For the past six months, I’ve been applying Get Rich Slowly principles to physical fitness. By making small changes, I’ve lost seventeen pounds since January 1st. I’ve begun lifting weights regularly for the first time in my life. I’m even preparing for an October marathon!
I injured myself at the end of May, however, and spent the past few weeks recuperating. While waiting for my leg to heal, I turned to cycling to maintain my aerobic conditioning. And as any cyclist will tell you, regular riding means regular maintenance and repairs.
Bike repairs aren’t expensive in the grand scheme of things, but they still cost money. Rather than pay a shop to change a flat, why not learn to do it yourself? Ten years ago, when I was biking nearly every day, I could perform basic bicycle maintenance. Somewhere along the way, I’ve lost that skill. Fortunately, I recently discovered The Bicycle Tutor.
The Bicycle Tutor is the brainchild of Alex Ramon, a bicycle geek since early childhood. He’s worked as a mechanic in bike shops and he likes photography, so it seemed natural for him to start a site with videos to help others learn to fix their own bikes. So far he’s produced 31 short segments describing how to perform various maintenance and repair tasks.
Ramon’s tutorials cover simple things like:
- How to adjust your seat height and angle
- How to clean and lubricate a chain
- How to change a flat tire
But he also deals with advanced topics like how to replace cable housings. Here’s a video that explains how to tune up your bike:
Bicycle repair books are helpful, but these videos are easier for me to follow. And they’re free!
The Bicycle Tutor also allows users to download individual guides for $2 each, or to have unfettered access to all existing and future videos for a one-time payment of $25. Though I’m not ready to pay just yet, I can see the value of being able to plop a video tutorial onto my iPod and take it with me on a long ride.
If videos aren’t your style, or if you’re looking for additional information, try these sites:
- Bicycle maintenance guide and riding tips
- Park Tool bike repair how-to guide
- And, of course, the amazing web site of Sheldon Brown, who died in February.
Meanwhile, the doctor has given me the “all clear” to return to running; if things go well, I’ll actually rejoin my marathon training group this morning. But I’ve also got the biking bug again. I’m sure I’ll be returning to The Bicycle Tutor often in the future!
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I think the number one expenditure on a bike which will save you money in the long term is a good fitting. Most people (and shops) forgo this, in the name of economic efficiency, or ignorance about how important it is.
If you bought a bike, and the extend of the fitting was “one inch of standover height” or “does that feel good?” you may be setting yourself up for a series of medical problems down the road; I learned this the hard way, and still have back problems to show for it.
Find a shop that spends time fitting athletes to bikes; good ones will include the fit with any new bike; otherwise it may cost you $80 or so. Ask local serious cyclists, even if you don’t consider yourself a serious cyclist. They will (should) spend time (at least 1/2 – 1 hour) putting you on the bike on a trainer, watching you ride, and making necessary adjustments (and perhaps swapping out components).
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Great news about the return to running! Be sure to let us know how the group run this morning turns out.
Oh, and the bike article is nice too.
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Don’t forget http://www.bikeforums.net
It’s a message board with people who are very helpful and respond quickly to maintenance issues, and other things as well. Definitely a resource that should be explored.
I should also mention that Sheldon Brown’s website is really THE Gold Standard when it comes to bike knowledge.
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Very cool. My husband and I love to ride our bikes and being able to fix them ourselves would be great.
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LOVE IT!!! I just started biking to transport myself to a new job site to save $$$$ on gas and here you are giving this great weekend tip!! Thanks a bunch! Bookmarked this post already. =)
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Kevlar tires. That’s my bicycle tip. When I once rode my bike to work, I got a couple of flat tires very quickly on the 1.25″ 10-speed tires. I switched to Kevlar and I haven’t gotten a flat since.
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If gas gets any more expensive I am going to start riding my bike to work for sure.
Congratulations on sticking it out and losing all that weight!
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Hey JD — a little personal experience I’ll pass along; don’t take this as a truism, however, just my thoughts:
I’ve done a fair amount of training for long distance events. I haven’t done a marathon (good for you!), but I’ve run a few half-marathons and a triathlon. When I was training for the triathlon, however, I learned the value of cross training. I never thought I would go over a half-marathon (and I haven’t yet), because the amount of running that it took for me to get there wore my body out. When I started cross-training for the tri, however, I found that my body didn’t get worn out, and I didn’t necessarily need to run to increase my mileage. Swimming and biking helped my running as much as running did (the continuous spinning motion of biking is really good for my running form, actually). Now, I only run two days a week, but I can go far, and I don’t have any aches and pains.
My point is, I think you can feel free to bike. I think it’s a great supplement for running. That is all. Just my thoughts. Good luck on the training!
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Oh, Ron’s right about getting the bike fit to you. The $80 will be redeemed in saved medical bills. For reals
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Which marathon are you talking about running?
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Awesome site, thanks for sharing! Those video tutorials are very well done, very clear, very easy to understand, very helpful.
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