Zen & the art of bicycle maintenance...
Bit of a strange one this, I love working on my bike. I know everyone doesn't like to spend an age dialling in their ride as they would rather be out riding (you can tell from the rattles & clanking that emanates from some of the bikes I see at the ramps ;-) but I can't seem to stop messing with mine! Is this some form of O.C.D? Or a substitute for various 'habits' of my formative years?!?
Whatever, I find myself wanting to take stuff apart all the time & try to find ways of making it better or modifying it in some small (or big) way... I spent far too much time fitting my cranks last weekend, they had to be perfect, I can't abide anything that isn't just right on my bike, it plays on my mind... But do you really need a vernier, a slide rule & a quantity of graph paper to fit a set of hollowbites!?!?! (OK - I didn't use a slide rule or the paper but you get my drift...)
So is this normal? Have I taken leave of my senses? Or is this some form of 'addiction' to bicycle maintenance? I don't smoke or drink alcohol & have absolutely no desire to do so either but I find myself becoming irritable if I can't twist a spoke wrench, torque down a few wheel nuts or spend the odd couple of hours toeing in a brake block or two. I think that part of this is because I don't have my bikes at home due to my housing 'situation' at present.
Obviously some of my friends find this beneficial, after all it saves them having to learn the intricacies of building a beautiful, perfectly functioning BMX bike...
Whatever, I find myself wanting to take stuff apart all the time & try to find ways of making it better or modifying it in some small (or big) way... I spent far too much time fitting my cranks last weekend, they had to be perfect, I can't abide anything that isn't just right on my bike, it plays on my mind... But do you really need a vernier, a slide rule & a quantity of graph paper to fit a set of hollowbites!?!?! (OK - I didn't use a slide rule or the paper but you get my drift...)
So is this normal? Have I taken leave of my senses? Or is this some form of 'addiction' to bicycle maintenance? I don't smoke or drink alcohol & have absolutely no desire to do so either but I find myself becoming irritable if I can't twist a spoke wrench, torque down a few wheel nuts or spend the odd couple of hours toeing in a brake block or two. I think that part of this is because I don't have my bikes at home due to my housing 'situation' at present.
Obviously some of my friends find this beneficial, after all it saves them having to learn the intricacies of building a beautiful, perfectly functioning BMX bike...
posted by subversion at 4:57 PM
2 Comments:
Nice one, love it. I dont spend much time working on my bike ... but I would love to. My hate is a bike that makes noise. How do you know if something is comming loose if you cant hear it above all the other crap clanking about. Now, where is that PTFE tape?
I think that's why a lot of people are going brakeless these days (besides the weight saving issue), they just can't set up a brake properly. There's even a (bad) guide to fitting a U brake in the new Ride mag...
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