Bicycle Maintenance
Yesterday the Snook and I attended one of the City of Sydney’s FREE bicycle maintenance courses. To be honest, I was a little scared going in. I don’t consider myself to be very “mechanical” at all, and even though all the parts on a bike are exposed, it was still very much a black box to me. There were seven of us in the class (three guys, four women), and when the instructor Carlos said that we were going to be taking our tires completely off our bikes, I had a moment of mental panic. “I’M GOING TO RUIN MY BIKE,” I thought. But you know what? I didn’t. The class was fantastic. Carlos first taught us how to maintain our chains and why it’s important. Then we all went out and cleaned our chains and lubricated them. I accidentally pulled my chain off the cogs, but I knew exactly how to put it back on. Then we talked about derailleurs and how they work, and then we got to tires. My bike has quick release tires, so I had them off in minutes! Then we deflated them and pulled the tubes completely out. Carlos showed us how to figure out the right size tubes to buy, what pressure to inflate them to, how to test for leaks and how to use a patch kit. Then we put the tubes back in, put our wheels back on, and reinflated our tires to the correct pressure. Neat! We also learned how to check our brakes and realign them, and how to make adjustments to some of the cables on our bikes. He also showed us what not to mess with. It was such a great course, and I’m so glad we did it. I walked out with a few grease stains on my hands but also with a much better understanding of how my bike works, and I think I actually could fix it in a pinch! I highly recommend the class to anybody in Sydney with a bicycle. (You have to book in as the spots fill up.)