Bicycle Repair Man!

Although a bike is a relatively simple machine that is very reliable, it does occasionally break down and require some repair. That is way it is a good idea to have a relationship with a bike mechanic at your local shop or know how to do the maintainance by yourself. I am mechanically inclined so I do most of the up keep on the bike my self but there are still a few things I don't know how to do. That's why when I saw a course on bicycle repair at Mercer County College I decided to give it a try.

The course was taught at Bernie's Bikes in Hamiliton by Chris who is one of the bike mechanics there. Chris is a great guy and really knows his stuff. Chris spend 2 hours every Wednesday for 3 weeks going over the different items of the bike to repair. He start out by showing how to fix a flat tire and then moved on to harder tasks like how to adjust the front and rear derailleur. By the end of the last class he was showing us some pretty advanded stuff like how to rebuild the bearings in a wheel.

A lot of what Chris showed the class I already kinda knew and understood from already having done a lot of work on my bike but I still picked up a lot of useful information. There is a lot of details and nuances you need to understand to do some of the repairs on a bike and until you do them yourself or see someone else do them you don't truly understand how to do it.

For example I knew that changing the rear cassette was not a hard job and just involved removing a locking ring. I had actually tried to do this on my old bike a few years ago but couldn't figure out how to do it. Now after seeing Chris do it I was able to go home remove the cassette from my rear wheel in a few minutes.

Part of taking the course was buying Park's "The Big Blue Book of Repair" book which is a decent bicycle repair manual. Bicycle Magazine also has a good book on on bicycle repair "Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair" Repair manuals are great but nothing beats seeing the different repairs actually done.

I picked up a lot watching Chris do repairs and am glad I took the course. This helped me fill in some knowledge I was missing about bicycle repair and has given me the confidence to try some of the more difficult repair tasks. I now consider myself a Bicycle Repair Man. So whenever bicycles are broken, or menaced by international communism, Bicycle Repair Man is ready! (Monty Python reference)