7 Month old bike needs £300 worth of parts and labour

Leviathan wrote:

(sorry Peter, 'little maintenance' is wrong, this all started because I tried to grease my BB myself and realized what a poor design it was,)

You can't 'grease a Bottom Bracket' by the way...I don't know whow you were planning on doing this but it doesn't put you in good stead for making judgement on the design

ps (yes I have a some CK BB's and yes I do have the grease tool and yes it's proper tool porn)

mtbtomo wrote:

What kind of bearing press are you looking at?  I paid around £50 brand new for my Park one and a quick google suggests there are other options for just over £30 (Wiggle Lifeline) and I bet you might even find someone selling a home made one that would do the job on ebay

Was just about to say this - it's the price I used in my original post. Looks decent too, even though I'm not a fan of W*ggle. Park Tools aren't all that either.

unconstituted wrote:

Anyway, we all have demons to face. Mine is the RD hanger alignment. Been putting off buying a tool and learning that myself. Its day will come.

Mine is FD alignment. Can I get the bugger straight? Can I hell! 

Got one to fit to my new build and am dreading it. Seriously considering that sodding Campag tool someone recommended the other day (it's not Shimano but apparently it still works).

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

A good point raised above... what is your hourly rate? What do you get paid, and what do you value your free time on an hourly basis.

It was a solicitor that told me that... its not so much the value of the service you are paying for, but the value of the time you would be giving up to do the work yourself. 

That said, I like doing my own mechanics... plus I have massive trust issues... so if something was to go wrong on the bike, I want to know it was my fault. 

Lets just get something straight before I launch a rant on this nonsense. It takes longer to take a bike to an LBS and collect it than it every will to fix any issue on your bike. 

So, about your 'good point raised above' - it's only a good point if you literally have no free time that you would spend lounging around, doing anything less useful than learning and doing mechanics. This is slacker wisdom.

These shitty 'common sense' false dichotomies are a repetitive strain on the soul of every rational person that has to listen to them.

I don't wake up on Sat morning and think, "oh, will I go for a ride today or fix a bottom bracket". No, I spend ten bloody minutes on Thursday evening fixing it, because that's the upper limit of how long it actually takes to remove and replace a press-fit bottom bracket once you know how. 

Fire Youtube up on your lunch hour and watch a handfull of videos - they all show the same thing, some guy hitting the bottom bracket. Tools used varies. 

Apply the same to every single thing you can do on a bike. And do them one at a time, as they come up, so you don't have to spend a whole weekend fixing your bike and 'unable to ride'.  

Leviathon is right to canvass opinions on this, but it's wrong to tell him not to learn how to fix his stuff, when 1. It'll save him money, and 2. it's a simple almost foolproof job (even though it does in honesty appear daunting until you've actually done it once).

unconstituted wrote:

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

A good point raised above... what is your hourly rate? What do you get paid, and what do you value your free time on an hourly basis.

It was a solicitor that told me that... its not so much the value of the service you are paying for, but the value of the time you would be giving up to do the work yourself. 

That said, I like doing my own mechanics... plus I have massive trust issues... so if something was to go wrong on the bike, I want to know it was my fault. 

 

Lets just get something straight before I launch a rant on this nonsense. It takes longer to take a bike to an LBS and collect it than it every will to fix any issue on your bike. 

So, about your 'good point raised above' - it's only a good point if you literally have no free time that you would spend lounging around, doing anything less useful than learning and doing mechanics. This is slacker wisdom.

These shitty 'common sense' false dichotomies are a repetitive strain on the soul of every rational person that has to listen to them.

I don't wake up on Sat morning and think, "oh, will I go for a ride today or fix a bottom bracket". No, I spend ten bloody minutes on Thursday evening fixing it, because that's the upper limit of how long it actually takes to remove and replace a press-fit bottom bracket once you know how. 

Fire Youtube up on your lunch hour and watch a handfull of videos - they all show the same thing, some guy hitting the bottom bracket. Tools used varies. 

Apply the same to every single thing you can do on a bike. And do them one at a time, as they come up, so you don't have to spend a whole weekend fixing your bike and 'unable to ride'.  

Leviathon is right to canvass opinions on this, but it's wrong to tell him not to learn how to fix his stuff, when 1. It'll save him money, and 2. it's a simple almost foolproof job (even though it does in honesty appear daunting until you've actually done it once).

