edgamar

Thanks. I might give it a try. My only concern would be the front derailleur and the cables from the shifters.

roadwarrior

The fitter should have given him a sheet with all his dimensions on it. This should not have been an issue.

roadwarrior

If you have a fitting done and do not mark things like the seatpost, well I just don't get it.

Also, why didn't you get a sheet with your measurements? Shops that do fittings keep that information. At least the ones I know.

Things get out of whack for a lot of reasons. I check all the moveable measurements periodically. But I have my seat post marked so if (as I did recently) change my seat I am not guessing.

roadwarrior

BTW...it makes no sense for any business (who employs people with functioning brains) in this day to try to hide behind bad service. There are too many social media sites (like Angie's List for example) where people can hammer businesses where they get bad service. We monitor all those sites like a hawk. Any bad feedback, the customer gets contacted to learn exactly what occurred. The better sites, like Angie's List make the reviewer's information available and they (Angie's List) have a delay on the report to ensure it was accurate, so the provider gets a chance to see what was said.

But there are the snarky types trying to get free stuff who go to other places, anonymously. Stunning. But it does occur occasionally.

There is too much at stake for a business to not function effectively because there are too many places to hammer them.

At least out here people seem to use some discretion on naming names. And you have to be careful what you say because if it is not 100% accurate (like you let your adrenal gland get the best of you and embellish the story), a lot of larger shops do monitor this and other sites.

Too bad all this happened. Glad to hear it is being made right.

cderalow

quick wrap of cling film (saran wrap) works better and doesn't leave a sticky residue. I keep a roll in my car tool box to wrap steering wheels, door handles and shifters whenever I'm doing something messy

BoSoxYacht

The first bike shop I worked at did this(30 years ago). Since then I've done it at every shop I've worked at.

PaulRivers

Edit: Though I edited this, see post below.

GoHorhay

FYI, I picked up the bike over the weekend. All work was complete and their lead mechanic (different guy from original issue) took the time to review all the changes. Front and rear derailleurs were installed, new chain and new big chain ring. The new grip tape was wrapped when I picked it up and the saddle was raised to the original markings on the seat post.

I had a good ride on Sunday and the shifting was quiet, smooth and flawless. All in all Performance stepped up and made the best of a very bad situation. Hopefully, the shop will also take this experience and make some changes to the way they perform and deliver their completed work.

I can't think of a circumstance where I will take my bike to that shop again but I would be happy to spend my money there buying accessories, supplies, etc. Thanks to the store manager and lead mechanic for turning this around and (hopefully) ending this nightmare!

PaulRivers

I guess you don't get it, and it sounds like you haven't worked with getting a fitting right.

People like my mom who only ride sometimes shouldn't have their seat moved up and down because they won't even realize what changed. They'll just know that suddenly their bike isn't as nice to ride.

People like me who got fittings end up tweaking seat height, and there's no way I've found to mark a seat height in a way that survives lowering the seat, but the marking can be removed if you settle on a different seat height.

I've thought it was pretty cool when I see seatposts that have measurements embedded onto them, so you can just write down the measurement. But even those seem to have a reputation for the markings to wear off over time if you move your seatpost up and down much.

PaulRivers

Good to hear! If it was me though, I'd ask for the lead mechanics name. I'd feel a little bad not wanting to go there again if they bent over backwards to fix your problem and did a good job of fixing. I'd ask specifically for that guy to work on it any next times I brought it in.

GoHorhay

I do have his name and would recommend him. I'm trying not to identify the location of the Performance shop by naming names. I'm going to try and tackle some of these issues myself moving forward so I hope to avoid situations like these period. If I do get in a bind, I will probably go to a Specialized shop.

roadwarrior

As far as not getting it...I used to ride as my job. I do fittings. To mark a seatpost I can put a little nail polish on the seat post, in the front where I can easily see it.

