What did you do now?

[Square Wheels]

That's what the bike mechanic at my first shop would say when I walked in.
To be fair, he was usually right.
I usually messed something up.
I lived in MA most of my life, and moved to TN a few years ago. In MA, I had a lot of bike tools. I sold them all.
I feel safer letting a "pro" work on my bikes.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

That's what the bike mechanic at my first shop would say when I walked in.
To be fair, he was usually right.
I usually messed something up.
I lived in MA most of my life, and moved to TN a few years ago. In MA, I had a lot of bike tools. I sold them all.
I feel safer letting a "pro" work on my bikes.

I'd rather take my bike to the shop than deal with it even just to refill the tubeless stuff LOL

Last time I tried to fix a broken spoke, I did about $700 worth of fixing. So, I'll let the experts do that.

I do have a goal to buy a cheap used bike and learn how to fix and replace everything on it but that goal is easier to set than to complete!

 

[Wade]

I work part-time as a mechanic for Bike Wisconsin tours in the summer. Unfortunately, the trend I’m seeing is more and more proprietary parts on bikes. 30 years ago, I could fix anything with a standard set of tools. Sometimes I can’t even fix something as basic as a brake cable (Trek!) or replace a spoke (Mavic!) without a specialized proprietary tool.

I thoroughly research bikes and wheels so that when I buy one, I know I can fix it myself. Especially being 45 miles to the nearest bike shop.

And don’t even get me started on e-bikes.