Dieter is the kind of bike nerd mechanic that every good bike shop should want. He is endlessly enthusiastic about getting people of all kinds onto bikes of all sorts. He can fix your bike even when the outlook looks bleak. Go for a ride with him and you’ll probably end up doing high fives and exclaiming ‘sick!’. In short, he has boundless enthusiasm for all things bike. He’s also a bit of a socially conscious punk environmentalist, so he’s probably a bit rubbish if your bike shop is one of those glittering concept store type places where it doesn’t smell of rubber and GT85 (Or WD40). Luckily for him, and us, he works at our local social enterprise bike shop, and we’ve talked him into bringing us a few of his more ingenious and interesting fixes, alongside whatever commentary he might like to get off his chest. We hope you enjoy…

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By down_and_across

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That is genius!
Brilliant article.

Every bike shop needs a person like this!

great work!

I’ve got a broken maxle, spare qr clamps, box of metal bits…. Maybe I’ll actually have a go at it🙂

That is excellent! I’m definitely not in the same league when it comes to fixing mechanical things, but at least I can now justify the boxes of things that “might come in handy one day.”

Nice story and I get the mentality for sure, as the world throws far too much away.

But, in this instance I’m struggling to imagine it being that good for a bike shop. By the time you’ve searched about, engineered the bits, painted and tested, you’ll have to charge £40 to £50 for time and overheads – without the security of a ‘proper’ factory component being sold to the customer for a safety critical part of the bike.

In this instance I think I’d be selling them a Maxle Ultimate, which are available and better anyway.

I get it for individuals and have done similar things myself with the mountain of just in case ‘spares’ that accumulate over the years but, unless it’s your business and you’re happy with costs, customers by and large won’t pay the right money for such a job on a part that can be replaced correctly.

@twonks commercially viable…probably not…but if you’re a community bike shop without a load of stock on the shelves but plenty of donations maybe this kind of fix becomes more needed? Also, have you tried buying anything lately?! I reckon after the apocalypse Dieters will be a valuable commodity!

But what does it say on his shirt?

“LOVE CYCLING..
HATE…?”

Hate…
punctures?
Pineapple on pizza?
Haters?
Don Johnson’s Solo Album?
Catching myself in a zipper?

@charlie_hobbs I think it’s ‘facism’

Like

@Twonks Have you every tried to source a 20mm Maxle in the last 5 or 6 years? Those bloody things just don’t seem to exist. Had to do (a slightly more basic) similar maxle bodge for my brother’s old Domains a few years ago

Brilliant. Looking forward to reading more of the case studies!

@zerocool looks more like a 15mm to me and I found loads of them a few hours ago.

Not really the point I was trying to make tbh, more intended to suggest that for most shops this type of repair won’t be cost effective.

Independent local shops maybe, as Hannah suggests above.

Don’t get me wrong though, the process and customer service is still great to see 😃

Does the cat stay on the shelf? Best place for the bloody things.
Thank you for an entertaining article

The amount of real estate in my house dedicated to cat furniture is completely unreasonable, but I’m allowed to keep a completely unreasonable amount of bikes and related ephemera in return so it’s swings and roundabouts…

So it’s swings and roundabouts

Does it take more or less room to roundabout a cat than to swing one?

Watched the police interview with that Couzens filth and I saw his cat climb onto a shelf nearby.I need to get out more.