Bike Service - what to expect?

Tony666

Up until now, I have always serviced my bike myself. However, I thought I would take it into an lbs to let them do it for me as I don't have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. But what should I expect for my money? The going rate seems to be around œ20-œ25 and I have a choice of two shops or Halfords. Is there anyway of telling if any one is better than the other - one has a sign in the window saying they have a cylco something or other qualified mechanic (sorry can't remember what it said![:I]).

Rich Hcp

Go and chat to them.

I had my bike (MTB) serviced before and it was ok, but not great. The gears were never spot on

When I went to get it done again he said it's an old bike (It is) but he'd see what he can do. Didn't like the way he talked.

Went to the other LBS in town.

Very straight forward, no BS.

Said he could see no problems in sorting it.

Sorted it, replaced some things that should have been done before, the bike is now perfect. Did the SDW with no worries

I want a road bike as well, so I'm buying a Spesh Allez from him.[:D]

So, go talk to them

Richard

Best thing I ever bought for a bike?
Padded shorts![:D]

Unknown

If you have serviced your bike yourself - make time, even if it takes a couple of evenings. You do not have to do it all in one go!



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in the wire

Great topic Tony666

I feel a bit mystified myself by bike servicing.

A local LBS has a sign that offers something along the lines of:-

service - 25 quid
service while you watch - 40 quid
service, and you can help - 50 quid

The last time I saw a menu like that was in Amsterdam, but anyway... make of it what you will.

Eat My Dust

Be careful, I too usually do all my own work on my bikes, but decided to let my LBS give it their <i>gold</i> service which is a total rebuild. Two and a half weeks later I had to pick it up in pieces, as they were too stupid to put it back together again. The result is that now my œ1000+ Ambrosio is very ill. I've rebuilt it myself, but I'm having huge problems getting the indexing on the gears to work properly. To add insult to injury, they were still wanting me to pay for half of the original quote!! This has resulted in me losing confidence in my bike, which is no great thing if you're used to hitting 40mph (downhill of course) on a daily basis. It's made me very emotional!!!![}:)]

SNAPS

Tony666

You have my full sympathy EMD and taking Jackus' experience (http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topi ... _ID=131505) into account I think maybe I will carry on seeting aside the odd Sunday afternoon to service it myself after all!