An unfortunate thing happened last week… my wife ran over my son’s bike!
Actually she was backing up the car and my son left his bike behind the car. As she was backing up, she heard it fall and stopped immediately. Even though she basically just tapped the bike and if fell, it was enough of an impact to cause a slight misalignment with the handlebars and break one of the brake levers. The brake levers were plastic so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised…
Now we debated about going to the store and just buying another bike (at around $200+ a pop), but I thought I could fix it for less (plus it was only about 1 year old). So I asked Mr Google if he could help and sure enough I found an excellent video on replacing brake levers.
Here it is cost saving video that showed me how to do this DIY project:
So the brake lever cost me $17.00 and the handle grips cost me $8.00 for a total cost of $25.00. So by fixing it myself, I was able to save about $175! The surprising thing was that it was very easy to do, and the system we now have in place is actually better than the previous system that was on the bike!
I was surprise how easy it was to do it myself and fix the brake levers! I ended up replace both brake levers with some nice metal ones that I got on eBay, that way they look like they were meant to go together and give the bike a better look than having two different brake levers.
I also was surprised that I found that replace the broken parts was kind of cool because I learned a few things I didn’t known before! So not only was the replacement frugal, it was beyond frugal because I learned something cool in the process!
While replace my son’s brake levers wasn’t too difficult, I’m sure you could google other parts that need fixed on your bike…
Cheers,
MR
I learn how to do a lot of do it yourself things on youtube and save a ton of money. Glad you do the same 🙂
Very true! I’ve saved at least $1,000 by do it myself these past few months.
I’m tempted to keep a tally!
I wouldn’t even call that frugal…more like an educational opportunity. I personally love learning things like that. When I wanted to learn how to build computers I did the same thing. Not so much for the cost savings, but more for the ability to do it the way I wanted and be able to pick and choose the features I wanted to install without having to be locked in to a select few options.
Google and youtube is wonderful!
Free information is wonderful!!! 🙂
Good old online instructional videos. It’s amazing what you can learn to do for free just by watching a short video. That’s great that you were able to use that to your advantage to save some big money. That additional confidence in fixing bikes should come in handy next time something else needs replacing.
Very well said! I didn’t write it above, but I thought along similar lines!
Plus, my son is very happy with the fix! It (the fix) actually looks better than what the original did.
It’s remarkable how much we can do just by searching online for solutions. What did we do a decade ago?
A decade ago, I’d be hitting my dad up for help. He’s good at such things or hiring a pro to do it or take it to the shop… My how far we have come 🙂
Thank God your wife didn’t run over something that truly couldn’t be fixed.
Yeah, my son parks his bike right behind my wife’s minivan too much. I wondered when this was going to happen…
Great move! There are so many solutions on the internet these days so it’s much easier to fix things.
Anymore I’m almost looking for things to fix, it’s borderline fun.
I always prefer to repair stuff whenever possible. I’m also glad so much stuff is available at your fingertips these days online.
Information is money, but now that information is free, we all benefit!