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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

#141

Post by The_Colonel »

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…

Not sure what price range you have in mind, but you get diminishing returns very quickly. You can get a very solid bike for under 1000 EUR/USD.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#142

Post by stavros »

The_Colonel wrote: post #140
stavros wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a shitty bike that I bought for 150 € ten years ago. It creaks everywhere, is hard to ride, and a thief once actually moved it out of the way to steal the bike behind it. I use it every day but I'm not going to get a better one, because I don't want to be constantly worried that someone will steal it. I want to use it as transportation, leave it wherever, and know that it will still be there because it's not w…

I love this aspect of old beaten things. A couple of years ago, I've found a gem of a bike. It looked maybe 15-20 years old and was clearly heavily used - frame was full of scratches and such. The color scheme was pretty ugly and was just a tad too small for an adult. But I noticed that all the components were actually decent - mostly Shimano XT, obviously very old models. After servicing it, it rode very well and I…

Hmm, this is a great idea, I might get an old/ugly bike with good components myself, thanks!

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#143

Post by ryandrake »

UnserMannInK wrote: post #116
drdo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some exotic luxury car? What kind of clutch costs 2.2k euro?

Nothing exotic, a Peugeot Traveller van. The spare parts were 700€, rest was labor. Took a whole day to take apart the transmission/front axle and put it all together again.

I think to be fair, if you’re going to include labor costs in the “total cost” of a car, you should include the price of a skilled bicycle mechanic in the cost of a bicycle, just to compare apples to apples.

IMO not enough people have the know how to fix their own cars. And I am surprised that this is not changing given 1. how ridiculous the price of auto mechanic labor has gotten and 2. the wide availability of DIY info on YouTube. Even just basic, basic stuff. I have friends who take their ~5yo cars to a mechanic (or worse: the dealer’s service dept) for routine maintenance like lubrication and filter changes, and they fork over $1500 for this! We are talking about $150 in parts and consumables here. The mechanic inflates this to $500 and then charged $1000 for his labor.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#144

Post by dailykoder »

The_Colonel wrote: post #141
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…

Not sure what price range you have in mind, but you get diminishing returns very quickly. You can get a very solid bike for under 1000 EUR/USD.

Sure, most people can get a great bike for ~1k€ or less than that. I am just a spoiled bike enthusiast, i have to admit. I wouldn't want to ride a bike that does not have very decent breaks and a good shifting system. Plus if you want a nice weight, you are very fast at 2k€+. But you are right. Still you can get a car for 1k€. Maybe 20+ years old, but they can still get you from a to b

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#145

Post by Quothling »

freetime2 wrote: post #128
Quothling wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think bike maintenance is one of those things that is similar to how you read about programmers who pick up woodworking here on HN. I know it's a zen thing for me, similar to other "craftmanship" (I'm not sure if this is the right english word for things like machanics, carpenters, plubmers and so on) like home improvement DIY, gardening or even cleaning the damn house. It's just very zen. Both because it tends to…

I think I could enjoy it if I had more time to spend on it. It’s certainly satisfying when you’ve got everything clean and lubed and dialed in just right. But for me it always just feels like a chore - something I need to get done before tomorrow morning or else I have to listen to some dreadful sound for the entire ride.

I think that is a good observation. I'm not sure I know anyone who would like any of these things in situations where they "had" to do them, and make them work on a tight deadline. Changing a flat tire to have a functional bike for your commute the next day is the opposite of zen for most of us.

So you do it when you have the time to do it. Which of course involves making time for it. I tend to involve my children in most of these things. Like my five year old helped me spartle the walls in her new room. Similarly if I'm working on my cargo bike I'll get theirs out and let them work on their bikes beside me if they ask to join. A lot of the time... like with the spartling I'll have to "fix" it later, but what letting them join does, aside from being a join activity, is that it gives me time to actually do these things on a busy schedule.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#147

Post by zikduruqe »

freetime2 wrote: post #117
zikduruqe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait until you hot wax your chain. Take the chain off your bike, drop it into a crock pot full of wax, take a nap, wake up, put chain back on bike. I personally love working on bikes. I'd replace my behind the keyboard all day tech job in a split second, if I could afford to do so. Clean after every ride? That's way overkill. I only clean my bike when I need to re-wax my chain.

> Clean after every ride? That's way overkill. I tend to sweat a lot, and sweat is corrosive. If it’s not a sweaty ride, and the roads are dry, I’ll skip the cleaning sometimes.

I dunno. In my many decades of cycling, I've seen more rust from water exposure than sweat. (Don't get me started on triathletes and urine soaked bikes...)

If it works for you, keep on keeping on.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#148

Post by UnserMannInK »

ryandrake wrote: post #143
UnserMannInK wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing exotic, a Peugeot Traveller van. The spare parts were 700€, rest was labor. Took a whole day to take apart the transmission/front axle and put it all together again.

I think to be fair, if you’re going to include labor costs in the “total cost” of a car, you should include the price of a skilled bicycle mechanic in the cost of a bicycle, just to compare apples to apples. IMO not enough people have the know how to fix their own cars. And I am surprised that this is not changing given 1. how ridiculous the price of auto mechanic labor has gotten and 2. the wide availability of DIY…

That would indeed be fair. On the other hand, I couldn’t repair the clutch on a car on my own whereas taking a bike apart and putting it back together can be done in my living room if need be.

On DIY: absolutely on anything not safety related. I‘d never touch the brakes. Changing oil is perfectly doable for a reasonably skilled diy person. If you like that kind of thing and have the access to the necessary infrastructure (especially for oil disposal), go for it.

But I like to take the car to a mechanic for another reason: in Germany you’re required to get regular technical inspections (TÜV), if the mechanic does it chances are better that it goes through without problems.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#149

Post by logifail »

fho wrote: post #138
drdo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some exotic luxury car? What kind of clutch costs 2.2k euro?

It's not the clutch ... It's 100+ €/h for a skilled worker who replaced that clutch.

> It's 100+ €/h for a skilled worker who replaced that clutch

I'm pro-bike, but this issue also applies to having a bike repaired at a decent workshop.

Our daughter's hand-me-down bike (previously "owned" by both her elder brothers in turn) had new brakes and brake cables fitted recently, and the repair bill was the best part of €150.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#150

Post by btach »

The_Colonel wrote: post #140
stavros wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a shitty bike that I bought for 150 € ten years ago. It creaks everywhere, is hard to ride, and a thief once actually moved it out of the way to steal the bike behind it. I use it every day but I'm not going to get a better one, because I don't want to be constantly worried that someone will steal it. I want to use it as transportation, leave it wherever, and know that it will still be there because it's not w…

I love this aspect of old beaten things. A couple of years ago, I've found a gem of a bike. It looked maybe 15-20 years old and was clearly heavily used - frame was full of scratches and such. The color scheme was pretty ugly and was just a tad too small for an adult. But I noticed that all the components were actually decent - mostly Shimano XT, obviously very old models. After servicing it, it rode very well and I…

Related, when I had to live in a certain area that had a high bike theft rate, I got myself a pink bicycle. In the year I was there, it was never stolen. Well, except for the seat (which was black).
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