Poor standard of bike repairs/mechanics in Dublin.

Smig1985

Hi guys, just wanted to voice a gripe that I have regarding some bike repair shops/mechanics in Dublin. I recently crashed my bike in a sportive and bent the derailleur hanger quite badly. The derailleur itself was functioning relatively well considering the impact and I managed to ride the last 15 km in the two gear options that were available to me at the time! When it came to fixing it I dropped the bike into a repair shop in Dublin 4 and the mechanic did the necessary...or so I thought. The hanger seemed pretty straight to the untrained eye but the shifting was still quite poor. I then used a voucher for a free service that I had in a second shop on the south inner city only for them to tell me that the hanger was still bent and that the poor shifting was caused by my jockey wheels which they assured me were knackered. They also said that if replacing the jockey wheels didn't fix the problem, I would need a new derailleur. Needless to say I was a little p***ed off that the original mechanic hadn't straightened the hanger properly (which I paid him €30 to do) but then to be told that the jockey wheels and potentially the rear derailleur were past their sell by date was even worse, considering the bike is only 9 mths old. I also couldn't fathom how the first mechanic didn't pick up on the jockey wheel problem. Finally, I sought the advice of a third mechanic who told me that my jockey wheels were fine, as was the derailleur, but that my chain was wearing out, and that this was really the root problem of the poor shifting - and obviously had nothing to do with the original crash. So in all, one botched job and two completely different diagnoses was the final outcome. I haven't fitted the new chain yet so I can't discern whether the third mechanic was the only one able to do his job properly but I live in hope! Anyone else had any similar experiences?

Chips Lovell

Par for the course, in my experience. It was one of the reasons why I ended up just teaching myself to do my own work.

There's a handful of very good, talented mechanics out there. The rest seem to have fairly average skills.

Captain Havoc

I also learned to do my own as it could be a while before you see your bike back also. Far cheaper to learn also, there's enough lads out there that'll show you how to do things, not to mention the youtube vids and countless other pages. Haynes and Park Tools do very comprehensive books on bike maintenance.

Lumen

It is very important when doing your own maintenance to know when to stop.

That point is the point at which you're considering using power tools and/or fire.

seamus

If you ever find yourself looking at a tool and then at the bike and thinking, "This will probably work", then stop. Double warning for any tool that you made yourself out of everyday household items, zipties and insulating tape. Just put it down and walk away.

Shop mechanics spend all day building and fixing cheap bikes, with the occassional €1,000 machine thrown in. Unless you hand them a bike worth €3,000 to work on, you can be guaranteed that they won't care about it as much as you do and so will do just do the most basic job required to fix whatever it is you're looking for.

You will spend that extra ten minutes trying to get your shifting exactly right and your wheel dead straight. Your local mechanic will happily give it back to you at 90% right.

Jawgap

I think it's also important - having read from Park's or watched a You Tube video of how to do a repair or upgrade - to not give in to the line of thought that starts with "I've a much better idea........."

funnights74

Before the RoK this year i had my bike serviced by a "reputable" shop in Cork. It is close to me and I've never had any issues with it before. It needed a new cassette and chain so i asked them to give it a service anyway. All seemed fine on the day as i reached the top of Moll's gap i was going to keep going but there was such a crowd there i braked to stop. I heard something falling and the back brakes didn't work at all so i steered to the side and came to a stop. I looked around and saw a brake block on the ground and after checking realized it had come off of my bike.
Luckily for me there was a bike mechanic, van and all parked there, he had come down from Dublin and was looking after a few lads he know doing the ring. I told him, and showed him what had happened and he checked out my bike, he told me the brake blocks had been put on the wrong way around and it was a miracle they had lasted this long into the ring, so he sorted it there for me. It was pure good fortune that the crowds on top of Moll's gap caused me to stop because the thoughts of coming down that mountain with a brake failure is to scary to contemplate, it's tricky enough with brakes.
I have been back to the shop since and told the owner ( in no uncertain terms) what had happened, he was very apologetic and did offer a full service but i declined, i certainly won't be putting my foot in that bike shop again.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I left my 2 month Old bike in for it's first 'free' service yesterday. The chain wasn't seating properly on the large rings at the rear when on the large chain ring at the front and it rattled/grinded constantly when pedalling. I collected the bike yesterday evening and went for a spin last night and I think it's worse now. I rang them and asked if they had even looked at the bike or simply assumed because I kept it clean that it hadnt been used much and never bothered with it. I'm bringing it back tomorrow and making them do it while I'm there and will take it elsewhere in future. Now I'm guessing that adjusting the rear dérailleur is relatively straight forward but I'm disgusted that it wasn't done when I specifically told them about it when I left it in.

