I no longer have a bike - my husband put it in the loft and then gave it away because (unsurprisingly) I didn't use it. However there are few moving parts on a bike and the operation of most of them is pretty obvious if you look carefully.
There's more parts than appear at first sight, and they're not all as obvious as you might think. I'd been commuting to work by bike for a dozen years before I discovered the existence of the barrel adjusters on the handlebars for brake cable tension.
If it were my problem I'd buy a book on bike maintenance (or find an on-line one, there seem to be a lot about), read it from cover to cover with my bike within easy reach and then sort out the jobs I knew I could do do them and get someone with more experience to check them. In case I needed advice I'd look at forums and find one that was not frequented by idiots.
Well, I do simple jobs (repairing punctures, tightening brake cables, replacing brake shoes, replacing the chain, minor derailleur adjustment) myself; the complex jobs (derailleur adjustment if it's bent out of line, wheel truing, gear cassette replacement) I leave for professionals. The last thing I want is the bike falling apart because I've done the job badly. I'm hopeless with my hands, and know my limits.
Though that said, I've started rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which last I read in 1993, before I started cycle-commuting), and the narrator of that agrees strongly with you and disapproves of my mindset.
My bike came with a manual; I should dig it out and give it a reread...
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Date: 2011-02-15 08:21 pm (UTC)There's more parts than appear at first sight, and they're not all as obvious as you might think. I'd been commuting to work by bike for a dozen years before I discovered the existence of the barrel adjusters on the handlebars for brake cable tension.
If it were my problem I'd buy a book on bike maintenance (or find an on-line one, there seem to be a lot about), read it from cover to cover with my bike within easy reach and then sort out the jobs I knew I could do do them and get someone with more experience to check them. In case I needed advice I'd look at forums and find one that was not frequented by idiots.
Well, I do simple jobs (repairing punctures, tightening brake cables, replacing brake shoes, replacing the chain, minor derailleur adjustment) myself; the complex jobs (derailleur adjustment if it's bent out of line, wheel truing, gear cassette replacement) I leave for professionals. The last thing I want is the bike falling apart because I've done the job badly. I'm hopeless with my hands, and know my limits.
Though that said, I've started rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which last I read in 1993, before I started cycle-commuting), and the narrator of that agrees strongly with you and disapproves of my mindset.
My bike came with a manual; I should dig it out and give it a reread...