Just finished easing some stuck pistons and fitting new pads to a pair of early Hope mono minis and I’d forgotten how painfully annoying the shims are to try and center the calipers.

Wheel bearings.

Bleeding a stealth Reverb. Normal ones are a joy in comparison.

Bleeding brakes. It’s either straight forward or a bloody messy nightmare.
Tubeless tyres. As above.

Imagine a time before disc brakes or even v brakes.

It’s 1991/ 2 and shimano have released a series of brakes that required the use of a specific plastic insert to set the brakes.

Quite an education!

Re-bushing an RM pivot system, those wee ecclefechen O-rings 😈 👿 😳

I always used to line the calipers up with loose bolts and no shims then squeeze the lever and zip tie it to the bar. Remove each bolt in turn and then stuff the gap with shims. Replace the bolt and job done.

Bleeding my Guide R’s.

Literally anything. I just want the damn bike to work damnit! Almost nothing seems to go as easily as it should, to the point that my wife’s now shocked if I get within an hour of my estimate of how long whatever easy job should take.

Any tubeless installation just lately.
Guaranteed to have tools and equipment being launched across the garage

Tubeless… most work well, but you get the odd one that just WON’T stay inflated well.. it’s a frustrating nightmare

Trekster – Member
Re-bushing an RM pivot system, those wee ecclefechen O-rings

It that the one where you could accidentally push the bushes in to the frame to be a rattle forever?

Tedious for me though? Washing the damm thing now I don’t have the space and hard standing anymore

cup and cone bearings

Replacing 14 specialized fsr frame bearings, thank god I’m getting a new bike within the next year…

Replacing a broken spoke and truing the bugger afterwards. My ham fisted approach always sees me dropping it off at the lbs to make amends.

Bleeding a set of shimano brakes. First time were these and I already hate them.
Another hateful job on yesterday’s list was retapeing some bars – the two most pants cycling jobs invented.

Bleeding a set of shimano brakes. First time were these and I already hate them.
Another hateful job on yesterday’s list was retapeing some bars – the two most pants cycling jobs invented.

shimano not as tedious as avids, i love bar taping!

Feel free to pop over. I can pay you in biscuits 🙂

Replacing a broken spoke and truing the bugger afterwards. My ham fisted approach always sees me dropping it off at the lbs to make amends.

Factor in having to remove the tyre, valve, sealant and tubeless tape. Only have to go through the pain of setting it up tubeless again!

Factor in having to remove the tyre, valve, sealant and tubeless tape. Only have to go through the pain of setting it up tubeless again!

Why? Unless it’s a hidden/recessed nipple then a new spoke should just go straight on the wheel.

Fitting new cables and setting up gears. Don’t mind it when everything is new but on used parts it always seems to be a PITA.

Setting stem height, bar angle, lever angle then cabling and bar tape on road bikes. Too many variables!

Why? Unless it’s a hidden/recessed nipple then a new spoke should just go straight on the wheel.

I’m actually excited about doing the one on my road bike tonight as is the first time ever the spoke has broken far enough along to allow me to get the old one out of the nipple or that it’s not the nipple that’s failed.

I maintain a fleet of cheap and nasty hire bikes. Most tedious job = trying to explain to riders it’s not the bike that’s broken, it’s them.

‘the gears are noisy’ = I’m riding it at maximum cross chaining
‘it drops the chain on bumpy downhill trails’ = same as above
‘the chain slips’ = as above

“But if that’s wrong why doesn’t the bike doesn’t stop me from doing it” – yeah, fair one. I’ll be campaigning for 1* next time we update the bikes..

Never a fan of front mechs when running triples up front, doubles are OK but triples always feel like a compromise. Thankfully the only bike i look after with a triple is my Dad’s roadie that rarely needs looking at.

Fitting mudguards almost always ends up being a pain too.

Road tubeless. Worth it in the end, but NOTHING makes me SWEAT quite so much as fitting a skinny tyre that seems 4inches too small for the rim.

Only wheel bearings come close. Mutter mutter bloody Rocky mountain XT bloody hubs mutter mutter.

Literally anything involving cantis

road bike cabling – always a source of friction both literal and metaphorical. By contrast I enjoy taping handlebars afterwards, one of those jobs that tackled calmly and methodically results in a something you can admire as you ride.
Bleeding brakes is not something I look forward to but it usually turns out to be less hassle than imagined.

My job is soooo tedious I literally do bike maintenance for the interest and love of it.
But there is one thing that really pee’s me off – cleaning dog/human shit out of my tyres or shoes. I hate how it gets squished in and you have to pick it out with a stick and then wash with soap and water and a brush gagging all the way.

cleaning dog/human shit out of my tyres or shoes. I hate how it gets squished in and you have to pick it out with a stick and the wash with soap and water gagging all the way.

Tbh it’s how it flicks off your tyres and gets encrusted in your beard that’s more troubling.

Tbh it’s how it flicks off your tyres and gets encrusted in your beard that’s more troubling.

Or in your eye/mouth. UGGGGH

Most things seem pretty good they fit together and generally work as expected.

I remember when in the 90s you had to buy BBs that were a specific width and fiddle with fricken canti tension and those wildly over-designed brake bridge things. QRs simply didn’t work and replacing a headset or a cassette took ages because you had to remove the old one and take it to the lbs so they could look at it, sharp intake of breath and (maybe) order a replacement or direct you to another lbs that (might) have one

No internet back then y’see

Taping up rims for tubeless hate it.

cleaning dog/human shit out of my tyres or shoes. I hate how it gets squished in and you have to pick it out with a stick

Nah, hose on Jet setting, blast it over the neighbour’s fence.

Bleeding brakes. It’s either straight forward or a bloody messy nightmare.

Did mine yesterday and they just feel pants. I’m now out of mineral oil so that’s the next purchase 🙁

With troublesome brakes I hang them up so the caliper is at the bottom and the lever at the top, leave a syringe in either end overnight and then they bleed through perfect. This used to be the only solution for avid juicy.

Replacing a broken spoke and truing the bugger afterwards

this. over tensioned a spoke lst night – it snapped, taking the nipple on the next spoke with it – ended up with a very mishapen wheel!! tonight’s job; do it without breaking more spokes.

and bar tape. tonight’s other job!!

Literally anything involving cantis

I ate cants

Internal cable routing. Swallowing the cable and feeding it through to my bum hole would be easier to do.

Internal cable routing. Swallowing the cable and feeding it through to my bum hole would be easier to do.

That made me laugh very loudly.
Bravo sir!