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Home Mechanics week 1500x1000-rcc (1)It's Home Mechanics' Week on road.cc — learn your way around your bike, save time and money and become a more confident home mechanic
In these times of economic strife, we thought it was only right we pull together a whole bunch of features, guides, videos and reviews to help you work on your own bike across road.cc and off.road.cc. Not that we wouldn't recommend a trip to the bike shop for those big jobs that require very specific tools, or for an annual service to make extra sure your bike is in tip-top condition - but there are plenty of ways to save yourself time and money by learning your way around your bike.
You'll find everything we're publishing throughout the week on our Home Mechanics' Week 2025 tag page. We've kicked off with a freshly updated step-by-step guide to fitting tubeless tyres, and on Tuesday we'll be running a feature on which jobs are actually cheaper to do at home vs leaving it to the professionals with realistic cost breakdowns. We'll also be telling you how to build your own beginner's toolkit, how to bleed disc brakes and how to fix your shifting if it's gone a bit awry. Here's a list of all the scheduled features and guides coming up through the week so far, not including reviews and any topical news that might crop up:
Monday
- How to change a tubeless tyre
- Buyer's guide to the best chain lubes
Tuesday
- Is it always cheaper to do your own bike maintenance?
Wednesday
- A beginner’s guide to building your first bike tool set
- Buyer’s guide to the best tyre levers
Thursday
- How to bleed disc brakes
- The best way to change an inner tube (including video)
Friday
- How to replace a chain
- Buyer’s guide to the best torque wrenches
Saturday
- Shift like a pro: 10 reasons why your bike's gears aren't working as they should, and how to fix it
Sunday
- Steve’s ultimate travel toolkit
- Buyer’s guide to the best bike multi tools
If any professional or highly experienced mechanics are reading this then you're probably not going to need our help, but feel free to contribute in the comments with bonus advice. For everyone else... well, we hope you find our Home Mechanics' Week content informative, and drop us a note in the comments or email us at tech [at] road.cc if there's anything you'd like to see for next time. Enjoy!
Latest Comments
- Jogle 6 hours 24 min ago
Mystery over upturned campervan in Brittany...
- Barraob1 7 hours 8 min ago
Is that justification for murder?
- ktache 7 hours 16 min ago
I have recently obtained a SPD axle removal tool from eBay, ali, anodised in blue, wanted orange. I presume it's Chinese made, too much of a...
- ChasP 7 hours 17 min ago
I find it helps particularly with a brand new tyre that retains it's folded shape to seat it with an inner tube and leave for a while. You can then...
- Rendel Harris 7 hours 56 min ago
It's not available on the NHS but it can legally be prescribed by private doctors.
- ktache 8 hours 1 min ago
Was thinking about getting a Rohloff one, but then I got a Rohloff which made it a bit pointless. And, of course I only found about it when I was...
- pockstone 9 hours 18 min ago
If one's knuckles are several inches below one's ankles...?
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2 comments
As a LBS mechanic I can only applaud articles like this! Bikes are basically pretty easy (they're not Mars rovers after all) and with just a few tools an eager cyclist can save a lot of time and money if you know how to service your tires, brakes and gears. Truing a wheel is also really not that difficult in most cases.
Saddles and non integrated cockpits are almost self explanatory and with the right tool a
Birmingham
Small
Arms BB will surrender too
A basic toolset will amortize pretty quickly considering LBS labour cost.
Yes there a lot of different standards but you only need to understand those relevant to your bike(s).
Just start. Your knowledge and skills will only get better. And yes, swearing is ok.
As a home mechanic, buying ALL (reasonably) possible tools at once is probably the most "economical" way to go. BUT as a newbie (many, many years ago) I bought cheap tools as I needed (and cursed at them). As my skill and confidence grew, I bought better and better tools, to the point where I now have a pretty high quality set (except for some specilized tools ___ LBS) that over the years never impacted my budget.