Learning - The Bike Repair Edition

What might ensue in this blog could be several pieces on how I manage the learning curve regarding activities that had been in the husband's department during my marriage. This one, for sure, is about bicycle maintenance. As time has gone by, there have been problems with my bikes. I now own three of them. The newest, oddly enough, is the one currently in need of most repairs. It is unrideable now. Last night I took it to the local do-it-yourself bike repair shop which is volunteer-run and open only from 6:30 - 10:00 p.m. This proved to be quite an evening. I arrived at the shop at about 7:20 p.m. Rolling in with my bicycle I was asked to sign a waiver and then was introduced to the young woman who would be helping me. I told her I thought I had a slow leak in my rear tube and that I wanted to learn how to change it. I had even brought in my own replacement tube. Of course, with my level of bicycle-repair prowess, I had (and still have) no idea if the tube is the right size. We then took the rear wheel off the bike and commenced removing the tire from the rim. An hour later we were still struggling with the tire and the rim. There were now three of us, all women. The tube was stubbornly holding what air it had left, the valve was not releasing any air, and this was apparently making it tough for us to free the tire from the rim. Admitting defeat, we sought out a male with large arm muscles. ALL of his arm muscles were big, very big and very defined. He wrestled with the tire until we finally cut it off. I will now be buying a new tire. Before we could replace the tube and tire, the first girl noticed there were four spokes missing from the wheel. I asked her if I really needed them and she said, yes, the rim would warp without them. What we discovered next was the center part of the wheel was very wide and inserting new spokes required we put the spoke through a hole at the center, bend the spoke and then insert the threaded end in its hole on the outer wheel edge. What was interesting about this bike shop experience was the large variety of tools and gizmos we accessed. There are special, odd-shaped screwdrivers for tightening the spokes. There are special magnetic tools for removing ball bearings and magnetic dishes for saving the ball bearings while you grease inside the wheel. There are specific wrenches, of course, but what I didn't know was that there is a special set of very thin wrenches that are solely used to tighten and loosen the wheel's innermost nuts. The shop also has stands built especially for working on bicycles. You lift your bike onto the stand and clamp it right below the seat. With the bicycle suspended in the air, you can work on most parts at about eye level. But I was not to be able to work at the stand. All of my work was either on the floor or over at a big workbench on the east wall. What had seemed like a couple of easy tasks -- replacing a tube and inserting four spokes--- ended up taking hours. By the time the shop closed at 10:00 p.m., my hands and forearms were covered with bicycle grease, and all I had accomplished was the tire removal and the putting on of four spokes. To be clear, I had not been working alone. I was with the young female helper all this time. So at quitting time, I paid for my spokes and some time at the stand, took my bike with its front wheel on, took my rear wheel that was now missing both its tube and tire, put them on my car, and drove home. What remains for me is to file down the new spoke nipples so they don't puncture the new tube when it's installed, replace the spokeguard, put on the new tube and then the new tire. I was told that taking off the old tire is supposed to be the easiest part of replacing a tube. Whenever it is I return to the DIY bike shop, I will need to arrive promptly at 6:30. It might be another long evening.