Bike poll

[lethargic_man]

Took my bike to the bike shop yesterday. They said they'd never come across mudguard mounts slipping like mine had before. We discussed various solutions to get them to stay in place, but they said there's no 100% guarantee any of them would work, so I decided to buy a set of full mudguards as a replacement. (Anybody want a secondhand set of half-size mudguards, complete with tips for how to keep them from slipping?)

I left the bike there, as my second fall put the derailleur out of whack and they couldn't fix it on the spot; this morning I got a call from them saying that the front fork had been bent back, the wheel was not coming out easily and the brakes not working properly. None of this had I noticed, but I didn't want to risk the front fork breaking on me, so I agreed to let them replace it.

This is going to come to nearly £100 in total, meaning I'll have spent nearly £200 on the bike in the course of the last month, once you include my earlier taking the bike in for a new gear cassette and general service. That's two thirds of the value I spent on the bike in the first place! Sometimes I think it would be cheaper just to buy a new bike... but of course if I did that, it would only take a couple of years to be back to having to spending money on it again.

The one consolation is that the total I'll have spent on the bike in the last year is still probably less (probably, and only slightly less if so) than the money I've saved by not using public transport instead of the bike.

One for the serious bike users among you (anyone here other than bluepork, ewx and perhaps lethargic_fan?): how much would you expect to spend a year on bike maintenance? I don't mean for an typical year, but rather the average you get from putting together the years in which the bike is low maintenance with the years in which major repairs are needed. (Please also indicate if you're good enough with your hands to do the job yourself and save yourself the labour costs...)

Comments

[miss-whiplash.livejournal.com]

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.

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.

Most non-electrical jobs are a matter of careful observation and confidence.

The thing I learned in the labs was to do a 'thought experiment' first :-
Imagine the whole procedure step by step and work out the tools, spares and consumables I would need and have them to hand. Doing that keeps the job faster and means you have less time to forget how something went together.
Always have a stable, deep-sided dish on hand to put small parts in (ceramic cat bowl for example).
If dismantling something new, make notes, possibly photograph it and if parts that might be mixed up are involved either mark them (tippex liquid pen lettering is a good temporary marker; A goes to A, three dots to 3 dots, etc.) or lay everything out like an expanded diagram.
Last off, first on and in case of real difficulty in reassembling try holding it upside-down, often it is gravity that is the problem.

Seriously, I've cleaned out drum-brakes on my Suzuki, changed wheels on several cars, sorted out virtually inaccessible brake lights, fitted radios, treated rust, checked fluid levels, changed fan-belts and screen-washer pumps, replaced headlights and door-seals, re-hung opening windows inside doors, unjammed a sticking rear-door lock mechanism (OK all I had to do was dismantle the door and remove enough hair to knit a small dog). The only things I needed a manual for were to work out how to get at the the headlights to change a bulb, check fuse ratings and locations and change the fan-belt when the diagram in the book was a mirror image. A friend showed me how to clean the brakes and then watched me do it until I was confident.

It makes sense to learn the basics. Except on a motorway, I'd rather fit a spare than sit around waiting, as helpless as Penelope Pitstop, for hours for the AA to come and do it for me.

My last garage bill was £60 for checking over 2 cars, no parts. The one before was several hundred for removing bits of disintegrated gear-stick from inside the gear-box as an emergency job the day before I drove to Lyon. I pay for work I can't do myself.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

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...

[miss-whiplash.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite quotes (not that I can quote it precisely) comes from that book.

It's something like "Extreme calm and peace of mind should be sought before attempting assembly of Japanese bicycle".

A metaphore for life - that!