Go Back   Cycling Forums » Bikes » Cycling Equipment
Cycling Equipment Need some advice on cycling equipment? Do you have a buckled wheel? Problems with your gears? Need help truing a wheel?













Do it yourself maintenance

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 01-08.-2007
OoAmericanGirl's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Age: 27
Posts: 102
Rep Power: 4
OoAmericanGirl is on a distinguished road
Default Do it yourself maintenance

It's the first of the year and I normally drop my bike off at the LBS for new bar tape, tune up, new tires and new tubes. The problem is that I don't like the staff there, they're always trying to push me into buying something I don't want and they always try to keep things: I bought a women's fit kit (seat post, stem, handle bars, and a seat) and they tried to keep the items and I had to be a bit forceful to get all my items back after they refused to discount my new items if I did let them keep them . Point being that I really hate doing business with them and the next closest bike shop is 45min away.

Now that I'm done with my long-winded introduction, I was wondering if anyone knew of any good sites for maintenance or could recommend a good book.
Thanks
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 01-08.-2007
Walrus's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 867
Rep Power: 6
Walrus
Default Re: Do it yourself maintenance

Quote:
Originally Posted by OoAmericanGirl
It's the first of the year and I normally drop my bike off at the LBS for new bar tape, tune up, new tires and new tubes. The problem is that I don't like the staff there, they're always trying to push me into buying something I don't want and they always try to keep things: I bought a women's fit kit (seat post, stem, handle bars, and a seat) and they tried to keep the items and I had to be a bit forceful to get all my items back after they refused to discount my new items if I did let them keep them . Point being that I really hate doing business with them and the next closest bike shop is 45min away.

Now that I'm done with my long-winded introduction, I was wondering if anyone knew of any good sites for maintenance or could recommend a good book.
Thanks
www.parktool.com/ are good. All those things you're getting the LBS to do are pretty easy to learn, so I would definitely give this a go yourself. For more tricky issues or upgrades, go the extra 45min.

__________________
LOOK KG451, DT-Swiss, K-Force MegaExo
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 01-08.-2007
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 33
Rep Power: 0
zorly is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Do it yourself maintenance

Ya, the shop has to make a buck, and it is probably harder than ever for them with all the internet sales these days. Some are even dishonest and/ or incompetent. On top of that, many shops just give out the bad vibes anyhow.
Plus it's just a pain in the "A" going in there for something simple.
On the other hand, I know many people who love to hang out at their LBS.
Learning to maintain your own equipment is kind of fun. Just wittle away on one thing at a time until you are confident, then move on to the next task you want to do.

The book "Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance" is a good place to start.

Or the world famous Sheldon Brown. There is more info on his site than you could ever imagine. You have to dig though. The site is set up kind of weird.
Follow this link --> Harris Cyclery

Last edited by zorly; 01-08.-2007 at 01:14 AM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
maintenance

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:04 PM.

Powered by: vBulletin Copyright © 2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.3.0
Copyright © 2001 - 2009 cyclingforums.com

Translations (powered by Google):
Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Italian Japanese Korean Norwegian Polish Portuguese Spanish Swedish