My grump about bike shops

[swee'pea99]

I'm amazed so many people use them. I'm not being smug - honest - but I haven't used one since I re-took up cycling seven or eight years ago. DIY. It's not difficult, and with the amount of stuff on the web these days - bicycletutor, youtube, parktools, sheldon - there can't be much you can't get a demo on.

 

[MacB]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1283210994' post='1380457']
I'm amazed so many people use them. I'm not being smug - honest - but I haven't used one since I re-took up cycling seven or eight years ago. DIY. It's not difficult, and with the amount of stuff on the web these days - bicycletutor, youtube, parktools, sheldon - there can't be much you can't get a demo on.
[/quote]

yes and no, firstly you need to have the interest and some level of aptitude, you also need to have the tools you need and these can be expensive on their own. Then there's the knowledge about what bits you need to buy and what works with what. I find all of the sites you mention very useful but much more so now that I've had some practice and have bought a few more tools. Initially I found it all very daunting and confusing. I've spent time and money on improving that, reading up on the web, paying a mechanic to do my first bike setup with me. Paying for further tuition, grilling folks on rides and forums about technical details and finally picking up old bikes from the tip to totally strip and rebuild.

This is with the luxury of an understanding family, an inclination towards this sort of thing, plenty of space and tools in a large garage, time and money to indulge myself and multiple bikes so that disasters(and I've had some) don't leave me off the road.

I can see how it's not attractive, or practical, for others and a reliable LBS would be great.

 

[Crankarm]

I say name and shame .

Bike like car I object to paying some grease monkey £20, 30 or 60 hour to do something I can do better. If it was the case I gave my bike to an LBS I would probably have to re-do the work myself anyway, only properly, so why give it to them in the first place?

The only bike shop I ever had excellent service from was Condor. But since I moved away from London ages ago I have not found a similarly good bike shop that I would even trust to do any work on my bikes. I can pretty much do everything myself except wheel building. Having been mechanically minded from an early age messing about stripping and rebuilding bikes and also repairing cars I am not daunted by mechanicals. If I need a special bicycle tool, which is unlikely as I now have pretty much everything one needs, then I just buy it eg last year a headset remover £11.99 from CRC. A breathtakingly simple and straighforward tool which gets the old headset out in literally seconds. I might only ever use it twice but it saves taking the bike to a crappy local LBS who won't do the job properly, probably damage or bugger up something else and over charge in the process. I even bought a wheel truing/building stand last year which I have yet to use. With the help of Sheldon and Musson I would like to build my own set of wheels.

However just before this I took a wheel which had met with a rather large pot hole to a bike shop in Peterbrough last summer for truing. The quote was £10. Ok fair enough. They couldn't do it for two weeks. Ok, fair enough. Went to pick it up. Cost £17!!!!! WTF. They had decided to replace one of the cones as they said the old one was pitted. Yes, I know it was pitted, that's how I like my cones! They hadn't called me to say "Oh btw we stripped the hub and saw what one of the cones is pitted. Would you like us to replace it?"as they knew my response would have been "No! Who told you to dismantle the hub? I like my cones pitted!". Anyway I reluctantly paid up feeling I'd been had as a cone on it's own costs literally a few pence and changing them is pretty easy. So I wasn't best pleased. Haven't been back since.

 

[Bill Gates]

yes and no, firstly you need to have the interest and some level of aptitude, you also need to have the tools you need and these can be expensive on their own. Then there's the knowledge about what bits you need to buy and what works with what. I find all of the sites you mention very useful but much more so now that I've had some practice and have bought a few more tools. Initially I found it all very daunting and confusing. I've spent time and money on improving that, reading up on the web, paying a mechanic to do my first bike setup with me. Paying for further tuition, grilling folks on rides and forums about technical details and finally picking up old bikes from the tip to totally strip and rebuild.

This is with the luxury of an understanding family, an inclination towards this sort of thing, plenty of space and tools in a large garage, time and money to indulge myself and multiple bikes so that disasters(and I've had some) don't leave me off the road.

I can see how it's not attractive, or practical, for others and a reliable LBS would be great.

Whenever I neede a job done and I don't have the right tools then I find out how much the tools are. Then I compare that to the costs of the bike shop labour. If the two totals aren't that far apart, I buy the tools and parts and do the job myself. Much more satisfying.

Overtime when the same jobs crop up you can do them for nothing - just costs of parts.

