What Would You Do? Turned Over By LBS content!!

If you are the sort who takes a bike to a shop for repair you may not be able to check that the work is up to scratch

A few odd comments from those in the trade which merely fuel my suspicions that I have been ripped a few times recently. The idea that you should as a matter of course check your whole bike out immediately after the work is done (and IMO the valid comparison with car servicing) says about as much as you need to know. Very telling and informative suggestions from the trade…. 🙁

Just took my bike in to new LBS to check out broken rear shifter. Phone call saying we have mended shifter but doesn’t work because you need new BB, middle ring (recently replaced), chain (a few weeks old and already stretched?) and rear cassette (a few months old). Also need a new headset (true). Never have th words CAVEAT EMPTOR been more appropriate – the whole thing is rapidly putting me off MTB. Spend more in LBS than on car servicing which is ridiculous.

Your shifter doesn’t work because your drivetrain is (not) in need of replacement?

Pure BS, go elsewhere.

All the above is why ive learnt to do alot of the work myself, only one thing ive attempted and failed so far is brake bleeding but other than that everything else is fairly simple to do, sometimes takes a little time but saves my bike going to the lbs.

If you are the sort who takes a bike to a shop for repair you may not be able to check that the work is up to scratch

While this looks sensible on the face of it, it should not be beyond anyone to give their bike a quick once over. Tyres pressure, brakes smooth, gears ok, all bolts ok, anything feel loose or like there’s play, covers most things. While not everyone may not be able to remedy a problem they notice they should at least be able to notice it in the first place and a quick check should be done before every ride. It is common sense when you put so must trust in a machine taking you in to the middle of nowhere at daft speeds 😀

While this looks sensible on the face of it, it should not be beyond anyone to give their bike a quick once over. Tyres pressure, brakes smooth, gears ok, all bolts ok, anything feel loose or like there’s play, covers most things.

True, but for a professional bike shop mechanic not to be able to do those things is pretty criminal TBH.

Most people are capable of picking up a bicycle and giving a handlebar a tug, or turning an allen key though.

Except a professional bike shop mechanic it seems.

As crashtestmonkey says the comparison of a quick run through everything on a bike can be done in a matter of minutes with basic tools and basic knowledge to that of a car is not valid.

Wrong. See this:

If you are the sort who takes a bike to a shop for repair you may not be able to check that the work is up to scratch

My wife has neither the mind, time nor inclination to become expert in bicycle mechanics. Hence why she entrusts that job to others, whose knowledge and expertise she is willing to pay for. Those who undertake the work (and enter into a legal contract to do so) have legal obligations to ensure the work they do is of sufficient safe standard. The problem the bike shop made when they tried to rip her off (I see it more as them trying to get as much money as possible in rather than deliberately defrauding people really), is that they had insufficient knowledge of the law. Perhaps they should have made sure that they did, seeing as it’s a fundamental requirement of running such a business.

The idea that a LBS is not to be trusted (by and large) is a well established one. I think we all assume this. Some are shonky and all are human prone to mistakes. The main pain free way around LBS servicing problems is to make a little effort to understand your own bike. Maybe it shouldn’t be like this but it is. I don’t expect anyone in any trade, business or profession to be completely error free.

There will be plenty of times you encounter a problem on the trail or in the middle of nowhere and without a bit of basic bike knowledge you’re screwed. Why you would completely avoid any bike know how is beyond me.

The idea that you should as a matter of course check your whole bike out immediately after the work is done (and IMO the valid comparison with car servicing) says about as much as you need to know. Very telling and informative suggestions from the trade….

No, common sense suggestions from someone with OCDwhovaluestheirteeth (TM). See the previous post:

While not everyone may not be able to remedy a problem they notice they should at least be able to notice it in the first place and a quick check should be done before every ride.

Spend more in LBS than on car servicing which is ridiculous

Always going to be the case! Bikes ain’t cheap nowadays but if you really love cycling then it becomes easy to justify the pennies. My tyres cost more than car tyres, so what? Most decent full sus frames cost more than an entire reasonable second hand car, so what? Love isn’t logical 😀

Its precisely this kind of rubbish work from LBs’s that forced me, over a couple of years, into a steep learning curve of DIY bike maintenance.

The irony is that I became a competent enough home mechanic that I became an LBS bike mechanic for a year.

I can see both sides of the story here, and by far, the largest proportion of the blame sites with the shop, both for any kind of reasonable communication, the low standard of worksmanship and decision making and a lack of professionalism.