 

not to mention, if you take it to halfords or evans, you will quite possibly end up having to spend some time fixing it yourself anyway!

unconstituted wrote:

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

A good point raised above... what is your hourly rate? What do you get paid, and what do you value your free time on an hourly basis.

It was a solicitor that told me that... its not so much the value of the service you are paying for, but the value of the time you would be giving up to do the work yourself. 

That said, I like doing my own mechanics... plus I have massive trust issues... so if something was to go wrong on the bike, I want to know it was my fault. 

 

Lets just get something straight before I launch a rant on this nonsense. It takes longer to take a bike to an LBS and collect it than it every will to fix any issue on your bike. 

So, about your 'good point raised above' - it's only a good point if you literally have no free time that you would spend lounging around, doing anything less useful than learning and doing mechanics. This is slacker wisdom.

These shitty 'common sense' false dichotomies are a repetitive strain on the soul of every rational person that has to listen to them.

I don't wake up on Sat morning and think, "oh, will I go for a ride today or fix a bottom bracket". No, I spend ten bloody minutes on Thursday evening fixing it, because that's the upper limit of how long it actually takes to remove and replace a press-fit bottom bracket once you know how. 

Fire Youtube up on your lunch hour and watch a handfull of videos - they all show the same thing, some guy hitting the bottom bracket. Tools used varies. 

Apply the same to every single thing you can do on a bike. And do them one at a time, as they come up, so you don't have to spend a whole weekend fixing your bike and 'unable to ride'.  

Leviathon is right to canvass opinions on this, but it's wrong to tell him not to learn how to fix his stuff, when 1. It'll save him money, and 2. it's a simple almost foolproof job (even though it does in honesty appear daunting until you've actually done it once).

 

 

 

Alright treacle, didn't mean to stick a bee in your bonnet....

Don't think i said not to olearn to do it yourself... just to value other peoples time when you oay them to do it for you. 

But... lets be honest, watching the video on youtube is probably going to take ten minutes. 

Buying the tools will be an hour... probably, or again 10-20 mins if buying on line (plus wait for delivery)

Buying the parts will be 10-20mins on line

Then, changing bottom bracket bearing in 10mins is cracking on... cracking on to the point of not getting the job done properly. I wouldn't remove my cranks without taking the opportunity to clean and re-grease bolts/mating surfaces etc. 

I'm being pedantic because you are being overly trivial about mechanis.

For a competent mechanic all jobs on a bike are striaght forward; not everyone is a competent mechanic however. 

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

 

Buying the parts will be 10-20mins on line

Then, changing bottom bracket bearing in 10mins is cracking on... cracking on to the point of not getting the job done properly. I wouldn't remove my cranks without taking the opportunity to clean and re-grease bolts/mating surfaces etc. 

 

20 minutes.

To Google and checkout a bottom bracket.

I'm not even going to ask how long it takes you to clean and grease a few bolts 

Anyway, he doesn't seem keen on trying it out, so whatever.  Anyway, we all have demons to face. Mine is the RD hanger alignment. Been putting off buying a tool and learning that myself. Its day will come.

unconstituted wrote:

20 minutes.

To Google and checkout a bottom bracket.

I'm not even going to ask how long it takes you to clean and grease a few bolts 

Anyway, he doesn't seem keen on trying it out, so whatever.  Anyway, we all have demons to face. Mine is the RD hanger alignment. Been putting off buying a tool and learning that myself. Its day will come.

 

isn't there an app for that?

ChrisB200SX wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

Anyway, we all have demons to face. Mine is the RD hanger alignment. Been putting off buying a tool and learning that myself. Its day will come.

 

isn't there an app for that?

Oh, please tell me there's an app for FD alignment. Please!

dottigirl wrote:

Oh, please tell me there's an app for FD alignment. Please!

This little gadget has saved me more time when building bikes than any other tool I own:

http://www.comtat.co.uk/products/836.htm

srchar wrote:

dottigirl wrote:

Oh, please tell me there's an app for FD alignment. Please!

This little gadget has saved me more time when building bikes than any other tool I own:

http://www.comtat.co.uk/products/836.htm

Thanks for the reminder - think you've mentioned it before? Anyway, I have two bikes to do this with so I've just called an LBS and they're getting one in for me - £11.99.

