Repair Questions...

[lizbids]

Ok, I'm fairly new to cycling, and I will be planning a 'cross-country trip this summer. I see a lot of common problems with other tourists posting their journals online...so I'm wondering, where can I learn how to tinker with my bike? Specifically spokes, brakes, chains...????????

[DebW]

Ok, I'm fairly new to cycling, and I will be planning a 'cross-country trip this summer. I see a lot of common problems with other tourists posting their journals online...so I'm wondering, where can I learn how to tinker with my bike? Specifically spokes, brakes, chains...????????

Many bike shops offer maintenance classes. REI has them. If you don't find a class, just ask your LBS if you can watch while they do some basic work on your bike. Or have them recommend tools and show you how to use them. There are some websites that offer good repair instructions also (sheldonbrown.com, parktool.com) or you can buy a book.

Where are you located? Maybe someone here can recommend a class local to you.

[MontyBiker]

There are a lot of decent websites with some great maintenance info on them on the web, also I'm starting to come across more and more videos online too, heres a few to help you out:

bike maintenance (http://www.bike-maintenance.com/)
Maintenance videos on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/group/bicyclemaintenance)
Utah MTB repair site (http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/)
Bicycling Life (http://www.bicyclinglife.com/)

hope you find these useful

[lizbids]

thanks for the tips, gals!