I'm beginning to think my Bike is cursed ...
Bible Basher Biker
Posts: 811
Can't remember when I last had a fully enjoyable ride on it 
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OK, its a few years old, but when I bought it, it got 10/10 and was described as "all the bike you'll ever need" in tests, so I wasn't starting with rubbish, but this catalogue of carnage is a bit much ... I'm beginning to think it would have been cheaper to buy a new bike !
- It began over a year ago with a problem where I couldn't get the front mech to shift down when riding, even though it was fine on the stand, and no amount of fettling seemed to help.
- bought a new front mech
- the problem continued!
- It took 4 visits the lbs and lots of utterly maddening rides in between to sort it and in the end the lbs wouldn't tell me what they'd done (!?)
- fitted forks became clunky, jerky, erratic and frightening, but I don't have much money so put up with it for ages ... eventually bought new forks.
- while I was saving up for that, fitted hydraulics began to occasionally over heat & seize - had them bled & rebuilt.
- problem continued but since I'd just shelled out for new forks, put up with it for ages, sometimes having to carry bike down hills, or squirt brakes with water bottle & wait 10 mins. Pretty much totally killed the fun of coming down hill!
- Eventually got to point where brakes were sometimes fully 'on' even with pressure dial fully 'off' and lever not pulled!
- Bought new hydraulics. Since they'd ALWAYS rubbed slightly from the day I bought the bike, I bought new rotors too.
- Collected bike to discover - for the first time ever my brakes didn't rub ...
- BUT lbs had fitted cheaper version of brakes than I'd paid for!! :x
- Took it back to lbs and had to fight my case cos they disagreed with me. Eventually agreed to fit brakes I wanted.
- Picked it up from lbs to discover they'd REMOVED the new rotors they'd just put on and fitted cheaper rotors instead!?!?
- Took it back to lbs and they had no explanation, so swapped rotors back.
- Collected it from lbs to discover they'd fitted one of the rotors back to front!!! (NOTE : this is described by many as the best lbs in town!)
- fixed that myself!
- took bike out to discover the new brakes & rotors were rubbing ... still not sorted this.
- soon after that chain snapped on a climb
- then got bike out to discover headset completely seized!! And I'd only ridden it 2 days before!
- got that fixed.
- Next ride : chain snapped again!!!
- Bought a new chain.
- Next ride : discoved chain skipped all the time, so clearly cassette needed changing too
- Bought new cassette
- chain continued to skip on middle ring so obviously middle ring needed changing ...
- Bought a new middle ring
- Went out looking forward to the first trouble free ride of joy in over a year .....
- Got a puncture!
- Fixed puncture & pulled out a big thorn from the tyre.
... rode bike today : felt back tyre distorting & losing traction .... checked tyre to discover 1/2 inch gash in the side wall!!! (How it didn't blow I don't know!)
I'm getting a bit fed up now ......
:OK, its a few years old, but when I bought it, it got 10/10 and was described as "all the bike you'll ever need" in tests, so I wasn't starting with rubbish, but this catalogue of carnage is a bit much ... I'm beginning to think it would have been cheaper to buy a new bike !
- It began over a year ago with a problem where I couldn't get the front mech to shift down when riding, even though it was fine on the stand, and no amount of fettling seemed to help.
- bought a new front mech
- the problem continued!
- It took 4 visits the lbs and lots of utterly maddening rides in between to sort it and in the end the lbs wouldn't tell me what they'd done (!?)
- fitted forks became clunky, jerky, erratic and frightening, but I don't have much money so put up with it for ages ... eventually bought new forks.
- while I was saving up for that, fitted hydraulics began to occasionally over heat & seize - had them bled & rebuilt.
- problem continued but since I'd just shelled out for new forks, put up with it for ages, sometimes having to carry bike down hills, or squirt brakes with water bottle & wait 10 mins. Pretty much totally killed the fun of coming down hill!
- Eventually got to point where brakes were sometimes fully 'on' even with pressure dial fully 'off' and lever not pulled!
- Bought new hydraulics. Since they'd ALWAYS rubbed slightly from the day I bought the bike, I bought new rotors too.
- Collected bike to discover - for the first time ever my brakes didn't rub ...
- BUT lbs had fitted cheaper version of brakes than I'd paid for!! :x
- Took it back to lbs and had to fight my case cos they disagreed with me. Eventually agreed to fit brakes I wanted.
- Picked it up from lbs to discover they'd REMOVED the new rotors they'd just put on and fitted cheaper rotors instead!?!?
- Took it back to lbs and they had no explanation, so swapped rotors back.
- Collected it from lbs to discover they'd fitted one of the rotors back to front!!! (NOTE : this is described by many as the best lbs in town!)
- fixed that myself!
- took bike out to discover the new brakes & rotors were rubbing ... still not sorted this.
- soon after that chain snapped on a climb
- then got bike out to discover headset completely seized!! And I'd only ridden it 2 days before!
- got that fixed.
- Next ride : chain snapped again!!!
- Bought a new chain.
- Next ride : discoved chain skipped all the time, so clearly cassette needed changing too
- Bought new cassette
- chain continued to skip on middle ring so obviously middle ring needed changing ...
- Bought a new middle ring
- Went out looking forward to the first trouble free ride of joy in over a year .....
- Got a puncture!
- Fixed puncture & pulled out a big thorn from the tyre.
... rode bike today : felt back tyre distorting & losing traction .... checked tyre to discover 1/2 inch gash in the side wall!!! (How it didn't blow I don't know!)
I'm getting a bit fed up now ......
I plan to live forever ... so far, so good
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Comments
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What bike is it?http://www.strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible Price.
Specialized Roubaix SL3 Expert 2012, Cannondale CAAD5,
Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!0 -
It sounds like wear and tear combined with a lackluster lbs, front mech was probably a cable or shifter issue,rubbing brakes can be sorted with shims and leaving a chain too long can make it snap and eat the rest of the transmission. Learn how to fix and fettle your own bike, if you know how things should work you have half a chance :roll:-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Mongoose Teocali
Giant STP0
Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:0 -
Learn how to fix it wourself - pay monkeys to fix things and you get peanuts instead of headset bearings or something.Closet jockey wheel pimp whore.0
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again forks sound like you never serviced.
Good shocks generally need a little love at most points, and a definate real service about once a year. So sounds like you ground you parts to the ground to me with out maintaining them and giving the bike some tlc
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I'd have thrown it in the river and started running home and made that my new hobby ;-)0
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lol at jonbon.
That realy sucks about your bike troubles.
Like others have said, try fixing your own problems or take it to another lbs, try halfords they might do a better job0 -
abarth_1200 wrote:try halfords they might do a better job
:?0 -
I was taking the pizza but buy the sounds of things that lbs aint gonna be much better than some halfords stories I've heard0
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RealMan wrote:abarth_1200 wrote:try halfords they might do a better job
:?
My local Halfords are awesome. And that LBS sounds sh1t
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O well I think sometimes it must just be a hit or miss, I personally would avoid bike shopping in halfords and stick to a bike shop. just my opinion. anyway, I digress0
