We took Eddy’s bike to Eddy’s Bike Shop and they wanted $100 to do a tune up and replace the bottom bracket. It is most certainly a fair price, and they do know what they are doing over there, but I sort of wanted the experience. An experience I got.

I went and bought all the tools necessary for the job. You need a special tool to replace the cranks, which is what they call the bars the pedals attach to, and another special tool to remove the bottom bracket, which is the part that the cranks attach to that goes in the frame of the bicycle. I also bought gloves, a little toolbox, a bigger wrench, and a chain tool. Every other tool I needed for the job I had around the house.

As far as parts go there were quite a few. I wanted to replace the front brakes, the chain, and the bottom bracket. I ended up having to replace the seat as well, when I found out that the metal on the bottom had worked itself loose from the plastic on the bottom of the seat and I did not feel that was safe.

I tore up my hands a bit and I’m sore in my shoulders. The bottom bracket was rusted in the frame and it took a whole lot of work to get it out. The chain and the seat were pretty easy to install. Some learning curve on using a chain tool, I kept producing locked up links, which after some playing around I figured out the right way to do it.

The whole project took me three days, but spending the time with my son, learning a whole lot about bikes, and getting to do it myself made the whole thing worth it.