Seriously disappointing bike shop experience today

This topic has 30 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by trailrunner.

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November 19, 2015 at 1:03 am #1041416

ian74
Participant

Oh, also, If I’m completely wrong and this was all my fault and it was wrong of me to imply he screwed up my rim let me know. I just found the timing uncanny.

November 19, 2015 at 1:03 am #1041417

Rod Smith
Participant

That sort of rim failure is common. It just happens. Probably not the shop’s fault, my opinion. Possibly already like that, the cause of your wheel wobble. If so, they should have seen it when truing but possible to overlook, I guess? Curious but that sort of thing doesn’t happen in two miles, it takes some time. How many miles on the rim?

November 19, 2015 at 1:05 am #1041418

Rod Smith
Participant

@ian74 128221 wrote:

Oh, also, If I’m completely wrong and this was all my fault and it was wrong of me to imply he screwed up my rim let me know. I just found the timing uncanny.

I don’t think your reaction was wrong, just that the mechanic might not have caused the damage.

November 19, 2015 at 1:07 am #1041419

ian74
Participant

@Rod Smith 128222 wrote:

That sort of rim failure is common. It just happens. Probably not the shop’s fault, my opinion. Possibly already like that, the cause of your wheel wobble. If so, they should have seen it when truing but possible to overlook, I guess? Curious but that sort of thing doesn’t happen in two miles, it takes some time. How many miles on the rim?

They’re the original rims that came on the bike, they have about 6500 miles on them. Also, thanks for the perspective.

November 19, 2015 at 1:53 am #1041420

Crickey7
Participant

I know these shops and have actually had wheel truing done at Griffin, with fairly disappointing results. You should have gone to Freshbikes. The mechanics there are great. Not to take anything away from the mechanics at Griffin in general (and recognizing it has been several years since my Griffin experience). But someone has to be better, and the ones at Freshbikes just are, IMHO.

November 19, 2015 at 2:16 am #1041424

vern
Participant

I had the same thing happen to a wheel a few months back, as documented here: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?4706-Friday-Coffee-Club-II/page62

Sorry it happened to you today. That said, it seems like the mechanic should have seen that when he was truing your wheel.

November 19, 2015 at 4:25 am #1041431

hozn
Participant

Yeah, it is hard to know, but a wheel gone out of true is more of a symptom of a bigger wheel problem than just “something that happens”. I would be surprised if the two were unrelated, but also hard to know if the mechanic knew what he was doing. E.g. if he just tightened a spoke to pull the wheel back into true, it might indeed have been over spec for the rim. OTOH, it seems likely that the wheel was simply done and this is how it died.

That is pretty young for a well-built wheel, but probably somewhat typical for factory wheels (?) (Others have posted similar wheel failure mileage on here, I recall.)

November 19, 2015 at 2:12 pm #1041440

NicDiesel
Participant

@ian74 128220 wrote:

I asked him to comp me at least on the labor for the cost of a new wheel and then he got noticeably agitated and said ” No! NO!” I mentioned how it wasn’t like this this morning when I came in, and it happened after you trued it. He (and now a second employee also came over to chime in) tells me, they can’t be held responsible for what happens after you leave the shop, and told me that the rim was probably already cracked at that spot. There was no way to know if that was their fault or not I was pretty pissed, but they were not budging on cutting me any deal and pretty much washed their hands of the issue.

I’m pretty sure that’s the policy of all shops. If you’re happy when you leave that’s the end of the transaction, especially with non-warrantied work. Don’t blame you on skipping Freshbikes, that shop sucks.

November 20, 2015 at 1:05 am #1041498

peterw_diy
Participant

Wait. When you got to work after riding two miles, the rim was cracked. But was it true?

IME a growing crack will take the wheel out of true. If the wheel was true when you left the shop and just as true at work, doesn’t that strongly suggest the rim was cracked when the bike left the shop?

November 20, 2015 at 7:42 pm #1041556

hozn
Participant

Peterw-diy makes a good point. If the rim was true then it must have been cracked when it left the shop. (And probably if it was not true then indeed it wasn’t cracked when it left the shop.)

November 20, 2015 at 9:05 pm #1041561

Crickey7
Participant

How does someone truing a wheel miss a cracked rim, though? I mean, it could happen, but . . .

BTW, am I the only one who cleans my bike before I take it to the shop, lest the mechanic think poorly of me?

November 20, 2015 at 9:23 pm #1041562

consularrider
Participant

@Crickey7 128375 wrote:

How does someone truing a wheel miss a cracked rim, though? I mean, it could happen, but . . .

BTW, am I the only one who cleans my bike before I take it to the shop, lest the mechanic think poorly of me?

No, I clean my bike so the mechanic has no excuse not to do my bike first,

November 20, 2015 at 9:51 pm #1041563

dkel
Participant

@consularrider 128376 wrote:

No, I clean my bike so the mechanic has no excuse not to do my bike first,

My bike doesn’t get dirty. #fenders #mudflaps

November 20, 2015 at 11:28 pm #1041565

hozn
Participant

I don’t take my bike to a shop. See what happens when you do?!

(But I would clean my bike if I did, yes. And fenders don’t keep rims clean when it rains!)

November 20, 2015 at 11:43 pm #1041567

dkel
Participant

@hozn 128379 wrote:

And fenders don’t keep rims clean when it rains!

This is true—I was just being snarky. But the fenders and mud flaps do keep the frame and drivetrain surprisingly clean! Even the underside of the bottom bracket stays sparkling for months and months at a time.
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