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Any resources good for learning bicycle assembly and maintenance that you could recommend by chance? There’re so many available, but if you have started doing t

Any resources good for learning bicycle assembly and maintenance that you could recommend by chance? There’re so many available, but if you have started doing this more or less recently perhaps you remember which would help a beginner the most?

brudgers 6y ago
Sheldon Brown for theory stuff. Youtube for hands on. But of course practice to gain experience is really all there is for learning mechanical sympathy.
- bigiain 6y ago
  I'd also recommend trying top make friends with someone who is already doing it (at a level high enough beyond you that you'll learn useful stuff from them). Car/motorcycle/bike maintenance - it's always better to have someone who has a fair bit more experience than you sitting in your shed drinking your beer and eating your pizza while you do your own work.
  - brudgers 6y ago
    I learned how to adjust caliper brakes watching a bike mechanic swap out my front cable in about 90 seconds. I saw it was entirely a matter of feel and visualization.
    - bigiain 6y ago
      > I saw it was entirely a matter of feel Depends, I guess, on where you're starting from. Some people know how hard you should/shouldn't push on a 10mm spanner or a 6mm allen key. That kind of "matter of feel" comes from someone who's already got it showing you and letting you feel it, or from a trail of stripped bolts and/or crashes where your brakes failed or fell off 'cause you didn't torque them up tight enough... In person expertise is not essential, but I do think launching into repairing your own brakes is perhaps the _worst_ example of something you should learn from Youtube... (Although adjusting bicycle brake cables is not nearly as bad an example as, say, removing callipers and swapping out brake pads on a motorcycle...) If you can find someone to help teach you, it's well worth the pizza and beer it usually costs...
      - brudgers 6y ago
        I suspect you haven't replaced CV joints using a Chilton's Manual. Bicycles are easy. They don't require force or working overhead in a tight space next to a hot shop light, and don't leak fluids into puddles with your face in between. They're not scary except in the sense that someone doesn't have expertise. There's nothing there that can't be done right by trial and error and mechanical reasoning. It just takes putting it together wrong and taking it apart a few times until its right. Anyone can overhaul a bike in four days.
        bigiain 6y ago
        Uhhh, yeah I have. More often using Haines Manual. But I've done CVs on 69 and 72 Beetles, a bunch of early 70s Leyland Mini race cars, two different late 80s Suzuki Swifts, late 90s Ford Laser, and Alfa Romeo Sud and a Sprint, and a 2005-ish RAV4. I've also totally stripped and rebuilt several VW Beetle motors (and a Kombi one), a 13B Mazda rotary (which ended up in the 72 Beetle eventually), and my Ducati Monster 900 (engine/gearbox). I own one motorcycle that needs a new top end rebuild every 10,000km (A Cagiva Mito 125cc two stroke). I've done the desmo valve clearances on that Ducati every 20,000km since 1999 (it's got over 320,000km on it now.) So I'm not particularly scared of most mechanical things (I'm more put off by the pains of a 50year old body crouching down next to a motorcycle in the cold these days than worried about working on the mechanical stuff...) But I _am_ acutely aware that many (most?) people didn't have fathers who taught them how to work on cars/lawnmowers when they were 7 or 8 years old, and have no clue at all how tight fasteners should be or much force you can put on them before starting to worry about whether you need to start checking if you've missed the lock nut or split pin. People who have no feel for whats "About right" for a 10mm fastener compared to a 17mm or 32mm one. People who don't read a torque spec of 10Nm for an M6 fastener and realise "Oooh, that's not very tight, must be a stainless fastener into a soft-ish allow..." I _strongly_ stand by my advice of making a more experienced friend and having them oversee things and be there for when you're not sure if you're doing things right.
        twic 6y ago
        But did you win the Putnam?
narwally 6y ago
The Park Tool youtube channel is good at explaining things in a lots of detail without being convoluted. It should cover 95% of what you'd need to learn. The hardest part is trying to figure out what components are compatible with what. There are more standards for bottom brackets than there are for character encoding.
- twic 6y ago
  The Park Tool videos are phenomenal. I particularly like the Tech Tuesday videos, partly because Calvin Jones is so fun to watch (although he's not just a pretty face [2]), but also because, for example, this is the first explanation i ever heard of how hydraulic brakes self-centre that actually makes sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXFFgRButo&vl=fr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXFFgRButo&vl=fr [2] https://www.probma.org/blog/calvin-jones-more-neednt-be-said https://www.probma.org/blog/calvin-jones-more-neednt-be-said
em-bee 6y ago
get an old bike. take it apart and put it back together. i built my own bike without help when i was a teenager. there aren't that many parts and your main struggle will be to decide what from the different options for each part to choose. there are different gear and brake systems to choose from, and if you don't know what's better for you, your bikeshop can advise you. for my bike i used mostly standard parts, that is the common stuff found on every other bike and available in every shop. the only thing where i splurged is a good leather sattle from brooks.
ornornor 6y ago
Check if there is a community bicycle workshop where you live. They’re usually run by volunteers in universities where they have all the tools, you come with your bike, tell them what you want to fix or adjust, they show you how to do it, and then you do it yourself. They usually let you bring your own parts or have a stash of used parts. That’s how I learned almost everything I know on the subject and it didn’t even take that long to learn. And the park tools videos are very well done.
twic 6y ago
Personally, i grew up cycling, learned a lot from my dad, and have learned a lot from trial and error (mostly the latter) over a couple of decades. Continuing education comes from the Park Tool Videos, bicycles.stackexchange.com, and reading threads on random forums started by people with the same problem as me. I suspect an organised person could learn much more efficiently than this. One pitfall to watch out for is that in cycling, everyone has their opinions, which they will proclaim as absolute truth. If you're just following one person, it can be hard to distinguish universally agreed common sense from opinion.

