tclune

Thanks for the correction.

Wileyrat

I'm in the do it all myself camp.

I recently told my wife I was thinking about taking my CF bike to a shop to have my PF30 bottom bracket bearings replaced, which I've never done myself. She looked at my like I'd lost my mind, and asked me how much the tools would be. When I told her about the same either way, she said buy the tools, because you'll never be happy with what they did.

She knows.

duffer1960

I got started in the hobby of doing my own repairs by a completely botched repair from a well-known LBS chain here. I asked for a full overhaul of a Motobecane Grand Jubile that had been hanging in a garage for over 30 years. Looked like it hadn't been ridden 100 miles. It needed fresh grease and tightening the spokes. They charged me for a full overhaul, but I later discovered they'd not done most of the work, and the work they had done was done very poorly. Oh, and having me come to the shop twice and then telling me 'oh, sorry, we're not done yet, call again in a few days'. Then, the shop owner refused to give me a refund. Never again. I should have entered a complaint to small claims court.

DanBraden

I'm thrifty and the ol' self reliance chestnut keeps me away from mechanics for the most part. However, at the Performance locations I've been to around here, the mechanics are SUPER helpful and friendly. Case in point, bought some pedals, took em home and then Franken-fritz decides that the pedals he's wearing are just fine... Well, have you ever tried to get a grumpy kid to take off their shoes?

So, after many barked knuckles, whacks with a mallet and bending the tines on my Park Tool pedal wrench (yeah, you read that right), Fritz and I rode back up to the bike shop where I sheepishly presented the new pedals and said "I just got these here and tried to install them but I can't remove my old pedals..."
The mechanic stopped what he was doing (it was close to closing time) and invited me back there to have a look. So I hefted Fritz on the stand and he started trying to remove the pedals himself. They wouldn't BUDGE! So I lent a hand and between the two of us the damn things FINALLY came off!

Then he lubed the "upgrades" and installed them lickety-split!

So what was the problem? Beat the hell out of us, they weren't cross threaded or rusted, just seized up...

Didn't charge me a dime for the labor, but I gave him $10 anyway.

junkman71

I only use my LBS to have my wheels trued... rest I do myself

Miele Man

Bicycle repair shops are just like bicycles = there are lots of them and they are often very different from each other.

A number of years ago I bought fenders, a new chain and two tires at not so local bicycle shop. Since I was riding a bicycle and didn't want to carry that stuff home i paid them to do the installation. They cut too many links off the new chain such that it could not shift to the big chainring big cog combination, the fender was attached the rear brake bridge by a section of pipe strap, and the front tire was installed such that it pinched the tube, the tires were NOT inflated to the proper recommended pressure and the front tire blew off the rim when the tire was inflated to a higher but still lower than top recommended pressure by me later.

Another time that same shop owner stayed late to fix a bicycle for my sister who was heading back to her home (via car) 500 kilometers away.

Sometimes it's a real miss with a shop and sometimes it's a hit with them. Other shops like the closest one to me won't quote you a repair price but tell you that it's X# of dollars per hour but then can't estimate what the time for the repair will be.

Cheers

pandes

Loving this thread! sub'd

livedarklions

Gawd, you're picky!

Seriously, did you complain and did they do anything to make any of that right? That's almost willful sabotage, especially the chain, where they worked harder to do it wrong.