ford2600

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j1gSwhsVN8&feature=related

Park tools site good also

CJC999 wrote: »

I left my 2 month Old bike in for it's first 'free' service yesterday. The chain wasn't seating properly on the large rings at the rear when on the large chain ring at the front and it rattled/grinded constantly when pedalling. I collected the bike yesterday evening and went for a spin last night and I think it's worse now. I rang them and asked if they had even looked at the bike or simply assumed because I kept it clean that it hadnt been used much and never bothered with it. I'm bringing it back tomorrow and making them do it while I'm there and will take it elsewhere in future. Now I'm guessing that adjusting the rear dérailleur is relatively straight forward but I'm disgusted that it wasn't done when I specifically told them about it when I left it in.

Wishbone Ash

My biggest gripe is bike mechanics pawing their greasy hands all over my clean bar tape. :mad:

At least car mechanics usually put a cover on the steering wheel and seat.

Hungrycol

Smig1985 wrote: »

Hi guys, just wanted to voice a gripe that I have regarding some bike repair shops/mechanics in Dublin. I recently crashed my bike in a sportive and bent the derailleur hanger quite badly. The derailleur itself was functioning relatively well considering the impact and I managed to ride the last 15 km in the two gear options that were available to me at the time! When it came to fixing it I dropped the bike into a repair shop in Dublin 4 and the mechanic did the necessary...or so I thought. The hanger seemed pretty straight to the untrained eye but the shifting was still quite poor. I then used a voucher for a free service that I had in a second shop on the south inner city only for them to tell me that the hanger was still bent and that the poor shifting was caused by my jockey wheels which they assured me were knackered. They also said that if replacing the jockey wheels didn't fix the problem, I would need a new derailleur. Needless to say I was a little p***ed off that the original mechanic hadn't straightened the hanger properly (which I paid him €30 to do) but then to be told that the jockey wheels and potentially the rear derailleur were past their sell by date was even worse, considering the bike is only 9 mths old. I also couldn't fathom how the first mechanic didn't pick up on the jockey wheel problem. Finally, I sought the advice of a third mechanic who told me that my jockey wheels were fine, as was the derailleur, but that my chain was wearing out, and that this was really the root problem of the poor shifting - and obviously had nothing to do with the original crash. So in all, one botched job and two completely different diagnoses was the final outcome. I haven't fitted the new chain yet so I can't discern whether the third mechanic was the only one able to do his job properly but I live in hope! Anyone else had any similar experiences?

In my expert professional opinion*
Friday afternoon and I can only write in bullet points...
Unlikely to be the chain
Unlikely to be jockey wheels
Likely to be a bent hanger but should be easy to be replaced
Could be a bent chainstay if it took a good clatter
Likley to be a bent jockey wheel cage.
Solution, buy a new hanger and derailleur.

*(professional bike tinkerer opinion)

Oh and in answer to your question yes I have experienced lots of "brakes don't work? it must be you bottle cages" so I do all my own work.

Lemag

CJC999 wrote: »

I left my 2 month Old bike in for it's first 'free' service yesterday. The chain wasn't seating properly on the large rings at the rear when on the large chain ring at the front and it rattled/grinded constantly when pedalling.

