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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

#71

Post by 8A51C »

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…

I feel that a good build is just as important as a high price. Above the very cheapest bso (bicycle shaped object) a reasonably priced bike can be amazing, but it might need striping and rebuilding properly. There could be a correlation here between higher priced bikes being likely to have been assembled by a more competant person and them 'being better'. It wouldn't take much to ruin a badly built expensive bike and it wouldn't be nice to ride.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#72

Post by fmbb »

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…

Motorcyclists and bicyclists do not face the same dangers in traffic. I don’t see the relation to the extreme fatality of motorcycling.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#73

Post by agumonkey »

BrianHenryIE wrote: post #3

Cycling is a joy. When I experience / see people diss cyclists, I'm sad for them. It implies they cannot empathise with others (me). My physical and mental health are better thanks to cycling.

I'm a part-time cyclist (I stopped using cars 5 years ago) but after seeing a few bad ones on youtube videos I can understand the rage sometimes. They just cut anywhere without any regards for traffic.

That said a lot of people are crazy on roads, motorbikes, cars too (probably more often and more dangerously).

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#74

Post by lqet »

Maintaining a personal collection of 7 Peugeot bikes from the 70ies (they are used daily) is my way of getting a relaxed Saturday afternoon out of the software engineering / childcare grind every few weeks. Maintaining your primary mode of transportation completely yourself is very satisfying.

Most of our bikes were incredibly cheap (sometimes https://old.reddit.com/r/bikecommuting/comments/uxt0tb/new_b... My wife uses it daily. In my opinion, these bikes have a beauty and elegance which modern bikes simply do not have.

I have made some valuable contacts over the years. For example, I know an eccentric local guy who literally has a 3 meter mountain of old bikes behind his workshop and has every original spare part of pre-2000 bikes imaginable in his cellar. I also know someone on the internet who manufactures pulleys (the little plastic gears) for old Simplex derailleurs at home (they are hard to replace, as modern pulleys don't fit).

My basic rule of thumb of buying an old bike: if the frame is OK, you can restore it for under 200 EUR. Most of the time, it's trivial things like a broken chain, broken brakes, missing spokes, etc.

Once the bike is restored, maintenance is usually painless. The typical wearing parts (chain, bowden cables, tires, brakes) can be replaced with modern standard parts which you can get everywhere.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#75

Post by agumonkey »

stouset wrote: post #33
kqr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one surprises me because it seems far more common to me that cars hold up traffic than bicycles. When you look at images of traffic jams it's almost always other cars in the way, not bicycles. I suppose maybe it's a city/countryside thing? Cars are great at long straights, but they take forever to safely clear an intersection compared to a bicycle -- and they block most of the road while they do.

It’s an outgroup thing. It’s “normal” to be held up by traffic. It’s novel being delayed by a cyclist. Plus you’re doing something important and their leisure is getting my way! When a cyclist does something unexpected, it’s extremely dangerous; pay no mind that they’re the one in 95% of the danger. When a fellow driver speeds, rolls through a stop sign, or fails to yield it’s lost in a sea of normalized deviance. No…

Agreed. It's also why I stopped using main streets, I drive on small, abandoned paths as much as possible, and when I get near others (car or pedestrians) I slow down or let everybody do what they want until I can branch out again. Any issue you may have with others will become a senseless shouting contest.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#76

Post by wruza »

I had a few bikes when I was a kid and a teenager (backpedal braking era). Each one costed like dirt and could be rebuilt/repaired in a couple hours with a bag of instruments hanging below the seat. Then I rode it few months without service. Most of my bikes died due to fatal injuries or were stolen.

Modern bikes is something I don’t understand. Complex aggregates, systems and subsystems, spaceship furniture, etc. And the cost of a low-end car, sometimes mid. Plus all the “niceties” of the modern market, like planned obsolescence, milking the customer, necessary extras and so on. Feels like you’re meant to more touch yourself about how much of a cyclist you are than to ride. Say that these bikes are softer, easier, cadence friendly. Doesn’t matter, all off this is bs to me. Yet another area defiled by marketing, scammers and those who charge 5x on top of that for being “honest”.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#77

Post by eptcyka »

kqr wrote: post #26
jstanley wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't like cyclists because their only interaction with cyclists is when they're holding up traffic.

This one surprises me because it seems far more common to me that cars hold up traffic than bicycles. When you look at images of traffic jams it's almost always other cars in the way, not bicycles. I suppose maybe it's a city/countryside thing? Cars are great at long straights, but they take forever to safely clear an intersection compared to a bicycle -- and they block most of the road while they do.

Having a bunch of cyclists take up a whole lane width wise will always be frustrating. I bike every day and drive reatively rarely, but I understand the frustration with cyclists. I am also scared to death that one day I’ll turn a corner on a country road and get to decide between heading into oncoming traffic or plowing a group of cycling buddies doing 75% of the speed other vehicles normally will do on said country road.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#78

Post by bombela »

kashyapc wrote: post #18
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 the reason I use a single-speed bike (not to be confused with a "fixie") for commuting. I absolutely love the simplicity of it: no gears to muck around with, much less maintenance, light, and hassle-free. Perfect to deal with the "frequently stop and start" biking in a city. In a (flat) city for commuting short distances, you simply don't need gears if you're below 50. It's a nice to have . It also helps that…

> you simply don't need gears if you're below 50

And here I am with all the gears; on a nice road bike; and I struggle to maintain 30 km/h on flat.

Re: A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

#79

Post by drdo »

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!

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