A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

https://tegowerk.eu/posts/bicycle-repair/

by victorstanciu • 2 years ago

219 168 2 years ago

Sadly, many parts of modern mountain bikes seem to be less durable and not repairable. For most of the stuff I can't or don't want/have time to do, I take into the shop. And generally, they throw up their hands and say it needs to be replaced. Did that with two dropper posts this week. (One needed a rebuild that would cost more than replacement. The other had a (luckily under warranty) faulty cartridge).

I will also say that e-bikes are much more fun than I would have thought. And not very serviceable.

Onavo• 2 years ago

You have to factor in labor costs. The marvel of modern logistics is that it's often cheaper to ship a new part over from across the Pacific than it is to do a proper repair where the faulty part is taken apart and hand repaired.

Take a look at the local rate of machinists and mechanical engineers and then decide whether you truly want to have your bike part "repaired".

gsora• 2 years ago

One should choose their bike components carefully. I have been able to service every single component on my mountain bike, excluding suspension since that requires knowledge and time I don’t have time to acquire (yet!). As a general rule choosing mechanical components instead of electronic ones has been rewarding on the longevity and repairability fronts. That said some components are consumable, like the dropper post cartridge you mentioned, but to arrive at the point it requires replacement you either used it a lot (I’m jealous!) or it was simply faulty :-/

Might also be a good idea looking for other bike shops in your area. Mine is always trying to recycle and repair components.

petre5• 2 years ago

Dropper posts are notorious for beaking. Just choose something with a replaceable cartridge.

BrianHenryIE• 2 years ago

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.

rozenmd• 2 years ago

When it's broken, fix your bike - because when you're broken, your bike will fix you.

jstanley• 2 years ago

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

et-al• 2 years ago

Eh, drivers don't even like other drivers. Take road rage for example.

Windshield perspective (or myopia) and car brain are both real phenomena:

- https://grist.org/cities/2011-01-25-if-driving-is-so-great-w...

- https://archive.is/umBJv

rafaelmn• 2 years ago

Also they can be very vegan about it.

wpm• 2 years ago

Read: making someone drive slower to the next red light 100 feet ahead.

At least that’s my experience in Chicago.

kqr3• 2 years ago

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.

rsingel2• 2 years ago

Cyclists are traffic.

globular-toast5• 2 years ago

Cyclists don't hold up traffic. They are tiny and very easy to overtake if they are too slow. Cars hold up traffic because they're too big to overtake anything.

ndsipa_pomu8• 2 years ago

It's very rare for cyclists to be holding up traffic for anything more than a few seconds and usually only in specific scenarios (e.g. going up a hill on a narrow road). It's far more common for motorised vehicle congestion to be the thing adding delays to people's journeys and bizarrely, there's a common mindset amongst drivers to always want to overtake cyclists even when just a cursory glance ahead shows that they can only make a tiny bit of progress until they join the queue at the next junction. It's referred to as Must Get In Front (MGIF) and annoys me when cycling as often an unsafe overtake will be performed by a driver and then I'll go filtering past them a few seconds later - why overtake when it makes no difference to your journey time?

eternauta3k• 2 years ago

I don't like cyclists sometimes, and I'm a cyclist... I think anything faster than walking can put the best people into a selfish hurried mind state.

agumonkey4• 2 years ago

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).

Ringz2• 2 years ago

You're absolutely right! However, the main difference is that cyclists pose much less danger to other road users compared to motorcycles, cars, or trucks. Of course, there are accidents where a cyclist collides with a person and causes serious injuries, but when a motorcycle, car, or truck collides with other people, the consequences are dramatically more severe. This isn't to justify cyclists doing whatever they want in traffic, but they usually only endanger themselves. If they collide with a car, the car might get a dent, which can be fixed within a few days, whereas the cyclist might struggle with injuries for weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime.

ndsipa_pomu8• 2 years ago

I take a different attitude towards seeing unruly cyclists - for me, it's about damage limitation. Assuming that 5-10% of people are idiots and behave like idiots on the road, we want to ensure that they aren't behind the driving wheel of a car as that's 2 tonnes of speeding metal that causes a lot of damage to others when driven by an idiot. We want to take those idiots and get them onto bicycles as their speed and mass will be drastically lower and also they'll be likely to reap the rewards of cycling like an idiot which usually ends up hurting the cyclist more than anyone else (even hitting a pedestrian will often result in the cyclist coming worse off).