Further, I have (for my seat currently) the measurement from the top of the seat to my current pedals. If I changed pedals (different stack) I may need to recheck my seat. Same goes with shoes. You may not want to get that picky, I do because I have only ridden fitted and custom bikes since I was a kid. Not bragging, I am just using that as an indicator that allows me to set up different bikes that same way.

I own several bikes, from a couple of different manufacturers and not everything is the same. Same for my cleats. I have nine sets of bike shoes and every cleat on every shoe is exactly in the same place.

It is possible to know how to set this stuff up. And further, you should be getting a sheet with your measurements that looks similar to a geometry chart like you'd see on any bike manufacturer's site, just with your numbers.

An on my Mom's bike, I took a little nail polish and marked her seat post height as she wanted me to replace her seat. It was not a problem.

My seat needs to be 100.2cm from the pedal, max extension (crank parallel to the seat tube). That is with my current pedals and shoes (soles are the same thickness). I use the same pedals on all my bikes.

Trust me, I do fully understand this.

roadwarrior

That also works for the customer that has to have a pristine bike and cannot live with a small nail polish mark on their seat post. Tape works, and a wipe like you'd sue to clean your hands takes off the horrendous residue.

magbike

Was this in the OC? Tustin or aliso? I know you don't want to, but it helps the community out a lot.

GoHorhay

Since they did resolve the issue and bent over backwards in doing so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to say that this was the Performance Shop in Tustin. The store manager and lead mechanic are both excellent.

Leinster

Put the marking a set distance above the top of the seat tube. Say, 5cm/2 inches, or the width of something standard that will always be lying around your workshop, like a cleat, or 2 or 3 chain links. Using offset measurements is standard in construction and surveying, as long as you make sure you know the relation between your label and your benchmark.

roadandmountain

What in god's name possessed you to take your nice bike to a performance shop for....repairs?!?!? On a whim? That's a major brainfart right there.

I kinda sorta get your righteous indignation about the crappy mechanical work, but you have to question your own thought process if you decide to take it to a performance for ANY mechanical work.

PaulRivers

I don't think what you wrote addresses what I wrote above. Your nail polish is going to get rubbed right off the post the moment the seat is lowered (which was the actual problem from above). It's also not particularly easy to remove when you're trying out different seat heights, and nail polish remover now might remove some of the paint from the seat post or the bike frame. It's not easy to set up a bike with the measurements given as they're fairy nebulous - where is the exact center of the seat? Was the measuring tape straight to the seat, or was it at an angle so it leaned over to the seat? Etc. A millimeter or two makes a big difference in the seat height.

It's not impossible to measure your seat height with a ruler, but it's even more possible for the bike shop to simply not screw up the seat height to begin with. Unless they're replacing the seat or the seat post, they just shouldn't be changing the seat height.

PaulRivers

Well that doesn't help if the seat is lowered completely. We're not talking about a situation where you're the only person changing it, we're talking about a situation where some guy you don't know decides to move the seat around.

Leinster

Ok, Paul, you're right. There's absolutely no way to record where a seatpost used to be once it has been moved. Might as well forget the whole thing and do it by guessing.

bt

"nightmare"...lol

PaulRivers

The debate isn't over whether it can or can't be done - marking the seatpost doesn't work reliably if you lower the seatpost, but you can measure the amount of exposed seatpost with a small tape measure (or cloth tape measure) like this -


A lot of times the seat post has a fixed line you can't lower it below on it like this -




If you think to yourself "someone is going to screw up my seat height", you could do it beforehand, but that doesn't change how extremely annoying it is when a bike shop moves it around when they don't need to and you didn't expect that they would. You might have paid for a fitting and not expect you will have to move it, or you might be like my mother who just likes it where it is and has no idea what the measured height is or even that it changed - just suddenly she's having knee problems and doesn't know why.

magbike

I go there as well. The lead mechanic is excellent, although sometimes I find he is too dismissive of our well researched online opinions. I believe practical experience counts for a lot more, but careful research should also be Considered. I still like him though :-) thanks for the info, it means a lot that they were willing to step up and resolve their conflict.