Mr ‘I’m and Engineer’ probably didn’t help with that attitude though. Also, everyone knows that most engineers are borderline autistic…

I do that – officially at least. Unofficially if I like you or it’s an interesting bike I’ll repair it. I have that policy for several reasons:

– I’m not an expert in “normal stuff” – MTB suspension, disc brakes etc.
– I’m pretty busy with my custom building and framebuilding.
– I think my own customers should have priority on my workshop time.
– I don’t like mucky bikes cluttering up my lovely workshop.
– I got tired of the Costco specials that many people think are decent bikes, especially when brought in on the back of a Lexus.

Just sounds a bit like snobbery TBH – but it’s your business so up to you of course.

The idea that a LBS is not to be trusted (by and large) is a well established one.

Only on STW. If it really was true, there would be no LBSs.

The attitude of the bike shops on here just reinforces why I don’t use them and learnt to do it myself. If you have a good one then support it all you can, but most I’ve experienced don’t deserve my pity, let alone my money.

Just sounds a bit like snobbery TBH – but it’s your business so up to you of course.

Well, perhaps – but there are lots of decent bike shops in Glasgow, I don’t see the point in competing with them. Besides, if it was snobbery I wouldn’t be spending this morning brazing a courier’s bike back together for a few quid 😉

The idea that a LBS is not to be trusted (by and large) is a well established one.

Only on STW. If it really was true, there would be no LBSs.

I am yet to find a LBS workshop I trust 100%. Some will agree, some will disagree. The whole LBS love/ hate is polarizing and I genuinely feel sorry for the few good shops who have their reputations knocked by the abundance of shonky shops. As smeel_it says if you are lucky to have a really good LBS then support it as much as you can. Until then, make an effort to know your bike 😀

I think that’s a pretty big fail on the LBS’s part.

A minor recent annoyance for me was taking my bike in to have its forks serviced, and then thinking that as I’m v busy and the brake pads needed changing and the brakes were due for a bleed, I might as well let them do that at the same time as it seemed a fair exchange on extra cost vs my time. I specified that I wanted original Hope sintered pads, that I was willing to pay the extra over the Clarkes sintered they normally fit and happy to wait for them to get them in. Picked the bike up a week later, went out for a ride and whilst standing around in the woods noticed that the front and rear pads looked different to each other. Rode to the shop (on the other side of town) after that ride and established that they’d fitted a Hope organic at the front and Nukeproof sintered at the rear. Baffling!

They were apologetic, no Hope sintered in stock, so at some point I need to go back to return the pads I didn’t want and buy the ones I did. A very minor detail but the only reason I asked them to service the brakes was because I’m short of time, time I don’t have to waste getting to the end result I’d originally asked for…

Why are bike shops apparently so precious about assembling stuff you bought yourself?

I’ve lost count of the number of times people have bought in something they’ve bought on eBay and asked me to fit it, only to discover that it’s knackered.

Slightly bent rear derailleurs are a favourite – get the parallelogram twisted and no amount of adjustment is going to get that thing indexing properly. Solution? eBay it as “slightly scratched but in good condition”.

Stripped stem faceplate bolts? Loctite some in and eBay it as “sold as seen” – it looks OK until you get to about 3Nm and it all pulls apart.

Brakes that “just need a bleed” often have knackered seals or cracked pistons, “part worn” shocks are frequently leaky or blown, and I’ve seen several wheels that “just need a new spoke” but have taco’d rims.

I’ll try and work with whatever you bring me, but I’ll also try and warn you that if I haven’t supplied the parts and don’t know the provenance, it’s not my fault if you got stiffed on eBay and they don’t work properly.

As usual the STW “this is why all bike shops are shit and I am now massively superior” keyboard warriors are out in force. But FWIW (and I doubt many read this far down the post before writing me off as another defensive LBS) I think the OP had pretty bad service. I’d be interested to hear the shop’s side of the story, but this is where communication is so important. “we couldn’t finish the job because…” or a timely “we need to discuss fitting xyz part” can prevent so much of this, especially if there’s a deadline.

When you skip all the crap, this is a terrible experience.

Name and shame, will clean their act up. Ever looked on trust pilot or review center? people kick off for a lot less.

My favorite personal experience was a customer claiming I had sold him a fake Wilson tennis racket all down to the fact he had used it for a season and the “W” was wearing off the strings. Wilson sent him a letter explaining it was a genuine racket and this happens, We even offered a few re-string to shut him up. but we still got abuse in every forum, on his blog, a letter from his solicitor etc.

