It only went in for a service and a couple of things like new tire, swap the brakes from another bike.

I took three bikes in around middle of November to get serviced and do a couple of part swaps between bikes. I have two of them back, no problems with the service there, but the third one is nowhere to be seen. I was last at the shop at the beginning of February and was told they were just waiting on cable outers but I never actually saw my bike. Hadn’t heard anything since then so emailed very early yesterday morning asking for an update, not heard anything from them yet.

I guess there are delays for various things due to current events, and maybe getting parts from the EU and beyond is difficult at the moment, but surely there’s UK stock of something as commonplace as cable outers? Am I being taken for a mug here? I’m wondering if it’s been damaged and/or nicked from their yard and they just don’t know how to tell me.

No one here can resolve this. Think you’ll need to go and see them.

I ordered a 30m roll of Clarke’s gear outer and 100 cables from Amazon week before last, turned up a few days later. Can’t see bike shops struggling.

Have you tried ringing them or visiting them?

I know email should work, but most bike shops are a bit last century in their defence

I bought cable outer online last week, took a day. It’s the sort of thing any shop would do if it came to it as hard to do any set servicing without them.
As above though you need to go see them if possible or call them if not.

That’s nothing…

A customer once came in and dropped his Canyon Strive in for a service with me (last of the 26″ wheeled ones), we quickly ascertained the Mavic rear wheel needed spokes and a freehub that were no longer readily available and informed the customer by way of answerphone messages (which he didn’t return)…

Some 15 months later, he actually phoned the shop to find out what was going on with his bike! I politely informed him had he checked his phone messages that I repeatedly left once a week for the first 3 months his bike was in custody with us, and pretty much once a month thereafter, he might know (yes, we had already checked the phone number he left was correct by this point…).

Another 3 months passed and he turned up at the shop. In the politest terms I possibly could I told him to get the bike out of my sight in the next 2 minutes, or the £10 per week storage charge for anything over 2 weeks that I had previously waivered, would be re-administered quickly… He promptly realised that his bike wasn’t worth a £750 storage charge (especially as he hadn’t seen it, let alone ridden it in over 18 months!) and chucked it in his car and disappeared never to be seen again…

The moral of this story?

Give the bike shop a break… They are trying VERY hard right now, are often under staffed, always under stocked (you’d be surprised just how many common items are rarer than rocking horse poo right now), and give them the credit where it’s due… Trust me, they’d rather be able to turn your bike around next day than have it sat around for months, tying up precious space and capital!

That’s nothing.
One of today’s lockdown tidying up jobs was going through uncollected repairs.
Some of which date back to the 00’s, and that’s ignoring the massive boxes already sorted through that go a lot further back than that….

They’ve had his bike for four months and it’s his fault?

Seriously?

I would be having a not so polite word.

I agree. They’ve damaged something and are waiting for a replacement.

Give the bike shop a break… They are trying VERY hard right now,

Yeah, whatever.

Delay due to cable outer? Hmm something sounds suspicious to me. Just ring them up and say you’ll collect in a couple of days whether it’s done or not. You’ll either get it back or you’ll find out what’s really happened to it.

The moral of this story?

Give the bike shop a break… They are trying VERY hard right now, are often under staffed, always under stocked

I get this, but a month since he was last in and told they’re waiting for a bit of cable outer; that doesn’t sound particularly credible to me.

I’d be round there to request it back forthwith, outer or not.

The moral of this story?

I don’t really get how your story is really relevant to the OP.

Sometimes customers suck. That’s not a good excuse to deliver sucky customer service.

They’ve had his bike for four months and it’s his fault?

Yeah, I reckon so.

If he had a problem, he’d have been back already and picked it up.

Give them a call tomorrow op, that’ll clear it up one way or another.

If it’s just cable outers, you could settle up for work done and do that job at home perhaps?

Good luck either way buddy.👍

If he had a problem, he’d have been back already and picked it up.

The reason I’ve not been in and demanded my bike back is that a) I’m working away from home a lot, and b) one of the other bikes I took in is available for me to use on the times I’ve wanted a quick spin out somewhere. I’ve had no previous issues with the shop. In fact they generally go above and beyond, they’re really friendly, they do home collection & delivery for bikes. Which is why this 4 month bike service is so out of character.

The outer cable issue was a big problem to the trade (as were any other parts/service items).

If the shop ordered a bulk roll during Lockdown 1, 2 or 3 they may still be waiting for delivery of back order.

Inferior brands were available but Shimano wasn’t.

It’s very easy to listen to the keyboard warriors about stuff but pick the phone up or pop into the shop and clarify what’s going on. They may have a massive backlog of bikes to service/deal with and need a reminder.

It’s like a soap opera, do come back with tomorrow instalment. My ending is that the bike is a singlespeed, the shop owner has been baffled by this early 2000s niche contraption and is hoping he can somehow add gears.

