[Closed] Length of time for a bike shop to hold your bike.

Same day*[ its a few hours work really] - 48 hours tops

i go for two weeks waiting
* assumes pre booked for know repairs with all parts stocked/ordered and ready to go.

4-5 days really due to some parts needing measuring/sourcing etc.

Is it a local bike shop for local people ? (Does it look like a bomb went off in the office - five years ago ?)

Have you hinted to the owner that you are about to spend a lot of money buying a bike off him ? - same day/next day.

Do you know him well enough that he won't bother fixing your bike until he absolutely has to as he knows will have a give you a discount and you won't moan and he can fix big spenders bikes ? - 6-8 months.

Thanks.

Now i know to blame the wheel bearings next time my bike is slow 🙂

Same day might be asking a lot, unless it was booked in, in advance, and the shop was able to ascertain exactly which parts would be needed (and they know you well enough to be happy to order those parts in before you drop the bike off).

A really good shop *might* have some or all of those parts in stock, but there's every chance they'd need to order at least some.

Depending on what time of day you dropped it off, whether they were expecting it that day, and how long before they were able to take a look at it, parts might arrive next day, or might take a couple of days.

So I'd say 2 days min, 4-5 days max to allow for time to do the work.

If you dropped it in on spec without pre-booking, and they've already got stuff in the diary... it depends. If on top of that they've had staff off sick... I can see how it could drag out. We'd try to get it done within a week, even under those (unusual) circumstances, but it's not always possible.

How long has it been?

The day or day after you booked it in and told them what parts you wanted fitting .

It would depend on their workload but if I dropped it off on the Monday morning I wouldn't be too put out if I had to wait until Friday afternoon before I picked it up.

booked in,same day maybe 2 here

Decent bike shop would already know your bike needed bearings, popped round to your house to collect bike & explain to you & have it all done before tea time & given you £5 & some flowers

So dropped the bike off on Jan 22nd.

but how long would you expect?

so that's 3 weeks then. What's their excuse?

Let them finish and pay them and then passive aggresively slate them on social media, it's the 21st Century way.

[i]So dropped the bike off on Jan 22nd. [/i]

"It's just going in the stand now, sir"

Unless there's a particular part on back order that's really not good.

Any explanation offered? If not go and recover bike and take it somewhere else...

So dropped the bike off on Jan 22nd.

Have you asked for it back?

Are all the parts readily available, if they are then that's a long time to wait, if they are waiting for something to arrive over which they have no control then that's unfortunate but they should have called to tell you about the delay. I've had incidents where you contact a supplier for a part and it's on back order or out of stock resulting in a delay, nothing you can do about it but customer needs to be kept updated.

they were going to ring when the mechanic had looked, and ordered parts, they didn't.
Chased a few times, Really busy etc, illness etc,
to be honest only a bit annoyed, I have another bike, weather bean rubbish and had a stupid cold.
So its not like its peak riding time.
But wanted to ride my new Fox forks!

all the parts they need are Hope or Shimano, going cheap BB.
just worried about pressing BBs and headsets into carbon frame, and by the time I bought the press thought may as well let a shop do it.

To be honest in the past I have taken a rear wheel in with knackered freehub, and they stripped it out, cleaned and reassembled within 20 minutes and charged me a £10. and that was 2 days before Christmas!

So have had good service, and I am not a regular customer, mostly as I am to poor and have kids and a house that takes all my money!

From the otherside of the counter when I worked in a bike shop I got tasked with ringing all the customers who's bikes were still upstairs in our "Done room".

The number of customers who had completely forgotten they'd left a bike with us was pretty astonishing. Some bikes would be left for over a month, some bikes were left forever.

Just rang them, seems the mechanic still needs to "look" at it buts on his to do list.
Started to get a bit annoyed now..

they were going to ring when the mechanic had looked, and ordered parts, they didn't.

Always amazes me when businesses fail to keep customers informed - it creates so much unnecessary bad feeling.

"It took them three weeks to change a fork, etc., but they called me to tell me when the parts were in, called me again to tell me it was going to be delayed and again as soon as it was finished, so I'm fairly happy."

vs.

"It took them three weeks to change a fork, etc., during which time I didn't know what was happening to sat and stewed, vented on social media, and imagined all the dastardly things I'd do on finally collecting it."

Same timeframe. Different implications for repeat custom, for what - 10 minutes of phone calls?

plus I ring them about every 3 days to check up.
just in case they have lost my number, or my email, or my other email.
Also kind of wanted a price out of them, but they seem to have forgotten that bit. but would really need to bring our other car to pick it up in, as its a struggle to get the bike into a Fiat Panda.

