Spanner imageFixing up your own bike

A lot of minor bike problems can be fixed by somebody with very little experience of bike maintenance. There are no secrets as to how your bike works – everything is visible and there are countless books, websites and video resources available to guide you.  Some good ones are listed below.

Sustrans’ Guides to Bike Maintenance

Sustrans provide helpful and clear guidance on how to keep your bike running.  Keeping tyres pumped up, cleaning and lubing your bike are all covered, along with all the basic repairs.

www.sustrans.org.uk/change-your-travel/get-cycling/bicycle-maintenance-made-easy

Video Tutorials

Watching a video tutorial can be particularly helpful before starting to try something you’ve not done before. You’ll find plenty of these from a simple web search, but Howcast’s videos are a good place to start.

www.howcast.com/guides/904-bicycle-repair-maintenance

Bike Radar orBicycling.com’s Repair Pages

Bike Radar has a range of useful guides (www.bikeradar.com).  It’s a great resource for tips and techniques – all the way up to more advanced levels.  Bicycling.com, likewise (www.bicycling.com/repair). There is a constant stream of new articles available.

The Bike Doctor App

If you learn all about life from your phone, you could do worse than this app. Bike Doctor works on Apple and Android devices.

www.bikedoctorapp.com