So, every idiot cyclist you see is an idiot not in a car and thus a reason to celebrate them.

ThomasBb2• 2 years ago

Thankful I learned to fix a flat tire at 5 and steadily built experience in bike repair since, from where my first moped and car repairs felt like basic extensions…

The blog comes very close to quoting ‘zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance’ -I wonder if the author read that…

victorstanciu6• 2 years ago

The blog comes very close to quoting ‘zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance’ -I wonder if the author read that…

I did! But I did so long before I started with bike repair, so at that time I couldn't really connect with it. Thank you for reminding me that I should give it a second read!

iamthemonster• 2 years ago

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 massively reduced.

I love the concept of bicycles that are deliberately built to be low maintenance.

jamesdepp• 2 years ago

Priority Continuum Onyx by any chance? Those things are absolute beasts. Fantastic commuter bikes.

victorstanciu6• 2 years ago

Interesting point of view, thank you! For me maintenance and repair have enhanced riding rather than diminish it. I find it's similar to how cooking enhances eating, or yard work enhances laying around the yard. Of course I hate having a malfunction while riding as much as the next guy, but I also ride with more confidence because I know I can handle pretty much anything that can go wrong, even on the go.

TeMPOraL• 2 years ago

I'm strongly with GP on this. I wonder if this isn't some kind of broader difference between people, because I also disagree with the excellent examples you used. Cooking and yard work don't enhance my subsequent enjoyment of a good meal or relaxation - rather, I experience both to be annoying bullshit chores (ABC!) that, more often than not, I can't get myself to engage in, which means they deny the experience altogether instead of enhancing it.

Makes me think of the old, well-known saying, that you should focus on the journey rather than destination. In my mind, it does not compute. I often wonder if I'm broken somehow.

ThomasBb2• 2 years ago

You’re on to something here - as a Dutch person, luke any of my friends, I have a ‘ daily driver’ bike with a in-hub set of gears, enclosed chain, drum brakes - and the thing is near indestructible. It spends its days in the street in front of my house chained to a bike rack ans still barely ever needs anything fixed. The typical ‘road bikes’ with derailleurs and rim brakes are fun when performance counts -but if you’re just getting around, who cares?

kashyapc5• 2 years ago

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 I live in the "Low Lands" (Flanders, Belgium), so no hills around here, and it's a bicycle-first city.

rsingel2• 2 years ago

Seconded. Love that my single speed rarely needs anything other than some air in the tires. I've got a converted 70s Raleigh that has been bomber for almost 20 years, with the only exception being a busted crank arm. Replace those old hollow aluminum things if you go this route.

Even got my dad a single speed e-bike. If you live somewhere mildly flat, that's a fantastic choice for durability with an ebike.

So many bikes end up unridden because the gears went wonky.

bombela2• 2 years ago

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.

mckn1ght• 2 years ago

I’m kind of stuck in the worst spot between both. Maintenance is a chore, but I still prefer to DIY vs taking it to the shops near me, which are various combinations of rude, unreliable (both in terms of scheduling and quality of work), and expensive.

So I just suck it up and try to fit the work in when I can, which is almost never.

matsemann6• 2 years ago

Yeah, the "LBS" thing has been slowly dying. Maybe because of online shopping, but it also feels weird to pay premium for subpar service. Perhaps a spiral of death of sorts.

There is no bike repair in walking distance from me, so taking a bike in for repair means having to find other means of getting home and back there. To me, that's the biggest hurdle. Also, they give Littles guarantees to when they will actually work on the bike, and I don't want to be without it for an indefinite time.

If I instead could book a slot, come there, deliver it, walk around some other shops for an hour or two, then pick it up and bike home, I would've probably given them more business.

I enjoy most of my bike repairs, but some of them I can do without. For instance switching to studded winter tires, my tire+rim combo is a hassle to get on.

vundercind• 2 years ago

Bicycle maintenance is what got me out of the habit of riding. You don’t ride for a little while and soon trying to pick it back up first means tires need a lot of air… oh that one’s going flat before the end of the block… Christ, it’s the rear one, there goes the whole afternoon expecially since I’ll for-sure mess up other stuff in the process. Guess I’ll do it next time.

Then I don’t, and stop riding.

