Monty Python’s Mr Bicycle repairman.
I remember first seeing this and thinking in some way it is more than funny, a more equal world.
A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
51–60 of 172 posts
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#52Sadly, many parts of modern mountain bikes seem to be less durable and not repairable. For most of the stuff I can't or don't want/have time to do, I take into the shop. And generally, they throw up their hands and say it needs to be replaced. Did that with two dropper posts this week. (One needed a rebuild that would cost more than replacement. The other had a (luckily under warranty) faulty cartridge). I will also…
Dropper posts are notorious for beaking. Just choose something with a replaceable cartridge.
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#53Beautifully written, but I couldn't disagree more. Bicycle maintenance is an annoying chore to me that gets in the way of my enjoyment of cycling. I even have good bicycle shops near me that did maintenance far quicker/cheaper/better than I would do. It just all seemed like such a hassle. I finally ended up buying a belt-drive hub-geared hydraulic-brakes medium/fat-tyre bicycle and my maintenance woes appear to be ma…
I’m kind of stuck in the worst spot between both. Maintenance is a chore, but I still prefer to DIY vs taking it to the shops near me, which are various combinations of rude, unreliable (both in terms of scheduling and quality of work), and expensive. So I just suck it up and try to fit the work in when I can, which is almost never.
Yeah, the "LBS" thing has been slowly dying. Maybe because of online shopping, but it also feels weird to pay premium for subpar service. Perhaps a spiral of death of sorts.
There is no bike repair in walking distance from me, so taking a bike in for repair means having to find other means of getting home and back there. To me, that's the biggest hurdle. Also, they give Littles guarantees to when they will actually work on the bike, and I don't want to be without it for an indefinite time.
If I instead could book a slot, come there, deliver it, walk around some other shops for an hour or two, then pick it up and bike home, I would've probably given them more business.
I enjoy most of my bike repairs, but some of them I can do without. For instance switching to studded winter tires, my tire+rim combo is a hassle to get on.
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now, I have a very unique and beautiful bike (people on the street tell me). Well you can't just entice us like that without posting a photo! Here's one I painted that I am really proud of how it came out: https://tegowerk.eu/posts/nakamura-shadow-city-bike/
True, thanks for sharing. Here's the one: https://imgur.com/a/SsdVhCT
Beautiful!
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#55Beautifully written, but I couldn't disagree more. Bicycle maintenance is an annoying chore to me that gets in the way of my enjoyment of cycling. I even have good bicycle shops near me that did maintenance far quicker/cheaper/better than I would do. It just all seemed like such a hassle. I finally ended up buying a belt-drive hub-geared hydraulic-brakes medium/fat-tyre bicycle and my maintenance woes appear to be ma…
Bicycle maintenance is what got me out of the habit of riding. You don’t ride for a little while and soon trying to pick it back up first means tires need a lot of air… oh that one’s going flat before the end of the block… Christ, it’s the rear one, there goes the whole afternoon expecially since I’ll for-sure mess up other stuff in the process. Guess I’ll do it next time. Then I don’t, and stop riding. It’s crazy th…
I've never had problems with flats, other than once where I had got lots of metal shavings in my tire which gave me flats for a few days until I caved and bought a new tire.
So your problem doesn't really sound like one most people have. I normally get flats like every other year or so. And that's with thousands and thousands of kilometers of riding each year.
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#56Zen, and the art of bicycle maintenance?
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
We should all just look out for each other. Mostly follow the rules, but don't let common sense go abroad. There are so many cyclists in berlin that just go in front of all the cars at a red light, even it's just one car in front of them. I know that this car can accelerate way faster than me and drives way faster, why would I want to block it and make the driver mad? Yes, if the road is congested I might pass the ca…
"We should all look out for each other" is unfortunately often code for "cyclists should yield at all times and have a sixth sense to avoid getting killed by impatient or distracted drivers". I was biking in the cycle lane the other day, going straight. A car came up next to me, and suddenly turned right to get off the road. I got the tingles just before and suspected it, so I managed to break and avoid being right h…
>"cyclists should yield at all times and have a sixth sense to avoid getting killed by impatient or distracted drivers".
And that is literally true. Yes, cars should be more careful, but it's a fact that it's easy to overlook a cyclist. As my motorcycle instructor said during our first theory lesson: "So you are all here because you have suicidal tendencies, right?". And he was right. And it's even more true with cyclists. No one says that this is a good thing tho.
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
We should all just look out for each other. Mostly follow the rules, but don't let common sense go abroad. There are so many cyclists in berlin that just go in front of all the cars at a red light, even it's just one car in front of them. I know that this car can accelerate way faster than me and drives way faster, why would I want to block it and make the driver mad? Yes, if the road is congested I might pass the ca…
Bike boxes are made for a reason: so that the motorists see the bike in front of them and don't hit it during a right turn.
That's true. There are too many different cases, that's why I am saying common sense. If there is a bike box, go ahead and use it. If there is none, then be prepared to not be seen by the car. Traffic is just complex.
PS: In my experience, if there is a bike box, then there is also often a separate bike lane. I was mainly speaking about roads where there is no real bike lane. If there is one, then most things just work out fine.
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
We should all just look out for each other. Mostly follow the rules, but don't let common sense go abroad. There are so many cyclists in berlin that just go in front of all the cars at a red light, even it's just one car in front of them. I know that this car can accelerate way faster than me and drives way faster, why would I want to block it and make the driver mad? Yes, if the road is congested I might pass the ca…
Bike boxes are made for a reason: so that the motorists see the bike in front of them and don't hit it during a right turn.
I agree -- bike boxes are quite miraculous. They're the one instance where paint actually is infrastructure, and I use them any time I can just to show other cyclists that they are allowed to.
But to add some nuance to the argument: bike boxes are an improvement over filtering up on the side of the road. Doing what (I assume) GP did and taking the lane behind waiting cars is about as safe, because any other cars coming up from behind ought to see you as they roll up to you, being that you are in front of them and not to the side. (And they're already paying forward attention thanks to the car ahead of you.)
Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
"We should all look out for each other" is unfortunately often code for "cyclists should yield at all times and have a sixth sense to avoid getting killed by impatient or distracted drivers". I was biking in the cycle lane the other day, going straight. A car came up next to me, and suddenly turned right to get off the road. I got the tingles just before and suspected it, so I managed to break and avoid being right h…
>"cyclists should yield at all times and have a sixth sense to avoid getting killed by impatient or distracted drivers". And that is literally true. Yes, cars should be more careful, but it's a fact that it's easy to overlook a cyclist. As my motorcycle instructor said during our first theory lesson: "So you are all here because you have suicidal tendencies, right?". And he was right. And it's even more true with cyc…
> And it's even more true with cyclists.
I'm fairly sure the average cyclist has a longer healthy lifespan than both the average motorcyclist and carist.