trust your LBS?
 

I am always a bit paranoid about riding a just assembled bike without thoroughly inspecting it first so I have never riden home from a LBS on a new bike even though I ride everywhere else. Today I become way more paranoid as I brought a new fixie home to replace the one I just sold and was testing the seat height and doing trackstands in the kitchen when I felt the cog tighten as I put forward pressure on the pedals. Well, I was rather upset as I figured the the least the LBS could have is properly tightened the cog and lockring. I got out my chain whip and lockring tool and took the rear wheel off only to be horrified to find the lockring was so loose I was able to twist it right off with my fingers. If I had ridden it I could have severly stripped the hub. I know one LBS where I am never spending another dollar.

Of course I trust my LBS, I'm one of the wrenches!

I have a large collection of bounced checks from my customers. Also a very nice faked travelers check. A broken window and stolen Roubaix. A bunch of oddball special orders never picked up. Four abandoned repairs in the last six months. Several people that bought car racks right before a holiday and returned them right after(hmmmm). One guy that used a stolen credit card. One guy that bought double wireless Cateye then disputed it with his card company(We actually beat that guy after a bunch of paperwork). Two customers asking us to write false estimates for their insurance claims. AND about two grand in "shrinkage"(That means someone, a "customer" stole it)

The only thing that could probably make your life worse is incompetent mechanics.

Only four abandoned repairs in six months? We probably have at least four a month. People tend to just forget about their dept. store bikes, so we've just instituted a deposit policy for cheaper bikes that we expect people will forget. If they have to make an immediate, non-refundable commitment, maybe then the bike will mean something.

Sucks about the rest of the stuff though.

I think the shop I work at wins @ abandoned bikes.
A back section of our shop is filled with abandoned bikes.
Some dating from 2004.
wow. rev. you got some crazy-ass customers. haha

I completly trust my LBS excellent bunch of wrenchers I send alot of peeps there and they are helping me get a fixed gear togther :)

Since I started at this shop we have had five brake-ins including one where they broke thru a wall. One other shop has had two break-ins and a snatch and grab(bmx bike) and the other store had a snatch and grab of a Specialized Big Hit(Later found in the woods near the shop)

To the OP:

The true test of your LBS' merits is to take back the bike and calmly explain the situation. If they know how to defuse a situation, it's likely they'll apologize for the mistake and do something to make it up for the mistake and outline their service guarantee (ours is 30 days).

I totally trust my LBS.
Take it back and explain the situation.
How they handle that will tell you whether or not this LBS is worth your time and money.

I trust my LBSes. I'd say more but I think telling a story about a cog being well tightened and a lockring on top of it that is also well tightened would be lame.

Cogs slip a few times after assembly.
Whats the big deal ? Carry the lockring tool
on your first ride.

Well, at this point no harm has really come of it, at least for me but I don't know about any of their other customers. When eyeing my front wheel to see if it was visibly untrue I also noticed the rim was about about cm closer to the left side of the fork than the right side. When taking the front wheel off I found the left bolt was tightened but that the wheel was only about half way into the fork dropout where the right side was all the way in. At this point I am inclined just to think that the particular LBS has at least one incompetent (or perhaps just really hung over) mechanic. The impression I got from the owner when I picked it up though was that he put the bike together, so I don't know if anything positive is going to come from talking to them. I just moved to the area from Seattle where I had a couple favourite LBSs so I think I am going to visit some of the other Portland LBSs for my next purchases.

What do you do with the abadoned bikes?

Take the bike back and bring up your issues. They may have had the new guy put the bike to gether and it did not get checked by anyone before it hit the floor. I have a guy at my shop that, for some reason, does not like me to check his work. As I don't stand around waiting for him to finish, they sometimes get past me. At the least this will let the shop know they have a problem. Then go check out all the shops. There must be a bunch in Portland. Find the one(or several) that fits you best.

I trust most of the wrenches at my LBS, but last summer I bought a new bike for my wife for Mother's day, I was riding it around on some grass, checking it out, and the handlebars were loose! When I got it home I put a wrench on it, and found some other loose stuff.

I like my LBS, and I trust them mostly, but I guess you never know. I don't know who put that bike together, maybe they were having a bad day. I always check my own work twice, and someone else's work at least once. Sucks to have parts falling off a moving bike. trust no one but yourself when it comes to your safety

Bring that stuff up. Most shops have a system for telling who built the bike. We have a sign off on the inventory ticket. The guy that ****ed up will get it bashed in to him to tighten the stem, or pedals or whatever, every time he works on a bike. He will be mocked mecilessly for his mistake for years. I have a guy I still ride for stripping a screw even tho it wa three years ago. He has not stripped one since.

I do the vast majority of my own work (I have my own shop, afterall) but when I need work done by someone else there are only three people (at three different shops) that I'll take it to. It's not that I don't trust random wrench (but if random wrench can do it, I can do it better), just that I've built relationships over the years with specific mechanics. They ride with me, know my bike, and know what kinds of questions to ask about problems.

My answer to OP: 1st, many shops see very little in the way of fixed-gear stuff, and the wrench who put that on may not have known what he/she was doing. Go back and tell them and they'll fix it up nice. 2nd, find a shop that sells the type of bikes you're into and spend your time/money there. Talk to folks (but don't waste their time if they're busy), get to know a few, see who rides what, etc. Take future problems to them.