It’s crazy that my car beats every bike I’ve owned handily in both maintenance-hours-per-hour-of-use and (obviously, by a loooong shot) maintenance-hours-per-mile. And it has complex electronics and has to contain little explosions and has parts than spin thousands of times per minute! And a damn air conditioner, which is a whole thing all in its own! Plus only cost as much as a surprisingly small number of allegedly-minimally-decent bikes despite requiring way more mass in materials and far more complex manufacturing. Hell, the precious metals in it alone… the bikes have none or practically none of that.

I love riding bikes though. Negative interest in spending any time maintaining them, and taking them to the shop all the time’s impractical (now the costs are really crazy, plus I have to transport them there and back)

[edit] fwiw when I eventually get over the sticker shock at what bikes with any nice features at all cost, I’ll probably get a low-maintenance bike like yours. Do wanna try those airless tires some companies make first, though. Shit’s always going flat, it’s the worst, hardly worth it if I’m still gonna have that problem or if the airless tires are terrible in other ways.

lloeki• 2 years ago

You don’t ride for a little while and soon trying to pick it back up first means tires need a lot of air [...] Shit’s always going flat

I don't know what it is about this, I've owned bikes for 30 years to ride in a mix of conditions (from mountain trail to city) and I've had like 5 flats, tops. One because I failed to bunny hop a curb and blew the whole thing, busting the wheel in the process, and the others because I drove over something that punctured the tube.

My last bike I've had for about 10 years til it was stolen last year, at some point I left it unattended for like 3 years, and when I picked it up again it wasn't at perfect pressure, but certainly wasn't flat at all, far from it, and definitely ridable. I know because my el cheapo pump was bust and I rode it to the nearest shop.

By the time it got stolen, only the front tube had a change a couple years before because of a puncture (rode on shattered glass) but the other was still factory and perfectly fine at holding air.

This experience has been consistent with all my bikes, and friends that ride good hardware have a similar experience. Some others though, they keep on regularly being flat but from what I gather it's a) cheaping out on the hardware and b) being mind boggingly careless about what they ride over.

matsemann6• 2 years ago

I've never had problems with flats, other than once where I had got lots of metal shavings in my tire which gave me flats for a few days until I caved and bought a new tire.

So your problem doesn't really sound like one most people have. I normally get flats like every other year or so. And that's with thousands and thousands of kilometers of riding each year.

julian55• 2 years ago

I agree with you. I've also found that themore modern a bike is the more difficult it is to maintain

Take hydraulic disc brakes for example, when they work they are great but when they fail they don't work at all. You then have to bleed them which is fiddly, messy and requires special tools then you'll probably have to do it all over again after a few rides. Tubeless tyres are similar.

petre5• 2 years ago

Special tools: a bleed kit (funnel, syringe, silicon hose), two Alen wrenches an insert press and a hose cutter but you can also get away with a hammer, a vice, yellow holding blocks provided with the hose kit and a regular cutter. For tubelees you need a syringe and a tire booster.

tpm• 2 years ago

My experience with tubeless is that once I found a good setup, it's set and forget. I don't get punctures (none at all), maybe once a week top up the pressure, once a year top up the milk and that's it. It was like that with Panaracer GK+ tyres, but they have to be under pressure when I don't ride for longer periods, otherwise there are issues. Now I use Pirelli Cinturato Velo tlr and it's the best tyre I ever had.

alisonatwork• 2 years ago

This.

I think it's worth mentioning that cycle touring doesn't have to be complicated either. I was always scared to take a bike ride longer than a weekend because so many people in that scene appear to be major gear nerds. Then I met a hobo who had just jumped off a train with a battered up omafiets and he inspired me to strap a bunch of crap to my cheap hybrid and cycle all the way across North America.

Turns out you don't need the latest and greatest anything, you don't need to spend a zillion dollars on tools, or sit around tinkering every day. If you can change a tube and oil the chain, that's about all you need to know how to do. Even with broken spokes or a snapped cable you can hobble along for a couple days, till the next town with a bike shop. And if your bike is cheap and generic, every bike shop will have the replacement parts already in stock.

When I cycled through Colombia I did it on a Buffalo Bike which was slow, heavy and pretty much indestructible. Took ages to get anywhere, but who cares? Rather spend my time pootling along slowly than trying to fix stuff. Fixing stuff is my job, that's the last thing I want to do in my personal time.

enneff3• 2 years ago

That’s why I favour simple single-speed bikes for commuting. Almost nothing can go wrong with them, and you can fix almost anything that does go wrong with a small bike tool. It’s also nice that they’re so cheap you don’t really care too much if it gets stolen, so there’s no stress about locking it up somewhere a bit dodgy.

jillesvangurp• 2 years ago

Bike leasing is a thing now. Here in Berlin, I've used Swapfiets for a while. You pay something like 25 euros a month and in return you get a decent bike to ride (comfortable, 6 gears, good brakes, etc.). If there are any issues, you just go to store and get a freshly serviced one. Zero hassle. I've done this for minor rattles, the gears feeling a bit loose, etc. They actually remind people to come in for a fresh bike once in a while because they know these things need maintenance.

