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A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

tegowerk.eu

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Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#61

Post by UnserMannInK »

dailykoder wrote: post #31
leke wrote: post #20

I got into bikes after moving to a cyclists' town. I know the pride of riding something you've fixed up like the author mentioned in the article. Bikes are truly a marvel. My town and bikes have provided me with a higher standard of living and health than I would have had in some other town. Bikes are for everybody. You can ride a beat up bike for years with just basic knowledge, like changing an inner tube and oilin…

>Bikes are for everybody. You can ride a beat up bike for years with just basic knowledge, l That is true. But what changed most sceptics, that i met, mind were bikes that actually worked. I understand the fear when people see the price tag and think they could buy a second hand car for that, but once they sit on a good bike they just enjoy it. And if they then learn how to do basic maintenance themselves so that it…

True, the price tag might buy you a second hand car. But if you factor in the maintenance cost of cars it comes in cheap in comparison. I’ve just had to replace the clutch in my car (~2200€), whereas having the whole transmission (all sprockets and the chain) in a bike fixed is around 250-300€. Less if you do it yourself.

And being able to do it myself feels really good, I couldn’t agree more!

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#62

Post by alisonatwork »

iamthemonster wrote: post #8

Beautifully 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…

This.

I think it's worth mentioning that cycle touring doesn't have to be complicated either. I was always scared to take a bike ride longer than a weekend because so many people in that scene appear to be major gear nerds. Then I met a hobo who had just jumped off a train with a battered up omafiets and he inspired me to strap a bunch of crap to my cheap hybrid and cycle all the way across North America.

Turns out you don't need the latest and greatest anything, you don't need to spend a zillion dollars on tools, or sit around tinkering every day. If you can change a tube and oil the chain, that's about all you need to know how to do. Even with broken spokes or a snapped cable you can hobble along for a couple days, till the next town with a bike shop. And if your bike is cheap and generic, every bike shop will have the replacement parts already in stock.

When I cycled through Colombia I did it on a Buffalo Bike which was slow, heavy and pretty much indestructible. Took ages to get anywhere, but who cares? Rather spend my time pootling along slowly than trying to fix stuff. Fixing stuff is my job, that's the last thing I want to do in my personal time.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#63

Post by cycomanic »

dailykoder wrote: post #57
matsemann wrote: post #47

Earlier 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…

That's why laws like in Denmark and the Netherlands (not 100% sure if it's both countries) are needed. Cars are automatically at fault (not always 100% though) when there is an with a cyclist or pedestrian as it is expected that the "stronger" person has to take more responsibility.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#64

Post by petre »

julian55 wrote: post #34
iamthemonster wrote: post #8

Beautifully 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 agree with you. I've also found that themore modern a bike is the more difficult it is to maintain Take hydraulic disc brakes for example, when they work they are great but when they fail they don't work at all. You then have to bleed them which is fiddly, messy and requires special tools then you'll probably have to do it all over again after a few rides. Tubeless tyres are similar.

Special tools: a bleed kit (funnel, syringe, silicon hose), two Alen wrenches an insert press and a hose cutter but you can also get away with a hammer, a vice, yellow holding blocks provided with the hose kit and a regular cutter. For tubelees you need a syringe and a tire booster.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#65

Post by enneff »

UnserMannInK wrote: post #61
dailykoder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bikes are for everybody. You can ride a beat up bike for years with just basic knowledge, l That is true. But what changed most sceptics, that i met, mind were bikes that actually worked. I understand the fear when people see the price tag and think they could buy a second hand car for that, but once they sit on a good bike they just enjoy it. And if they then learn how to do basic maintenance themselves so that it…

True, the price tag might buy you a second hand car. But if you factor in the maintenance cost of cars it comes in cheap in comparison. I’ve just had to replace the clutch in my car (~2200€), whereas having the whole transmission (all sprockets and the chain) in a bike fixed is around 250-300€. Less if you do it yourself. And being able to do it myself feels really good, I couldn’t agree more!

Not to mention fuel.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#66

Post by petre »

dailykoder wrote: post #58
petre wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wo…

One only needs to be in the bike box until the traffic light turns green, then one could steer towards the margin and let the cars pass.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#67

Post by tpm »

julian55 wrote: post #34
iamthemonster wrote: post #8

Beautifully 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 agree with you. I've also found that themore modern a bike is the more difficult it is to maintain Take hydraulic disc brakes for example, when they work they are great but when they fail they don't work at all. You then have to bleed them which is fiddly, messy and requires special tools then you'll probably have to do it all over again after a few rides. Tubeless tyres are similar.

My experience with tubeless is that once I found a good setup, it's set and forget. I don't get punctures (none at all), maybe once a week top up the pressure, once a year top up the milk and that's it. It was like that with Panaracer GK+ tyres, but they have to be under pressure when I don't ride for longer periods, otherwise there are issues. Now I use Pirelli Cinturato Velo tlr and it's the best tyre I ever had.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#68

Post by enneff »

mo_42 wrote: post #49
victorstanciu wrote: post #24

Earlier 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

These are both really lovely bikes.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#69

Post by enneff »

iamthemonster wrote: post #8

Beautifully 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…

That’s why I favour simple single-speed bikes for commuting. Almost nothing can go wrong with them, and you can fix almost anything that does go wrong with a small bike tool. It’s also nice that they’re so cheap you don’t really care too much if it gets stolen, so there’s no stress about locking it up somewhere a bit dodgy.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#70

Post by whazor »

dailykoder wrote: post #31
leke wrote: post #20

I got into bikes after moving to a cyclists' town. I know the pride of riding something you've fixed up like the author mentioned in the article. Bikes are truly a marvel. My town and bikes have provided me with a higher standard of living and health than I would have had in some other town. Bikes are for everybody. You can ride a beat up bike for years with just basic knowledge, like changing an inner tube and oilin…

>Bikes are for everybody. You can ride a beat up bike for years with just basic knowledge, l That is true. But what changed most sceptics, that i met, mind were bikes that actually worked. I understand the fear when people see the price tag and think they could buy a second hand car for that, but once they sit on a good bike they just enjoy it. And if they then learn how to do basic maintenance themselves so that it…

A decent second hand bike costs 80 euros in The Netherlands
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