I expect that you'll be making a few more trips to the LBS. Google "cross chaining"

Hungrycol

Lemag wrote: »

I expect that you'll be making a few more trips to the LBS. Google "cross chaining"

Buy Di2

colm_gti

Hungrycol wrote: »

Buy Di2

That's a good enough reason to justify it

Cee-Jay-Cee

colm_gti wrote: »

Hungrycol wrote: »

Buy Di2

That's a good enough reason to justify it

The bike is only 2 months old and I don't think upgrading is really needed. I had heard of cross chaining but always assumed it was opposite rings that it referred to ie. large front, smallest rear and vice versa.

My bike has 9spd tiagra and my mates has 9spd Sora yet he can use any combination of cogs and the bike is silent whereas mine sounds terrible in the same gear. His bike is nearly 3 yrs old and used regularly and on the original equipment. I will take on board the cross chaining but I don't believe it should run so rough when using large/large rings (it was my long climbing gear)

kenmc

CJC999 wrote: »

The bike is only 2 months old and I don't think upgrading is really needed. I had heard of cross chaining but always assumed it was opposite rings that it referred to ie. large front, smallest rear and vice versa.

My bike has 9spd tiagra and my mates has 9spd Sora yet he can use any combination of cogs and the bike is silent whereas mine sounds terrible in the same gear. His bike is nearly 3 yrs old and used regularly and on the original equipment. I will take on board the cross chaining but I don't believe it should run so rough when using large/large rings (it was my long climbing gear)

You're cross chaining. It's bad. Large/large and small/small combos are not good.
It's entirely possible that you're on a triple and your mate is on a double, both 9 speed, so he'll get away with it a bit more than you will. He maybe able to trim his front mech a bit better than you can. Nothing to do with the age of the bike.

Cee-Jay-Cee

kenmc wrote: »

CJC999 wrote: »

You're cross chaining. It's bad. Large/large and small/small combos are not good.
It's entirely possible that you're on a triple and your mate is on a double, both 9 speed, so he'll get away with it a bit more than you will. He maybe able to trim his front mech a bit better than you can. Nothing to do with the age of the bike.

No mine is a double as is his, same cassette and same 50/34 front rings the only difference is the shifters/derailleurs

ford2600

Just because you were sold a bike with 18 or 27 gears, doesn't mean should use them all.
There is quite a bit of duplication. Google Sheldon Brown on gear inches.
Keeping your chain in a straight line, as much as possible, will increase chain life and drive train component life.
Cross chaining in "your climbing gear" will keep you busy replacing parts.

CJC999 wrote: »

The bike is only 2 months old and I don't think upgrading is really needed. I had heard of cross chaining but always assumed it was opposite rings that it referred to ie. large front, smallest rear and vice versa.

My bike has 9spd tiagra and my mates has 9spd Sora yet he can use any combination of cogs and the bike is silent whereas mine sounds terrible in the same gear. His bike is nearly 3 yrs old and used regularly and on the original equipment. I will take on board the cross chaining but I don't believe it should run so rough when using large/large rings (it was my long climbing gear)

Chips Lovell

The amount of noise/rub generated by cross chaining will vary depending on a number of factors, in particular the front deraileur angle. Either way, it isn't recommended. Bear in mind too that there's a cross over in the spread of gears available in the big ring and small ring, i.e. you'll be able to find a similar gear by shifting into the small ring and down a few sprockets.

kenmc

CJC999 wrote: »

kenmc wrote: »

No mine is a double as is his, same cassette and same 50/34 front rings the only difference is the shifters/derailleurs and the positions of his limit screws and the tension in his cables and the position of the b-screws and the position of his trim-shift relative to yours

There are several degrees of freedom that you're not considering.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Ok thanks all for that info, I'm fairly new to cycling and do wasn't aware. I'll find a similar gear on the small ring in future for climbing.

Is there anywhere that I can cross reference the gears and see which ones are similar in ratio?

Chips Lovell

The other thing to note is that aside from the noise it generates, cross chaining creating increases the wear and the chain and sprockets. So while your mate may be managing to ride quietly in the big/big combo, he'll go through more chains than you.

ford2600

Sheldon Brown is a good place to start
http://sheldonbrown.com/gearing/index.html

CJC999 wrote: »

Ok thanks all for that info, I'm fairly new to cycling and do wasn't aware. I'll find a similar gear on the small ring in future for climbing.

