EnigmaPrime

So without mentioning which shop in SF ...

I broke my bottom bracket (spindle) & brought it to my local Bicycle repair shop. He took the pedal arms off pulled the spindle, which was broken & checked inventory, he had a close enough match, informed me it was a couple of mill smaller but would work. I gave him the go ahead, he could fix it there & then without having to order the part so I could walk out with my bike in about 30 mins.

After repairing the part I took my bike into get repaired, he took it on himself without telling me to adjust part of my rear Derailleur at which point a piece broke off.

He came over & tried to explain that it was bent & was probably hitting my spokes & was just trying to do me a favor.


Been ridding this bike for a couple of years & I just had the chain & front crank replaced not 3 months ago along with a tuneup! I would have felt/heard or noticed something hitting my back spokes I think any rider who has ridden for almost twenty years to work would have.


He explained that this piece was designed to break <<< ???? First I have heard of this, parts designed to break on a bike.


He then said we don't have this part in stock & would take a couple of days to get in.

Since I had no choice he goes online & finds the part & tells me it would take about 2 days to get in & I could leave my bike in the shop until it arrives,

I was instructed to pay a deposit which I assumed was for the initial work, approx $70 but to my amazement I noticed a charge for the part he broke plus an installation fee on top of that, ontop of the $70 charge. Deposit was $25

I left my bike ion the shop & left.


Its been over a week now costing me money in cabs to get to & from work, bare in mind I work nights & waiting for an owl is not an option. I work six days a week & each ride cost approx $12 to & from work, you do the math!


My question, should I have to pay for the mechanics mistake?

smashndash

The part he is referring to is the derailleur hanger. It's an aluminum part between your frame and your derailleur. If your bike falls over, the hanger will bend rather than breaking/bending the frame or derailleur.

It's questionable whether you should have to pay for the broken hanger. It depends mainly on whether your hanger was actually bent (severely) when you brought it in. If you had been riding it with no shifting problems or spoke ticking, then it's unlikely. If your hanger was less severely bent then he probably should not have touched it without ensuring that it was actually causing issues (as opposed to "probably").

That's my 2˘. Good luck OP.

woodcraft

More of an issue is why the bottom bracket spindle broke (!) 3 months after having the crank replaced.

Also odd that after 20 yrs riding, you haven't heard of a derailleur hanger.

Sounds like the mechanic was competent & trying to a good job for you. I would pay & not sweat it.

cpach

Best practices would be to inform you that your hanger was bent, and offer to align it with the warning that there is some possibility that it may break and require replacement at your cost, but honestly this is also in the stuff happens category, and it sounds like the mechanic was trying to do some free labor to get your bike to a safe rideable condition. Derailleur hangers are pretty easy to bend and do so often, and when they bend inwards to the wheel they represent a legitimate safety concern, so regardless the correct thing to do mechanically was to try to align the hanger, and replace it if necessary. Professional mechanics align hangers multiple times a day and it's uncommon but not rare that they break when only modestly bent. There are hundreds of different hanger designs and most shops make an earnest effort to have most of the ones they expect to see in stock, but needing to order replacements is commonplace even in extremely well stocked shops.

CliffordK

Actually, there are probably only about 20 or 30 different derailleur hanger designs. So, a good shop should have stocked all of the hangers, or most of the hangers.

A replacement bottom bracket spindle should always require adjusting the front derailleur, especially if it is not an exact match. And, a competent mechanic should adjust the rear derailleur at the same time the front is adjusted.

I have to think that the hanger was probably actually bent, or maybe even cracked before the repair was initiated. And, the OP, with the years of experience riding, may not have been that familiar with the hangers being straight or bent due to being unaware of them.

However, some manufacturers actually recommend NOT bending the derailleur hangers to straighten them.

Nonetheless, if the customer is sitting in the waiting room, or browsing around the shop, it wouldn't have taken much to holler from the back of the shop that new issues have been found, and would the customer like to continue.

