From ibikeu Wiki

Contents 1 Excellent Start!! 2 Fixed Gear and the Law 3 Bike Types organization 4 Make this page a category?

Excellent Start!!

What E-rock has done here is give us an excellent framework for a good start page about bike maintenance. This is a good practice referred to in the wiki biz as Scaffolding]. Everyone please take note of this . . . even if you don't have time to write more content for a page, if you can provide some scaffolding for future contributions that facilitates contributions. Of course, there is such a thing as too much. Alex 15:14, 17 April 2008 (PDT)

Fixed Gear and the Law

I removed this statement from the paragraph about fixed gear bikes: "Purists love fixies, but law makers aren't so sure about them because of the inherent danger of a fixed drive-train." There are no laws on any books that I know of that actually concern fixed gear bikes. The laws some fixed gear riders may run afoul of concern brakes. There is nothing inherently dangerous about a fixed gear drivetrain; it's the brakes or lack of them that may make fixed gear bikes dangerous.

Is it possible to separate "Types of Bikes" from "Bike Maintenance & Mechanics"? First, the page is going to get way too long. Second, they are two different subjects. Given that there are at least a few bike mechanics as editors, surely they will agree that even just bike maintenance on one page is going to end up being ridiculously long. We should take a pointer from the Park Tool website and see how they have broken up their mechaninical help sections.--Bicyclerepairguy 04:39, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

Bike Types organization

Would the "bike types" list work better as a series of links to definitions of the specific bike types, to get rid of possible redundancy?

E-rock, do you know what transclusion is? Try editing the About section of the Main Page. You'll find just a couple brackets and some text where a huge paragraph. All of it is included from a separate page, and changes to that page automatically propagate.

What I suggest for the types page is ultimately a page for each type. We can then use transclusion to include the introductory text from each page on this page. That's one idea. For the time being the article isn't burdensomely long yet, so let's not worry about it too much. What do you think? Alex 11:05, 18 April 2008 (PDT)

Make this page a category?

It occurs to me that this page would better serve users if each procedure received its own page. The repairing a flat section is now pretty long (and arguably could be made longer with more explanation), and that's one of the simplest things to do to a bike. I already moved the bike types to its own page, because I'm not really sure why it was here to begin with, but wanted to see what other folks thought before I went roughshod over what was here already. Solutions that I can see to the length problem:

1. Make the page a category (something I've never done, but seems to be cool)
2. Make it an explanatory page with links to specific maintenance things (downside of having to come back to this page to add/change a link when a new page is created...)

Brett - 8:30, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

Well, is there anything that should go in a general article on Bike Maintenance and Mechanics that doesn't belong to some page like Wheels? I think if the answer is yes, and I believe it is, it should remain a page. Option 2 sounds good. But, there probably should be a category for this stuff as well. What's a good name for the category? Wrenching? Maintenance and Mechanics? Alex 11:07, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

I would vote for 'Wrenching' or 'mechanics' as the (or at least a) category. 'Maintenance' is arguably more related to things like lubing chains/cables and keeping the thing clean, as opposed to mechanics/wrenching which would be adjustments and whatnot. I know that's not necessarily how the words are always used, but it does allow for a difference between what a user should be keeping an eye on and what will take a bit more effort. User:Brettal

I like wrenching because it has a more hands on feel . . . but wrenching doesn't really apply to components/parts. Maybe "mechanics" is better. Alex 12:38, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

My vote goes for "Bike Mechanics/Maintenance". I'd prefer to keep it less wordy, but I think it's best to make sure no one is confused on what the category means, especially if we eventually have entries for "Road Maintenance," "Traffic Mechanics" or something similar. E-rock 13:07, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

How about "Bicycle Repair" as the main category, with "General (or "Routine") Maintenance" and "Repairs" as sub-categories? This divides them two up nicely, and allows "Repairs" to be further sub-categorized. I don't think "Bike Mechanics" isn't quite proper, since technically bike mechanics would be explaining how a bike and/or the components work, not how to make it work when it's broken. Also, I feel that "Bicycle Mechanics" should be reserved for persons that fix bikes. There are lots of famous mechanics (wrenches) out there, don't they deserve a page in the People section?--Bicyclerepairguy 17:13, 29 April 2008 (PDT)