir.
The Velominati should be an accessible (if somewhat secret) society – it may be difficult to attain, but we should all go out of our way to help others.
Cheers – Tim
I was riding downhill today at about 75 kph on a road bike I maintain myself, when I was overtaken by a car which sent a shockwave in the air, it was promptly picked by one of my mechs… it was maybe the RD with that tenth of degree deviation in its hanger or perhaps the sub millimeter misplacing in the heigh of my front, but as soon as that happened, my whole bike started resonating and send a woeful roar. To make a long story short, my bike imploded, killing me on the spot.
I can tell you things on this side are pretty grim, so definitely have your mechs finely tuned by a Priest of the High Church of Bike Mechanics. BUT beware! there’s plenty of impostors out there who say they fix bikes for a living, but DON’T BELONG TO THE CHURCH and most importantly DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING.
If you have your bike fixed by one of them, you’ll surely meet an untimely end, just like me.
(Based on a true story)
@oldnslowly
This. Really if you have any mechanical aptitude and you have the tools and time and patience and common sense then it’s just not that difficult. Most people probably don’t have the right tools and the time. Fair enough, but rocket science it ain’t.
@eightzero
and every other pro works on their own bike? I think not. Do you have a picture of ms Stevens on a dartboard at home?
@Jamie
some of us have been visiting this site for years and just don’t post much.
@paolo
Wow…back to level one…I think I’ve been from 4 to black or gray or something and back to 4 at least twice.
@Mr Nofish
GOLD!
@DwtnBkln
While I don’t disagree that there might be some kernel of truth in your thesis, the highlighted section above indicates you are likely missing out on one of the most rewarding experiences of being a Velominatus: spending so much time in the shop chatting about Cycling that the shop owner starts charging a cover charge to make up for the lost productivity of their team while you’re there.
I had my mate Doug press in a BB30 converter kit for my Veloforma and when I stopped back a few hours later, he said with a wry grin, “It went it pretty easy. I just laid the frame on the ground and jumped on it until the cups slid in. Then I grabbed a hammer and whacked it a few times to just be sure it was really in there.”
I also submit, on Doug’s behalf, an email he shared with me from one of his mechanic pals, Richard McCurdy, entitled All You Bike Pricks.
@paolo
He’s just trying to get a rise outta ya.
Hey, @eightzero – when you can drop Mary V on an uphill sprint, I’ll start listening to you.
Wow, off topic, but I forgot how hardcore this fight was between those girls. Man, she really came back and crushed Vos.
If caring more than you do about whatever is being worked on is the defining metric for a professional, then no one would ever go to the doctor.
@paolo
If you change email addy’s you’ll drop like a stone, but if you post heavily but erratically, you may fluctuate…
I will put money on Evelyn Stevens, anytime. That lady rocks! Great clip.
Working on my bike is part of the enjoyment of cycling. My aluminum road bike I us as a commuter gets all the work done by me. The bike I race gets the time and attention of a LBS Mechanic.
I have followed the same mechanic to three different shops in three different cities. Once you find a good one keep them close.
I am very confident in my ability to repair and maintain my bikes. But it is nice to know that someone with all of the latest tech info and product alerts touches my bike a few times a year..
I cracked a carbon frame. If it was not for the relationship I have with the LBS and mechanic I would have not have received a replacement frame as quickly and with little hassle.
Support your local bike shop…You may need them one day.
Some sage advice that is probably applicable to many but it appears you are trying to suggest it applies to anyone who is not making their living fixing bikes and, if you don’t mind my saying, somewhat patronising.
I have, over the years, taught myself to fix many things from watches to washing machines to total car renovations (including every single nut and bolt of MGB’s C’s and midgets – engines, gearboxes the lot) and, yes, I did use a decent torque wrench.
In comparison a bike is very simple machine. I am much more comfortable hurtling down a hillside at 50mph knowing that everything about its fragile being and rudimentary braking system is in as good a shape as it can be.
How do I get that confidence from a stranger who may or may not be good at his job? The only test is when something goes wrong and then it’s too late. For me it’s about confidence not saving money.
And yes, I still use a decent, properly calibrated, torque wrench.
@MNgraveur
Where are you located? MN Gravel Cogal?