Wondering how to use the tools? Feel helpness on facing your broken beloved bike? Don’t want to pay big money on bike repair shop? Why not fix it yourselves?! From fixing your bike you can understand more how’s your bike work and it’s always good to pick up more skills. With tips and special tools, you will find fixing bike is not that hard! Hope you enjoy!
For those ready to tackle bikes themselves, the Park tool website has very good advice on repairing bikes.
DIY tips
- Tools
These are the tools that I commonly carry around. I’m not endorsing these specific brands.
Set of allen keys and screwdrivers
You can often find a good multi-tool with these on it. Don’t be tempted to go for a multi-tool with 1000 functions, you’ll never use them and it will get in the way. We sell one – check it out on our shop page.
Tyre levers
These should be very wide and made from plastic, so that you don’t pinch your tube
e.g. http://www.torpedo7.com.au/products/MXTOTNNTL
Spare tube
It’s good to have one of these so that you can swap it over instead of patching (though you’ll still need the patch kit in case your spare also gets a hole). The ones without seams are better (but slightly more expensive), as they’ll take patches better if you get a puncture.
Patch kit
These are mostly the same.
Pump
It’s better to get a longer pump rather than a shorter one. It’s very difficult to get up to any decent pressure with a short pump.
e.g. http://www.topeak.com/products/Mini-Pumps/Road_43-49cm_framesize
- Learning things the hard way
The best way to learn how to fix your bike is to break it. However, despite the excellent learning experiences I provided myself with, there are certain tips I wish I’d heeded better:
1. Don’t over-tighten brake bolts (the ones that bolt the brake arms to the fork). The brake bosses can get squeezed and you have to gently file them back down with sandpaper.
2. When seating a screw (or anything with a thread on it; in my case, a pedal) use your fingers first. If you go in with a spanner, you can strip the thread really easily.
Have you got invaluable repair tips? Post them on the forum!
:)