Service

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Shorinjidude

Über Member
Hi all, after nine months commutting on my Boardman Comp Hybrid (12 miles a day, 5 days a week) I took her in for a service £45 I thought was good. Utterly shocked that I needed a new chain, new cassette and new brake pads to the total tune of £151.00! Or, one third of the cost a new bike after just nine months. Also told I would need a new front cog soon as this is wearing as well. Is this amount of wear normal in a commuter bike? I cleaned an oiled the chain every couple of weeks admittedly a bit of a slacker here :ohmy:

Looks like I'm going to need a book and start doing these things myself just living on the third floor with only a tiny balcony isn't the best way to strip a bike me thinks.
 
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Shorinjidude

Über Member
Halfords?

Some bike shops are like some car dealers -if something has any sign of wear on it they'll tell you that it needs replacing. The front rings certainly should be fine after 9 months, and I'd question you needing a new cassette.

Your best bet is to buy some tools and a book (which would cost you less than your initiall £45) and do it yourself. Pads, chain and cassette you could have bought for £40.

Yep, that's what I thought. I do need to change the disc pads - anyone know which ones I need to buy? How hard is it to change them? I kind of understand how they work but theres a load of washers in there!
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
For one thing, I find it very hard to believe that those bits were worn to replacement after (based on your figures) little more than 2000 miles. For another, it sounds like they charged you over £100 for them, which seems stonking.

I would certainly check out the DIY. Books are fine, but there's a load of good stuff on the internet - I personally find the videos on sites like bicycletutor and youtube often more helpful than the printed page. Others worth checking out include Park Tool and Sheldon Brown.

Bikes aren't hard to fix. Unlike, say, cars, they make sense. You can see what goes where, and what secures it, and stuff like that. Give it a try.
 

gavintc

Guru
Location
Southsea
I am not disputing that 151 is a lot. But parts for bikes do cost money. The chain, cassette and brakes would cost you around 60. Add that to the 'labour' cost of the service quoted as 45 and you can quickly see that it is not too difficult to push a minor service over a 100.

As others have stated, get yourself on a bike maintenance course and buy your parts online.
 
I used to do a little bike maintenance for people. It's amazing how much parts cost, then when you alow for the fact that someone has to charge for fitting them ... well, no wonder it's expensive. The only way to do it is learn to do it yourself.
 
I have 2 bikes the older one I will service myself, the other one is the bike from the cycle to work scheme which I think I should get services by a professional as the bike is basicly on hire from my employer.
I can use the other one to learn how do it myself.
would this be the best thing to do?
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
nine months commutting on my Boardman Comp Hybrid (12 miles a day, 5 days a week)

I'm not shocked. That's a lot of mileage and I think you done well to get that far. I underwent the same replacement two weeks ago on my 24 miles a day, 5 days a week after 3.5 months. I am a good maintainer - clean and lube every week.

Winter is tough on bikes and the stock chains tend to be poor quality. My chain had stretched and I didn't realise (until a link snapped). When I replaced it, I didn't realised that the chain had stretched too far and I had to replace the cassette.

As others have said, parts are not cheap.

I've learnt to service the bike myself, not just because of the labour costs, but because I'm not held hostage to the LBS opening times and their scheduling. I can fix my bike at 11 o'clock at night and commute at 7am in the morning. You can't do this when you're relying on a LBS.
 
Even cheaper @ CRC.

Invest in a reasonable bike toolkit to ensure that you have almosty everything you would need and then do most of it yourself with help from some of the websites. It really isn't difficult if you take your time.

You will save more than the cost of the toolkit when you do your next service!
 
The round ones are for the BB5.
They are not the same, the expensive ones are from the brake manufacturer while the EBC ones are made by another reputable brake pad manufacturer. They will however work pretty much the same and cost a lot less.
 
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