Any English-language bicycle repair lessons available?

So I keep thinking about multi-day cycling trips, then every so often I’ll get a flat on one of my rides around Taipei City and I’ll throw the bike in the back of a taxi and head to a bicycle shop.

That’s not an option in the middle of nowhere.

Are there any bike shops that can offer English-language basic repair lessons? Tire replacement, cable adjustment, uh… heck, teach me the vocabulary to even identify problems. I can’t claim that my bad Chinese limits me to “這個東西有問題”, since all I can usually manage in English is “This thing’s got a problem.”

I’ve got a couple of DIY books but I am something of a DIY idiot.

Or, do I worry too much, and plenty of people do the Hualian/ Taidong trip without concerning themselves with such “What if…?” scenarios?

Thanks in advance!

So you want to learn how to fix a bike in English?

Ha ha… yes, the bike only understands English! Should it be “English-language bicycle-repair lessons”? “Bike-repair lessons in English”? I never can get those hyphens figured out.

I want lessons on how to do basic bike repairs, and my Chinese is nowhere near up to the task. I’ve tried a bit with do-it-yourself bicycle manuals and with Youtube, but they don’t really work for me. I know bike shops in Canada do occasionally offer lessons on this kind of thing, and perhaps bike shops do so here.

This may help, although I didn’t write it:
taiwanincycles.blogspot.com/2011 … -what.html

Thanks scomargo - the vocabulary is definitely useful, even if I had to search online to find out what some of the English words were…

Partly answering my own question:
bicycletutor.com/
I’ve seen videos like these on Youtube before, but the organization of this site impresses me. If I’m just in Youtube, I have to know what I’m looking for, whereas that site seems to have more of a curriculum.

My cats will be thrilled by all the small parts they can play football with, and my wife will be even more thrilled when she comes home to discover the mess.

I’m happy to teach you what all the parts are and what they do if you come to my riding spot one weekend when I’m there if you’re interested. It’s between Taoyuan City and the Nankan junction of freeway no1.

[quote=“lostinasia”]So I keep thinking about multi-day cycling trips, then every so often I’ll get a flat on one of my rides around Taipei City and I’ll throw the bike in the back of a taxi and head to a bicycle shop.

That’s not an option in the middle of nowhere.

Are there any bike shops that can offer English-language basic repair lessons? Tire replacement, cable adjustment, uh… heck, teach me the vocabulary to even identify problems. I can’t claim that my bad Chinese limits me to “這個東西有問題”, since all I can usually manage in English is “This thing’s got a problem.”

I’ve got a couple of DIY books but I am something of a DIY idiot.

Or, do I worry too much, and plenty of people do the Hualian/ Taidong trip without concerning themselves with such “What if…?” scenarios?

Thanks in advance![/quote]

Lost, Hualien-Taidong is easy and you shouldn’t be worried about a flat. Remember, motorcycle shops can easily fix a punctured tube as well. They will enjoy helping you too, and probably charge you little.

Also, if flats are a recurrent problem you might thinking about switching to tires that have a kevlar belt under the tread. They are not expensive – I ride Continental Ultra Races that are 750 each. Maxxis, the local brand, has even more inexpensive ones.

Also, i am tentatively doing the Hualien-Taidong run the weekend of Aprl 23 to monday Apr 25. Let me know if you want to come.

Vorkosigan

[quote=“Vorkosigan”]Lost, Hualien-Taidong is easy and you shouldn’t be worried about a flat. Remember, motorcycle shops can easily fix a punctured tube as well. They will enjoy helping you too, and probably charge you little.

Also, if flats are a recurrent problem you might thinking about switching to tires that have a kevlar belt under the tread. They are not expensive – I ride Continental Ultra Races that are 750 each. Maxxis, the local brand, has even more inexpensive ones.

Also, I am tentatively doing the Hualien-Taidong run the weekend of Aprl 23 to monday Apr 25. Let me know if you want to come.[/quote]
Cool - thanks for the invite and the tips. Unfortunately, I’ll be too busy at the time; I’m just finishing a week’s break, and I was hoping to head out on a trip, but I’ve just got too much to do (fulltime student, fulltime teacher… blech. It’s going to be a rough 4-5 years).

Good to know about the Hualien-Taidong route. So there’s always going to be a scooter shop reasonably nearby? I guess this is Taiwan, after all.

Flats haven’t been a problem for me in a while: when I was cycling around Tainan, I used to get them all the time, but since I moved to Taipei they’ve been much less common. I’ve assumed that’s because in Taipei I’m usually on cycling paths rather than roads - it seemed like in Tainan County I was always suddenly swerving around patches of broken glass. Oddly, in Tainan I usually had Continental tires, but now they’re some kind of Michelin slicks (is that the word?). I have absolutely no idea if they have a kevlar belt, but they were in the 800 range if I recall correctly.

The slicks are another thing I need to figure out: my bike’s fine if it’s dry, but if it rains the tires and lack of fenders are a definite problem. When I bought the bike, about 8-9 years ago now, a guy who knows a lot about cycling helped me with the purchase - loosely “touring”, i.e. mountain bikish frame, but road tires - but I don’t really understand enough about what I have.

An English language bicycle repair course in Taichung:
courseculture.com/?p=243

Learned about via…
taiwanincycles.blogspot.com/2011 … epair.html
and
michaelturton.blogspot.com/2011/ … -pike.html

Hi there,

I have to say that I’m a Taiwanese. I’m very crazy about cycling. Even though I’m very busy, I will ride out once or twice a week. However, I never think of taking a lesson for bike repair. Maybe it’s so convenient to take the bike to the store, or maybe it’s easy to learn the details on the website, or the most important, to learn from my fellow cyclists.

So join a bike club and go out with them. Oh, be sure to prepare a spare tire and some tools just in case. Or maybe you don’t have to prepare for anything. Ask for help whenever you need and learn by that. People here are very keen to help each other. In my opinion, this will be more efficient than taking a lesson. Well, you can give it a try.

Kevin