You end up spending about 300/year. And for that money you have no need to worry about repairs. Or theft. These things seem to be immune to being stolen. Both those things are big issues because repairs are expensive if you don't do them yourself and bike theft means you need to replace them (or pay extra for insurance) when that happens and it also means that using a nice bike to get around is risky.

With Swapfiets, I never worried about theft. You just lock it and the bike thieves apparently ignore them as they are probably hard to sell on (as they are very recognizable). I've done that all over Berlin, including many of the hot spots where I'd normally be reluctant to leave anything of value unattended.

mo_422• 2 years ago

I had a similar experience during the pandemic. I got hold of an old frame for a road bike that I somehow liked. Even the paint was pretty bad so I went all the way of stripping the old paint, cold-setting the rear dropouts (thanks to Sheldon Brown's website) so that it will take the modern wheels, painting the frame, and assembling everything with new parts.

It took me two years because I had to learn a lot how different components fit together and all sorts of specific spacings.

Now, I have a very unique and beautiful bike (people on the street tell me). But above all, I know every detail of that bicycle and how to fix it.

The reason why IT people love this stuff (also woodworking, gardening, etc.) so much is that there's routine. Most of the bikes are very similar. If you've rebuilt one, you have the competency to build another one.

In software, every project is a new challenge. It's more like building a new technical object all the time. I think software development could benefit from rewriting stuff every now and then. Many of my former projects would benefit a lot if I had a couple of week to take apart all the functions and assemble them in a better way that consideres everything I've learned so far.

leke2• 2 years ago

Now you've got me interested in what your bike looks like

victorstanciu6• 2 years ago

Now, I have a very unique and beautiful bike (people on the street tell me).

Well you can't just entice us like that without posting a photo! Here's one I painted that I am really proud of how it came out: https://tegowerk.eu/posts/nakamura-shadow-city-bike/

mo_422• 2 years ago

True, thanks for sharing. Here's the one: https://imgur.com/a/SsdVhCT

minikomi• 2 years ago

Stunner!

sourcecodeplz• 2 years ago

Working on the bike for me is therapeutic. It’s like trimming the plants/trees.

xkcd19632• 2 years ago

But it is true. Most websites concern with companies competing in a market. If you believe a war-industry is good because it provides jobs, but you don't take into consideration that war destroys stuff and lives and just creates misery for most of us, you are shortsighted at best.

victorstanciu6• 2 years ago

Uh, what? Did you reply to the wrong post by any chance?

WA2• 2 years ago

I think it relates to the last section of the post about building websites.

WA2• 2 years ago

That's quite a stretch. Competition is good for the market. The problem are the big tech quasi-monopolies and they usually don't hire small web agencies to build their website.

Or to stay in your analogy: if your country is at war, you apparently see every manufacturing business as part of this war-industry. Even the bakery around the corner.

leke2• 2 years ago

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 oiling a chain. General and advanced bike maintenance was a mystery until YouTube came along. Now I get to pass this knowledge directly to my kids.

dailykoder5• 2 years ago

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 just stays good and doesn't creak all the time, they fall in love with them. I love bikes.

UnserMannInK4• 2 years ago

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!

whazor• 2 years ago

A decent second hand bike costs 80 euros in The Netherlands

8A51C• 2 years ago

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.

stavros4• 2 years ago

I have a shitty bike that I bought for 150 € ten years ago. It creaks everywhere, is hard to ride, and a thief once actually moved it out of the way to steal the bike behind it.

I use it every day but I'm not going to get a better one, because I don't want to be constantly worried that someone will steal it. I want to use it as transportation, leave it wherever, and know that it will still be there because it's not worth stealing.

Plus, being hard to ride means I get extra exercise for my fixed-length rides.

The_Colonel2• 2 years ago

Not sure what price range you have in mind, but you get diminishing returns very quickly. You can get a very solid bike for under 1000 EUR/USD.

