Bike tuneups
 

For one who doesn't do it himself,what should be offered on a $50 start the season bike tuneup?Also is $50 a reasonable price?

I'd say that's in the ball park pricewise. They should check, lubricate and adjust the derailleurs, and brakes,check the headset, and adjust if necessary. Check, clean and lube the chain. Check the tires. Check all the parts with bearings.

If you need new parts, that would be in addition to the $50.

I personally feel it would be worth the $50 just to watch them do EVERYTHING in that list of Merlin's. I have been riding on centuries when the RD [cable] had stretched enough that it didn't shift smooth anymore... and because I understood the behavior of the cabling, I was able to make an adjustment [on the down tube barrels] precisely and quickly while still riding to eliminate the problem. Also, lubing a chain should not cost money... nor should checking tires... perhaps the headset and chain wear, but other than that... watch em' do it, and copy them. [when you do it wrong just take it back in and have them fix it... and consider it tuition]

^ Agree. See if they also check the bottom bracket to crank interface and check the bottom bracket tightness. This service should be ~ 45 minutes of work tops. Some shops also clean the bike by wiping down quickly, but in my mind this is the owner's responsiblity.

Disclaimer, though. I don't bring my bikes to shops, I've just read and heard when visiting shops to buy the odd part or tube...

PG

What Merlin said. Anything done a $50 tune up you should be able to do yourself. Anyone with a little common sense is more than capable of checking tires, cleaning the chain, lubing the derailleurs and adjusting the brakes (you should be doing this on a regular basis anyway). There are countless videos on Youtube to show you how. If your bike is running just fine, it probably doesn't even need a tune up. Now, if your bike is a few years old, it might be worth it to spend a couple hundred to get a full overhaul where they disassemble the cranks and headset and really give the bike at total refresh. The cheap tunes just seem like a waste of money, especially if everything is working properly.

Why pay when there are tons of videos for free out there that show you how to do everything?

$50 for a tuneup may be worthwhile if you don't have the time and it includes things like truing the wheels and repacking loose bearings (many bikes still have loose bearings in the hubs, bottom bracket, or headset). Some of these jobs are time consuming if you don't have the right tools or expertise.

I agree that tweaking the derailleurs and cleaning/oiling the chain are things you really need to learn to do yourself.

because you can make them stop and show you :D

Many of my high-end customers are professionals whose time is worth more to them than the comparative pittance they "save" by doing something like this themselves. Others are neither inclined nor able to do mechanical work. I have customers who are challenged by the idea of airing their tires and lubing their chains once a week. Others come in with tires ridden down to the carcass, and manifold other issues that they "didn't notice".

That's why. :)

That is true I am sure. But my comment was in response to a suggestion that the OP buy the tune up and then watch how they do it...implying that by doing so you could figure out how to do it yourself. If that is the case, just save your $50 and watch some free videos. If you don't have the time or inclination to wrench on your own bike, then by all means take it in.

I was on an organized group ride several months ago when this dude got a simple flat. We all stopped for him and it was soon very obvious he had no idea what to do. A couple of other riders jumped in and did the repairs for him...while he stood there watching and talking on his cell phone. Sad.

That's the part that would bother me if I was helping out.

Because not everyone has the time, tools, money, space, etc. to do their own wrenching. I llive in a 2-bedroom apt. and there's absolutely no way my wife would let me turn one of those bedrooms into a bike shop. I don't get why not but there it is. :D

I'm not a 'high-end customer', but I resemble the comments you make.

I do tuneups once or at most twice per year. That's so infrequent that I can't possibly get good or time efficient at them. It takes me hours to do what a LBS can do in 15 minutes or less. I still try my best, but it's continuously a learn-forget cycle for me. Add that to the fact that I manage to screw something up along the way that takes 3x as long fix as I planned, and it's a total wash for me in terms of doing my own tuneups.

I recall the last time , I tried to change my chain, and ruined two perfectly good chains in the process since I kept overdoing the chainbreaker. That sucked.

