that's the thing, bike work is expensive, it certianly should be and it's certianly usually worth it(not always but that's another story) for the kind of work you were talking about on her bike it would certainly be worth it. the problem lies in the fact that people think of thier bikes as indestructable and things that don't need to be maintained. her look was probably shock, it's rough but having worked for a custom one off t-shirt business i've learned you have to learn to brush off sticker shock