Repair question

Tallon

Hey guys,

So I left my bike in to be serviced and have the gear bracket replaced. I was told it was €24 for the bracket and €25 for the service, so it would be less than €50

Today I phoned them to see if it was ready and was told €75. Said they needed to replace an aluminum hanging bracket that was worn.

Now, my question is, do I need to pay for this? I mean I didn't ask them to replace anything else and it wasn't part of the service was it?

If I left my car in to be serviced and was told when I collected it, that it was going to cost more and parts were replaced, I would be annoyed tbh

Any feedback appreciated

Tal

kona

Tallon wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I left my bike in to be serviced and have the gear bracket replaced. I was told it was €24 for the bracket and €25 for the service, so it would be less than €50

Today I phoned them to see if it was ready and was told €75. Said they needed to replace an aluminum hanging bracket that was worn.

Now, my question is, do I need to pay for this? I mean I didn't ask them to replace anything else and it wasn't part of the service was it?

If I left my car in to be serviced and was told when I collected it, that it was going to cost more and parts were replaced, I would be annoyed tbh

Any feedback appreciated

Tal

If you want your bike fixed, pay for it. The price seems fair enough for what was done.

Either pay the e50 and have a broken hanger and your gears not working.

or

e75 and have your bike fully working.

I know it sucks to be stung with an extra few quid but , it would be more annoying to pay e50 and still not be perfect.

Tallon

If it needs to be done, then I'll obviously pay for it, but surely they should have called and let me know?

Also, is the hanger related to the gears? Sorry, but i'm a noob when it comes to bike acronyms

BeardyGit

Tallon wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I left my bike in to be serviced and have the gear bracket replaced. I was told it was €24 for the bracket and €25 for the service, so it would be less than €50

Today I phoned them to see if it was ready and was told €75. Said they needed to replace an aluminum hanging bracket that was worn.

Now, my question is, do I need to pay for this? I mean I didn't ask them to replace anything else and it wasn't part of the service was it?

If I left my car in to be serviced and was told when I collected it, that it was going to cost more and parts were replaced, I would be annoyed tbh

Any feedback appreciated

Tal

If I were you Tal, I'd be getting comfortable at your desk and ordering parts from ChainReactionCycles next time. The kit costs sweet feck all and a bike is hardly difficult or time consuming to service in all fairness.

I used to put up over 100-150 miles a week on my mountainbike and every Saturday I'd strip and clean the gearset, repack the bearings and readjust cables etc and hit the road in less than an hour from starting. I reckon I'd put 20-25k miles on that bike by the time I sold it, for more than I paid for it, and never paid anyone to do anything on it for me.

murphhy

In my experience this is what most bike repair shops do...at the end of the day it had to be changed and really its only small money when you take into consideration how long it will be until the bike needs to be serviced again

Quigs Snr

If it's a hanger that's damaged, that is the little metal piece that your gear derailleurs are attached to the frame by. The main reason most gears I have seen are out of tune are because of bikes falling over, even in hallways indoors on soft carpet and the hangar bending at a little.

kona

Tallon wrote: »

If it needs to be done, then I'll obviously pay for it, but surely they should have called and let me know?

Also, is the hanger related to the gears? Sorry, but i'm a noob when it comes to bike acronyms

To be fair, I have never come across a Bike Mechanic or workshop that will change something for no reason. Things are so compeditive, most mechanics will actually try to save you money, most bikes I do, need a heap of other stuff done, but we also know that its a better Idea to point it out and mention that it will need doing next service and the estimated cost.

The gear hanger as Quigs said holds the rear mech, if its bent the rear mech wont shift gears properly or will cause the chain to jump, as its aluminium it can snap.
Its there are as fail safe to prevent the rear mech overextending into your wheel, it should snap before this occurs.

If it needed doing, it needed doing, they arnt trying to rip you off.

kona

BeardyGit wrote: »

I used to put up over 100-150 miles a week on my mountainbike and every Saturday I'd strip and clean the gearset, repack the bearings and readjust cables etc and hit the road in less than an hour from starting. I reckon I'd put 20-25k miles on that bike by the time I sold it, for more than I paid for it, and never paid anyone to do anything on it for me.

