Originally Posted by TugaDude

I think it is just a fact of life that bike shops no longer do a lot of the things they used to do for free or for a pittance. Many shops used to offer "free" lifetime tune ups. Honestly, I don't know how they could do it back then and I know they couldn't today. Many of the local shops began going to a maintenance plan, offered at an extra cost when you bought a bike through their shop. For a set price you could get "lifetime" services, with limits, of course. And that was just for services, any materials or components were additional.

I do all of my own wrenching, like most here, but I did go onto a couple of local shop's websites to check to see what they are offering. The price for a basic tune up seems to hover around $80.00 and includes wheel truing, adjusting brakes, bearings, shifting, etc. Just the basic stuff. They also check for worn components, etc. Any cables, housing, or other hardware is extra.

The only way a shop could possibly justify offering any kind of free service would be to count on selling you replacement parts. Otherwise, the margin on the original sale just doesn't allow for the stuff they used to do.