deaonerox

I normally search forums for similar topics before I start a new thread in case my question has already been asked and answered. But can you imagine what would happen if I searched "LBS".

The short version: My LBS out and out lied to me about needing a new wheel. Intrigued? Really wanna read another bad LBS experience? If not, skip to last paragraph. For those who appreciate the picture that words help to create, please continue:

I'm relatively new to biking; but not new to this planet. I know how and like to do research. So if I don't know how to do something, I study it. I'm pretty satsified with my working knowledge of bicycles and riding and can hold a decent conversation with about it with my peers. Which is the reason this particualr incident pissed me off so much.

Last week I bought a Univega ss/fixie. Velocity Deep V Wheelset (w/green hubs ). Continental tires. Decent components. I like *ahem* love my recent purchase. I'm not fixed gear strong yet, but give me time.

I stopped into one of the six LBS in my immediate area to have my seat adjusted. The bike shop guy compliments me on the bike and asks me how much it costs. *RED FLAG?* I paused. For a long time. OK, so now we're going to play the "you paid too much game". Well, I paid $370.

Bikes are like tattoos (of which I have several), somebody always knows where to get it cheaper, but do you really want that?

Of course, he scoffs at me saying I paid about $70 too much. Whether its true or not, I don't know, nor do I really care. I guess I'm one of the few people who don't mind paying for what I want.

So, LBS guy asks me if he can take look over it. Sure, knock your socks off. After more than twenty minutes on the good ol' truing wheel, LBS guy tells me that my wheel has irreparable damage. IRREPARBLE! he says. My furrowed brows pordded him to further his explanation. Now, imagine if there were a universal symbol for a pinball ricocheting inside a pinball machine. LBS guy did this while making strange rocketship-type noises that I can't really describe. It's the rim. It's shot. No use replacing it! he says. Its not even worth it! Where? I wanted to know. How serious? What were my options? I asked him questions, but I kept getting these vague, nebulous answers. dents! dings! bumps! bends! Sometimes even a blank uncomfortable stare, which caused me to ask more questions and sound even more foolish.

Because I didn't think I should pay for a *good* wheel after being told the bike was in great mechanical shape, I get the idea to call the guy who sold me my bike and demand to be recompensed. So, I tell LBS guy that I was going to call the guy who sold this *bad bike* and make him take me to the LBS whohe supplies his bikes to and get me a *good* wheel. That's right, I'll show him!

Why had I not gotten a second opinion, that day? A few days later, I wisened up and had three seperate professionals who have nothing at stake to take a look at the wheel. One of which was a bike mechanic who came along with his girlfriend to buy my old Schwinn from me. None of them found anything major.

I am so angry that this LBS guy really intended on screwing me over. Doesn't he know who I am? Is this what I'm sppose to expect? This is not OPEC. I should be able to enter an LBS without contemputous, deceitful clerks, I'd think? I'm half a second from going back over there, giving him a piece of my mind, and fixing him good *shakes fist in the air*. Or I should just let it ride (Ha. No pun intended) and share this with anybody who'll listen because not going back to buy what I would later find out to be a ridiculously over-priced *good* wheel from him is all the satisfaction I need.

deaonerox

Oh, yeah. He didn't charge me for the wheel inspection

Retro Grouch 

Do you get that a lot?

JoelS

I'd go back over there, find out his name, and have a chat with his boss. What he did isn't cool.

deaonerox

Nah. I don't get it a lot. If I did, this wouldn't be anything more than, what I would have expected. I think he did it cuz imma girl and if I paid more than what he though I should have for the bike. He could sucker me for some more loot.

aubinmg

Seems to me you should tell us all the name of the shop and the mechanic's name. Then prospective customers will know what to expect.

deaonerox

Well, it's in Chicago off Milwaukee Ave. That's all I'll say unless someone asks specifically.

And to be fair: I stopped into one last place and the mechanic showed me a hop, that he promptly knocked out and I was on my way. So, yeah, there is some damage but evidently, faaar from being IRREPARABLE. Stupid jerky LBS guy.

caloso

That's weird. Deep V's are known to be pretty bombproof. Aren't they the rim of choice for tandems? Definitely uncool.

roadfix

Never walk into a bike shop to get your seat adjusted. Have your wife, gf, or your next door neighbor do that for ya.

john bono

I'm 290 and have ridden, loaded, on 36 spoke deep Vs, and they've held up fine. And I've even hit a pothole or three.

caloso

How about the Senior Senator from Idaho?

Bill Kapaun

" I stopped into one of the six LBS in my immediate area to have my seat adjusted."

Makes me wonder about the rest of the story, since no details were given about what was supposed to be wrong with the wheel.

deaonerox

Don't know what this is spposed to mean, but had I been given details, they would have been posted.

And, yes, roadfix, you're right. I have a flyer for a mechanics class that I'll be in by the weekend.

would any wheel be subject to hops if riding on a tire that's under inflated?

GRedner

I popped a spoke once when I was brand new to cycling and didn't know my seatpost from a hole in the ground. I felt a pop, saw that the wheel was wobbly, and took it to a shop. I told the guy my wheel was wobbling. He didn't even look at it: "Yeah?"

