It's not just Halfords you have to watch..

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My daughter's partner is a daily commuter into the centre of London. His cassette has just started intermittently spinning without engaging when pedalling so he took it to his small LBS. They said it was a common problem with Campag freehubs and his was kaput and needed replacing at a cost of around £90.

I told him to hang on as I was visiting them the next week and I would try to fix it for him. I suspected it was the pawl retaining spring so I bought five for £5.99 from Evans in Cardiff just in case. As I suspected the old spring had snapped and it was an easy job to fix it in less than an hour.

Now I know Halfords gets a bad name but I suspect this LBS could see they were talking to a non-mechanically minded cyclist with a bit of money so took advantage. If they knew this was a common problem surely they knew it was an easy fix.

Grrrrr.
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
Do we know the name and/or location of said LBS? I would like to think that the shop was not trying to fleece the chap, but it looks that way.
 
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Rusty Nails

Rusty Nails

We remember
I am not going to name and shame this North London shop as I wasn't the customer and didn't speak to the owner.

I suppose it's just a warning that unless you know the shop from experience it always pays to question expensive looking estimates and shop around, or even Google it to try it yourself. His estimate was based on around £70 for the freehub and around £25 for the Labour.
 

Jody

Stubborn git
It’s a common occurrence these days and the same as why a garage won’t repair certain parts of your car and will just opt for a replacement (engine, gearbox, differentials etc) . It’s not worth the time and hassle to strip. £25 on labour to replace or £50-60 on labour to strip assess and find out its goosed anyway. Or repair a worn item, it doesn’t work as it should and then the customer holds you liable.
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
It’s a common occurrence these days and the same as why a garage won’t repair certain parts of your car and will just opt for a replacement (engine, gearbox, differentials etc) . It’s not worth the time and hassle to strip. £25 on labour to replace or £50-60 on labour to strip assess and find out its goosed anyway. Or repair a worn item, it doesn’t work as it should and then the customer holds you liable.
I suppose most of us remember the old fashioned bike shops where the mechanic, normally the owner would repair things rather than replace where possible
This goes for most modern consumables now.
 
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Rusty Nails

Rusty Nails

We remember
It’s a common occurrence these days and the same as why a garage won’t repair certain parts of your car and will just opt for a replacement (engine, gearbox, differentials etc) . It’s not worth the time and hassle to strip. £25 on labour to replace or £50-60 on labour to strip assess and find out its goosed anyway. Or repair a worn item, it doesn’t work as it should and then the customer holds you liable.

I understand that point, but the shop owner said he knew it was a common problem and must have known it would only take 15 minutes more to fix than fit a new freehub. Plus a parts cost to the customer of £70 instead of £1.20.

In this case at least I have the parts to fix it for free if it goes wrong four times again.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
What it goes to show is the LBSs reputation sometimes rests on the guy making the diagnosis. If he's only moderately experienced he can damage the perception of that shop. But then I suppose he's erring on the profitable side of a misdiagnosis as far as the shop is concerned.
.Equally, It may be of course he knows exactly what he's doing ;)

Moral is...DIY or at least do the homework, forums like this are mines of information .
 

Jody

Stubborn git
Plus a parts cost to the customer of £70 instead of £1.20.

I bet there is more profit in £70 and less come back than the parts used to fix it!
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
DIY obviously the cheapest, but the choice between a new freehub and repairing the freehub, probably down to labour costs and in either case, you would still have an old wheel, a worn rim and wheel bearings?

Price of a brand-new askium rear wheel is about £90, so I would veer to this option and just bin the old wheel if costs get into the £90's.
 
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Rusty Nails

Rusty Nails

We remember
DIY obviously the cheapest, but the choice between a new freehub and repairing the freehub, probably down to labour costs and in either case, you would still have an old wheel, a worn rim and wheel bearings?

Price of a brand-new askium rear wheel is about £90, so I would veer to this option and just bin the old wheel if costs get into the £90's.

While I agree it would have been better to buy a new wheel than pay for a new freehub to be fitted,there is very little wear on the (two year old) rims, the bearings are good and the wheel is true, so the new spring repair was the best option
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
All the above is true, garages won't even try to diagnose your car, they will just throw new parts at it in the hope of fixing the problem. I'm sure the LBS guy hadn't a clue that you can repair a Campag freehub, and even if he did, he's not going to make any money fixing it because he can't cost in the time each end of the work or the time he spends sourcing the parts. It's like expecting the washing machine guy to fix your machine for just a callout charge; he's got to find a way of monetising the visit. We acquired a brand new and (I suspect) unnecessary TV aerial last week for this very reason.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
I snapped a chain last week, never happened before, some on here said I'd have to replace the cassette, I only did the chain, looking at the teeth I saw no reason to, but I suspect some will say I'm wrong, just like some will say putting a new spring in was false economy.
 

Lee_M

Guru
I understand that point, but the shop owner said he knew it was a common problem and must have known it would only take 15 minutes more to fix than fit a new freehub. Plus a parts cost to the customer of £70 instead of £1.20.

In this case at least I have the parts to fix it for free if it goes wrong four times again.

if your bike mechanic only costs £20 you should marry him
 
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