Carlseymanh• 2 years ago

I bought a 100€ used MTB almost ten years ago, still ride it weekly, and the only major work i did on it was swapping tires from tasseled to road ones. Still, I can smoke people riding ebikes since they are locked under 25km/h in italy. Spending thousands on a bike is understandable if you are really into it but not necessary at all

silisili• 2 years ago

There's a certain zen that comes with maintenance or building of everything, from bikes to radios to cars. I'm not sure if it comes from experience or age, but when it happens it changes how you think of things. Finding that zen leads to faster and better quality work. Maybe it's just an exercise in patience that feels zen like.

My back's not got much in it these days, so I've mostly been supervising my wife who stubbornly wants to learn it all. It's funny watching her go through the same hot head, cuss, throw your tools experience I did years ago. I tried to explain my zen theory, but she sure wasn't having it, so I'm leaning towards experience.

randcraw• 2 years ago

Zen and the art of bicycle maintenance... a la Pirsig? Maybe, as she works, you could read her passages from the book about bringing quality to life through wrenching bikes, of all kinds?

slovette• 2 years ago

This is how marriages end in divorce. Haha.

pelorat• 2 years ago

During the pandemic I decided I wanted to build a bike too, the idea came to me after watching Berm Peak and Park Tools on YouTube, similar to what happened to this person. So being stuck working from home, I bought parts and tools to build a brand new full suspension mountain bike. Like this person it took longer than I wanted because I was missing some specialized tools (bearing and bearing press for the rear suspension) and parts I didn't know I needed. But it all worked out in the end.

When the project was finished took apart my old off-the-shelf mountain bike, now all that remains of it is a frame with the paint stripped off. I plan to convert it to internal cable routing, paint it (I've been watching Etoe on YouTube) and then turn it into an e-bike.

As a side effect of buying all the tools you need to build and repair bikes, I've also repaired my almost two decades sold exercise bike, which had trashed ball bearings. It also made me realize that most people would have thrown it away and bought a brand new one.

victorstanciu6• 2 years ago

Martin (ETOE) is awesome, his channel is where I learned to paint bikes from too.

petre5• 2 years ago

I've been building a new bike every year since 2018 or 2019. This year I took apart the alloy bike assembled in 2019 and moved the parts to a new steel Surly frame. During the pandemic I've built a steel hardtail.

AlunAlun• 2 years ago

I suspect what the author takes joy from is more the satisfaction of learning a new skill.

Like many things, bike maintenance eventually becomes a chore. Most of my (many) bikes over the last 30 years have been built from the ground up, including the wheels. And I don’t (or won’t) trust any shop mechanic to touch them. But now, the thought of doing any sort of maintenance fills me with dread - I want to ride my bikes, not spend hours fiddling with brake hydraulics and suspension seals!

drdo2• 2 years ago

This perfectly matches my experience.

david-gpu3• 2 years ago

I want to ride my bikes, not spend hours fiddling with brake hydraulics and suspension seals!

Not a problem! Why not...

I don’t (or won’t) trust any shop mechanic to touch them

Oh. That explains it.

Have you considered reverting to simpler bicycles that require less frequent and simpler maintenance. Rigid frame, cable-actuated brakes, possibly a gearbox?

matsemann6• 2 years ago

Back in time as a student, I had to stay in the student city over summer due to an internship. Everyone else left, so the evenings were quite free. I ended up buying a cheap old bikes and refurbish it completely. Like, take every single piece apart, clean, sand and possibly paint.

It gave me an admiration for the cleverness but also the simplicity of the design. Truing the wheels felt like an art, and I got so interested in the concept that I ended up writing my thesis around lacing patterns for the spokes on the wheels. It actually got posted to HN at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10410813

I do all maintenance on my bikes now. Always a good excuse to buy some new gadget, right? This other week I applied new bar tape and bled my brakes. I originally wanted some repair shop to do it, but that would mean bike there, get to work somehow, then get back there and then be able to bike home. Seemed more hassle than just fixing it myself, given I'm dependent on my bike.

Luc• 2 years ago

I was just thinking it would be neat to use an LLM to study how comments on a post change in tone as the sun rises over different countries and cultures. Also what articles make it to the front page etc.

