Crahift
When a bike is not worth repairing
We turn work away every week. This is the honest version of how we decide, including when we tell you to repair it anyway.
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Notes
Things we say often enough to write down
These are the explanations we end up giving at the counter several times a week. All of it is work you can do yourself with a couple of tools, and we would genuinely rather you did.
Nothing here is written to sell you a service. Where a job is beyond a home fix we say so, and where it is not, we say that too.
Every note
Setting saddle height without the guesswork
Two methods, ten minutes, and what knee pain is telling you. Most bikes we see are set an inch too low.
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Choosing tyres for mixed roads
Tyres change how a bike rides more than any other part you can buy. Clearance, width, why casing beats tread, and getting the pressure right.
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Winter maintenance that actually matters
Winter damage is about grit, not rain. Once you see it that way, the right jobs become obvious and most of the elaborate advice falls away.
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Fixing a puncture properly
Most people can fit a new tube. Far fewer find out what caused the puncture, which is why they puncture again within a mile.
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Checking chain wear before it costs you a cassette
A twelve pound tool that saves a sixty pound cassette. The thresholds that matter, how to measure with a ruler instead, and the arithmetic behind it.
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Indexing gears at home
The repair people are most frightened of is one of the easiest. One screwdriver, twenty minutes, and doing the steps in the order that actually works.
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If you are starting from nothing
The order we would learn them in
If you have never worked on a bike and want to know where to begin, this is the order that gives you the most useful skill soonest.
- Fixing a puncture properly. The one that gets you home. Learn it in a warm kitchen rather than at the roadside in the dark.
- Checking chain wear. Takes a minute, needs a £12 tool, and saves more money than every other job on this list combined.
- Setting saddle height. Costs nothing and changes how every ride feels.
- Indexing gears. The one people avoid. Genuinely learnable in an afternoon.
- Winter maintenance. Seasonal, and the difference between a drivetrain lasting one winter or four.
The other two, choosing tyres and deciding whether a bike is worth repairing, are decisions rather than jobs. Read them when the question comes up.