Common sense says just check a bike before a big event, but that’s not the issue. The fact someone doesn’t take pride in their work is.

I got a bit sick of what I thought were crappy services from my LBS, so I learned to service my bike myself. Armed with a little knowledge I built a bike from scratch with shiny new parts and on the back of that built another with used parts. I now know my bikes inside out and do all repairs and maintenance myself.

The irony is that now I know my onions I suspect my LBS were actually doing a decent job and it was my expectations that were crappy.

Pierre for president!

I’ll try and work with whatever you bring me, but I’ll also try and warn you that if I haven’t supplied the parts and don’t know the provenance, it’s not my fault if you got stiffed on eBay and they don’t work properly.

Yup that’s totally fair enough, as long as you make it clear at the outset (or just refuse the work because of the issues you mention). What’s not fair is to take on the work but do it badly/grudgingly, and without warning charge the customer far more than was agreed.

It’s not just about second hand parts though – it seems some bike shops get the huff if you bought stuff elsewhere and want to pay them to fit it. Again, either have a policy that you don’t do that – or accept the job with good grace, charge accordingly and do it well.

Given that decent service/repairs is pretty much the only USP of a bike shop these days you’d think people would be bending over backwards to provide a decent service, instead of acting like sulky teenagers. 😕

Bit surprised to see this stuff about disrespect and being insulted if people bring in parts to be fitted. If people are happy to pay the asking price for the service the shop is supposedly offering where’s the offence? If I took parts to a shop with my money in hand and they got on their high horse I wouldn’t be back there if I could help it- after all they clearly don’t need the business, and if that’s actually the case then good luck to them.

That said, if the shop wants to steer clear of it for other reasons (the ones bencooper and pierre have mentioned make a lot of sense) then obviously that’s fair enough too and I’d go somewhere else with no hard feelings.

The idea that you should as a matter of course check your whole bike out immediately after the work is done (and IMO the valid comparison with car servicing) says about as much as you need to know. Very telling and informative suggestions from the trade….

That’s a slightly cynical way of seeing it. As a trade person who’d say that and has said basically that in print (ie writing an owner’s manual) I don’t see it as ‘telling’ of anything beyond concern for safety aside from or above + beyond liability rights. It doesn’t change the responsibility of the retailer/mechanic. It’s just common sense advice and encouraging good practice through product familiarity. ie, many in the trade are riders too and will advise others to do as they would do themselves. People make mistakes sometimes, good practice will find the mistakes before problems are caused.

(As an aside, I’m not an accredited engineer but I’ve checked my car over after a basic services eg wheel nuts and brake tests on a quiet road, as well as learning how to do services, replace brake pads / discs, radiator and other basics myself. I also have a scar from when I was a junior racer who fixed his own bike but didn’t check it properly before a race.)

All this is sod all to do with the OP tho, that should be sorted between them as the only way of getting anything positive out of the situ.

In response to the OP’s questions “what should I do?”

Remove that FRM stem for a start. The stem is another worry I wouldn’t want hanging over me. FRM don’t have a good history for reliability and the 85kg rider weight limit would be a concern for me too in such a crucial component (regardless of being 75kg myself).

I would like to see what you ride if you consider sram XX, a BOR666 chainset, XX brakes, FRM stem and carbon bars junk??

All,

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input be it negative or otherwise….
As expected there are some idiots….indeed some may say that I was for not building my own bike!
As mentioned I generally do service/build my own bikes but as it was the first race of the season, new bike, new nice bits I thought I would get it professionally built as a treat to myself if you like.
Something that keeps cropping up though is “why didnt you check the work yourself?”
You are perfectly correct although I have been going to this bike shop for a number of years and always been satisfied with the work that has been done for me….
Therefore you kind of build an element of trust in someones workmanship so why would I check it??

Some clarrification on the dremmel side of things is also required I feel.The guy dremmeled the adaptor within the frame not the frame itself as apparently the BB30 axle wouldnt fit through. I am yet to confirm this as it is built and I just want to ride the bike!!
The outcome of this post for me is a few lesson learnt.

