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lethargic_manTook 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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...)
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...)
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no subject
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...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:47 pm (UTC)It's something like "Extreme calm and peace of mind should be sought before attempting assembly of Japanese bicycle".
A metaphore for life - that!