Bought my MTB in to City Bike Depot last night for one of their ‘learn to service your own bike’ sessions and it was excellent. The basic deal is that you pay for a normal service, and then pay an extra $50 for you to take part in that service, one on one. You get shown how to do everything and you’re made to do stuff to ensure you understood it properly. In my case I learned how to:

- recable front & rear derailleurs, including a couple of tips on cable routing, cable type etc.

- ensure smooth shifting & what all those tiny screw adjustments actually do

- bleed hydro disc brakes & replace calipers

- remove, grease & replace bottom bracket

- remove, grease & replace rear cassette

- regrease & settle wheel hubs

- true wheels

I also got general tips on what needs greasing and what doesn’t, what types of grease to use on what components and things to check on a regular basis, and things which are more ‘set & forget’. They’ll also answer any other bike-related questions you want answers for. I learned shitloads and would be quite happy doing 90% of my own servicing from now on, so it’ll save me that $50 in no time.

Oh yeah, they also do it for road/tri bikes as well, not just MTBs. It just so happened that it was my MTB needing a service.