n-1

muzzan

Hi,

So I have 2 bikes, 1 Canyon CF Ultimate for longer weekend rides & club rides & 1 Boardman CX for commuting & winter rides etc. It's been fine up till this year, but now I seem to be forever having to fix things and spend money on parts & shop repairs, or more importantly TIME on fixing things myself as parts wear out. I'm getting a bit fed up with it frankly. It seems that hardly a week goes by when I'm not scouring the net for parts or you tube for videos on fixing things & I think the novelty has worn off.

Is the answer to go down to 1 bike & then change every couple of years before major things start to need doing? I'm not sure, all I know is that I'm feeling I'm spending too much time fixing & worrying about bikes & not enough time riding them lol.

fat daddy

if you have 1 bike .... it will still wear out, you will still have to get it repaired, .. but you wont have a spare to ride when you are getting the other one fixed ?

Ultimately all bikes have cables, shifters, chains, sprockets .... and these will fail depending on how much you ride them ...... Do you really want to buy a new bike in 2 years time when your £37 rear cassette wears out ?

slowbike

?? what the hell are you breaking/wearing out on a weekly basis?

essex-commuter

What things are you replacing? Apart from the chain/cassette and the odd tyre here and there everything else should last thousands of miles.

Or is this just an excuse for a new bike, if so I completely understand :-)

essex-commuter

Think we all posted roughly the same thing at the same time!

muzzan

I could try & list everything that has been done this year...but I'd only forget half of it. Obviously I exaggerate slightly. But there has been LOADS. Latest is that the Bottom bracket on the CX is away again, after getting a new one last year, so now I'm thinking I should invest in the tools to fix it myself, hence more time on you tube....I also have to replace the headset which is creaking...

I suppose it boils down to this: I'm beginning to resent the time I spend fixing things, but the shops around me charge like angry rhinos (£30 for removing some pedals & putting rim tape a wheel??), so I resent the cost of getting things done by them as well....

ugo.santalucia

Slowbike wrote:

?? what the hell are you breaking/wearing out on a weekly basis?

I tried the one bike for all route, but you really need to be on top of everything. A shot bearing means 3 days off the bike, while you order a new one, it arrives and you install it. Disc pads wear very rapidly in winter, especially if you use the less noisy organic ones... I kept a small stock of wearable parts to make everything quicker... Now I have a single speed I use to go to work and that relieves a bit the pressure on spares and maintenance

prawny

I would learn to do this kind of stuff yourself, then with the money you save buy a third bike.

muzzan

I do plenty myself, just when I don't have the tools really that I put it into the shop, pedals I couldn't get off with anything I had cause they were seized on, so put it in & got guy to put rim tape on while he was at it. Though the bill was quite shocking really, for the time it must've taken.

fat daddy

Lets apply some maths and logic.

If a generic groupset lasts 3 years and you have 1 bike, it will need replacing in 3 years ... whilst its being replacaed you cant ride the bike

If you have 2 bikes ... you can only ride one at a time, so if you share the load you will replace the groupsets in 6 years time .. and when one is being repaired you can ride the other

If you have 3 bikes ... you can only ride one at a time, so if you share the load you will replace the groupsets in 9 years time .. and when one is being repaired you can ride one of the others

Logic says .. don't go down to 1 bike ...... buy a 3rd !

slowbike

yer - sorry - really don't follow ...

bottom bracket isn't hard to change - not sure what type you've got - mines the Hollowtech - which is a bit of a pain to remove - but generally can be done - I did have to take my carbon bike in to a shop for a replacement when I couldn't remove the existing one (I hadn't fitted it - it was jammed on) - it cost me the price of a new BB - which I could've got cheaper online, but they replaced it for me so happy to pay full retail.
Bottom brackets generally last at least a few thousand miles.

Headset - have you tried adding lube? This one should last years (my 2011 bikes haven't had replacement headsets)

Seized pedals - get some copperslip and put some on the threads - will make it easier next time.

I look after all the bikes in my garage (wifes as well as mine) - there are a couple of jobs I'll take to the LBS - because I don't have the tools to do - but they're infrequent - putting rim tape on isn't one of them! I know I need to clean 4 chains and one of my wifes bikes could do with replacement groupset - but generally they're all servicable and don't take ages to keep going.

muzzan

It's a BB30, so I believe I need a BB press to install. Whatever. I am jealous you have such a reasonable bike shop who don't charge labour for a job that must've taken some time. That is not my experience. My experience is that they charge the absolute maximum they can get away with, which when you work out the hourly rate is more than you would pay in a car dealership. But yes, I agree that I should be doing as much as possible myself, and generally I do, however at the moment I am finding it more time consuming than I am happy with. I don't enjoy it, it's just a chore to me.

I realise this should have been posted in Rants!

MrSweary

All the commuting wear on your CX will transfer to the Canyon and shortly you'll be doing the same with that but with no bike to swap on to. N-1 : terrible idea and possibly immoral.

muzzan

MrSweary wrote:

possibly immoral.

LOL!

Yeah, it's a fair point tbf. At the moment I'm considering replacing the boardman frame with something else since the wheels & components are nearly new. I suspect the BB problems may be very hard or impossible to fix cause I cant remember it not creaking & clicking, even after the new one was installed last time.

slowbike

muzzan wrote:

It's a BB30, so I believe I need a BB press to install. Whatever. I am jealous you have such a reasonable bike shop who don't charge labour for a job that must've taken some time. That is not my experience. My experience is that they charge the absolute maximum they can get away with, which when you work out the hourly rate is more than you would pay in a car dealership. But yes, I agree that I should be doing as much as possible myself, and generally I do, however at the moment I am finding it more time consuming than I am happy with. I don't enjoy it, it's just a chore to me.

I realise this should have been posted in Rants!

Ah - perhaps you need to find a decent LBS.

To be fair to my LBS - we've bought a new bike through them - the BB job was on a S/h bike they hadn't seen before - but the bike was stripped ready for them to do the job (remove Hollowtech II BB and fit a new one) - which with the correct professional tool should've taken <15 minutes - they've made money on the new BB - I suspect if it was a difficult job then they would've charged me a bit of labour which would've been fair enough ...

My Hollowtech tool was a cheapy one - shouldn't need anything beefier really.

964cup

Keep some wearing components in stock (brake pads, chain, BB if pressfit, cables, a tyre). Keep on top of cleaning and lubing - a clean drivetrain lasts *much* longer than a dirty one. Make a ghetto BB press from a threaded bar, some washers and nuts; fitting PF30 is trivially easy, and BB30 not much harder. Your headset should only fail if it's either too tight/too loose or filthy. Grease anything threaded before you assemble it; makes it easier to undo later. Check chain wear at least monthly; look over tyres for splits and wear at the same time.

15 minutes of attention a day will save you hours, money and heartache later.

twist83

Planet X do a decent tool kit for not huge £££ with varying tools for BB etc etc.

Well worth investing. Bottom brackets and headsets are not too tricky to sort.