At the moment the US is asleep, and I’m getting more of a European vibe from the comments.

ndsipa_pomu8• 2 years ago

I think you're right about the U.S. not getting involved yet. They suffer a lot from motonormativity and consider cyclists to be the bane of civilisation.

zeristor• 2 years ago

Monty Python’s Mr Bicycle repairman.

https://youtu.be/Tq_xTeWiv6I

I remember first seeing this and thinking in some way it is more than funny, a more equal world.

ultrablack• 2 years ago

Zen, and the art of bicycle maintenance?

lotsoweiners• 2 years ago

https://www.bigandtallbike.com/zinn-the-art-of-mountain-bike...

lqet• 2 years ago

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 < 20 EUR) because you couldn't ride them anymore, and restoring them was quite relaxing. For example, I restored one with a mint-condition frame, using mostly original parts. Originally, it cost 70 EUR. It now looks exactly like this (minus the pannier and with the original gearshift): 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.

wruza• 2 years ago

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”.

getwiththeprog3• 2 years ago

A very good bike is AUD$1000, a great bike is AUD$2000, and a super-duper over the top bike is AUD$3000. Anything more is potlatch https://www.britannica.com/topic/potlatch

I'm sorry to say I do understand all these above pricing categories short of potlatch.

SebFender• 2 years ago

"You’ll never hear a baker say their job is bullshit." Disconnection from our work and results in general is a people killer - It always surprises me more aren't sensitive to this great truth of life...

freetime24• 2 years ago

I love cycling but absolutely hate maintenance. I’d always prefer to be riding my bike than working on it. Two recent enhancements that significantly improved my life are electronic shifting, and wax lube.

I haven’t had to mess around with gear indexing once since I bought a bike with electronic shifting (SRAM Rival) a couple years ago, and it always shifts perfectly. I do have to keep the batteries charged, but one charge a week is more than enough with daily riding - so never had any issues there.

With wax lube (I use Squirt) I spend a lot less time cleaning my chain. What used to be a pretty annoying weekly process of degreasing and lubing my chain now takes a minute or two: use a dry brush to scrape off any excess wax buildup and then apply more wax. Much quicker and much cleaner than the old dry lube I used to use. And the chain is cleaner and quieter too.

Other than that, I basically hose off the bike and wipe it with a towel after every ride, and align/clean the disc brakes occasionally. My ratio of ride time to maintenance time has never been higher.

Quothling2• 2 years ago

I think bike maintenance is one of those things that is similar to how you read about programmers who pick up woodworking here on HN. I know it's a zen thing for me, similar to other "craftmanship" (I'm not sure if this is the right english word for things like machanics, carpenters, plubmers and so on) like home improvement DIY, gardening or even cleaning the damn house.

It's just very zen. Both because it tends to relatively less tasking on your executive functions, is physical and provides tangible results that you can see and "feel" relatively quickly. It may also be because programming is frankly a craftmanship for the most parts. There are a few projects where I'm doing Computer Science, but for the most part I'm a digital plumber.

freetime24• 2 years ago

I think I could enjoy it if I had more time to spend on it. It’s certainly satisfying when you’ve got everything clean and lubed and dialed in just right.

But for me it always just feels like a chore - something I need to get done before tomorrow morning or else I have to listen to some dreadful sound for the entire ride.

ndsipa_pomu8• 2 years ago

I'm at the other end of the spectrum and am always fettling my bikes and looking to upgrade parts etc. However, I've switched over to just using Squirt lube on my chain (on my road bike at least) as I previously tried the full wax treatment. That involved cleaning a new chain to remove the factory applied grease (using a cheap ultrasonic cleaning machine) and then using a cheap pan to warm up paraffin wax to which I added some micronised graphite (bought off eBay) for extra lubrication, although it turns the wax and your drive-train black. Soak the chain, then pull it out and let it cool off until the wax has hardened. I found that a treated chain would last for about 100 miles or so before needing a top-up (of squirt lube) or another dip in the wax bath, so I was alternating between two chains.

However, when I was topping-up the treatment with Squirt, I thought why not just use the Squirt and not bother with the whole waxing business. The problem I have is not being good at looking after my bike straight after a ride and here in the UK, that means the chain tends to get rusty so I end up getting through more chains than I should.

fulafel• 2 years ago

There's also the old low-maintenance way that is common for people who commute daily on city bikes - internal gear (or single speed) hub, and just ignore your chain apart from adding oil when it starts squeaking, and get it serviced once a year or so or when a problem appears. A newer variation is belt drive instead of chain.

freetime24• 2 years ago

Yup I have a commuter bike with a belt and internal hub and I absolutely love it. Basically zero maintenance.

