The I am not taking my bike to my LSB again Tread

Take a Park Tool class this winter. You will learn how to fix things on your bike while you work on your bike. During the class they provide tools and you can learn what you need. Park Tool has some great values if you buy a set of tools.

Check out the Park Tool website to learn where you can take the class near you.

Yep, I totally misspelled that one.

Thanks for the replies, Park tool is kind of expensive any place that sells them "cheaper" or other brands that work well?

Truing stand, spoke wrench, cone wrenches, cable and housing cutters, files, torque wrench (with metric allen sockets). There are other tools if your bike harkens back to some older technology, but I think that'll get you through most of your work. I'll save frame prep tools, frame alignment tools, and headset bearing presses and pullers for later.

Pedro's has a good line of tools as well. But if you think Park is expensive, take a look at Campagnolo tools...

The Park Tool site also has some fantastic tech articles that show you how to do most things on your bike, FYI.

My LBS wanted $120 to trim the cables of a bike I just bought from them. $4,000 bike and there was so much extra cable it almost hit me in the chin while in aero. So I bought a cable cutter and did it myself. Then the same LBS told me $16 to true a wheel. I take it in and they then say the entire wheel needs to be rebuilt for $75 because the spokes were interlaced (rear wheel) and "that's wrong." This is how it came from the factory, from a bike they just sold me! I walked straight out the door and never went in that place again.

BTW.. "interlacing" is common practice and makes the wheel stiffer. They just wanted to soak me.

I bought a tensiometer and can now do it the right way myself. Now I can do all the truing and wheel building I want, and they don't get to try to rip me off any more.

There's a lot to be said about learning to turn your own wrenches. You can do your own stuff, on your schedule (not "next week") and avoid incompetent rookie LBS know-it-alls from screwing up your bike.

Agree, some very good info on that site.

Park tool kit is maybe over $100, but great tools and much cheaper than buying each part separately. Look for deals on Amazon or Performance Bike when they have a 15-20% sale.

The tool kit will be about same price you paid for 1 service visit to your bike shop.

Here is the cheaper kit.

This is the one I'd consider.

But I wouldn't buy any tools until I learned how to wrench my bike. If you have one bike and one set of wheels, you don't need every size of every tool. Park Tool class here in Boston which is expensive town is about $150.

Interesting.  I bought my bike from my LBS and they threw the bike up on the rack and took all the cables out, greased them, shortened a few, and then let me know they did that.  I didn't ask for it and they didn't charge me.  Guess they wanted me to come back with plain simple good customer service

Both bike shops I use treat me very well. I have bought four bikes from one and went to school with the owner-however he is in a very competitive market area and reputation matters. The other store is in a very small semi rural area and how you do business has a huge impact on if you are even still in business. Find a good shop AND learn to DIY. It isn't always convenient to fix it yourself and it isn't always convenient to head off to the bike shop. Knowing how to do it yourself also means you can convey what you need done clearly understand what is being told to you.

I am learning to do my own wrenching because I like the idea of working on my own bike. I hope to build one some day from the frame up.  Park tools are usually very good. You get what you pay for but I don't think they are all that high compared to others.

I found that YouTube has a lot of good DIY videos to help you learn.  Park also has the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair that will help out too.  I'm finding most stuff is really simply but some things like derailleurs and cable tensioning can be a little tricky.

I have cultivated a relationship with the guys at my LBS by giving them gift cards for lunch, 12 packs of beer, etc.  I also go to them and let them get close in price to anything that I want and can buy on the internet cheaper....sometimes they can't match it, but they get closer, so I'll gladly pay a bit more to give them the business and keep them around.  If I do end up buying something from the internet that I need them to install I always tip them.

At the end of last season my kid chewed up his rear derailleur putting his bike back together after it was boxed for a flight.  He had a race the next weekend.  I walked the bike into the shop, they quit working on the bike they had on the stand, took a derailleur off a bike on the floor since they didn't have what I wanted in stock, didn't charge me labor, and I was out the door in about 45 minutes.

