I have:
Built wheels
re-cut threads
chased/faced frames
put new bushings in a rear suspension pivot
bled hydraulic brakes
My least favorite things:
wheel building
adjusting brakes
I also know lots and lots and lots about parts, frames, etc.
Alright, who’s the scientist? 
[quote=“halbritt”][quote=“Jabba Degrassi”][quote=“halbritt”]
I’ve got one of these:
…that I’m looking to give away. It sucks, but it works. I just got a TS-2 that sucks less and no longer have a need for old truing stand.[/quote]
Why’s it suck? I mean, if it works, that’ll do. I’ll pay the shipping if you really want to ditch it and it isn’t a complete POS.[/quote]
A one-sided truing stand is just slow. You have to flip the wheel back and forth to make sure you get the dish right. Otherwise it’s pretty decent. I used it a fair bit with some success. I’m old and have a decent job which means that I have too little time and too much money. Thus the TS-2.
Someone else PM’d me for it as well. It’s heavy, so it won’t be that cheap to ship. Are you on the west coast?[/quote]
No, I’m in Canadania. It would probably be a bitch to ship to me. If someome more local is interested, they can have it. Thanks anyway.
I know a guy who’s an actual bike-scientist. A mad-scientist, too. As in, if you go over to his place, he takes you to the basement, shows you a graph representing an experiment he was conducting concerning spoke-tension equations (using tools from the 1800s) and then, in the middle of all the jargon, he laughs like a maniac.
Every town needs a mad-scientist.
[quote=“jim”]i can do all my own work, provided i have the tools. pressing headsets, facing tubes, chasing threads, things of that nature, i can’t do in my living room, so i take to the bike shop and either do it there if the guys are cool, or stand there and watch if no one objects so i know how everything is done. the only thing i have not done yet is build a wheel, becuase the opportunity has not come up. if/when i get to build a wheel, i’m pretty sure i could pull it off with the help of sir sheldon (RIP).
[/quote]
same same.
for headsets i just use the 2x4+hammer method and to remove cups i stick a long piece of rectangular bar stock down there so it catches the edge of the cup, then give that a blow on each side. havent ruined anything doing that yet.
good poll.
[quote=“Jabba Degrassi”]
No, I’m in Canadania. It would probably be a bitch to ship to me. If someome more local is interested, they can have it. Thanks anyway.[/quote]
I would happily ship it, but it’s a $40 truing stand (when it goes on sale at performance bikes), and would likely cost nearly that much to ship.
The ultimate headset removal tool is a copper or brass pipe. Get one with an OD fits the ID of the bearing races/head tube, slot the end with a hacksaw, expand the end… fuck it:
http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2007/ ... ement.htmlLike that.
I learned most of the shit I know as a teenager messing with BMX and old Schwinns for the most part, I’d get bike repair books from the library, and I hated the idea of paying someone to do something I could possibly make work myself if I improvised a little. Gearing and suspension are the only things I don’t know much about, and I have yet to build a wheel the proper way, though I have cobbled a couple together from junk bits and tried to true on a frame several years ago.
I second that. Just waiting to find a nice road frame in the 49-50cm range with down tube shifter mounts and nice lug work for the right price.
[quote=“halbritt”]
The ultimate headset removal tool is a copper or brass pipe. Get one with an OD fits the ID of the bearing races/head tube, slot the end with a hacksaw, expand the end… fuck it:
http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2007/ ... ement.htmlLike that.[/quote]
Awsome link, thanks. I bought the materials for the removal tool and press for $4.76 after tax. Much better then $27 for just the park tool cup removal tool I was about to buy.
dont threaten me with a good time
Let me go Swayze on ya!
Swayze on you!
Let me go Swayze, Swayze on you, ohhh!
It’s a ton of fun and really frustrating the first time. Someone suggested tearing down a thrift store 10 speed and rebuilding it earlier in the thread, and that’s super good advice. Learn to crawl before you learn to walk.
I can do anything if I have access to the tool. One of the perks of working in a hardware store is that working with bikes seems really simple afterwards. I’m super fidgety and I love tearing stuff apart to see what it’s made of.
I’ve got a line on a couple nice older geared road bikes in my size, a complete break down and rebuild will be a good winter project too. Anyone have any input on a 1985 Trek 460? I’d like a bike I would want to ride anyhow, if I’m going through all of the work to rebuild it.
I’m building up two geared road bikes right now, and it’s simple as fuck when you have Sheldon to go by. It also helps to be able to ask on here when I’m not 100% certain about a part.
RIP Sheldon Brown. RIP.
I’ve built a few bikes from the frame up, done a dozen or so conversions and repaired something like 200 bikes. I have welded together a dozen or so freakbikes. Like many of you, I know very little about suspension and disc brakes though. Maybe I should have put “I know things the pollmaker can’t even think of as poll options!” given my freakbike knowlege, but not knowing how to set up disc brakes probably disqualifies me.
i feel comfortable with my fg… just not the BB or headset. don’t have the proper tools to do some stuff, (true wheels/crank puller/etc) just haven’t invested in it yet. i like my lbs anyway. i just hate that i didn’t buy alot of my stuff there on my bike.
if you can do most of the shit on your bike then bb’s and headsets are a piece of cake. on my first looseball (on the first bike i built) i just used channel locks and a screwdriver and hammer and a lot of patience to get it right.
Most crank tools are cheap.
i know that now. but at the time i didn’t even know most of the tools existed.
Yeah, but that comment was for the folks reading along at home.
Hey fuckers, put down your channel locks! A crank-tool is like $15 or something.
Ok. I feel better now.