Oh man, I have a lot of stories about self-teaching myself bicycle
mechanics. A few years ago I found a NOS Panasonic lugged mountain bike
frame. It didn't have a fork. I paid all of 40 bucks for it at a bike swap.
I bought a chrome Tange fork with a 1" threaded steer tube and a cheap
Tange headset. I installed the headset (something I had done plenty of
times before), it felt off, but I built up the rest of the bike with spare
parts anyway. I took it out for a spin and while the bike rode great, the
headset was really tight if I spun it one way and it would loosen when I
spun it the other way. I took the front end apart, re-installed it, and the
same thing kept happening. If you have ever looked at the cheapest Tange
headset installation instructions, they are photocopy quality and small. I
new something was wrong but I had done everything correctly. I gave up on
the project for the time being.
Every once in a while that bike would look at me funny and I'd throw it
in the stand and tear down the headset, look at the instructions, and put
it back together. It never went together correctly. I figured it was a bad
headset and planned on buying a new one some day. Well, someday I did and
as I unpacked the new part from the box, I noted that the bottom bearing
cage was reverse of how I had it installed on the other headset. I looked
at the instructions again, this time like a magic eye poster, I could see
it...there was a slightly darker line on the bottom indicating the the cage
should be oriented up. I loosened the headset nut, flipped the bearing
cage, put the fork back in, tightened it all up, and smooth as butter.
I have had the same issue with IKEA instructions. I am not a visual
learner.
On my very first good adult bike I installed a rear rack and fenders
with the fender stays outside the rack struts. An elder kindly pointed out
that there may be a better way.
I used to think I had to wait until a patch on an tube was dry enough
to pull the plastic cover off. I took forever to patch a tire. A kindly
elder pointed out that there is no need to remove it, you just throw it in
the tire and go.
The first wheel I ever built was terrible in so many ways. The worst
part was this: I had a friend crashing in my pantry and he had some bike
tools. He showed me how to lace a wheel and gave me general instructions on
how to build it. "Get the spokes tight but don't strip the nipples." Okay,
I grabbed the spoke wrench in his kit and got to work. At a certain point I
could feel the spoke wrench starting to slip so I finished truing,
stressing, repeat. Cool, done. The wheel would not stay true, were wobbly,
flexy, and just awful. I kept throwing it in the stand and trying to fix
it. It was only after some bike shop stalking that I noticed that there
were different color spoke wrenches. I casually asked the shop keep what
the difference was. Oh, of course, there are different sized spoke nipples.
I had borrowed the red Park Tool wrench, I needed the black one. Yikes.
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