Yes, a qualified mechanic worth his salt, should have been better able to have fixed the bike. But we're talking bicycle mechanics here, not aircraft mechanics. We're talking people who have little or no qualifications.

From my experience, a particular bicycle mechanic might have a couple tricks up up his sleeve to solve a problem. When he has exhausted those possibilities ... he doesn't have any other ideas and loses interest. The next bicycle mechanic, however, might have a couple different tricks up his sleeve. We, unfortunately, have to keep going to different ones until we hit one with the right solution.