 

[lukesdad]

Ive built up my extensive toolkit over the years, buying tools as I need them. I always by Quality tools, that way they last Park are my preference for cycle tools, and I always have spares to hand especially those hard to get spokes.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I don't think I have ever had an entirely satisfactory experience with bike shop servicing, whether they were big or small shops. It isn't so much 'name and shame' as, 'when I find a good one, I'll tell you'. On the whole, I'll buy parts from local shops when I can but I'll do the work myself. Otherwise like Magnatom, I will end up paying and having to correct the work I've paid for over the next couple of weeks.

 

[swee'pea99]

I agree you need to have a reasonable degree of aptitude. Some people just can't mechanic, like others can't cook or are tone deaf. But I think most people can do it, with the help of a 'how to' vid or three. And the great thing about bikes is that they're essentially so simple. Just by fiddling with something and having a look and a think, you can see how everything works. Eg, lever at one end, cable in the middle, mech at the other. Or 'something going round & round, around something that doesn't move' (thinks: must be some bearings in there.) It all makes sense. 

As for the cost of tools, just go to your local pound shop. You can get most of the basics there: pliers, spanners, a nice big hammer. Anything more costly - a socket set, say - go to a car boot sale, or check out ebay. I got mine for a tenner, it's given me five years good service, and I'm sure it'll still be going strong when I've hung up me SPDs.

 

[Paulus]

I have a very good LBS, The Cycle Store in Friern Barnet, which I use from time to time, usually to buy spare parts from as he gives a reasonable discount to loyal customers. I usually do most of the work myself as over the years i have got a comprehensive tool kit and can do most jobs, except wheelbuilding.
The times I have needed professional help they have been most helpful and proficient.

 

[4F]

I have three kids, and a busy job. Despite the fact I have a technical mind, I don't have time to fettle bikes. I'd love to. I'm sure I could spend hours fettling away.

To be honest the opening line is a bit of a cop out. I have a busy full time job, a 12 hour part time job, an allotment and 3 kids (12 - 6 years old) which I am often running here there and everywhere.

20 - 30 mins once a week is plenty time to keep mine and all of the kids bike on the road and the only time I go to the LBS for any work is for spoke replacing and wheelbuilding and this is on the list of things to learn in the next few years.

 

[Fnaar]

Used to have an lbs with a very depressed looking proprietor (it's closed down now... ) but the young chap who did the work was excellent, all issues solved efficiently and to a very good standard of work. Now I take bikes to nearest, which is 10 miles away (I'm short of time for fettling, and I'm not very good at it either... I knowe my limits

)... most local cyclists rave about him, and he's done a lot of work on my/kids/wife's bikes this year... no complaints, except the gears are never set up to my liking... always some fiddling to be done... otherwise fine.

 

[MacB]

To be honest imho the opening line is a bit of a cop out. I have a busy full time job, a 12 hour part time job, an allotment and 3 kids (12 - 6 years old) which I am often running here there and everywhere.

20 - 30 mins once a week is plenty time to keep mine and all of the kids bike on the road and the only time I go to the LBS for any work is for spoke replacing and wheelbuilding and this is on the list of things to learn in the next few years.

be fair, I know it is a bit of a cop out but it's getting over that initial hurdle, gaining confidence and collecting the tools. What I can achieve in 30 mins on our bikes now is a great deal more than 30 mins would have covered a year ago.

Maybe Mags needs to parcel up his time a bit better, subtract 10% from his camera faffing time and allot that, 5 hours!!!!, to bike maintenance

 

[4F]

Maybe Mags needs to parcel up his time a bit better, subtract 10% from his camera faffing time and allot that, 5 hours!!!!, to bike maintenance

In a nutshell

 

[palinurus]

their labour isn't too bad, just cost of the bits.

They asked me if i wanted to downgrade to 105 to save on cost but then i suppose it would be a bit pointless buying the bike with Ultegra groupset if i did that.

Ultegra stuff is pricey. You make quite a saving buying the groupset with a bike.

 

[Hilldodger]

If it wasn't for servicing and repairs most bike shops would go bust. the margins on new bikes is very, very small.

We always test ride every bike and then get the customer to do the same before taking the bike away.

Servicing a bike to most people on here isn't difficult but a lot of people just don't want to do it themselves and why should they? I'm perfectly capable of working on my cars and motorbikes but I just don't want to and have enough disposable income to pay people to do the work.

I don't work on my modern bikes either - I just take it into the workshop and tell a mechanic to fix it.

Wouldn't let them touch my Penny, though.

 

[Amanda P]

Suspect the problems with gears are down to bike shops setting them up while the bike's on a workstand... and doing no road testing.

We all know that a transmission that functions flawlessly under no load on the stand won't work quite that well for real. Why don't bike shop mechanics?