I think all city bikes should be belt and internal hub.

nwatson• 2 years ago

I bought a bicycle with a Pinion gear box and a Gates carbon belt drive. No lube, no derailleur, no chain falling off, no maintenance, hose off after a muddy ride. The belt will last 3x longer than a chain presumably.

EDIT: autocorrect

TaylorAlexander• 2 years ago

I pulled a rusted 2011 Fuji mountain bike out of the mud at burning man and spent the fall replacing every part on it except the frame, fork, and seat. I set up craigslist alerts for bike parts in my area, explored the local bike salvage shops, and found deals like a $35 dropper post that only needed a $6 bushing to be good as new. I installed hydraulic brakes with huge rotors, got the tires I wanted, and had an absolute blast wrenching on it while listening to Flip Bike videos on YouTube. I really found out how much I love wrenching on bikes that fall. After years of only road biking since my mountain bike was stolen and then I converted my new mountain bike to an electric city street runner, I finally had an analog mountain bike again and I built it all up myself. It was wonderful and the first mountain ride (my first in years) was transcendent.

But I’ve noticed that if what I want to be doing is be out riding my bike, I sure do hate it when something needs to be fixed!

zikduruqe2• 2 years ago

Just wait until you hot wax your chain. Take the chain off your bike, drop it into a crock pot full of wax, take a nap, wake up, put chain back on bike.

I personally love working on bikes. I'd replace my behind the keyboard all day tech job in a split second, if I could afford to do so.

Clean after every ride? That's way overkill. I only clean my bike when I need to re-wax my chain.

freetime24• 2 years ago

Clean after every ride? That's way overkill.

I tend to sweat a lot, and sweat is corrosive. If it’s not a sweaty ride, and the roads are dry, I’ll skip the cleaning sometimes.

ndsipa_pomu8• 2 years ago

You want to be careful with leaving paraffin wax unattended - it's got a low ignition temperature.

discreteevent• 2 years ago

There's no need to degrease your chain. In fact kmc recommend that you don't. Just give it a wipe once a week and apply a little oil. Maybe scrape some of the crap off the sprockets every few months.

Ringz2• 2 years ago

I have a 1993 or 1994 Marin Indian Fire Trail mountain bike that I've been repairing over the past few weeks. I've replaced all the brake and shift cables, new tubes and tires, and performed the usual maintenance on the ball bearings, like cleaning and greasing them. The biggest issue was getting my Shimano XT derailleur, which is integrated with the brake levers, back in working order. Thankfully, I found YouTube videos that alleviated my fear of completely disassembling, cleaning, re-greasing, and reassembling the gear unit. It's a marvel of engineering that reminds me of a simple watch mechanism (a very simple one). Until I found the YouTube video, I thought I definitely had to buy a new derailleur. However, that would have led to many other new parts being needed, like new cogs, new brake levers, etc. Then perhaps other issues because the bike still has old cantilever brakes and so on. After reassembling the derailleur, the bike runs as well as it did on the first day: the gears click and clack so wonderfully that it's a pure joy to shift. Plus, there's the wonderful feeling of having restored a 40-year-old mountain bike to working order with the original parts.

I also have an older road racing bike that is completely equipped with a Shimano 105 groupset. With it, maintenance and getting it running is child's play. The simplicity of a frame shifter makes everything much easier.

Bikes are the best invention since sliced bread.

Helmut10001• 2 years ago

I still use my aluminum mountain bike from 1997. At 27 years now, it still drives like a new bike. I invest about 300 Eur every two years for repairs. Use it 10-20 km daily. No need for a car!

globular-toast5• 2 years ago

The modern bicycle is the pinnacle of personal transport technology. It's yet to be surpassed. Unfortunately unbridled consumption of fossil fuels has made cars economical enough that you can't cycle anywhere any more. I heard people are getting into gravel biking now because the road is too unpleasant.

I maintain a small but shrinking amount of hope that we might be able to get rid of cars. Sometimes I think it's getting better, but then I remember how much had already been ceded to them in just my lifetime. Maybe when I'm old it will be possible to cycle around safely and young people will know true freedom.

Repairing bicycles is part of that freedom really. You don't a lot of space or super expensive tools. There's no toxic liquids to deal with. I rebuilt a bike from the frame up around 2006 without any help from YouTube. I realised later I did a lot of it wrong as I was essentially guessing, but I still rode it for many hundreds of miles.

tim333• 2 years ago

In London things have got quite a lot better of cycling over the last decade or so - more cycle routes and more car restrictions. So it can trend the other way. Also ebikes help.

jpgvm• 2 years ago

Wrenching on a motorcycle is similarly rewarding/zen. A little more complex than a bicycle and sometimes requiring some more specialist tools but otherwise pretty much the same thing.