You gave the bike a yearly service every 100miles? why bother, it probably cost you more in the long run changing parts like that. Bikes aint designed for that constant opening and reopening of cones and BB.
They must have been ****ty cables to stretch every 100 miles

And who paid you for the bike?, ive a few I want to get rid of

07Lapierre

Tallon wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I left my bike in to be serviced and have the gear bracket replaced. I was told it was €24 for the bracket and €25 for the service, so it would be less than €50

Today I phoned them to see if it was ready and was told €75. Said they needed to replace an aluminum hanging bracket that was worn.

Now, my question is, do I need to pay for this? I mean I didn't ask them to replace anything else and it wasn't part of the service was it?

If I left my car in to be serviced and was told when I collected it, that it was going to cost more and parts were replaced, I would be annoyed tbh

Any feedback appreciated

Tal

Ask yourself this..if the mechanic had called you and said this worn hanger needs to be changed and the final cost would be 75 and not 50...would you have said NO?

Tallon

07Lapierre wrote: »

Ask yourself this..if the mechanic had called you and said this worn hanger needs to be changed and the final cost would be 75 and not 50...would you have said NO?

Thats what I'm asking, I would have asked what the hanger was for!

If it was cosmetic, then obviously it could wait, but if it's structural then it needs to be replaced

blorg

The hanger is structural. From the sound of your description it was bent and did have to be replaced. It is possible the mechanic did not notice this until he went to replace the rear derailleur. It doesn't sound like they are trying to replace something unnecessarily to me.

enas

Surely the mechanic didn't rip you off. However I do agree that it doesn't sound quite right to quote a price and then end up asking 50% more. I think making a quick call if you discover there's more than you initially saw is the good way of doing it and looks more serious. But as the other poster said, I guess you would have accepted, so it's not a big deal at the end of the day.

petethedrummer

You'll be waiting a long time for a bike shop to ring you about anything. But then they have to balance their time and can't be rchasing every customer when something crops up. Usually what they will do is perform the service as requested and then tell you what else needs to be done. But in this case the extra work (hanger) was integral to the original job (gears) being done.

Only Eurocycles on Sth William St. have rung me when a job is done. Without being prompted. Nowhere else has. I have now switched to them for any servicing I can't do myself. Which I suppose makes the phone calls to me worth it.

Tallon

Great info lads. Thanks

Looking forward to getting out on the thing now

BeardyGit

kona wrote: »

You gave the bike a yearly service every 100miles? why bother, it probably cost you more in the long run changing parts like that. Bikes aint designed for that constant opening and reopening of cones and BB.
They must have been ****ty cables to stretch every 100 miles

And who paid you for the bike?, ive a few I want to get rid of

PFT! Bikes ain't designed for that constant opening and reopening of cones and BB? What ill-informed rubbish. Do you actually KNOW what you're trying to preach?

Suffice to say, you were still using stabilisers when I was racking up miles on rigid Scott's, Muddy Fox's, Diamond Back's and early Ti M-Trax's. Centre pull canti's, DX thumbies, pre-teflon/graphite cables and outers, no such thing as cartridge bearings except on mega-money swiss hubs.....You're not old enough to have owned half of that stuff.

You might THINK you know what you're talking about, but your experience counts for jack in my world. Annual service? You wouldn't have made it to work in Bike Hut if that's how you'd approached those machines. But there you go Kona, you read about it somewhere on the internerd, so you think you KNOW it, ain't that right?

Some things never change. It's been years since I bothered posting in here and in that time you've not forgotten anything Kona - You're still acting like a total and utter know it all, aren't you? And don't go putting stupid smileys in there to try and disguise the fact you're being a smart arse.... Wise old eyes can see right through that crap too.

BeardyGit

Oh yeah, while I'm at it - That bike did all those miles on its original groupset.... Shimano A10, on a Raleigh Ravine, c1992 vintage.

Now, how do you like them apples? :cool:

manwithaplan

Nurse! Grandad's talking about the old days again.

kona

BeardyGit wrote: »

PFT! Bikes ain't designed for that constant opening and reopening of cones and BB? What ill-informed rubbish. Do you actually KNOW what you're trying to preach?