As far as the remedy:

• Cost of the part. Tossup of who should pay. A new hanger is probably only $5 to $20, and less than the cost of labor already paid.
• Cost of labor to install the new hanger. It should only take about 5 minutes to install, and a couple more minutes to adjust the derailleur, if good quality parts are acquired. I'd expect this to be thrown in for free.
• Taxi service. That is on the customer. However, a good shop might have loaner or rental bikes, especially for the bike commuters. You may have to ask.

cpach

The current whees mfg hanger chart shows 278 different hangers: https://wheelsmfg.com/derailleur-han...all-chart.html . I have run into a number of cases where wheels mfg did not make the needed hanger and it had to be ordered from somewhere else, usually the frame manufacturer. Full suspension mountain bikes sometimes integrate the hanger into the frame fitting for the thru axle and this has really exploded the number of hangers--wheels mfg doesn't make most of these.

fietsbob

Any scratches on the RD is an indication you bent the hanger ,
probably in a fall or dropping the bike on the drive side..

offer us pictures ?

exmechanic89

A spare bike would do wonders in this situation. You could pick up something on CL that would work well for under $100 I bet. I'd get one for the future.

As far as the bike damage goes, it's hard to judge. Do you trust that mechanic from past work? If so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. That's what I'd do anyway.

CliffordK

A good chunk of the derailleur hangers fall in these 15 or so offered by multiple Chinese vendors on E-Bay for dirt cheap.



I think Wheels MFG sells machined hangers, while the cheap Chinese ones are cast. That means the Wheels MFG hangers are more expensive, but cut to higher tolerances. And, apparently quite a few new ones are now available. Thus, if the frame is good, then installation should be quick and clean.

I've had issues with the Cast hangers wobbling a bit, and requiring a bit of filing to get them to fit well, but haven't been convinced that is only an issue with the hanger, and not an issue with both the frame and hanger.

cbrstar

To me it's a kinda a scam. It's no different then taking your car into a shop for a tune up and they suddenly replace your transmission without letting you know first. To me the bike shop should sell the hanger at cost without charging him shop time.

u235

I'm on the fence. Yes a derailuer hanger can easily break and could have happened at any time but... Without asking or by chance maybe I'd expect better service or a compromise if it was not mentioned. I do 99.9 percent of my own work but I've been on trips and have had work done. A hanger replacement is quick and easy and as a DIY should be about $15, I have NO idea about shop prices. Sucks they don't have one. A lot of the cost of service is the experts time and experieince with diagnosis, troubleshooting, and stocking parts, this is for more than just bike repair. Little of that really applys here so something closer to parts cost should be the charge here in my opinion. I have a spare hangers for my bikes and carry them on longer path less traveled routes and trails for that exact reason. If you didn't have shifting problems prior which you would have noticed with a bent hanger like upshifting or down shifting fine but the other way isn't or top or bottom gears fine but opposite are not, maybe something got messed up with your hanger in the crossfire when your spindle broke. I'd actually be more worried about why that spindle broke.

andrewclaus

I see a lot of bent hangers on donated bikes. The cost of a new hanger would exceed the value of the bike in many cases, so we just don't buy new ones. We have a pretty good box full of salvaged hangers, but I've never gotten a match.

I generally do not try to straighten a badly bent aluminum hanger while on the bike--I remove it and work it in the vise and on the anvil. I saw a colleague trying to straighten one on the bike, and I cautioned him not to do that, it'll break. When it broke, we laughed and he asked me how I knew that would happen. I guess I've broken enough aluminum pieces to have a feel for it. Your mechanic did not have that experience.

I agree you may not have been happy with the bike had he not attempted the adjustment.

We don't know the circumstances around the broken spindle (which I've never seen happen), Is it possible the hanger bent in the same event? Or shortly after? Even transporting a bike in a vehicle can bend a hanger.

And the mechanic is right about the hanger being meant to break, sort of like a fuse. It's (usually) better than the old ones that would break off the steel frame.