Originally Posted by
Raleigh71
Thanks for the info.
Actually the wheel was $50 for everything including tax, and including putting my freehub and tire on the new wheel. The new wheel had a low-end Weinmann alloy rim with a low-end Shimano Hub. The bike was a Miyata hybrid maybe worth $85 tops.
Of course the axle on the new wheel was about a cm too short and the locknut-to-locknut distance (135 mm dropouot distance) was way different from the first wheel I was replacing (that he had in his posession) to measure everything off of. So there's the added expense now of the longer axle and a few spacers. I'll do it myself and it will get done right. No big deal since the cones were set too tight too. And of course I'll remount the tube so the Presta valve is perpendicular to the rim rather than on a 70' angle.
I had forgotten why I do 99+% of my own bike maintenance.
I'm a medical professional and we function at a higher quality assurance level than these folks it seens.
Probably has nothing to do with quality standards and a lot more to do with communication. Yeah - it probably would have cost about $60 in labor just to respoke your damaged rim onto your old hub and instead you got a new rim, hub and spokes, had your freewheel and tire transferred and walked away with a bill of $50.
I'd say he did you a favor and probably only made $15 in the process.
Your axle problems are a little unusual since there are a limited number of axle widths, but neither spoke tension nor bearing adjustments are normally reset on prebuilt wheels unless requested. And on a machine built wheel neither are optimal. But the price is all that most consumers are interested in. If you're a different case and qualiy is more of an issue than money - please - SAY THAT UP FRONT! I'm sure any shop will be glad to give you special treatment!
However, if there were any real issues with the axle size, it would have made more sense to check and resolve that in the shop rather than in a forum after the original has hit the recycling bin. Again- the shop needs to know up front. If there was a real difference in axle width the simplest solution would obviously have been to simply swap the axles for the old one while it was still there.