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).

  • sugar_in_your_tea
    2·
    2 months ago

    Yeah, some things I look for when buying used:

    • are the wheels true? - spin it and see if it wobbles; also check tension of a few spokes, they should all feel taut
    • is there resistance when pedeling? - change to the lowest gear, lift back tire off the ground, and spin the pedals
    • are there any cracks or damage to the frame? - less of a concern for steel frames, a huge concern for carbon fiber, and moderate concern for aluminum
    • does it shift smoothly? - run through all of the gears; if there’s multiple chainring cogs, you only need about half of the rear gears to work well per cog
    • is the chainring damaged? - it’s not that hard to replace, just kind of expensive; a chainring in good condition will look even on both sides of the teeth, a worn one will look like a shark fin

    If there’s frame damage, I just move on to the next. The rest just impacts how much I’ll offer for the bike. I’m not too worried about consumables (brake pads, tires, rear cassette, chain, etc), but the rest can add up.