-I wont be going there again…
-I will do my own bike building in future…
-I wont ever tell anyone I am an engineer again..
-I will learn how to spell lathe properly…
-I wont ever refer to my bike as a steed again…

Believe it or not the positive comments have given me closure on this!! I was really annoyed to the point I wanted some kind of revenge but at the end of the day life is too short.
I could quite easily have named and shamed but it is his livelihood at the end of the day and if he does this kind of thing to everyone going in there then he will be his own undoing!!

many thanks once again all!!

its a funny old game innit

was only in the bank the other day and heard the manager state “theres no such thing as customer service anymore” in the context of the conversation i literally laughed out loud

Damn good honesty policy however

Your bank has a manager? I have a “business relationship manager” who is about 15 and who looks like his main relationship is with his right hand.

He also writes emails in text-speak.

Wot like?

U R in det. U O us dollar innit.

Ah, so I think I’ve figured out what the cranks are?

Are they well known in the UK? That spider is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen (including spiders….)! It’s not surprising the LBS didn’t know immediately what to do with them. I still don’t understand the dremmeling though.

If you’re an engineer, WTF didn’t you build it yourself?

MTFU & STFU

As usual the STW “this is why all bike shops are shit and I am now massively superior” keyboard warriors are out in force.

Really? Where? I haven’t noticed that myself; just some people criticising the shop for failing in their legal duty to comlete the work to a safe and satisfactory standard (fact), and others bleating on about ‘if you’re an engineer you should do it yourself’.

Like this nonsense:

If you’re an engineer, WTF didn’t you build it yourself?

MTFU & STFU

Oh dear.

This has been a very useful thread. I went to (new) LBS and went through work proposed work requirments in detail. A lot of common sense sadly dashed with “we saw you coming.” They might have got away with it before really starting to take the proverbial. Checked it all out wi other LBS and 80% BS designed to empty my pockets. So very much Caveat Emptor.

Accepting that keeping a bike on the road is going to be at least/more expensive that a car is more than
Iove isn’t logical. It’s bloody barking!

At walleater…
Yes those are the ones!!
Dremmelling occured apparently to the dia of the bb30 axle being …well 30mm and the id of the through bore on the adaptor being 24mm apparently?
Like i said without taking it apart i dont know but it seems highly unlikely to me that th adaptor would be of such a reduced dia that 30mm wouldnt go through?
Ive never seen an adaptor but assume it is just a plastic sleeve threaded either end?
He is implying that it is threaded then the centre of the adaptor reduces down below 30mm?

As for not knowing what do with them? It is bb30 chainset, doesnt matter if it is hollowgram, sram, tune or indeed the bor one supplied…i assume only the axle length changes.

At lord felchum…. If you read the post i have explained why i didnt build it myself, just because i can doesnt mean I have to? I think the award for biggest tool of the thread has to go to you…well done!

Like this nonsense:

If you’re an engineer, WTF didn’t you build it yourself?

MTFU & STFU

Oh dear.

Come on now, No need for that.

We need nonsense, without it this forum would be a very boring place.

@teamhurtmore which shops? (mail if you don’t want to write on forum)

(cancel that, cba)

bencooper – Member

Your bank has a manager? I have a “business relationship manager” who is about 15 and who looks like his main relationship is with his right hand.

He also writes emails in text-speak.

Bollocks, whats best to get beer out of a keyboard? 😉

Bollocks, whats best to get beer out of a keyboard?

Straw, suck really hard.

I once met a Tai lass who could suck a golf ball through a hosepipe. She also made great frames.

“I said that I am engineer by trade”

Oh the humanity

Dremmelling occured apparently to the dia of the bb30 axle being …well 30mm and the id of the through bore on the adaptor being 24mm apparently?
Like i said without taking it apart i dont know but it seems highly unlikely to me that th adaptor would be of such a reduced dia that 30mm wouldnt go through?
Ive never seen an adaptor but assume it is just a plastic sleeve threaded either end?
He is implying that it is threaded then the centre of the adaptor reduces down below 30mm?

As for not knowing what do with them? It is bb30 chainset, doesnt matter if it is hollowgram, sram, tune or indeed the bor one supplied…i assume only the axle length changes.

If they really dremelled as described then I can’t decide if they need to enter the 2013 World Dremelling Championships due to their craftsmanship, or if indeed you were to remove the cranks, you’d find a complete clusterfork. Seeing that they couldn’t tighten stem bolts, I’ll take a guess….. As for ‘only’ the axle length changing, well that’s a pretty big difference, in that I don’t know a shop that has BB30 spacers lying around. Most BB30 set ups don’t even need any spacer, just the spring washer which allows for crappy tolerances (Well, Cannondale did come up with it….).