You took your bike in to have gear cable fitted and gears set up AND after returning home and sitting down to catch up on the Giro, admiring said bike on patio thro window, And after deciding to throw a leg over to pop down into the village to pick up essentials, bacon, newspaper, cycling weekly you hear a crunching noise followed by a twang or two.

I’ll cut a long story short, but being one of those folk who drops a drip of lube onto every roller counting as you go it became apparent that my chain was 6 links short.
After blaming me for fiddling the LBS then lied before eventually admitting my chain looked too slack before shortening it, 3rd cog from top jockey wheel housing scraped cassette before throwing itself into the wheel, their last line of defence before putting 6 random links back on inc 2 powerlinks was that I shouldn’t be using those top 3 gears anyway.

Which one is it, chain was too short or don’t use the top 3 gears in each ring. I tried explaining that the chain had done 3K miles without fault yet after their expertise it didn’t make it round the block.
Which I find odd, I mean why sell it as a 10 speed x2 if you can only use 14 of the gears?

Pissed off as I’d just had the wheels trued by Sam @ LMNH who built them, it seems every time I take something to a bike shop it creates more issues than it actually solves.

would you be pissed if……You took your bike in to have gear cable fitted and gears set up

Yes, because I would feel incredibly mechanically inept.

Gear set up and cable replacement is really simple!

That being said, your LBS sounds epically shoddy. Name and shame!

the chain had done 3K miles without fault

Holy crap! Do you ride where there is no atmosphere?!

They should have advised you to change your drive train in all likelihood.

Shortening the chain without checking it shifts into all gears is bad.

Is this on a full sus? As it might have been fine in the work stand, but the chain growth on compression may have caused the mech to implode.

I’d be wanting a new mech, jockey wheel and chain. Adding random bits of chain, which don’t match the 3 million miles you’ve got on your chain is likely to cause skipping and slipping.

Problem is, with a new chain it won’t mesh with the old cassette and rings with that amount of miles, so they’ll need to replace that at their cost too. So can see why they’ve just bodged it.

Also, I’d just get the drive train replaced, as that’s a lot of miles on a mtb, and probably isn’t shifting as well as it could be.

Yes it’s simple, but I had No inner and No outer plus I also needed the ferrules, having just bought a work stand, BB spanner, master link pliers I kicked myself for not spending on some proper cutters but even so I had no cables so I had to go in anyway, I just thought rather than pish about wait the half hour for the work to be done and spend the time I would have fiddled about riding before the school run in the afternoon, On a Monday morning that made sense to me, by lunchtime however I was kicking myself.

I would be pissed off.

Which shop was it? I very, very rarely get anything done in a shop, but I would like to know it wasnt your lbs I was taking it into!

Not good practise to run gears in large ring, large sprocket or vice versa – but gears should always be set up to run in all gear combos regardless. Correct chain length is pretty basic stuff – who installed the original?

I would be annoyed.

Use what gears you want, it’s not good practice crossing over when you have a smaller ring, however, there are no rules.

Jockey wheels shouldn’t be coming into contact with anything, chain should be sized in the usual manner so as to prevent the above.

Rickon, it’s on a road bike, hence the cutting of cables, there’s about 3 outer bits with bare wire between hence the ferrules and outer cable cuts.

I did 1K miles without even lubing the chain just on the factory wax that the chain came caked in. I took it off and cleaned it re lubed and lube and wipe off before and after every ride, the chain is in pretty good shape and showing minimal sign of wear.

I fitted the original myself in the usual big front to Bing rear plus a couple which admittedly did look a bit slack so I took a link out but then I couldn’t get it into the big ring on the cassette even with the B tension screw as the rear mech was stretched out front a tad too much. I put the link back in and it worked flawlessly but was a tad slack, then I remembered what an old guy once told me “A smiling chain is a happy chain” so I left it.

I even got the double tap set up just right so that when it was in the top gear and you clicked the lever it stayed on that gear and didn’t drop a cog, that took me ages to fettle with the low screw clipping the spokes.

I was dropping down on the front but as I’ve gotten stronger the inclines have become easier and I like to try and keep it up in the big ring, there are still plenty of hills where I have to knock it down but even so when pootling along I often find myself big ring front middle to top on the back. Chain line seems ok and I’ve got no spacer on the DS BB shell, or the NDS for that matter?

It’s odd..were the lbs aware the chain had done moon miles? A high quality chain is about £14,but even a cheaper chain and cassette would be about£30 in parts..seems strange the lbs didn’t just sling a new chain and cassette on rather than shortening an already knackered chain.

