Mechanical advise/education for road bikes

[Livetoride]

Not sure if this is the right place for this. I dont know much about the technicalities of road bikes, as in how to tear it apart and put it together again and more importantly how to fix things excluding the obvious like punctures, wheels chain etc.

My question is, does anyone know of a shop in Melbourne that runs courses on this, have asked at TFM and Fitzroy cycles but they don't...

Anyone have any ideas or know of any places...

Thanks.

[Quinns Rocks Roadie]

Anything mechanical is self evident.
Go to http://www.sheldonbrown.com/, find some bicycle books online, get the appropriate tools and go for it.
Bikes are not that complicated and you don't need someone to hold your hand.
Plenty of rsources here - http://www.downeu.com/b/bicycle+times.html

Eric.

[Aushiker]

Hi

Sorry can't help with the courses in Melbourne and since things mechanical are not self-evident to me I make quite a bit of use of BicycleTutor and Park Tool's websitealong with their repair manual and Zinn's repair manual. I have the mountain bike version but there is a road one as well. I find this along with the Park Tool one covers most bases.

Have fun playing with your bikes.

Regards
Andrew

[human909]

CERESrun a maintenance sessions and provide tools, $10 for a years membership. There are also free maintenance on the north side of Carlton gardens on the weekend.

My advice is that if you don't want to look like the odd one out then don't turn up to either in full racing kit!

[Livetoride]

CERESrun a maintenance sessions and provide tools, $10 for a years membership. There are also free maintenance on the north side of Carlton gardens on the weekend.

My advice is that if you don't want to look like the odd one out then don't turn up to either in full racing kit!

Thanks mate, fair play to ya

[jules21]

mechanical aptitude comes with experience. it won't come from listening to a tutor alone. i love to fix stuff, bikes, cars.. you get better at it. there's no magic solution, it's just practice. as you will drop, bend and round stuff off,it's better if you don't start learning on your dura-ace equipped s-works either.

[queequeg]

Not sure if this is the right place for this. I dont know much about the technicalities of road bikes, as in how to tear it apart and put it together again and more importantly how to fix things excluding the obvious like punctures, wheels chain etc.

My question is, does anyone know of a shop in Melbourne that runs courses on this, have asked at TFM and Fitzroy cycles but they don't...

Anyone have any ideas or know of any places...

Thanks.

My LBS ran their own courses, and it was the best thing I ever did. I actually learned a foolproof way to change the tyres on my bike, which was proving a frustrating process due to the wire beaded tyres I had. Apparently it is all about technique, of which I had none!
Anyway, at the LBS course they showed basic stuff like tuning the brake system (V-Brake, Caliper Brake or Disc Brake, depending on what bike you had), tuning the shifting system, then they went though some basic maintenance like chain cleaning/lubrication.
The course did not go into super detail on the complicated things, but it did give me confidence to start doing a lot of the maintenance myself. After I did this for a while, I was given an old steel bike frame that needed some TLC. I decided to fix it up, and doing the build of this bike taught me more than any maintenance course ever could.

[bianchi]

Not sure if this is the right place for this. I dont know much about the technicalities of road bikes, as in how to tear it apart and put it together again and more importantly how to fix things excluding the obvious like punctures, wheels chain etc.

My question is, does anyone know of a shop in Melbourne that runs courses on this, have asked at TFM and Fitzroy cycles but they don't...

Anyone have any ideas or know of any places...

Thanks.

what about bike force in melbourne ?

[sogood]

Apart from the above advice, you can consider joining a club/BUG and meet a few old hands. Practical learning is far better on this matter.

Fortunately modern bike components all fits together easily, few banging required. I remember my first attempt of "fixing" bikes in the early 80s and was stopped by those stupid cotter pins. Hated them. Other than that, you should get the right tools for the jobs, depending on which part of the bike you want to work on.

[Livetoride]

Thanks guys fair play. Perhaps the wifes old roadie (not in use) will make for a good test pig