Suffice to say, you were still using stabilisers when I was racking up miles on rigid Scott's, Muddy Fox's, Diamond Back's and early Ti M-Trax's. Centre pull canti's, DX thumbies, pre-teflon/graphite cables and outers, no such thing as cartridge bearings except on mega-money swiss hubs.....You're not old enough to have owned half of that stuff.

You might THINK you know what you're talking about, but your experience counts for jack in my world. Annual service? You wouldn't have made it to work in Bike Hut if that's how you'd approached those machines. But there you go Kona, you read about it somewhere on the internerd, so you think you KNOW it, ain't that right?

Some things never change. It's been years since I bothered posting in here and in that time you've not forgotten anything Kona - You're still acting like a total and utter know it all, aren't you? And don't go putting stupid smileys in there to try and disguise the fact you're being a smart arse.... Wise old eyes can see right through that crap too.

wow, arnt you amazing, such an achievement to be older than me :rolleyes:
I couldnt give a **** what my experience counts for in your world, a world where you have **** all else to do than service your bike everytime you ride it, thats winning right there:rolleyes: suppose its that and scratching yer balls and moaning at the "youth of today" that all you get to do when you retire.

You must be such a legend, being such a bitter aul Guinness fart.

Tallon

manwithaplan wrote: »

Nurse! Grandad's talking about the old days again.

Lumen

Is the fact of having owned a bicycle in 1992 now enough to mark someone out as an old timer?

I just got one of those "where the feck have the last 19 years gone" moments.

neilboard

I used to work in a bike shop for a bit. The thing is when you leave a bike in to get serviced your doing exactly that, a service. The mechanic can't let a bike that isn't 100 percent out the door because if he did and the owner came off it due to mechanical failure the mechanic and store would most likely be up sh1t creek.
And to that guy changing bearings every 100-150 miles, that's serious overkill, doesn't matter how wise you are you DO NOT need to change them near as often.

BeardyGit

Mountainbiking? With non-sealed cup and cone type bearings? Overkill? You reckon? Took a couple of minutes per wheel each week and the hubs and axles lasted the entire life of the bike, and somewhere in excess of 20k miles. On a mountainbike. That was used as a mountainbike several times a week. Note these were Shimano Altus A10 group hubs, a budget hub, not even DX/LX at the time.

As they say, your mileage may vary, but I doubt it would be anywhere close to mine were it not very well maintained. Overkill? Who knows. You'd have been hard pressed to find a bike with the distance covered that mine had and in such good condition when it came to selling it at the time, with almost all the parts still the original components fitted when it was built, and that can really only be attributed to the maintenance regime.

I've sold a few old bikes here back in the day and I'd be pretty sure anyone who's bought them off me would attest to just how well maintained they were, and just how picky I am about condition and upkeep. Here's an advert from an old Fire Mountain I sold 5 years back for buttons, and I wasn't even greedy about it:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52081117

Some folks enjoy the machine just as much as the use of it, and I guess I'm one of those anoraks. But there's no point in trying to teach a bitter old git like myself how to suck lemons now, is there? Especially when it's not even a lemon.

cython

neilboard wrote: »

I used to work in a bike shop for a bit. The thing is when you leave a bike in to get serviced your doing exactly that, a service. The mechanic can't let a bike that isn't 100 percent out the door because if he did and the owner came off it due to mechanical failure the mechanic and store would most likely be up sh1t creek.

A lot of this is actually over cautious rubbish. If a bike shop mechanic/owner is that concerned about it, they could just as easily get the customer to sign a disclaimer saying they were made aware of any issue, and made the decision that they still didn't want it fixed at that time. Sure if you apply your logic to a car going into a garage, you are automatically giving them carte blanche to repair/change whatever they deem necessary, and by Christ that wouldn't stand up if challenged!

petethedrummer

BeardyGit wrote: »

Here's an advert from an old Fire Mountain I sold 5 years back for buttons, and I wasn't even greedy about it:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52081117

Back when you guys were still fwends.

Tallon

Thanks again lads, he actually did quite a bit of work for the money and in the end only charged me €69

Two parts of the gear and a cable needed replacing so it was fine, but you understand why I was hesitant!

Anyway, did I mention that I just got my first road bike? :)

Think I'll go for my first cycle this evening

manwithaplan

For the love of all that is holy, will you lift that saddle up. Now, doesn't that feel better?