brudgers 6y ago

Sheldon Brown for theory stuff. Youtube for hands on. But of course practice to gain experience is really all there is for learning mechanical sympathy.

bigiain 6y ago
I'd also recommend trying top make friends with someone who is already doing it (at a level high enough beyond you that you'll learn useful stuff from them). Car/motorcycle/bike maintenance - it's always better to have someone who has a fair bit more experience than you sitting in your shed drinking your beer and eating your pizza while you do your own work.
- brudgers 6y ago
  I learned how to adjust caliper brakes watching a bike mechanic swap out my front cable in about 90 seconds. I saw it was entirely a matter of feel and visualization.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    > I saw it was entirely a matter of feel Depends, I guess, on where you're starting from. Some people know how hard you should/shouldn't push on a 10mm spanner or a 6mm allen key. That kind of "matter of feel" comes from someone who's already got it showing you and letting you feel it, or from a trail of stripped bolts and/or crashes where your brakes failed or fell off 'cause you didn't torque them up tight enough... In person expertise is not essential, but I do think launching into repairing your own brakes is perhaps the _worst_ example of something you should learn from Youtube... (Although adjusting bicycle brake cables is not nearly as bad an example as, say, removing callipers and swapping out brake pads on a motorcycle...) If you can find someone to help teach you, it's well worth the pizza and beer it usually costs...
    - brudgers 6y ago
      I suspect you haven't replaced CV joints using a Chilton's Manual. Bicycles are easy. They don't require force or working overhead in a tight space next to a hot shop light, and don't leak fluids into puddles with your face in between. They're not scary except in the sense that someone doesn't have expertise. There's nothing there that can't be done right by trial and error and mechanical reasoning. It just takes putting it together wrong and taking it apart a few times until its right. Anyone can overhaul a bike in four days.
      - bigiain 6y ago
        Uhhh, yeah I have. More often using Haines Manual. But I've done CVs on 69 and 72 Beetles, a bunch of early 70s Leyland Mini race cars, two different late 80s Suzuki Swifts, late 90s Ford Laser, and Alfa Romeo Sud and a Sprint, and a 2005-ish RAV4. I've also totally stripped and rebuilt several VW Beetle motors (and a Kombi one), a 13B Mazda rotary (which ended up in the 72 Beetle eventually), and my Ducati Monster 900 (engine/gearbox). I own one motorcycle that needs a new top end rebuild every 10,000km (A Cagiva Mito 125cc two stroke). I've done the desmo valve clearances on that Ducati every 20,000km since 1999 (it's got over 320,000km on it now.) So I'm not particularly scared of most mechanical things (I'm more put off by the pains of a 50year old body crouching down next to a motorcycle in the cold these days than worried about working on the mechanical stuff...) But I _am_ acutely aware that many (most?) people didn't have fathers who taught them how to work on cars/lawnmowers when they were 7 or 8 years old, and have no clue at all how tight fasteners should be or much force you can put on them before starting to worry about whether you need to start checking if you've missed the lock nut or split pin. People who have no feel for whats "About right" for a 10mm fastener compared to a 17mm or 32mm one. People who don't read a torque spec of 10Nm for an M6 fastener and realise "Oooh, that's not very tight, must be a stainless fastener into a soft-ish allow..." I _strongly_ stand by my advice of making a more experienced friend and having them oversee things and be there for when you're not sure if you're doing things right.
        twic 6y ago
        But did you win the Putnam?

narwally 6y ago

The Park Tool youtube channel is good at explaining things in a lots of detail without being convoluted. It should cover 95% of what you'd need to learn. The hardest part is trying to figure out what components are compatible with what. There are more standards for bottom brackets than there are for character encoding.

twic 6y ago
The Park Tool videos are phenomenal. I particularly like the Tech Tuesday videos, partly because Calvin Jones is so fun to watch (although he's not just a pretty face [2]), but also because, for example, this is the first explanation i ever heard of how hydraulic brakes self-centre that actually makes sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXFFgRButo&vl=fr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXFFgRButo&vl=fr [2] https://www.probma.org/blog/calvin-jones-more-neednt-be-said https://www.probma.org/blog/calvin-jones-more-neednt-be-said

em-bee 6y ago

get an old bike. take it apart and put it back together. i built my own bike without help when i was a teenager. there aren't that many parts and your main struggle will be to decide what from the different options for each part to choose. there are different gear and brake systems to choose from, and if you don't know what's better for you, your bikeshop can advise you. for my bike i used mostly standard parts, that is the common stuff found on every other bike and available in every shop. the only thing where i splurged is a good leather sattle from brooks.

ornornor 6y ago

Check if there is a community bicycle workshop where you live. They’re usually run by volunteers in universities where they have all the tools, you come with your bike, tell them what you want to fix or adjust, they show you how to do it, and then you do it yourself. They usually let you bring your own parts or have a stash of used parts. That’s how I learned almost everything I know on the subject and it didn’t even take that long to learn. And the park tools videos are very well done.

twic 6y ago

Personally, i grew up cycling, learned a lot from my dad, and have learned a lot from trial and error (mostly the latter) over a couple of decades. Continuing education comes from the Park Tool Videos, bicycles.stackexchange.com, and reading threads on random forums started by people with the same problem as me. I suspect an organised person could learn much more efficiently than this. One pitfall to watch out for is that in cycling, everyone has their opinions, which they will proclaim as absolute truth. If you're just following one person, it can be hard to distinguish universally agreed common sense from opinion.