Hey guys, Just want to check if its just me, or if you have the same experience with bike shops at the moment. It seems the new - easy (almost no work) thing to do is to top up sealant when a bike is in for any other work, and then bill you for it, without asking. Sure, most people have no idea, and had a bikeshop setup their tubeless to start off with, and so it is a good thing if their LBS made sure that their tyres have a decent amount of sealant in and that they aren't left walking back to their car. I myself and my riding partner have both had similar experiences in the past couple of weeks with two different shops - where the bike went in for a service - and the tyres were topped up with sealant without asking, and just added to the bill. Here's what gets me a bit bothered; Scenario 1: my bike went in after K2C for a service still with my old tyres on - this was a couple of weeks ago. I took my bike to the same bikeshop on Monday, for a squeak on the pivots and a rear shock service. I've fitted new Onza's in the meantime and so all new sealant and perfectly sealed - 3 rides on the tyres, set up with sealant to spare. I pick up my bike yesterday, and on the job card; there it is: sealant topped up x 2 ahem... Scenario 2: My riding partner had a tubeless mishap and decided to go for slime tubes rather than try to sort it out, as his tyres have pretty high mileage on it, and he wants to squeeze out the extra mileage before new tyres for W2W. Bike goes in for service - and the mech tells him his sealant was running low, so they topped it up. So they put extra sealant in his slime tubes - entertaining bit is, the new sealant and the slime does not play well, and so it sets into a massive tumor in the bottom of the tube. First ride out, his bike is riding weird and he says he can feel his wheels almost spinning faster and slower on each revolution. flipping the bike reveals the massive weight on the one side of the wheel that creates a pendulum effect. Taking the tubes out you can feel the big lumps that formed in the tubes. So both tubes need to be binned and new tyres on go earlier than planned. Is this just the new easy way to make a buck topping up sealant unnecessarily, or am I missing the convenience of a bikeshop that looks out for its customers? I'm sure if it really is needed - it is awesome when they do it - both these cases though, not so much.
