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I used to leave bike at shop and say hey, I’m going to be on holiday no rush, fit it in when you can or similar. In these cases there was never a time and it always got put back on the queue. I walk in, say hi and make a joke, gets fixed within 24 hrs.
If it’s parts they are struggling on I will offer to source / pay corkage equivalent. Whenever I do this they always find the part very quickly.
I find best mechanics are often not the best admin people but all good. I’d rather that then great admin, bad mech.
This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes or change a tyre, tubeless or not, is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!
Fair enough I’ll give you brakes if its all internally routed and you’ve never bled them before. But it’s only a half hour job to bleed brakes, so would save time in the long run if you give it a go.
Never heard the phrase 'cash rich, time poor'?
I'm not cash rich, but right now am extremely 'time poor', work is all consuming, we're moving house and have a bored and under-stimulated 3.5yr old to look after.
Working on my bikes would be LUXURY to be honest. The only reason I don't get a shop to look at them is I don't have the time to take them to a shop that I'd trust!
and this half arsed attempt at contacting shop is why it's been there so long 🙄
Where is it, I’ll call up if I can have it 😉
Fair enough I’ll give you brakes if its all internally routed and you’ve never bled them before. But it’s only a half hour job to bleed brakes, so would save time in the long run if you give it a go. Take it to the shop if you really can’t do it, but I reckon most people would be able to do most stuff if they just had a go.
I probably could do it but I can’t be arsed to. I’m not sure I see the pleasure in bleeding a brake tbh and given it’s not something I need to do that often and it’s not a particularly transferable skill, why bother. Also my lbs is about ten minutes away any time saving would be minimal.
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
Why? What changes?
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes
Sheesh we’ve got twenty one bikes, does this mean I can or can’t support our lbs
To you yes, but I’d never bother changing over brakes myself. I don’t have bleed kits, olives or spares, no garage to work in and no inclination to start bleeding brakes. Unless it can all be swapped by unbolting lever and caliper it’s going in to be done.
Which is fair enough. But would you leave it 4 months until you wondered where your bike was?
Half day closing on Wednesday, can’t believe that’s still a thing.
Must admit, I was taken aback by that too. Thought that had died out last century.
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
For many people riding a bike is a hobby, something to do when they have a bit of spare time. That's riding it, not maintaining it or upgrading it or turning it into the next superendrodownhillmonstertrail bike. Surprisingly most folks have other things to do with their lives.
I'm also interested in what changes I should make, and how you've gleaned that information from this post 😆
So I have three bikes? One belongs to my wife, one is an 11 year old beater with some admittedly nice-at-the-time bits, one's a second hand bike I wanted change some stuff on, mainly a rear tyre because the previous owner lives in southern Spain and I live in Scotland. Hardly indicative of an extravagant life being thoroughly ill-lived I would have thought, but please greeny30, help me see the error of my ways.
Half day closing on Wednesday, can’t believe that’s still a thing.
Round my way, they don't even bother with half day. They take the whole day off. Seriously, most of the high street bar the two supermarkets are closed all day on Wednesdays.
And all this stuff about not bothering with a bike shop - just cos you have all the tools and time and space to fix bikes doesn't mean everyone does! Nothing wrong with supporting the LBS - most make their living off maintenance work!
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
Well that's you told OP. 😉
You need to get cracking on some tool buying ,pronto.
Have a quick blast round some Youtube bike fixin films,then when you have a mo get your blinkin work/life balance sorted out.🤣😜
I do all my work on my bikes but when I’ve seen friends take theirs to the local bike shop I’ve always been amazed how cheap the work is. I’ve no idea how bike shops make money as lots of jobs seem to be £5 or £10 plus parts. If I didn’t enjoy working on mine the cost of using a shop wouldn’t be a consideration.
Seems to be a STW theme that everything is expensive, ebikes, bike parks etc etc or maybe cyclists are just tight and like moaning about spending on anything.
About the same amount of time as I've been waiting for a Hope five20 RS front wheel.
I'm a shit mechanic, cheaper to get it done right than buying another bit to fit.
Ooh ooh ooh I too currently own 3 bikes and don't have any mates that I can borrow tools from, or any maintenance skills either. @greeny30 please advise me on how I can become as super awsumz as you?
Tom-B, there is no hope for you, sorry. Incompetent Billy no mates will never be as super awsumz as me 😀
Never mind the bickering, are we gonna find out today?
im thinking this now
and this half arsed attempt at contacting shop is why it’s been there so long 🙄
OP has put a lot more effort into this thread than he has getting his bike back.
It's got to be over 4 months with how long this thread feels like it's been going.
Phoned them just now. Delay has been brake hoses, they're on it today. Don't worry though: I told them I'm out of the country unti mid-late March and not to rush, so it's going right back to the end of the queue 😀
Better than "Bike? What bike?"
Which hoses do you need?
🙂
Which hoses do you need?
They've had the hoses for ages, they just left it at the back of the queue.
Good to hear the OP's LBS is busy though.
🙂
Better than “Bike? What bike?”
I wouldn't have been entirely surprised to hear that - glad it's not the case!
We had a policy of selling off repaired bikes after a certain period of zero contact (6 months IIRC). There was a schedule of phone calls you had to go through but we did sell a couple when the owner failed to get back to us.
