Ever since I was a kid I’ve always worked on my own bikes. I had to do it because of the fact that a 12 year old doesn’t have disposable income to spend of repairs and tune ups. I remember one time at Christmas I received $20 from a relative. I took my sweet mula to the LBS and had them perform a Tune-Up on my old Raleigh Grand Prix road bike.
After waiting a few days for the bike, I finally got it back. I didn’t notice a difference at all in the ride. So I asked the shop what they did. They basically put grease here and there, tighten this and that and yank on a couple of things and that was it.
That’s when I decided I wasn’t going to spend money on getting my bike fixed. As an adult, I have a bit more cash now and could afford the LBS to tinker with my bikes.
But why bother, you can do all of the same repairs as the LBS by using the Video Bike Repair DVD.
If you have some sort of mechanical ability, you can save a bundle on your bike repair costs.