“Can you bleed my brakes please” sure bring it round

Mate had been of his MTB for best part of a year.

Snapped wrist and massive DIY project are healing and coming roan end so he is coming out for a ride.

Norco fluid, about 4 years old. Super bike that’s seen his confidence and riding come on no end.

Bike is still muddy from last summer.

Brakes- don’t need bleeding, possibly not had the pads bedded In.

Bald rear tyre. That doesn’t need replacing yet, there’s plenty of life in it. I disagree, but it’s his bike. £50

Knocking suspension. Possibly a main pivot bearing, but I don’t have a spare so we tighten it up and it’s better. It will be fine for the weekend. Taking the shop out the rear triangle is proper stiff. Full set of new bearings.  shop job £150? It’s £50 for a set of bearing for the bike.

Gears. Needs a new outer and it has internal cable routing I’m not keen to mess with. Shop job. £50?

Finally have a look at the dropper- stuck fully up. Loosen clamp to the  it to take it out and it is totally seized in the frame and stuck fully up. £££?

He goes away thanking me, I feel I’ve just given him a £500 bill from a shop

So

-what was the name of that bloke who fixed sized seat posts?

– tell me your tales of fixing your mates bikes

Cyclefast in Sowerby Bridge sort seized seat posts, Dave sorted mine last year. I can barely fix my own bike most of the time so don’t do anyone elses!

https://theseatpostman.com/ ?

Never used him – just seen on here.

I have fixed a couple of pals neglected bikes.  One had the chain rusted into a solid lump and all cables, mechs and bearings rusted and seized.  I got the whole bike working for a can of gt 85 and a new chain.  took all day tho and I was astonished how I was able top get it all running freely again.  I told him it would not last but it at least would let him ride it a bit to see if he was going to ride enough to be worth fixing it

Knew where this was going just from reading the thread title…

So glad I don’t own a shop any more… Used to get questions like this all the time, and of course you know it’s going to be a HUGE bill once you’ve even looked at the bike but the owner thinks it’s a quick £10 job…

I don’t work on anybody’s bikes but my own these days… Well, my GF pushes that rule to be honest as she expects me to fix her bikes all the time, and I’m at the point where I’ve considered even paying a mate with a shop to fix her bikes now as time is precious and I CBA!!!

RM Cycleworks in Carlisle has a seat post puller..

These folks with seized seatposts, have they not used grease in their assembly?

Fortunately all my riding mates do there own spannering as well, so never had problem.

As for seatposts, I’ve had one seize, got it sorted by Cyclefast as well. Dave was excellent and the cost very reasonable. It was well greased but the tube slightly under sized. Dave reamed it at the same time and it’s been fine in the 2 years since.

At 6:30pm on a Sat evening, my riding mate messaged and asked if I could look at his friends (student aged) kids bike as he was doing a race on Sunday and was having a problem with his Di2 gears and knew I knew a fair bit about them and he was well out of his comfort zone.  Reluctantly I agreed as I’d just got in from work, so they came over.

Turns out he was having a problem shifting up at the front.  I diagnosed the problem, which was the whole chainset moving left to right, both pinch bolts on the left hand Shimano crank were finger tight and the left arm about to fall off!  I fixed that, which made the front gears works again, then just habitually checked the rear gears, which didn’t work either as he’d randomly turned the set screws trying to get the front to work, eh?!

I’m not sure what that would have cost at a shop, but they shook my hand and left without so much as an offer of payment or some beers as a thank you.  Sweet deal.

I’ve a seatpost puller (same as RM cycle works) in Sheffield

– tell me your tales of fixing your mates bikes

My mate and ex-neighbour was brilliant for fit and forget maintenance. We first became mates after the LBS serviced his tri bike and the cables stretched enough to impact the shifting, I turned the adjusters about half a revolution, which baffled and delighted him. I got him into mountain biking, which, looking back, was maybe a mistake.

My all-time fave were the Rockshox Reba forks that felt a bit ‘sticky’.When I opened them up, not only were the uppers pretty much scored to death, the oil in the lowers had become a sort of gritty, Peak District sludge paste like the stuff you brush off riding kit after it’s dried out and before washing.

And don’t get me started on the linkage bearings in his Stumpy. Or the time he asked me to hide a bunch of new parts under my stairs so his wife – now ex-wife – wouldn’t know he’d bought them. And the time he fitted a new chain with a completely knackered cassette and we spent the next three hours soft-pedalling everything around Ladybower to minimise the hideous chain-slip cacophany.

I was fine with it all. I like fixing bikes. He’s a good mate.

These folks with seized seatposts, have they not used grease in their assembly?