The moral of this story?

Don’t assume that any form of indirect communication has reached the intended recipient.

Phone them and talk to someone.

The outer cable issue was a big problem to the trade (as were any other parts/service items).

If the shop ordered a bulk roll during Lockdown 1, 2 or 3 they may still be waiting for delivery of back order.

And there we have the very reason I asked the question. No point me phoning up all annoyed if there’s a legitimate reason for things being delayed.

If I get a singlespeed back though I’ll be furious. Degenerates to a man, anyone who has one of those things.

Do phone up nice and polite though, get it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

If they are really waiting on some gear cable outer suggest you just buy some sp41 online yourself, get it delivered in about 2 days and take that in for them to finish the job. Of course they’ll miss out on charging as much for a metre as you pay for the roll, but it gets the bike out of their shop and back in your hands.

Unless its some kinda super duper exotic special outer like shimano discontinued yumeya there’s no excuse, sp41 or jagwire lex supplies have not been devastated during the pandemic, I could have sorted you out with sp41 in 4 different colour options. If I was a shop waiting on bulk orders stuck in transit I’d just buy some from wherever to get your bike back to you and out of the shop, something iffy is going on.

Just buy some cable outer online and take it to them in the shop problem solved see what happens that is what I would do. Or ask them for the bike back?

IME if you dont mither people your request drops further and further down the priority list. a quick phone call to politely check the status fires it back to the top! thats in all walks not just bike shops. but applies particularly to bike shops in fairness.

If they have gone 3 or 4 months without hearing from you they assume your not that bothered about it and are busy dealing with the mitherers!

I was last at the shop at the beginning of February and was told they were just waiting on cable outers but I never actually saw my bike

NWS this apparent global and long lasting shortage on cable outer (if that’s been going on best part of 12 months how have any bikes been built) something just doesn’t sound right.

I agree with speaking to them rather than burning the shop down as a proportionate response, but I don’t think it’s keyboard warrioring to be asking for it to be either fixed immediately*, or I’d be taking it back and doing the job myself.

* as in – I’ll be in tomorrow / at the weekend, not ‘when you get round to it’

If your bike has been delayed for 4 months due to a shortage of outers then you would have to assume every bike that has needed new outers in the last four months has also been delayed.

That’s an awful lot of bikes to store.

Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?

so what have they said after you phoned?

Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?

Yes. As much as I enjoy spannering, if something needs attention & I haven’t got time I’m perfectly happy to pay somebody else to do it for me.

It would defeat the object if they kept it 4 months though 🙂

Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?

I mean, it wanted brakes swapping from another bike, new brake hoses, new brake fluid, new gear cables, fork service, dropper service and a tubeless tyre swap. I have precisely zero tools that will do those jobs, no cable cutters, no brake bleed kits, nothing for properly crimping things that need crimping, no c-clip opener thingys, no compressed air for seating the tyre. What else should I do?

For those asking for an update I’ve not phoned yet as I’m super busy at work, clearly evidenced by my chatting away in this thread. Sometime this afternoon…

Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?

Of course, loads do.
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. I suspect most could fix a puncture but anything gear or brake related gets sent to the shop.

OP, give then a call, not an e-mail, a call, speak to them and set a deadline when you’ll be collecting it if needed. Bike shops and e-mail are not a good mix IMO.

If a company provides a means of contacting you, either by phone, email, smoke signals etc they should monitor those communication methods and reply to them as needed.
I can’t imagine a bike shop, unless it has a big online presence, having more than a handful of emails each day to respond to.

It’s the 21st century for crying out loud. It’s not as if emails are a new thing.

Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?

I’m planning on taking mine in soon. I don’t have much space for bike maintenance, or to store tools that only get used twice a year.

Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I’d be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.

Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I’d be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.

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!

Fork and dropper servicing I can understand, but most stuff on bikes are 10 minutes to half an hour jobs…

Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I’d be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.

Or at least giving them a call instead of conducting an opinion poll on the internet.

(But I really want to know what the reason is!)

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!

It’s weird to me too. It’s not the money thing, there are jobs I can’t be arsed to do that I’d rather pay to make not my problem, it’s that it’s significantly less time to just do it myself than it is to take it to a bike shop.

This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes …is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!

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.

Fork and dropper servicing I can understand, but most stuff on bikes are 10 minutes to half an hour jobs…

You clearly haven’t seen the “can you just…?” and “it’ll only be a 10 minute job…” stuff that gets taken into bike shops!

The vast majority of bikes taken in to most shops (super boutique/custom end excepted) are treated just like any other “useful tool” like a car or a kitchen appliance or a boiler; the owners neither know nor care about how to fix any aspect of them and/or don’t have the time, tools or space to do the job or the inclination to learn.

Edit: exactly like @kilo said ^^ while I was typing that out!

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. You don’t actually need that many non standard tools either….

looking forward to hearing the reason…