If anyone else is looking, there's Comtat or you can check your local supplier here:

http://www.chickencyclekit.co.uk/show_product.php?cat=26&p=9758

unconstituted wrote:

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

 

Buying the parts will be 10-20mins on line

Then, changing bottom bracket bearing in 10mins is cracking on... cracking on to the point of not getting the job done properly. I wouldn't remove my cranks without taking the opportunity to clean and re-grease bolts/mating surfaces etc. 

 

 

20 minutes.

To Google and checkout a bottom bracket.

I'm not even going to ask how long it takes you to clean and grease a few bolts 

Anyway, he doesn't seem keen on trying it out, so whatever.  Anyway, we all have demons to face. Mine is the RD hanger alignment. Been putting off buying a tool and learning that myself. Its day will come.

In this modern age where 98% of rear hangers are replaceable, there is literally no need to ever worry about hanger alignment. Let your demons rest.

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

A good point raised above... what is your hourly rate? What do you get paid, and what do you value your free time on an hourly basis.

It was a solicitor that told me that... its not so much the value of the service you are paying for, but the value of the time you would be giving up to do the work yourself. 

That said, I like doing my own mechanics... plus I have massive trust issues... so if something was to go wrong on the bike, I want to know it was my fault. 

 

Lets just get something straight before I launch a rant on this nonsense. It takes longer to take a bike to an LBS and collect it than it every will to fix any issue on your bike. 

So, about your 'good point raised above' - it's only a good point if you literally have no free time that you would spend lounging around, doing anything less useful than learning and doing mechanics. This is slacker wisdom.

These shitty 'common sense' false dichotomies are a repetitive strain on the soul of every rational person that has to listen to them.

I don't wake up on Sat morning and think, "oh, will I go for a ride today or fix a bottom bracket". No, I spend ten bloody minutes on Thursday evening fixing it, because that's the upper limit of how long it actually takes to remove and replace a press-fit bottom bracket once you know how. 

Fire Youtube up on your lunch hour and watch a handfull of videos - they all show the same thing, some guy hitting the bottom bracket. Tools used varies. 

Apply the same to every single thing you can do on a bike. And do them one at a time, as they come up, so you don't have to spend a whole weekend fixing your bike and 'unable to ride'.  

Leviathon is right to canvass opinions on this, but it's wrong to tell him not to learn how to fix his stuff, when 1. It'll save him money, and 2. it's a simple almost foolproof job (even though it does in honesty appear daunting until you've actually done it once).

 

 

 

 

Alright treacle, didn't mean to stick a bee in your bonnet....

Don't think i said not to olearn to do it yourself... just to value other peoples time when you oay them to do it for you. 

But... lets be honest, watching the video on youtube is probably going to take ten minutes. 

Buying the tools will be an hour... probably, or again 10-20 mins if buying on line (plus wait for delivery)

Buying the parts will be 10-20mins on line

Then, changing bottom bracket bearing in 10mins is cracking on... cracking on to the point of not getting the job done properly. I wouldn't remove my cranks without taking the opportunity to clean and re-grease bolts/mating surfaces etc. 

I'm being pedantic because you are being overly trivial about mechanis.

For a competent mechanic all jobs on a bike are striaght forward; not everyone is a competent mechanic however. 

Plus it's really hard to figure out the value of your time.

My hourly rate is such that it would be a no-brainer for me to take it to a mechanic. But I'm not comparing the time that I sell via full-time employment with that of a mechanic. We're comparing my free time. On the market, that has far less value unless I can get a Saturday or evening job consulting. I wouldn't do that, so my free time hourly rate probably holds less market value - but it's much more valuable to me than my Mon-Fri 9-5.

This is a judgement on each individual's part. To me, bike mechanics would probably have to increase their rates by a factor of 5 or 6 for me to consider the inconvenience of the kind of DIY we're talking about, above spending time with my family or riding my bikes, say.

How much I can afford to spend on servicing, and how much I can justify when compared to other methods of commuting, obviously plays a part in that. But there'll be people who can afford to spend more money on servicing their workhorses than I can who happily fettle as their hobby and/or because they're far more competent and efficient in the workshop, and place reasonable value on that pursuit.

I'm happy with basic maintenance and the odd occasional straightforward job, time permitting, but I've got two bikes (commuters/off-roaders) that I batter and they need way more tlc than I'm going to give them. The consequence of that is that the jobs stack up and I have to (pay someone to) regularly take care of them.

tl;dr - I can't be arsed to maintain my beater bikes properly, and there are really good mechanics who'll collect and drop off your bike.