Originally Posted by
Pavol Stromcek
I don't know, I think that's extremely unlikely. The chain was making a strange popping sound from the time I began riding, so I honestly think something was amiss from the get go. I thought it might have been a stiff link or something, so I kept riding another block or so to see if I could figure it out or if it would go away. Then the chain froze for a second, I eased up on the pedals, the chain moved again, I pedaled a bit more, then I shifted gears, and a few pedals later - bam.
That's a pretty important detail you left out of the first post. The shop can say that you should have stopped and determined what the problem was before continuing on riding. It does sound as though there is a good chance that the chain was coming apart at that point and shifting put enough sideways stress on it to make the link come apart but still, not absolute proof, could have been something else. Was it just popping or was it skipping as well? No matter how good any mechanic is mistakes can happen. So if you've been happy with this shop I see no reason not to continue using them if you end up coming to an agreement about the fix of your bike. Changing your own chain is something most can learn and takes much less time than driving to a shop to drop off and pick up your bike not to mention however many days you have to leave it there. You basically just need to get a chain tool, remove excess links from new chain, install chain with a quick link (available separately if not included with your chain) and you're done.