I want to start this off by saying I'm an extremely experienced tech and typically I don't trust anybody to work on my bikes other than me. I am 100% capable of doing this myself and I would have much preferred to.
First off, as soon as I got to the mountain on my first ride, I noticed the headset was loose. That's an easy enough fix. I noticed that 3 of the 4 weather seal thingies weren't mounted properly. That will require the powertrain to be dropped and the cables rerouted in order to fix. Then I noticed that my fork crown had the ability to hit the frame. It's an interference design so that was always theoretically possible, but I have a special headset that stops it from rotating that far. They lost one f the bump stops in the headset and that was enough to let the crown hit the frame.
Thankfully I'm very in tune with my bike and I noticed this immediately. But I could only imagine someone less experienced than me continuing to ride the bike, getting in to a crash, and having their fork punch through the carbon frame.
Not only was I forced to pay someone to do this, but they did a shitty job and now I'm fixing the work that I paid to have someone else do. I have higher standards than this and that's why I don't let "professionals" touch my bike.
by lol_camis
7 Comments
Totally unacceptable. I always hate getting my bike back after dropping good money to see things that me as a basic home mechanic would never miss.
Maybe email the bike company as an FYI about the shop. If they require the shop for warranty the they should have some concern about the rebuild quality.
This is why I’ve always bought the tools and learned to maintain my own bike. Mostly because then I know, like you, when things are not right and can fix them before bigger issues arise.
I’m sure there are A+ shops around and good techs but at the end of the day no one is going to care about your stuff more than you. My brother throws money around like no tomorrow but I’d rather have the experience. He couldn’t tune a derailer much less do suspension work. Sometimes it’s good to be poor and have to be your own mechanic. It’s 100 an hour labor here. I’m free. š
Why would you have to pull cables to fully seat the grommets?
Stuff like this pisses me off. I’ve only had my first ever bike for 2 seasons (aside from department store ones as a kid) and while my experience is clearly VERY limited- I’m a detail oriented person and double check EVERYTHING. These issues are ridiculously sloppy work and I would want to ask the shop for some of my money back; most shops would say to bring it back in, but frankly I wouldn’t trust them anywhere near my bike.
Hell, if they did stuff this obviously sloppy what are the chances stuff is torqued down way too tight by “feel” and riding too much may damage the frame all over again? It would be annoying, but this warrants a full re-build in my opinion.
I dont do stuff my self because its cheaper. I do it myself because it seems now days it is the only way to have stuff done correctly. Very frustrating to see.
Iām not defending the shop but this seems like nothing more than rage bait at the expense of bike mechanics as a whole even though you used the flair ādiscussionā. Like someone else mentioned those grommets can be pushed in without pulling the motor and cable housing and if you canāt figure that out then youāre not as mechanically inclined as you think you are. As for the only bit of this post that could be considered a discussion I donāt know of any non-DTC brand thatās going to give the customer a warranty part without involving the dealer.
This is such a pain in the ass. I do all my own wrenching too and feel for ya on this one. The one time i bought a complete bike about 5 years ago it came with contaminated pads and the shop told me this was impossible because they perfectly bed the brakes of every bike they build. This was definitely the last time i went to that shop for anything.