LUCCA, ITALY – If there is one thing I am not, it’s a good bike mechanic. I love to ride my bike but hate to tinker with it. When something goes wrong with my bike – which it so often does – I almost always head straight to a professional at a shop.

In the past year, though, I’ve traveled with my bike three times – to New Mexico, California, and now Italy. And it’s forced me to learn, surely for the better, a few things about how my bike works and how to get it from A to B. So here are a few things to know.

First, get a good bike bag. On this most recent trip I borrowed a teammate’s Biknd Jetpack, which I highly recommend. The primary benefit of this bag is its internal frame, which attaches to the fork and seat stays. This keeps the bike in place while you’re traveling. It also means that when the TSA inevitably unpacks your bag, things will stay where you packed them. What’s more, it serves as an extremely helpful way to hold the bike in place while you rebuild if, like me, you don’t travel with a repair stand. It also has a helpful set of wheels. This is a far better alternative than my previous bag, which had no frame or wheels.

Second, know your limits. When I traveled to New Mexico and California, I was brought my gravel bike. With little internal routing and mechanical gearing, the bike is relatively simple, and I could see immediately how everything came apart and back together again. It’s also tough as nails. This time, though, I brought my road bike – lots of internal routing, electronic gearing, and not tough as nails. With this in mind, I took it to King Kog in Brooklyn, where they did an outstanding job of packing the bike neatly and labeling everything clearly.

Third, be patient. This is the hardest part for me. When I arrived in Italy, I debated whether to find a shop to build it. But I didn’t get in until late Saturday night. If I wanted someone to build it, I’d have to wait until Monday to ride at the earliest. Plus, I knew that I had to learn how to do this myself, especially if I hope to take more trips like this. So I took a deep breath and opened the Cannondale user manual.

I had my work set out for me. Here’s what I had to do: Reinsert the seat post (not so simple on my bike); reattach the headset (surprisingly simple); reattach the front brake (looks simple but isn’t); reattach the rear brake (same story); reattach the derailleur (simpler than expected); re-link the chain (I struggled with this); put the wheels back on (I hope everyone can do this); reattach the pedals (pro tip: do this with your hands, not an allen key).

When I say be patient, I really mean it. Getting out even two hours later is much better than riding on a broken bike. The only reason I didn’t end up in tears was because I went really slow. I even stopped for a sorbet in the middle. No single task involved in re-building a bike is particularly complicated. There are just a lot of them. Doing one at a time, very deliberately, was a major help.

I did, though, run into two issues that required the outside assistance of a bike shop: reattaching the chain and adjusting the front brake to avoid rubbing. Neither of these are complicated, so the shop was able to do them in 30 minutes – rather than the day or more it would have taken them to rebuild the whole bike. So always bear in mind the second lesson: know your limits and know when to ask for help.

That said, the three hours I spent reassembling my bike today are an excellent argument for simpler bikes. My partner traveled with an aluminum bike with rim brakes and mechanical gearing. Her time to assemble the bike? 45 minutes.