Archived is bike building difficult?

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Sadie

lydianmodeee
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Electronics TM here. Looking for a little change and something new to learn, but I'm definitely not good with tools, mechanics, or anything pertaining to that. I'm up for the challenge, I just don't know if I'd be in over my head... I've never even changed a tire on my car, quite frankly! Any advice? Thanks in advance!
 
No it's really easy, all of the bike builders at my store have 0 experience with tools and stuff. Its a pretty basic procedure, some can be pretty tricky but it's not often. Hopefully they will have someone train you, and not just throw you in like they do to some at my store.
 
Aaand that's why I tell people to never buy a bike at a store like Target or Walmart.

You want to buy a bike go to a bike shop where everyone knows bikes and how to take care of them.
When the bikes are put together they are done to spec, by professionals, who will back up their work.
And you support local business.

I'm sorry, bit off track there...
kinda of a pet peeve.

Nobody look at the crazy man.
 
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A former TL of mine suggested I learn bike assembly even though I'm not mechanically inclined. But then I never got training hours, and now bikes are owned by a TL with whom I don't get along.
 
I'm a bike assembler, most of the bikes are pretty easy to build. It helps if you do have a little knowledge on bikes, as sometimes you'll have to adjust the brakes or chain tension to get it to roll back and forth along the rear sprocket to have the gears change. Otherwise it's a pretty simple process, the store provided little training. Just a 45 minutes with the prior assembler and I was good to go but I had previous experiences with bikes. The tools are all easy to use all hand tools, I believe there are only 7 actual tools needed to build any and all bikes Spot sells.
 
You can always ask the TL in charge of the process. Getting hours though may be a bit of a challenge unless your store sells a lot.
 
Aaand that's why I tell people to never buy a bike at a store like Target or Walmart.

You want to buy a bike go to a bike shop where everyone knows bikes and how to take care of them.
When the bikes are put together they are done to spec, by professionals, who will back up their work.
And you support local business.

I'm sorry, bit off track there...
kinda of a pet peeve.

Nobody look at the crazy man.

My neighbor bought a bike for her granddaughter at my store. Pedal came off and she went down. I agree with Commie and would never buy a bike anywhere other than a bike store.
 
Aaand that's why I tell people to never buy a bike at a store like Target or Walmart.

You want to buy a bike go to a bike shop where everyone knows bikes and how to take care of them.
When the bikes are put together they are done to spec, by professionals, who will back up their work.
And you support local business.

I'm sorry, bit off track there...
kinda of a pet peeve.

Nobody look at the crazy man.

Yeah I am pretty sure everybody I knew that worked at Target warned anybody they knew to never buy a bike at Target. Damn things are death traps.
 
The bikes are pretty easy to assemble and check that they are working correctly. Unfortunately, most stores think that putting the parts together and filling the tires are all that's needed. Checking brakes and gear shifting is secondary and just wastes valuable payroll. Never mind that shoddy assembly can lead to lengthy repairs or accidents and lawsuits.
 
Aaand that's why I tell people to never buy a bike at a store like Target or Walmart.

You want to buy a bike go to a bike shop where everyone knows bikes and how to take care of them.
When the bikes are put together they are done to spec, by professionals, who will back up their work.
And you support local business.

I'm sorry, bit off track there...
kinda of a pet peeve.

Nobody look at the crazy man.

Again, ASANTS. We had an awesome bike builder for our store, and our returns dropped to practically non-existent with the exception of the people who would abuse the bikes, then return them claiming they were defective.

Now the bike builder has moved up, and we have a ton of bikes returned for various reasons, most mentioned in the thread above. No payroll, so they're just sitting back there.
 
Our bike builder rarely has hours. Maybe four hours once or twice a month.
 
There's nothing wrong with target bikes. You simply have to check it's maintence when you come home. Paying a bike store twice as much for something you could do yourself after looking up a youtube vid is nuts. I just bought a bike from walmart, some things were loose, but I made sure to do a maintenance check before I rode it. Bike works perfectly fine. It's like a bike store bikes are made out of something stronger or something. A bike is a bike
 
There's nothing wrong with target bikes. You simply have to check it's maintence when you come home. Paying a bike store twice as much for something you could do yourself after looking up a youtube vid is nuts. I just bought a bike from walmart, some things were loose, but I made sure to do a maintenance check before I rode it. Bike works perfectly fine. It's like a bike store bikes are made out of something stronger or something. A bike is a bike
BA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I had my bicycle painted 5 years ago. The paint job alone cost almost 3X what a normal POS bike from Target or Walmart costs - and that was just having the frame painted. The best adjusted bike you buy from Target won't hold a candle to a rig such as I own that is drastically out of tune.

I used to have to bite my tongue when people asked what I though of this or that bike. Honestly, I wanted to say they were all garbage. If you goal is to ride a few miles a day for a month or two before tossing it in the back of the garage and forgetting about it, then buy it. If your goal is to get out and really ride, then DO NOT buy a discount store bike. Buy from a professional store that deals with bicycles, as advised above.