I don’t care how well you clean and relube it- a chain with 4 figure millage is going to be worn and ready for replacement.

so every time you do 100 miles you change your chain, that’s absolutely impossible, I rode 127 miles on Sunday, 338 for the week. My chain cost me nearly £30.

Are you suggesting I change it 3 times a week?

How many miles should I be getting out of a chain, serious question as I honestly do not know? I’ve got a chain on a bike that’s done at least 3 times that?

Edited, you changed the 3 to a 4 in the figure

You don’t know how long they last chains are way better than they were 20 years ago you just keep an eye on them in my opinion some people change them far to often.

Tell em to fix it properly, them learn a lesson and do it yourself in future.

Dobbiejesmo, I tend to go with the rollers, when they look dished I tend to change, usually get 2 chains out of a cassette. Poss 3 ? I don’t know about any one else but I find keeping a chain immaculate prolongs life, keeping it covered in shite is going to speed up the ware so I don’t see how keeping it cleaned and lubed isn’t going to help.

I’ve got an old Road bike that I’ve done LEJOG on at least 6 times poss 8, but def 6 and it’s never had a chain, is that impossible mattyfez?

Dude I said a thousand miles, not one hundred-bit of a difference…you said above the chain had done 3000 miles.. come off it lol

This is outrageous.

The LBS needs naming and shaming, but not before the OP has a chat with the owner about how best to resolve the situation.

Regarding chain life, as this is Single track World, most will be assuming it’s a MTB chain. Which 3k miles is bonkers before a chain change. Just bear in mind when people are staggered 🙂

Mattyfez, in your original post you put 3 figures which I assumed meant 100 miles plus, you amended it to 4 figure by editing it.

The chain has done just over 3,500 miles. I’ve just checked on that app.

The owner of the shop is not there this week, I have had email comms with him, he has assured me he will do whatever it takes to put it right. Rightly or wrongly I’ve already ordered all the replacement parts inc rear mech, chain and cassette, now thinking I should order the crankset at £75 reduced from £275 at CRC in the big sale at the minute?

I don’t mind paying for the cranks but not too pleased that the chain was shortened resulting in failure. So I’m looking at something for the rest.

Too short chain would certainly jam a transmission whilst too long is simply noisy – give the LBS a reasonable chance of rectifying their mistake if there’s no permanent damage. 2000-5000 miles is what I’d normally expect to get from a chain.

Rickon, yes I understand that but also aware that there are many on here who do ride road, just for a balance I went 1×11 from 1X10 last year with the first batch released through 18 bikes and it’s done 1300 miles still on the same chain, I wasn’t thinking of changing that any time soon either?

Thanks dovebiker, that sounds reasonable, it’s been wet but the chain has seen no mud or grime and like I said its kept clean and looks like new although I’m aware it’s stretching and wearing. The drivetrain is quite noisy, it certainly was it’s fairly fubared at the minute, I’m on holiday all next week when the the owner is back and also hoping my box comes from CRC before I go……..

One day someone will invent a tool and it will be called a CHAIN CHECKER, this tool will be cheap to buy and will save lots of arguments.

What he said haha

How many miles should I be getting out of a chain, serious question as I honestly do not know?

as always it depends on conditions…

I’ve managed to ruin an MTB chain in < 300miles of filth
I’ve also had an SS commuter manage ~10,000 but it was pretty ruined by that point.

Current all weather commuter (9speed) has racked up ~2500 miles and It’s getting a bit squeaky again, I should probably give it it’s 3rd dose of lube really but I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t manage to make 5,000 miles.

3,000 miles is nothing on a good weather road bike that’s well looked after, some people would manage that over a summer…

One day someone will invent a tool and it will be called a CHAIN CHECKER, this tool will be cheap to buy and will save lots of arguments.

I reckon it could be so cheap they’d give them away on the front of bike magazines.

Or you could just use a rule and ACTUALLY check the chain. Rather than using a cheap tool that doesn’t do what it’s meant to.

Id be pissed off and I would let others know which shop it is so they too don’t end up with such a shoddy service.

This is the reason I’m a home mechanic.

“Pissed off as I’d just had the wheels trued by Sam @ LMNH who built them, it seems every time I take something to a bike shop it creates more issues than it actually solves.”

wouldnt it be a good idea if you dont trust your lbs to check everything before you left the shop?

just saying 🙂