eQuote: Originally Posted by jpr95 .
Before clipless pedals, I'd buy tools, and spend time on YouTube, sheldonbrown.com, parktool.com and anywhere else you can find how-tos on bike repair and maintenance. A couple hundred bucks on tools can pay for themselves pretty quickly when you don't have to drop $20 here and $50 there for repairs at the LBS that can be done for the cost of parts at home.
You are so right!
For me it was before lycra, YouTube, sheldonbrown.com, parktool.com etc., ( not only the tools paid for themselves and later made me some money and led to working in shops, one even imported products and had worldwide customers, but that's another story...) I had the library and the far smaller but much closer knit cycling community with experienced riders who took the time to "pass down the wisdom and etiquette" to the new riders, too bad that tradition seems to have "passed". I see more people riding bikes in one afternoon or even hour now than I'd see in a month or more then, "riders" were really rare. Luckily we had a few people around like a frame builder/shop owner who had raced track against Jack Simes, "Old Man" Stetina etc. and worked with Albert Eisentraut and a man who qualified for the 1936 olympics, but couldn't afford to go, who incidentally "played" the Rainier Beer Brewmaster on Billboard and Television ads. Oh, the stories....