Originally Posted by
Dan Burkhart
I've seen worse examples of non lubed parts from the mfgr. I've had small kids bikes come through with no grease in the headsets or bottom brackets. I mean, none, zip, nada, totally dry and shiny. The wheels always had some grease in the bearings, but usually not enough.
It's one reason I tried to keep the margin high on those bikes, and did not actively market them. It does not pay for your time to do all the dealer prep they require to be a properly functioning machine.
It is a tough industry no doubt, margins are already low mixed with having to put a large amount of labor on top of most sales and then people try to beat you down on price. Most industries it seems you buy something mark it up 50% and throw it on a shelf, and they do all the shopping on their own with little time invested in each customer.. In the bike world you buy something, spend an hour plus assembling/adjusting it, talk to a customer for 2 hours and sell it for 30% more than you paid for it. Trying to balance between diving into a bike as far as you want on assembly and spending what could be considered a reasonable amount of time on a bike can be a tough act. Most bikes we assemble get all the bearings adjusted (hubs especially are always way too tight), all bolts tightened, hanger aligned, etc but we never open up bearings or pull cranks unless it looks or sounds like their may be a problem.