I just tried to remove my Thomson post from the missus Planet C carbon fast-commuter cross bike, it’s quite well stuck. There was grease in there when I fitted it about seven years ago… the bike’s had a hard life and the post has never needed to be removed/adjusted in living memory. Obviously everyone else here removes and re-lubes seatposts every couple of months, but… Plus Gas arriving tomorrow.

This thread reminds me, I need to get around to making that sign for the shed. 🙂

“There is no such thing as a five minute job”

I don’t do too much fettling these days but my younger self would probably have seen this as a challenge and offered to get it running nicely for him if he covered the cost of parts. Being cash poor and time rich back then, if I didn’t have (or couldn’t make) a tool for one of the jobs I’d ask them to buy that as payment for the work. I have quite a good bike maintenance tool collection as a result.

Question – what’s the most useful tool you have? Mine is a rear mech hanger alignment tool thingummy. Got it paid for years ago for bringing a mates old bike back to life. It doesn’t get used often but I reckon it’s paid for itself many times over.

This thread reminds me, I need to get around to making that sign for the shed. 🙂

“There is no such thing as a five minute job”

I’m sure that’ll not take too long to do.

BadlyWiredDogFull

Or the time he asked me to hide a bunch of new parts under my stairs so his wife – now ex-wife – wouldn’t know he’d bought them

I have a mate like that – as it stands, there are two full bikes, two old frames and two sets of wheels belonging to him in my shed.  It varies, I think it peaked at three full bikes and a motorbike at one point

I need to make friends with someone good a fixing bikes! I’m terrible!

In contrast, I once decided (off my own back) to service my ex-girlfriend’s bike while she was away for a week, and – despite being a low-mid-range Giant and well-used over a few years – it was a delight to work on.

Bottom bracket threads copperslipped, generous amount of grease round the headset bearings, seatpost greased, etc.

No idea what was going on – I think it must have been originally built up on a factory inspection day.

A few years ago, I got into rescuing old bikes from people, returning them to use, and getting people out cycling (hence the username).

The wife wanted the garden back when it outgrew the shed, so I only do the odd build and repair job now, but I’ve had some *lovely* stuff in for repair, one bike looked like it’d be dragged out of a lake, wheels were stuck solid on the spindles “can you fix it for £20 or less?, if not I’ll just sell it on Marketplace”

He never did sell it, its in a hedge a the bottom of his garden still.

wasn’t the response i got from a calderdale bike shop a few weeks ago, it was,

“no, but i can sell you a new caliper and brake, it’ll work out cheaper”

(sic. magura brake failed and needed a bleed mid ride)

Obviously everyone else here removes and re-lubes seatposts every couple of months, but…

On heavily used bikes, once a year is ok. Except a Ribble i had once, stripped down and serviced the day it arrived, 6 months later the no-name seatpost was seized into the (alleged) reynolds seat tube. Took a couple of days to get it out, scored to buggery, still slathered in grease.

I used to run a little workshop out of my basement, wheel building, servicing, fitting new parts. Payment in beer or food. Stopped doing that when a couple of friends started taking the piss. And posted photos of me sweating my arse off trying to remove their (self fitted) bottom bracket and crank. Dry of course, then run through 3 or 4 swedish winters. Customer base is now about 6 people. and ~12 bikes a year, maximum.

Still look after my exes bikes though, her new fella is moderately mechanically inept.

?

My mate has sprayed a tone of gt85 into the dropper which now works.

So he’s put off getting it sorted properly for oooh a good year or two at a guess.

Just leaves him poor shifting and a clonking frame to ignore

I refuse to work on other people’s bikes now, outside our household at least. Nobody understands the cost of parts or consumables, and is rarely grateful anyway – even if you’ve spent half a day freeing shit up, raiding your parts bin, swearing and losing knuckle skin.

I can barely be bothered to do my own, but the last decent LBS I know locally pissed me off when I took my bike in for a bearing change and it came back out with a new gear cable (totally unnecessarily) and the shifting the worst it had ever been. It had not long had a new mech and cable and was indexed perfectly, but I suspect that rather than being taken apart properly the cable was just cut off to take the rear triangle off…

It’s not just bikes. I’m a professional seamstress and often get asked ‘can you just’? Well not anymore.

Some people take the micky and don’t understand the time and amount of work that goes into  maintaining, altering or making good someone else’s mess, neglect or mistake.

Try being a doctor. All my advice is “free”.

If they are truly your friends and family they won’t ask for a discount! I see so many businesses hurt by not charging half their customer base properly.

Try telling them you are in trouble and see how many will help after all the free servicing you have given them.

mountainbikebits on eBay does a full Reverb service for £50 – any issue fixed. Not sure if that is helpful…100% positive feedback. Very fast turnaround, did a perfect job on mine.