While I agree that good service should be expected.....if you want exceptional service then take care of your guys/gals at the shop and give the shop your business, every time you can, over the internet.

This Winter the shop is going to let my kid help them around the shop as they build up their new floor models, while he learns about wrenching bikes.  I couldn't ask for more from my LBS.....great people! 

Just a tip from my experience - if your bike is set up /adjusted properly once, it really needs minimal maintenance thereon out. I own a bike stand, chain whip, etc., but I haven't used any of them in over 2 years. 

The only things I actually do use:

- Chain lube

- Allen wrenches (for seat adjustments, etc.)

- Chain length checker ruler

That's it. I've done other stuff, but if you've got a correctly set up bike that's not a beater bike, it really requires very few tools. The exception is if you are flying around with your bike and need to essentially break it down for shipping and rebuild - you'll need more tools in that case. 

All of my adjustments are barrel adjustments and small allen wrench fixes - I do take it in for a $100 LBS tune every 2-3 years but even those have offered minimal improvements. You really need a lot less than you think for current gen, correctly set up bikes.

Back in the early '90s, I had a job at a place called "Bicycle Action Project," in downtown Indianapolis.  It was a not-for-profit bike shop with only 4 paid employees.  Most "employees" were inner city kids learning the skills of bicycle mechanics as a means of keeping them off the streets.  I volunteered there when I was a Venture Scout, because I loved working with bikes.  Some of the "employees" were part of the racing teams (the store had a road racing team, a team that raced at the velodrome, and a mountain biking team) with bikes they built themselves from donated parts and frames.
The shop had worked with several major brands to be able to order pretty much any bike and any part, and it took donations of unwanted bikes.  We would build Trek bikes, Specialized bikes, Bianchi bikes, Cannondale bikes, Murray bikes, Huffy bikes, you name it!

My point is this:  Whenever we built a bike, we made sure the cable housings were lubed (TriFlow was purchased in VAST quantities... and I personally use it to this day), the chains were well lubed, brake pivots were lubed, hubs and BBs were lubed right... we took care of our customers to give them value for their dollar, and to keep them coming back to keep the shop afloat.  It must have worked... we almost always had 2 or 3 customer bikes to work on!

The second kit is the AK-37. I bought that a few years ago (via Ebay) and it's had pretty much everything I've needed. For hand tools, this kit is an incredible value. For someone getting into wrenching, I'd recommend this and then get anything else as-needed.

it really depends on the LBS.

matt of fitwerx was amazing. i am purchasing a parlee tt bike from them (slowly building the bike up this winter) and i was trading bikes with another customer who had also purchased her bike from them.

he inspected my bike, took her bb apart to check a click noise, even changed the brakes and cables and tuned up the bike that i got in the trade and didn't ask for a penny.

THAT right there is customer service. it only took him 15 minutes of his time, he easily could have charged me 30-50 bucks but didn't because he knows i just spent 1900 on a frame and still have to build the rest of the bike up.

don't shoot down all LBS because of this one crap shop. the more often you go, the better they take care of you, it's as simple as that.

look, it's always going to be cheaper to do things yourself. but sometimes, paying that premium for an expert working on your racing machine is worth the penny because they see and know things that you just don't.

bests,

john

I love my LBS - the business was started by the guy's grandfather in 1945 and until November this year has been in the same spot - he's finally bitten the bullet and gone to a bigger place.  It's a shop where people go and hang out - there's barstools to watch them while they work on your bike.

Whenever I go in there I allow 2-3 hours coz i cant get away!  If he knows I can get it cheaper on the internet he'll tell me - he knows he is all about service.

We are both doing our first IM next year so even more reason to hang out in there (oh he's kinda cute too, always helps, just sayin'!)

I have no desire to fix my own bike so Im glad I found this guy - I know of one other which is a little drive away, these two shops have a great reputation around Melbourne.