I recently bought a junk bike. I want to slowly fix it up myself for two reasons: 1. To have a nicer bike. 2. To learn about bike maintenance. I’d like to improve it slowly (weeks or months) while keeping it functional. What order should I consider improvements?

I’ll elaborate. When I first bought the bike, I tuned the brakes (linear pull). I struggled. I realized brake tuning was difficult because my wheel wasn’t aligned. In retrospect, I should have straightened/replaced the wheel before tuning the brakes. I’m wondering if there are any insights you could provide about the order I should tackle this project (e.g., wheel alightment before brakes).

  • potate
    4·
    21 days ago

    Fantastic comment. Only item I might disagree on is bearings IF the bike has cartridge bearings as those are easy to work with. If it’s cup and cone/loose ball then yea, I’d recommend just letting the shop do it only because cone wrenches are a pretty specific tool.

    Lots of bike shops (especially community bike shops) offer inexpensive courses on bike maintenance which are a great option for learning.