Of course what do I know? I've only put over 300,000 miles on my existing bike frame over the last 25 years.
 
There's nothing wrong with target bikes. You simply have to check it's maintence when you come home. Paying a bike store twice as much for something you could do yourself after looking up a youtube vid is nuts. I just bought a bike from walmart, some things were loose, but I made sure to do a maintenance check before I rode it. Bike works perfectly fine. It's like a bike store bikes are made out of something stronger or something. A bike is a bike


/me backs out of the thread carefully before he says anything he will regret.
 
BA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I had my bicycle painted 5 years ago. The paint job alone cost almost 3X what a normal POS bike from Target or Walmart costs - and that was just having the frame painted. The best adjusted bike you buy from Target won't hold a candle to a rig such as I own that is drastically out of tune.

I used to have to bite my tongue when people asked what I though of this or that bike. Honestly, I wanted to say they were all garbage. If you goal is to ride a few miles a day for a month or two before tossing it in the back of the garage and forgetting about it, then buy it. If your goal is to get out and really ride, then DO NOT buy a discount store bike. Buy from a professional store that deals with bicycles, as advised above.

Of course what do I know? I've only put over 300,000 miles on my existing bike frame over the last 25 years.
How much you rode makes no difference on the quality. The fact that you brag about a paint job costing 3x more than a whole is even more laughable. If you have enough knowledge, any bike you can last that long. Anyone who actually wants to "get out a really ride" (aka, french people in tight shorts) wouldn't go to walmart anyway. Your bike is made from the sames metals as the walmart bikes mate. For most people who want to get around town, or to school, a walmart bike is just fine. The only difference is who assembled it.
 
Commie said it best. Buying a bike at a bike shop is the best bet since that's what they do.
 
How much you rode makes no difference on the quality. The fact that you brag about a paint job costing 3x more than a whole is even more laughable. If you have enough knowledge, any bike you can last that long. Anyone who actually wants to "get out a really ride" (aka, french people in tight shorts) wouldn't go to walmart anyway. Your bike is made from the sames metals as the walmart bikes mate. For most people who want to get around town, or to school, a walmart bike is just fine. The only difference is who assembled it.


Please don't do this.
I can talk about welds, carbon fiber, grades of rubber, where they are made, who they are made by, and on and on and on.
It would just get boring or insulting depending on how I was feeling.

The fact is there are some of us who use bicycles as our primary means of transportation (I don't drive for medical reasons).
We don't look anything like french people in tight shorts or the obnoxious yuppies who rides on weekends and sit in the bagel shops with their clips-ons and $8,000 bikes, drinking lattes, and talking how they had to fire those people in accounting because they just weren't pulling their weight....
Whoops, damn there I go again.
 
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Bikes are pretty easy. There's a whole repair manual that explains just about every step, and everything you don't find in the Target bike builder guide can be found in the manufacturer's bike owner manual. It will take you a while to become efficient at it though.
I knew zero about building bikes when I started as bike builder but I cared about doing a good job, which is more than the last guy apparently because his bikes were dangerous.
#15, #14, #13, and #10 wrenches are your friends, along with the three way hex wrench, and a good Philips head screwdriver.

Protip: a 2x4 (board) is the perfect tool for opening a front fork that is bent together from shipping. Insert between the fork and twist. Use the large adjustable wrench for a better grip on the board.

I love it because I control the whole process from start to finish and don't have to pick up after someone else.
 
Please don't do this.
I can talk about welds, carbon fiber, grades of rubber, where they are made, who they are made by, and on and on and on.
It would just get boring or insulting depending on how I was feeling.

The fact is there are some of us who use bicycles as out primary means of transportation (I don't drive for medical reasons).
We don't look anything like french people in tight shorts or the obnoxious yuppies who rides on weekends and sit in the bagel shops with their clips-ons and $8,000 bikes, drinking lattes, and talking how they had to fire those people in accounting because they just weren't pulling their weight....
Whoops, damn there I go again.
Welds and frames of any quality can still break. Rubber's can be upgraded. Who they are made by, is really irrelvant since you can just upgrade to something even better than the LBS. I'm not going to pretend that I know more about bikes than you. I probably don't, iirc, you're twice my age so you obviously have more experience. But as an avid mountain biker, and BMXer, how the bike is assembled is more imporant than where it comes from in the case of stores. If you know anything about bikes, it's usually better, cheaper, and more efficient for the average person to buy the DS bike.

Now if you have 1k to drop on a bike, and go for the LBS.
 
Also when that Neiman Marcus bike came out and it was actually better than the regular bikes but it was still a piece of shit.
 
Our bike builder is really good at what he does. We have very few returns other than abuse from people who don't know what they're doing.

However if a bike was my only means of transportation I probably would invest in something a little nicer than what spot or wally world sells.
 
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