I’ll admit it. I got to the point where I couldn’t be bothered faffing around with the brakes, the suspension is cleverer than I am anyway and time is scarce. I took my FS bike in for a service. Defeat.

Fan-bliddy-tastic! Lovely job, great service, in less than a day and the bike feels as tight as when I first bought it. Big thumbs up to Bad Ass Bikes just outside Bristol. Well worth my effort to take it there and endure Puxton Park with my daughter for the day.

Do it! Take your bike for some TLC instead of your own ham-fisted bodging.

I should really do the same, but my bikes have got to the point where I’m embarrassed to be associated with such a pile of shonky bodgery, I don’t want to own up to my stagering ineptitude 🙂

service it yourself and you’ll learn what you need to do when something goes t*its up out on the trail. I like tinkering though.

I saw it in there hanging up! Sort of goldy colour?
Great choice of bike shop, they’re the only ones who get my bike now.

@TooTall – did they do anything with the pivots? Keep meaning to ring them to see if they can do a complete overhaul on my FS (inc. forks + pivot bearing replacement).

how much did it cost ? what did they do ?

service it yourself and you’ll learn what you need to do when something goes t*its up out on the trail. I like tinkering though.

I’m just Yorkshire… :¬/

You’re right – I am ham fisted.

No shame in that – not like you took it in to get a puncture repaired.
I like building stuff up if I’ve got time, and it IS good to have a decent understanding of how things work. But time’s precious and if you’ve got a great LBS that’ll do things properly so you can spend an evening/weekend riding instead of fettling, win-win.
And it helps good LBS’s stay in biz…

I can and do service bikes – have built up and maintained several over the years. I just got to the point where it needed TLC and I didn’t have the time / inclination. Wrecker – yes – the bronze Sultan that was too big to be hung up properly!

They dropped the fork lowers, cleaned the seals & wipers & replaced the fluid, cleaned the bike end to end, fettled the brakes that were blown and binding, solvent and steam cleaned the drivetrain, tightened the hubs, aligned the rear shifter, greased everything, checked everything, made recommendations for what to look out for, blew the tyres up to 35psi, checked shock pressures and gave me a written summary of the work carried out. £80. The bike looks and feels almost like it did when I bought it.