I'm a little on the fence at where this topic has gone (in the direction of wrenching on your bike).
For me, wrenching came from breaking stuff and not being able to afford to fix it. I started seriously mountain biking at 13, and had no spare money to pay people to fix it for me. Sure my parents would pay for some of it, but as we all know mountain biking is a VERY expensive sport to get into when you take it seriously. I talked the LBS shop owner into letting me scrub toilet bowls for under-the-table pay, then a few weeks later he graced me with a new task of painting the inside of a 5000 square foot new shop, with 20 foot ceilings. 2 weeks later, I despised painting, could hardly lift my arms, and was into a new Litespeed Obed ti hardtail!
I was sold on the perks of the bike industry, and have been working in bike shops ever since for the same reason. I started being able to fix my bike on rides instead of walking it home and taking it to the shop.
Here's where my post is going: I think it's necessary to be able to fix minor mechanicals on the trail. This would IMO be flat tires (how ironic, relation to the original topic), shifting and brake adjustments, loose bolts, and have a spare rear derailleur hanger. The ability to true a wheel has become only moderately necessary with the advent of disc brakes.
I carry a vast tool kit in my Camelbak, which weighs about as much as my bike. Most people won't need or want to carry all the stuff I do, but I break alot of parts and refuse to walk out of a ride. Back in the mountains of NC, I would even carry a spare rear derailleur, but there's not many sticks out here to cause problems with that. It's easy to turn back or hike out of a foothills ride, but when you ride a little further back, you have to always be prepared.
If you can cover minor fixes, you're set on most trails. On longer/more remote rides, surely someone in your group is experienced (or should be). There are alot of books and material out there to help you learn anything you could want to know, but experience is what keeps the info locked in. I'm pretty sure everyone on this board has multiple bikes. If one doesn't work, have it fixed and ride the other one. I don't work on mine immediately after it f's up. I just don't have time/desire to come home from a day of wrenching on other people's bikes and then wrench on my own.
I like being able to fix everything on a bike, but it has taken years of training as my daily job to do that. Also, the bike industry can change overnight. Remember ISIS? Everyone had to learn something new and incompatible, then it changed again to outboard bearings two years later.
Earthpig (I'll use for an example because I know him outside of cyberspace as a good customer at my shop) supports my ability to wrench on bikes and buy new equipment, as well as pay rent. If he doesn't spend money, I don't get any money. I hate the fact that at my shop we work on total bum's equipment alot of the time, and they hate spending any amount of money for labor and are constantly looking for used parts. During the summer, we spot about 1 bum per week diggin in our dumpster for parts, and they usually come in pairs (I also spotted one smoking crack or meth behind the dumpster this past summer). These people don't support our business. Sometimes they even cost us money by refusing to pay for their junk after it's been worked on, then wait for us to toss it out so they can recover it (although it usually ends up with some minor frame modifications to relieve our cro-magnon aggression). You can't be selective with customers and make it in this industry. Take the good with the bad.
Although I haven't actually ever ridden with Earthpig and it's apparent that in some posts on this site that we don't exactly agree on everything, it is enjoyable to have a customer to relate to as an experienced cyclist and to talk to about new bike gear. Earthpig is fortunate enough to have a career that pays...I'll guess...4 times my earnings and can afford to pay me to fix it correctly and save him loads of time. Building wheels, installing/bleeding disc brakes, installing new forks and pressing headsets aren't something learned overnight and the tools ain't cheap either. I've chosen it as a lifestyle, and don't have much money for anything other than bikes. I don't own the shop I work in, but the boss is good enough to pay us according to the work we take on. When you guys bring your bikes in, I make more money. (uh oh, since I've acquired some rivals, I might not be making any more money... back to bum-tech) In addition, in order to learn the new technology for bikes that emerges every year, we have to figure it out by hands on experimentation. Yes, that's right, sometimes it is a bit of an experiment. Going on 11 years of bike wrenching, and I still don't know it all. Learning something new daily. Earthpig can also attest that we mechanics make mistakes. But when we cro-mags wreck your bling with our gorilla grip, we'll stand behind it and get you back up and running ASAP. I've wasted an enormous amount of money figuring out how my bike works because I didn't have a mentor and wrecked my own stuff all the time.
Unfortunately, when Pete left IMT this past summer, most of our high-end clientele went elsewhere. He is a great mechanic and loves to talk about bikes and riding, but all of our current mechanics are equally competent and we also ride. I appreciate anyone that allows us to work on their high-end equipment, cause let me tell you, bum-tech sucks.
A constant struggle for mechanics though is installing parts that come from who knows where else. I appreciate a good deal, and it hardly seems sense-full at all to spend full pop retail when you can buy it for 2/3 or 1/2 price online. A part of me really feels that if you buy the majority of your products online, you should also hire the online mechanic or learn to do it yourself. I don't ever refuse this type of work, but you won't get the same support as you would if you bought the product from the person who is installing it. If we don't install it, the online shoppers will find a friend who will. It's better to have a little bit of business than none at all, which leads to another topic: choosing a shop.
Who freakin cares?! I don't care what shop you go to. Some people prefer some over others, and for good reason! All shops offer a different atmosphere to fill your niche. If you shop-hop around town, it doesn't matter. Just don't compare prices of shop B while you're in shop A. Mechanics don't care cause we don't set the prices! We can however manipulate labor rates based on a long list of things
I realize that I'm not the all-knowing (especially on the mtbr board), but I think both of you guys are right about the wrenching sub-topic. Know how to make it out of the trail, and make use of the local bike shops to help you with everthing else. If you can build your own bikes, all the better!
