My Dirty Secret
I have a confession. I really don’t know that much about bikes. I just like to ride them. For me it’s more about lifestyle.
So when it comes to bike repairs sometimes I get myself into situations. It’s not that I don’t have the ability fix a bike, I just don’t have any experience. But still, how hard can it be? I once changed the spark plugs on my old car to save a few bucks. That worked out fine… the mechanic never actually said that was the reason it died.
But I’m not scared of getting my hands dirty (and luckily bikes don’t have engines.) I like to do things myself when I can. Things usually start out like this:
So I set aside afternoon to spend it with my bike, a couple wrenches, and a romantic comedy (Richard Gere helps me think about gears):
However then things don’t go exactly as expected… parts don’t fit, directions are unclear, the project changes scope. It’s really hard to ask a YouTube video questions.
And eventually I end up going to the bike shop where one of these guys save the day:
I find that it’s good to stay in running shape, for doing repairs. While repairing the axle for my bottom bracket (that’s another story altogether), I estimate I did about four miles. Luckily, I was able to finish it with just enough time to make it to Copley for Critical Mass.
A friend and I do a community bike repair/maintenance in the street in front of his house twice a year. I’ll let y’all know in the Spring- it’s a good time to learn some bike fixing technique.
Sigh. Beards.
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I have been pretty fortunate with my bikes needing repairs. But I do think I should take a course sometime, to be on the safe side. Thanks for sharing the entire thought process/flow chart. : )
Great post and I love the Richard Gere – Pretty Woman references. I have to laugh at this because it’s my exact thought process. If it makes you feel any better though I brought my Pashley to one of my bike shops (we have three) this weekend. I ruled out two of the shops because I thought they would not have much experience with 5 speed Sturmey Archer Hubs. The 1st gear does not work (stick) & it automatically jumps to 2nd gear and sometimes the gear gets stuck when I try and the pedals stop spinning. Not good when i’m climbing hills. So I brought it to shop #3. The mechanic had no clue and started looking stuff up on the Internet. I was having a heart attack because he was pulling and streching the cable left and right. I thought he was going to mess up the whole hub (gears 2, 3, 4, and 5 work fine). He gave up (thank goodness) and I told him that’s ok – I’ll just bring it to Harris Cyclery (I live an hour away and I was trying to save a trip if they could fix it locally). He said, “yeah, I agree, I think you should, they work on these all the time.”
Sadly most shops don’t get a lot of experience with hub gears, including ours. Ninety percent of my experience with internal gearing comes from my own bikes (and I’m happy to consult the Harris Cyclery web site when I get stuck).
Yes, that’s true and I really appreciate that he tried. He’s a super nice guy and honest And that’s why I decided to give him a shot :).
Hey, if he’s smart enough to say “I don’t want to break it, talk to Harris Cyclery,” he’s definitely worth trusting on the stuff he DOES know.
(by the way, if I had to take an educated guess at the problem it sounds like the shift cable is not getting enough slack in first gear, possibly because of a kink in the cable, some friction in the housing or even the cable being a tiny bit too tight, you might just need to replace the cable).
Thank you so much for the educated tip.
Just came across your blog. Great pictures and content. Glad to find a new blog to read.