We’re now transitioning — at least in the Northern hemisphere — from bike riding season to bike maintenance season. It’s never a bad idea to spend a little bit of time in the garage while it’s cold and wet outside, giving your steel/carbon/aluminum horse a little bit of love.
That said, not all services are created equal. While someone might find brake bleeding therapeutic, others might see it as the bane of their existence. So, tell us. What is your LEAST favorite bike repair task, that you either put off, scream and fight through, or just take it to a bike tech? If you don’t see it in the list, write it in the comments.
Changing tires with inserts.
I agree. It’s a pain sometimes.
I said renewing sealant for this reason. it’s a pain getting the tires off with the inserts in them.
Changing pivot bearings. Always a bit nerve racking removing and pressing bearings onto a carbon surface especially yeti sb130 with the special tool required to get one set of the bearings out.
Just cleaning the bike because it seems like it always needs to be done.
Re-taping rims is without a doubt the messiest nastiest job, in part because you never usually expect to have to do it and somebody has usually dumped a load of sealant in the tire in an effort to plug the leak. Combine that with really nasty goopy sealant and gorilla-tape residue all over the rims and you’ve got a recipe for a bad time.
I’m pretty sure it was re-taping a wheel recently that got me thinking about this 🙂
Annnnd, I thought Matt might have a rocket science project going on or sompin’…
With my collection of bikes, I enjoy everything about them. Right down to lacing up another set of wheels…
Bleeding brakes because it’s the easiest to mess up, but since it is pretty much a life safety device, so if it feels off at all then you immediately want to do it again.
Bottom bracket replacement.
Really, I just hate bike maintenance in general. It all sucks, and nothing is particularly satisfying (except maybe feeding a line through a well thoughtout tube-in-tube design and watching it come out effortlessly on the other end right where it’s supposed to.)
Retaping a rim is probably the worst. If that ever comes up again in the future, I’ll treat that no differently than a destroyed rim and just get a new wheel. Pre-taped.