The Home Bike Mechanic is All of Us: An Account of Mechanical Mastery and Mishaps

Of the nine members of our riding crew, none earn their living as mechanics. Never has this been more obvious than during a recent bike trip, with the three of us considered the “bike mechanics” in the bunch kneeling around a bike at our campsite playing “find the creak.” To get more news about ebike maintaince, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.

The offending creak was indeed emanating from an incompletely tightened pivot bolt, which our companion, and “2nd best bike mechanic,” had re-installed — himself.

Indeed, we are bike mechanics, much like Brad Pitt and his crew from a Quentin Tarantino World War II themed-flick were Italian: “1st best Italian,” “2nd best Italian,” and “3rd best Italian.” The problem, of course? As declared by “3rd best,” none of them spoke Italian. “That’s why,” Pitt pointed out, he was “3rd best Italian.”

We three kneeling in the dirt were first best bike mechanic, second best bike mechanic, and third best bike mechanic. The problem? None of us are bike mechanics. Behold the home bike mechanic in all our glory.

By my count there are approximately 20-40 hex bolts on a full suspension mountain bike. These may hold anything from your pivots to your lock-on grips on board, and/or together. All of which are important items that need to stay on your bike during rides. I have a tool for every single one of them. In the event you were unaware: tools make us all pros at removal, until we call in the chain whip.

It is typically the putting it back together where the adventure begins. Upon each opening of my bike toolbox I am reminded of prior adventures in re-assembly. Where did all of these “extra” bolts, washers, and nuts come from? And why are they no-longer on my bike? Looking at all these “spare” parts that were apparently and hopefully optional I can’t help but wonder: is my bike safe?
The multitude of YouTube channels and videos devoted to working on your bike at home, often sans actual tools, are not being created in a vacuum. Demand for content is there. I’m not alone here. The video creators know you are installing and “de-installing” things in your garage (or living room — though my wife is not a big fan of that), as self-professed “home mechanics.” And they know you’re not spending the cash on that headset press, so they’ll show you how to do it with $9 in parts from Lowes.

In the early days I never considered working on my own bike. This could be a result of the fact that bikes are far easier to work on now than they were in the early 90s. Who wanted to tackle a threaded headset and stem? How the heck did that cam mechanism work? Cantilever brakes could drive a person to insanity, but they were nothing compared to front derailleurs. Those were the stuff of night sweats.
I only began my descent into “home mechanic 101” on the new bike after a series of misadventures at the shop. It could be I got tired of shops offering that they “can’t get to that for” weeks or even months because really — they just don’t want to work on it. I understood the sentiment. I didn’t want to work on it either. I also tired of paying top dollar for shoddy service at the local shop. Perhaps this next scenario sounds familiar?

That is not a job even I, a self-proclaimed amateur-master-2nd-best-bike mechanic, feel comfortable repairing. Until I build up the courage to start wheel building (which is never going to happen, as I imagine major hospital bills would follow), this meant the wheel was headed to a local shop. Yet, two months later the mechanic at another shop asked me, “did you replace a spoke on this wheel?”

How did he know that? I hadn’t mentioned it. The problem the bike was at that shop for had nothing to do with the wheel. The new spoke was the same color and variety as all the others.
Whoever did this over tightened this spoke and it pulled a portion of the wheel up.” the professional tells me. He was also complimentary of the custom build I had chosen on the wheel, which was nice.

But what had I paid the other shop for? Money not-well-spent. I landed upon the fateful conclusion we all ultimately reach: “I can probably do that myself.” Armed with a hex wrench and an astonishing array of YouTube videos, I became a home mechanic.