Cytech, anyone done one of their Home maintenance courses?

HVRNR

I'm thinking of booking a 2 day Home cycle maintenance course with Cytech to try and save on servicing. Has anyone else been to one of the courses and are they worth the money? (about £250)

ride_whenever

Not really.

If you ask you lbs they might teach you for less and it'll be tailored to your bike...

pastey_boy

there are enough resources on the web such as how to videos and lots of high quality books. you could buy a high quality book and a decent set of tools and workstand with your £250.

Herbie The Dog

I did it...but then again I was just looking to use up a £1000 retraining bursary that was part of my redundancy package.

I personally wouldn't pay that amount to do the course TBH. But then again I was already ok with gears, headsets, hubs etc. The one thing I did pick up and found useful was the wheel truing section. It wasn't massively in depth but enough to give you an insight.

As Pastey has said you can pick up what you'll learn from a book, but being shown how to do it in real life and on a bike other than yours is a bonus.

If you know zilch or less about bike servicing it would be worth it. I did mine with ATG in Aylesbury and it was an enjoyable couple of days.

mroli

Notably the above 2 have not done one of these courses.

I have and I can say that if you have the money to do it, it is worth every penny - esp if you are coming from a limited mechanic background.

I didn't really know much about bikes before doing this course, but it was full 2 days, in a decent bike workshop with lots of different bikes to work on (so you would be able to find one "similar" to yours should you so desire). After 2 days of cramming stuff in (5 pupils to 1 good teacher), I felt I had learnt enough to be confident about taking a bike apart and putting it back together again.

The facilities were superb (this was in Aylesbury), the teacher was great and since doing the course, I have built 4 bikes from frame and forks up and do the majority of my own servicing. If you look at the money you save, not only on bike shop labour costs, but the parts as well, it is more than worth it imho.

You could learn from the internet and books, which I tried to do, but felt so much more comfortable and knowledgeable having been taught properly.

Have bought myself a lot of tools since though!

pastey_boy

mroli wrote:

Notably the above 2 have not done one of these courses.

I have and I can say that if you have the money to do it, it is worth every penny - esp if you are coming from a limited mechanic background.

I didn't really know much about bikes before doing this course, but it was full 2 days, in a decent bike workshop with lots of different bikes to work on (so you would be able to find one "similar" to yours should you so desire). After 2 days of cramming stuff in (5 pupils to 1 good teacher), I felt I had learnt enough to be confident about taking a bike apart and putting it back together again.

The facilities were superb (this was in Aylesbury), the teacher was great and since doing the course, I have built 4 bikes from frame and forks up and do the majority of my own servicing. If you look at the money you save, not only on bike shop labour costs, but the parts as well, it is more than worth it imho.

You could learn from the internet and books, which I tried to do, but felt so much more comfortable and knowledgeable having been taught properly.

Have bought myself a lot of tools since though!

for your information i have done a course with atg. but as i said the basics can easily be taught via the videos alot of the major manufacturers put up on you tube and the like.

HVRNR

Thanks for the advice, I have some basic knowledge but I am particularly uncomfortbale with gears brakes etc so I think I might give it a try in the new year.