Or another time where I thought my triple derailleur could be improved, and I ended up getting it so out of whack that I couldn't even get it into a decent condition of shifting myself.

Or the time I took off the cassette and forgot to put on one of the middle cogs and had to take the whole damn thing again.

Or the time I thoguh self-degreasing was the way to go, and ended up with 1 liter of oily fluid that I found I can't pour into a sink and had to be driven to a disposal facility for proper disposal.

Yes, this is all noob lamesness, but when you only do it once a year, that's what happens.

I now do minor adjustments myself as well as the cleaning, and it probably works out to an LBS tuneup once per two years on top of that.

I was replying under the assumption that the OP was going to get the tune-up already, and therefore should observe as much as possible while he is receiving the said valuable tune-up to improve his knowledge on said topic. [said... just one more time for kicks]

Do it outside. You don't need a special room. All the tools you need for a basic tuneup would fit in small bag and would cost less than $40.

And everyone has time. That is the worst excuse in the book. If it's important, you will find time. If you watch TV at all, you have time. If you go to the gym or workout (including riding your bike), you have time.

If that is the case, it would be a very good idea to watch...if they let you. Every shop is set up differently. At my PB, the workshop is behind a counter and a wall. You can't see what's happening in there and they don't let people back there. At another LBS, the workshop is literally right behind the counter and you can see everything. And if the shop is busy, they probably aren't going to want to answer a bunch of questions.

i think many BF members forget that a lot of those posting in the 41 are a minority of road cyclists. i think most people that buy a road bike use it 4-7 times a month.

even still, there are many people that just do not enjoy or have any interest in bike mechanics. evie stevens comes to mind, and she is badass racer.
i think most just want to ride the bike.

$50 is perfectly reasonable for a basic tune.

Unless their service dept is completely dead...they are not going to work on your bike on the spot. If I was the mechanic working on your bike...I'd be annoyed as hell if every bike I worked on had somebody asking me every 5 mins "how do you do that again?".

yeah, I dig my LBS, they let me BS with them while the drop what they are doing to throw on a new crank that just arrived [not that I saw the UPS guy walk in with the particular box... but I knew] while I ask them annoying questions...

I think you need to ask WTF exactly is a tune-up? A lazy crappy tune-up will just be some oil on your chain, adjust your brakes and derailleurs and pump up your tires. Most folks should be able to do this themselves.

A thorough tune-up might include the above, along with new brake and FD/RD cables, new chain, clean/lube brakes...maybe even adjust bearings in your hubs/BB/Headset, clean cassette (or replace), etc...

I think the OP needs to state what exactly a so-called "tune up" really includes before we can answer intelligently.

This is what the OP is asking us. You would ask the OP the same question he came on here to ask of us?

Most organized bike shops will have a board that breaks down service and price.

Thats cool if you have a relationship with your bike mechanic. I would tip mine some lunch money or bring them beer from time to time.

These are bike mechanics, not shop teachers. :)

Oh yeah you are right.

I missed that. Silly rabbit. I had thought he was asking if $50 is reasonable for a tune-up.

For $50, I would expect a full lube and clean of drivetrain, adjust RD/FD, clean/lube brakes, minor truing of wheels...they should check for chain wear and replace if needed but you will have to pay for the parts. They should at least inspect all cables and replace if needed, also pay a little for parts if needed. Wipe down/clean bike. Adjust bearings in wheels too if needed.

Better, X?

Are you kidding me? Time is the LEAST available of all my resources. I'm not saying I can't even spare a second to pull a derailleur cable or even an hour to clean things off, but seriously, if you want to be able to adjust your bike as well as an LBS for anything more than trivial adjustment, you're going to need hours of practice, hours of either learning it yourself or watching someone else do it, and even more hours to buy and select the right tools for the job.

If you're already expert and can do the whole shebang in under an hour, ok, everyone can make time for that. But if you're a noob, or like me and are known to make things worse than when you started despite watching all the videos and reading the books beforehand, time is the single biggest limiter to doing this stuff.