I took their advanced class last February. The folks at the bike store know me pretty well (the Winter tires and the Generator hub light gets lots of attention whenever I show up). They having some fun with me by giving me a hard time about my dirty chain. I brought a long a new chain and cassette so why would I clean the old one. There was a good variety of bike being brought in everything from a fairly new higher end Time CF road bike to an older Panasolic touring bike. The instructor is also one of manager of the local chain and took the time to show us not just how to take our bike appart, but the difference in the various components over time and the differences between the various brands of switchgear. We had a great time. As we started working on the wheels I actually had a spoke pop... good timeing, they put on a new spoke for free. I also had two of the little "J" channels for my V-brakes get quite rusty after 2 years of winter use, they also gave me some replacements for free. They were very cool about helping us not only get our bikes 100% appart, but ensure that we got them back together and fix any little problems along the way. The class was supposted to run for 6 hours, but we ended up taking 8 hours as we had a larger group than normal (8 vs. 6). For $125, I got the new Park Repair manual, the use of the shop's tools and assistance from their techs, andl new shifter and brake cables. As a side bonus they brought in food. Not a bad deal. I knew how to do most of the things we did on the bike already, but it is nice to learn from other tech the little things that make the job go easier. I highly recommend to anyone that likes to tinker to take one of these classes. As with the OP and myself, you might just get luck and have a part fail right during the class rather than out on the road.
Happy riding,
André