Especially older, carbureted motorcycles with minimal electronics. You can often work everything out and get them going like new again with just some elbow grease and replacing perishables like fluids, seals, gaskets, etc.

Not to mention it's fun riding a bike that previously didn't even kick over before it came into your hands.

parasti• 2 years ago

Thanks, this was a good read. To me, this puts a finger on a fear of mine that probably many programmers have. How do you show someone else the thing that you've built, how do you show them the work that you do and the value that it creates? To an observer, say, your own child, you're just sitting in front of a screen. There's layers upon layers of cruft that you need to first learn to understand what your parent is doing there. A physical thing is easy - you can just show them that thing that you made.

thread_id• 2 years ago

For me personally, I cannot overstate the value I get from solving problems in the physical space and how that transends into my work as a software engineer. However, that being said I really enjoy the dynamic of software development that allows the ability to hack: start building without a clear plan, try, prototype, tear down, throw out, start again.

p3rls• 2 years ago

Ha that's why the trades have the motto: we do it nice, we do it twice :)

me2too• 2 years ago

Good read, thanks. I found myself in this article having started to repair an old bicycle and bringing it back to life. I always thought that manual labor is more satisfactory than mental labor because you can immediately see the outcome and the value produced. Being a computer engineer I feel the need to disconnect myself from what I call "the abstract world" and get in touch with something real. Something I can touch.

TacticalCoder• 2 years ago

How timely: my bicycle's rear tire is a goner. My brother changes it by himself but I only have the skill to take the wheel off and bring it to the shop!

and the greater the chance they’ll conclude they’re working in a bullshit job.

OK but you guys all know how many software have been involved in the creation and shipping of that bicycle and all its material? It's software all the way. The 3D modelling, the logistics, all the payment processing making buying/shipping the materials, etc.

I won't comment on taxes (on revenues for all the companies involved and on their employees too and on the sale etc.) and all the software that implicates and all the bureaucracy that it allows to thrive because, to me, that is the real bullshit that should be decimated (not reduced to zero but decimated).

But anyway many things we enjoy and take for granted exists thanks to and because of software.

Put it this way: even if they're similar in that they both have two wheels, I'm not trading an early 20th century for my Specialized (californian company btw even though I'm in the EU) full carbon S-Works (S-Works is the top end from Specialized) bicycle.

Thank you very much, software devs, for having made the creation of that wonderful bicycle possible.

erie• 2 years ago

When you balance your ride in the back seat of a bicycle driven by a tiny teenager half your weight, it means you truly know how a bicycle goes. I think the Danes are the top cyclists nation, I remember when I offered the principal of orphan school girls, to make an international call from my house instead of waiting for hours at the post office of my town in Syria back in the 70's, she encouraged me to ride my bicycle and not to worry about her riding behind me, I was scared from the imbalance but there was none, the looks and whistle of some people were a many though. The sight of 15 year old me pedaling while a big blond woman sitting behind me was amazing.

theoleksii• 2 years ago

I can totally relate to that! But in my case it's airplane ownership and maintenance. One day I'm staring at my IDE, and find myself thinking about how I'm going to fix that nasty fuel smell in the cockpit. And when it's all done after a day on the apron—that's the high point!

And small airplane maintenance isn't that complex actually. Modern cars are way more complex.

agumonkey4• 2 years ago

Since I tried to learn bike mechanics, my bike is now operating worse :) I need some full tutorials.

TomMasz• 2 years ago

I'm not a mechanic by any means but I can change tires and lube the chain, the two most common tasks. But modern derailleurs and disc brakes I'm happy to have a pro work on.

scott_w• 2 years ago

Just a small thing about bikes being “harder” to maintain than they used to be. I really think they’re not! I tried to take the back wheel off a friend’s old mountain bike and realised it’s waaaay more complicated to take apart than a modern QR skewer or thru-axle. The only real fiddly bit is if you bought internal cable routing but that’s only really on mid-to-upper tier bikes. Even then, a modern frame is easier to route than a 10-year-old frame (speaking from experience!)

Don’t be deterred from learning it for yourself!

A love letter to bicycle maintenance and repair

Related Stories