Is there anywhere that I can cross reference the gears and see which ones are similar in ratio?

skipz

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

My biggest gripe is bike mechanics pawing their greasy hands all over my clean bar tape. :mad:

At least car mechanics usually put a cover on the steering wheel and seat.

Only had my new bar tape on a few days. Got the bike services and it came back looking like Jim Royal's underpants!
Was well pissed off and made them replace the tape as id only bought it from the shop the week before.

I could not believe how much grease was on them and then saying nothing about it when they gave the bike back.

Was'nt a Irish shop btw.

Qualitymark

Converse: I put my bike (unused for a few years) in to a Rathmines bike repair shop to get a new back carrier fitted, and when I got the bike back it had been oiled and tightened up as a standard part of the service.

Smig1985

Yea the bar tape thing is excruciatingly annoying too, can't understand why mechanics have such an aversion to wearing disposable gloves! In response to some of the posters who have encouraged people to work on their own bike, this is OK if you know what you're doing, and to be honest the same thing could be said for people who employ an electrician to re-wire their house, a car mechanic to fix a misfiring engine and a plumber to fix a broken toilet etc etc. These people are trained professionals, or at least they should be, with all the necessary tools to do the job - if everybody knew how to fix everything they owned then these professions wouldn't exist. Bike mechanics (and this goes for all the skilled professions) should be competent enough to do what they are paid to do and should be called to account accordingly when they have done something wrong or displayed inadequate knowledge of the machines from which they make a living. I can just about re-index my gears and tighten my brakes, the usual fundamentals, but I sure as hell have neither the know-how, nor the bike shop tools to fix a bent derailleur hanger, and tbh I don't think I should know how...that's what bike mechanics are for after all!

Lemag

Bike servicing/repairing is dirty work and there are certain tasks which would be infinitely harder to perform with disposable gloves on. Expecting the griptape to be kept clean is unrealistic. If one sees this as an issue then one should sufficiently cover one's bars before handing it over to the LBS. If this should not be done due to there being a need for cables to be accessed, shifters removed, etc. then one should learn to do their own bike maintainance. It ain't rocket science.

Smig1985

Maybe the mechanic should cover the bartape. He's not being paid to dirty my bike, he's being paid to repair it. If he makes a mess he should be expected to clean up after himself like every other professional. There isn't one rule for bike mechanics and another for everyone else, even though a lot of bike heads would argue otherwise. Customer service is all but non-existent in most bike shops and I could probably count on one hand those shops that offer truly great customer service. As for bike maintenance not being 'rocket science', some people need to get a grip. As I said above, lots of bike repairs can be done by the ordinary Joe soap with little knowledge of how bikes work, but for complicated repairs that require a work shop full of tools...need I say more?

DirkVoodoo

Looking after your own bike is no more difficult than changing a light bulb at home or the oil in your car. I really don't think it is comparable to rewiring an entire house and considering that most "regular maintenance" to keep your bike in good condition is of the simple kind, I think the above comment is a bit over the top.

The only complicated jobs on a bike are the ones that require dedicated tools. As most people aren't going to fork out money for something they might only use once or twice, or not have the time to learn a skill they will only use once or twice, it's understandable that they would go to a shop for it.

Unless "get a grip" was a clever pun on what people are claiming their mechanics do too much of, I dunno?

If there were no home mechanics then there would be no Haynes manuals!

reallyunique

There are two distinct parts to the job, assembly/disassembly and diagnostics. The first bit you can probably do yourself with patience, care, the right tools and some video help. The second bit requires some sort of magic, a combination of experience, an open mind and an ability to listen. All of these traits are rare on their own so it's not surprising that most diagnoses fall into the categories of "sure they all do that" or "it's knackered, just replace it".

It's hard to get staff who take care, are patient and interested regardless of the field and bike shops probably find that with mechanics too. It's not rocket science but neither is putting brake pads on a car but I've had a main dealer fail to do that right.

My suggestion is that you just buy a new bike and have done with it