Another branch of the store had an incident where they'd done that and then the guy had arrived to collect his bike a further 2 months down the line. He tried to claim he'd changed his phone number but a member of staff who could overhear this argument on the shop floor nipped into the office and called the number they had on record for him. He answered. 🤣
Christ theres some drivel on this thread.
mugs get mugged off, more effort has gone into your post than getting your sh*t together, have a safe trip, at least the average IQ of the country will go up for a couple of weeks, useless muppet.
Was that meant to be light hearted as well?
One of my customers has no clue at all about his bike. He even brings it to me to adjust his saddle height.
Clearly he's a low IQ useless muppet and I am far superior to him.
But then he's spent the last year developing a covid vaccine, whilst I've been fitting brake cables to rusty Apollos.
I suspect his time is more valuable than mine. Lovely guy as well.
Every one has different skills.
Well there's a few minutes I won't get back 😀
What's probably happened is likely innocent enough - to start with anyway.
Shop took bike in, forgot to order parts and it got left.
Customer didn't chase, so it got left some more.
Shop may have realised at some point it was there but it had been so long since customer brought it in and said customer hasn't chased, that it would be embarrassing to speak to customer now.
More time passes and customer finally calls. On the spot 'reason' for delay is made.
Customer lets them off and gives even more time.
Bike goes back to where it was and is forgotten about.
Until the next instalment.
Six of one and half dozen the other but, a fair bit of the 'problem' could have been avoided if the OP had chased them earlier. Not doing so after more than say a couple of weeks because he thought they would be busy etc was a little short sighted imho.
They want stuff in and out as quick as we (should) want bikes back.
@boriselbrus Actually, I have a. similar friend. Before rides, if we didn't tell him to put clothes on, wear a helmet, pump up tires etc he would simply not do it, and then wonder why he was cold, bike was hard to pedal, has a puncture etc. In fact, all the those things have actually happened.
I'm stunned he is such a Wally, but then he is a super f'ing amazing research doctor right at the cutting edge of Alzheimer's treatment, so we just call him a plonker, have a laugh and help him out. Crazy genius.
Every one has different skills.
Nutshell
Shop took bike in, forgot to order parts and it got left.
Customer didn’t chase, so it got left some more.
Not quite. Took all three bikes in November - actually the bike shop came and collected them from my house, they're a good shop.
Got first bike back the first week of December. Paid the bill over the phone, "your other two bikes are waiting for parts, Mr TheFlyingOx". No problem.
Went away with work mid-December, 2nd bike was ready mid-January and they delivered back to the house. When I got home at the beginning of Feb I went in to pay for the work on the 2nd bike, "still waiting on some parts for the bike we still have, Mr TheFlyingOx". No problem.
I come away to work again on 16th Feb. Was speaking to my wife a couple of days ago and asked if LBS had been in touch yet. She says "no", and me not wanting to cause a scene by blindly asking why the devil it's taken them nearly 4 months so far ask on here to see if any of the resident bike shop experts know of a reason why there might be delays, e.g. getting bits from Europe due to Covid/Brexit. Turns out there are, as per @ginsterdrz. No problem.
Somehow this is evidence of me being shit at spannering, having no mates, having a low IQ, getting my work/life balance all wrong, having poor time management, having too much money, getting mugged off, being a muppet, and not making enough effort to contact the LBS. I've enjoyed it immensely 😀
Thought that had died out last century.
Nope my new-to-me LBS does as well.
As for taking it in for servicing, stuff like frame bearings and wheel building etc I'll always take it in, the job will be done correctly and will work...Other stuff, I'm pretty much have a go at.
Frankly I'd be happy to have an LBS to fling things at on occasion, as it is my nearest is at the other end of the shire.
Unlike the inhabitants of STW, the majority of the public are not mechanics who’d snapped up by a world tour team if they had any sense
Hmm, considering most of the inhitants struggle to set up a front mech I wouldn't be so sure.
Hmm, considering most of the inhitants struggle to set up a front mech I wouldn’t be so sure.
That's 'cause most of the Inhabitants no longer have a front mech 🙂
nickc
stuff like frame bearings and wheel building etc I’ll always take it in, the job will be done correctly and will work…
I'm not anti lbs but having taken a bike to a shop near me about 5 years back to have the pivot bearings changed, it's what made me decide to do more jobs like that myself.
3 were driven in at such an angle that they shaved alloy off the bearing recesses and sat at an obvious angle in the frame.
Like I said, I'm not anti lbs but I've had a couple of bad experiences so now do the lot other than fork services. For some reason I still bottle that job.😁
Basically I've just been unlucky with a couple of my lbs choices.
That’s ’cause most of the Inhabitants no longer have a front mech
That's because most of them couldn't set one up.
When I was dropping my bike off at my LBS to get some bearings changed and the dropper cable replaced (go on, try doing it on a Levo in less than an hour!) the owner said he’s spending 3/4 of his time trying to source stuff.
And that they’d had a mail-order ebike in with a crushed brake hose and they can’t get Code brake hoses (are they specific?) until June!
It’s chaos!
But then he’s spent the last year developing a covid vaccine, whilst I’ve been fitting brake cables to rusty Apollos.
But he wouldn't have been able to get to the lab every day without you keeping his rusty Apollo on the road.
Key worker.
Funniest thread ever, same as "why doesn't my wife love me". Awaits the world's response and then critiques the answers and speaks to wife. Hope the bike (and wife) are all good.