How to proceed with bike damage within 100km of having a service

[Sid the Sloth]

Happy Friday everyone.

 

I recently bought my girlfriend a road bike, the previous owner was servicing it at a well recognized local bike shop in the southern suburbs. I went to go check it out there and it seemed like a perfect fit for her requirements.

 

The owner and I decide to rather sell/buy without wheels as I have a set and his were causing issues. I drop my wheels (without tyres as I needed to take these off another set) and cassette off at the service center and they get building.

 

After I pick up the bike, I take it home and fit tyres and as we are about to setting off my girlfriend tries to put her bike in the big ring and it won’t shift up. The front derailleur clearly hasn’t been indexed properly and having paid someone else to index it I take it back and they do it, excuse being that it didn’t have tyres so they couldn’t test ride it. Fair, but if you are working on a stand you should be able to spin the wheel and test all the shifting.

 

Less than 100km later, I am riding her bike as mine is getting serviced and I shift into the largest cog at the back, and the chain slips between the cassette and the spokes, causing a cool skid while the rear derailleur is pulled into the spokes.

 

In the collective wisdom of hubland, who is at fault? Do I take the bike back to them and ask them to please fix it? I certainly don’t feel like paying them again and would rather go to my usual trusty mechanic... is it my fault and just bad luck? How do you reckon i should proceed?

[Fitbull]

Probably not the answer your looking for but mechanics 101 - Learn to index your own gears

 

I have found bike shops never index gears properly even when you tell them there is an issue, I dont have time to cart the bike back and forth when it will take you 5 mins and less hassle to do it yourself. All comes down to how much aggro and time wasting you want to spend at the bikeshop.

 

Setting the limiting screws and then adjusting the gears with the barrel adjuster is really easy. Youtube is your friend.

 

[Jbr]

Yass that pisses me off... It's sad to say, but unfortunately I hear stories like this too often. Most of the time when it comes to simple things like indexing gears, just take your time to read the manual and do it yourself because unfortunately shops won't read the manual, do it on a stand quickly and not test ride that everything is good and you'll be the one test riding it, putting yourself at risk and probably risking major damage.

 

It is one thing to shift gears on a stand, but in my opinion you have to ride it to try it, make sure it shifts properly with normal load, at normal cadence, on the big and small blade...

 

Unfortunately not too sure what the way forward is, I think you must really try your luck see what they offer. I believe they should be fixing any damage caused by their inconpetence, but if they can be as careless in the workshop I doubt they will be very good in aftersale.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Jbr

[RobertWhitehead]

My opinion: They're a bunch of plonkers that do not know how to index both front and rear. They are clearly at fault but I would take it elsewhere and get it done properly. There's a nice saying which may apply here: 

 

"Never argue with a fool as they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"

 

Snip

[Sid the Sloth]

Thanks for the suggestion, fortunately I have learnt how to index but the issue here was someone else was paid to do it properly, so I thought they should do it. Which turned out to clearly have been a mistake.

[Sid the Sloth]

I should add that I’m now one derailleur and hanger less wealthy than I was before... it’s a 105 derailleur and I have an ultegra spare I can put on but it’s medium cage so will also need to change chain then. My question also extends to whether I should ask them to find another 105 derailleur or not. I suspect they are not going to be happy to do anything if I take it back but I find it entertaining to test the customer service (strange sense of humor... but I don’t mind conflict)

[The Ouzo]

My opinion, take it up with them. Their lack of QA has caused damage that puts you out of pocket.

You probably wont get very far and will land up having to take it else where or DIY, but at least you've tried, given them the opportunity to put things right.

[Robbie Stewart]

Sometimes its money spent in educating yourself on what not to do and where not to go. I would take the knock and either fix it yourself or go to a reputable LBS that has verified (i.e. LeHub verified) credentials.

Last week on a ride one of the guys joining us had a issue with a valve stem leaking air. This was the first ride after getting the bike from the LBS for a service. No problem - just remove the wheel from the fork, pull off the tyre and replace with a tube. Easy fix right? 

Wrong.

The front axle was over torqued so much that the nut was getting stripped inside the axle when trying to loosen it. Eventually all that helped was overinflating the tyre for the ride which ended up being sufficient.

[AdamA]

This is why service my own bike. I got tired of paying someone else to make simple mistakes on my bike and having to fix them myself anyway. 

 

Servicing you own bike also helps with trail-side (or road-side) repairs . ie knowing what the problem is an how to correct it. 

[Fitbull]

I should add that I’m now one derailleur and hanger less wealthy than I was before... it’s a 105 derailleur and I have an ultegra spare I can put on but it’s medium cage so will also need to change chain then. My question also extends to whether I should ask them to find another 105 derailleur or not. I suspect they are not going to be happy to do anything if I take it back but I find it entertaining to test the customer service (strange sense of humor... but I don’t mind conflict)

If it has caused damage and broken parts I would definitely consider taking it up with them. Another thing to consider here would be timeframe. I know you say its done 100km but over what period of time? If you talking about a month plus Im not sure you have a leg to stand on. If it happened within a few days/on your next ride them maybe, anything more if I were a bike shop owner I would be asking the question of whether you had tinkered with it and now making it the bike shops problem. I know, your word against theirs...

 

Personally I cant be bothered wasting my time with bike shops and getting aggro when 99% of the time they wont admit fault and you just end up wasting your time. School fees, move on and I wouldn't be using them again in future.

[Steady Spin]

My 2c. The gears weren't indexed again on the new wheels provided. 

Might have been fine on the old wheels but the new wheels could have a tiny bit different hub / cassette spacing and boom, problem. 

 

Shop is at fault. 

How bad is the damage? Is it worth the fight and time spent on getting them to fix it? 

[Wimmas]

Eina. Bike shop at fault in my opinion. If you want to then take it up with them. Might end up being a back and forth fight.

 

Indexing to perfection is time consuming, takes patience and testing. Most shops won't go through the trouble like you would.

 

However, the most important thing to check when indexing a RD is that the chain does not jump between the spokes and the cassette. Everyone in the cycling world knows this due to the damage is can cause.

[Martin PJ]

I have wrecked more hangers and derailleurs that I would care to count. My son used to have a particular skill that he could wreck anything. Probably have more than ten broken derailleurs at home in the boxes. I have noticed the more careful the rider and the higher the quality of components, the less things like rear derailleurs get wrecked.

 

Speak to the bike shop, see what they say. It would be difficult to prove they were negligent.

[stefmeister]

Just take it back to the shop. Chat with them, they'll probably offer to fix it before you ask them to. If you wait too long to inform them, then it becomes an issue of shifting responsibility - which if you take it back the next day it's obvious it was their mistake, but if a week or two goes by, then it become less credible to believe someone's story that they just rode it once around the block.

[Hamstring]

With all the tec here, and coming with ASX soon LBS will have no mechanic. i for one try and get the latest tec so i don't need my LBS, coz of that problem. 

[TNT1]

With all the tec here, and coming with ASX soon LBS will have no mechanic. i for one try and get the latest tec so i don't need my LBS, coz of that problem. 

 

 

Can I get a translation into English please?