I said, "So...what can be done to fix it?"

He said, "I dunno, maybe a new wheel?"

*long pause*

I walked out and went to the next-nearest-shop, where they actually *looked* at the wheel, and ten minutes later I rolled out slightly wiser, and with a new spoke installed.

I think the morals of both our stories are:

1) There are crooks in every business.
2) If it sounds fishy, it probably is.
3) Get a second (third, fourth) opinion.

deaonerox

How wondefully succinct.

InTheTrenches

How is asking the paying price a red flag? Do you base this on many years of experience in purchasing used items and then taking them in for free adjustement at the place you did not buy them from? Maybe you should have gone back to the guy you bought the bike from for some free adjustment. You didn't pay for the twenty minutes of truing, which might have not been worth much. If your deep V has a hop then it pretty much has a hop for life(unless it is spread over a half dozen spokes, they don't get hops, they get tweaked)

For what it is worth, the " I'm a girl so they were going to gig me for some extra $$" Is pure BS. Aside from the fact that most girls will push the girl power to get stuff done for free, Bike shop mechanics spend almost all their hours, sleeping, working, and riding(This means limited girl interaction for the idiots). They are not going to screw their chances with a girl that actually rides a bike by jerking her around on a repair that might increase the lead mechanics salary by $1 for the month.

deaonerox

Uhmm, relax cowboy. Number one, you're missing the point, but I'll reiterate: the dude lied to me and was evading my questions. I didn't like his attitude. And certainly didn't appreciate that he wasn't giving me any facts, but rather super vague doubletalk, which to me is nothing more than speculation and supposition since it wasn't based on any substantiated evidence.

Numero dos, perhaps you missed the "?" after my red flag. I don't think its appropriate to ask people how much they paid for things. But, maybe, juuuust maybe, there was a sliver of a chance that I made an incorrect deduction. That was the purpose of the question mark. You don't ask anyone how much they paid for their car or how much their rent is. It's tacky and irrelevant. And somehow, money encourages people to judge each other and I didn't want to be judged based on what he thought was the acceptable price of my cycle and what I paid. People draw conclusions based on this all.the.time.

And, since you're so quick to draw conclusions without having the facts, you should know this fact: I have no problem paying for any service I receive. I didn't stroll in the shop looking for a freebie. I asked him how much I owed him, he told me nothing. I didn't ask him to check my bike out. He asked me.

et trois: I am not most girls, but I'll forgive your ignorance, since we are not familiar with one another. Do you mind showing me where my girl power button is because I don't have a clue. So just as blatantly lame as it may have been for me to pull the gender card and make a blanket statement like that to express my sentiment that I was being screwed cuz I'm a girl, so too is your comment for believing that girls get things cuz they're girls. Talk about BS. You may not assume that I am anyone you have ever met. Because I am far from it. The interesting thing about being a minority is that you never forget you're a minority. So sometimes you may chalk things up to that because you really can't see any other justification for other people's unacceptable behavior.

And now "InTheTrenches", I am going to finish cooking my delicious penne pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.

TalkingHead

you can cut the ego's in this thread with a butter knife.

deaonerox

Me? Yeah. I didn't wanna be an ego maniac, but Trenches made me do it. But I do hold myself in very high regard.

IronMac

On a $370 bike? Maybe if that "bike" consisted of two wheels...

rogerstg

What the guy did to you was wrong, yet fairly common in many mechanical service industries. However, since you need to have an LBS adjust your seat, I suspect that your satisfaction with your working knowledge of bicycles is unwarranted.

You'd be less of a target if you learned to do some of the simple adjustments yourself.

Ride well,
Roger

deaonerox

This is my first bike and I don't have any tools. But, I did find a bike shop that has Open Shop on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I went last night. After flipping my wheel over on a real-live bike stand, I'm headed out to get a wrench set when I get off work.

cachehiker

He may just have been a socially inept moron who isn't half as good at truing wheels as he thinks he is and who wasn't actually trying to rip you off. There are five LBS's in my area and amongst the two dozen mechanics, there are only a few that I will trust with my wheels. There are also a couple that I wouldn't trust to lube my chain.

I've put a good hop in about four wheels, two of which were supposed to be bombproof. Of the two, one was because of underinflation and one was due a lack of experience building wheels (undertensioned). All were irreparable if you equate that to "can't be made as perfectly round and true as it once was." None were dangerous and I rode both for a year or two but I eventually did a lace over with a new rim to take the hop out of the badly built one. It was nothing more than an aesthetic distraction on an otherwise beautifully spec'ed touring bike.

rando

guy was a crook or incompetent. or both!

Banzai

9 out of 10 LBSs are Not Good.

They don't fit, they don't have answers, they don't know anything outside of a very narrow product window.

Now the 1 out of 10 that is great...once you find that rare shop, frequent it often.

Funny thing is, most newbies are happiest with the bad LBSs. They don't want shops turning a "mere" bike into a complicated and nuanced purchase. They WANT the shop that will bag them up a product in under 5 minutes, with no thought required on their part.

So, I guess 9 out of 10 LBSs know their target market.