Doesn't sound promising. If they haven't even got around to casting an eye over it, I'd be getting it back and booking it in somewhere else. No rough price agreed up front would also be a bit of a worry, if you're not flush.

OP, I'm not the worlds greatest mechanic but fitting a new headset race to some forks and changing some bearings is easily within my limited capabilities. Maybe go and get the bike back and give it a go yourself?

3 weeks to do what I could do with a big hammer in an hour seems a little OTT.

As an aside my LBS took 3 weeks to get a £2 Shimano in stock part in from Madison...

Agree when dropping off, if you want to keep riding don't drop the bike until the parts arrive.

If the parts were in stock, its about an mornings work doing all that. So I'd be taking the bike back and if you cant do it yourself, finding somewhere else. My LBS ,when I had Di2 indexing issues , told me that they were too busy for 2 weeks. In that time, I had fixed the bike myself and a month later they went out of business.......Not sure how busy they really were. 🙄

What time schedule did you agree?
If its overdue moan. If you didn't agree you can't moan really.
I cannot believe the number of people who post on forums moaning about overdue bikes or excessive costs when they haven't had this out before hand with the shop. Surely no one just hands the bike over. I want to know what day its being done, am or pm and how much. If they can't do that they don't get my trade unless we agree a indefinite price or time.
Talking the odd car thing here actually as a bike, rear shock aside, doesn't need to go to a shop.

have you called the shop and asked them when it will be ready?

Not today, I rang them yesterday.

Just to add a bit of fun, should I name the shop after a certain time limit, maybe a month?

*waves at serge*

Hello
(got bored in BM by myself"

Did you buy the stuff online or from the shop?

forks online, all the rest will be from the shop if they ever do it.

which required a new headset adapter to fit a tapered fork,

Do you mean just a new crown race - ie you've got a reducer one on at the moment, or do you mean a new bottom cup (<edit> or top if its a giant overdrive thingy </edit>) which might -depending on the frame's headset standard- be a pig to source?

However still "to look at" after three weeks is a mockery if it were booked in, if it's just dropped in on the off chance i'd have expected an indication at the time but, depending on how busy they are wouldn't be surprised if that we weeks.

New bottom cup, which I think should just be 1 1/8h internal cup to a 1 1/5 external.

So ringing them today and basically I think the mechanic has done nothing, not even looked at it I think.
They are the shop that within a 25 mile radius stock the best bike. But this is starting to annoy me.

ring them, ask them to have the bike ready, and go and get it, book it in somewhere else.

Take them biscuits, apparently that's the key to getting anything done by a bike shop. I'd get it back and buy biscuits for someone off here to show you how to do the work yourself.

I'd be calling tomorrow to tell them to get it ready for me to collect, then take elsewhere. They are taking the pee because you are letting them.

I had this once with a bike shop - excellent mechanics but the shop had no organisational skills.

My bike threw up a problem of difficult to get frame bearings..from what I could gather they then put it in the back whilst trying to source them...but...the mechanic then had constant new jobs booked in and kept forgetting to try to find the brearings I needed...went on for nearly a month.

I never went back and would never recommend them. Shame because the mechanics skills were really good...bike shop owners fault IMO..

I really don't understand shops that do this (I'm not complaining though as it allows me to have my fast turnaround niche/usp).

It's surely in every shop's best interest to get jobs turned around as fast as possible because A) uncollected repairs get in the way, and B) uncollected repairs aren't money in the till.

It's not rocket surgery...

Problem is I really like the ethos of the shop, I do not spend a lot of money on maintenance, typically doing it myself, but thought as its going to be close to £200 worth of parts I would take it to a shop.
I recommend this shop to lots of colleges, friends and bikers from the local area as its a bit intimidating if you are not a full on bike geek. I even went to the first days opening.
Now I am just miffed.

They say they will look at it today!, hummm.

Is it just going in the stand now? 😀

Trouble is, now they will say it will be a week waiting for parts, which will turn into three weeks...

get it back!

So they've had your bike 4 and a half weeks so far and haven't done anything to it!?

You have the patience of a saint. I'd have gone in & asked for it back by now unless they could come up with a very good reason why they need it for so long...

Are you sure they haven't lost/sold it or had it nicked???

If they had I look forward to something new, shiny and hand built carbon, with full XT and some serious bike exotic branding.

They are starting to sound a bit embarrassed about it.

In all honesty I only ride in the dark at this time of year, had a cold, weathers been crap, and only out on my almost identical bike but that is 150mm travel and aluminium 3 times this month.