Bike Service: Worth the money?

zoglug

Hey everyone,

ive had my bike now for just over 12 months and in that time its been serviced once by Evans (it was free 6 weeks after buying my bike). Now what i am wondering is if the services offered by bike shops are worth the money. Whilst my breaks still work well after i tightened them myself, i feel my bike could do with an overhaul. So is it worth the money and what do they usually consist of?

Cheers

Zoglug

Anonymous

The best way is to buy a book teaching you and do it yourself!

edindevon

There's an old thread on what to expect from a service at your LBS here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15018322

I think you have to be realistic in terms of what they will do and in my experience it's certainly not the case that they'll go over your bike with a fine tooth comb and identify and remedy all problems. That's why it ultimately pays to learn to do the main jobs yourself.

Edindevon

brin

2 points -

if you feel your bike could do with an overhaul but are not able to do it yourself, get it serviced, but ask around your local LBS dealers 1st before going to a big place like Evans, they will prob's be cheaper and give you a better personal service.IMHO

like mentioned above, buy a book or a dvd and learn to do these tasks yourself, obviously saving you money, but also gives you a great sense of achievement.

cooldad

Do things as and when needed, keep things lubed and adjusted.
Bikes aren't cars and don't need servicing as such.

zoglug

Hmm, i think ill go the route of doing it myself. If i mess things up massively, i am sure i can drop it off at a local bike shop and get the to fix the things i mess up :P

So onto my next question, what books do people recommend?

squigs

The shop near me (Certini) in saltash is fantastic for customer service and servicing the bike. If I need advice they are more than happy to explain howi can fix and service the bike myself. As they are flat out all the time it obviously hasn't effected the business.

Have added the big blue book of bike repair to my favourites wish list on the computer so hopefully the wife will get me it for my B'day next month.

Lillywhite

zoglug wrote:

Hmm, i think ill go the route of doing it myself. If i mess things up massively, i am sure i can drop it off at a local bike shop and get the to fix the things i mess up :P

Good move. Bikes don't need a formal service IMHO and are not in the same category as motorised vehicles.
Clean the bike on a regular basis with soapy water. Don't power jet!
After every ride wipe down the tyres, check for flints, wipe the rims, inspect the brake blocks, lube the chain, clean on a regular basis with white spirit.
If the gears don't index properly, adjust as necessary. Check that all alien key fixings are tight.

The above are key to ensuing the bike is always in tip top condition.

Hoopdriver

Definitely learn to do it yourself. It's not hard. And bike shops can not only be VERY expensive but VERY hit and miss as to competency. I am quite a decent (and qualified) bicycle mechanic myself, but am very busy in my (non cycling) job and so last September when I was especially busy, I made the huge mistake of letting what I thought would be a competent London shop overhaul my bike (I was having a new headset installed as I've no headset press myself, the bike needed to go in anyway)

Holy cow! I'd been about to take a week off to go on a ride down the Lon Las Cymru in wales and had to cancel because my bike was simply unsafe to ride after this so-called 'top mechanic' overhauled the thing. The lost of things this guy screwed up, buggered up, and made a hash off beggared belief. I honestly wouldn't have thought it possible. Right down to returning it with the handlebars crooked. Seriously, I'd have been better taking it to one of the guys that assembles bikes at ASDA - and this is at a fairly high profile very race oriented London shop.

And so, what was meant to have been a matter of saving me time, turned into a very expensive waste - as I then had to basically re-do the thing myself. So be wary of bike shop mechanics. Think about it: no one will care more about how your bike runs than you will yourself. So buy the Big Blue Book by Park, or Leonard Zinn's Art of Road/Mountain Bike Maintenance, consult Sheldon Brown's website (or Park Tools') and do whatever you need to do. It's not hard, and as was said in another posting, if you keep on top of things - keep the bike clean, the chain lubed, and an eye on your brake pads and tyres, you're halfway there already.

I hope this helps.

dombo6

+1 for the Zinn books and Park Tools website. My Zinn is well-thumbed, full of greasy fingerprints and stuffed full of printouts from Park. My mtb only gets serviced for brake bleeding and suspension/headset stuff. Road bike never goes to shop.

zoglug

Cheers for the advice guys. Ive just placed an order for Leonard Zinn's Art of Road Bike Maintenance, my clipless pedals and shoes cant wait for a week or two!

MikeyC

Whilst I do agree with most of the comments here, when you are just starting out you should have your bike serviced by a compentent bike mechanic. Once you got a bit more experience, then start doing some of the smaller jobs - adjusting / replacing brakes, adjusting front / rear indexing, changing cables etc. To do more you will need a set of tools - I got mine from Lidl for £20 and it is very reasonable. As the tools break etc I will replace them with higher quality (Park etc) tools. A good book helps - I have the latest Park blue book but it is not intuitive. The Haynes book is very good - lots of pictures and will get you off to a good start. The Park Book is a good reference for the more tricky jobs. I've also booked myself on a Bike Mechanics course, so that I can learn the skills to keep the bike in tip-top shape myself

glauciaregina9

zoglug wrote:

Hey everyone,

ive had my bike now for just over 12 months and in that time its been serviced once by Evans (it was free 6 weeks after buying my bike). Now what i am wondering is if the services offered by bike shops are worth the money. Whilst my breaks still work well after i tightened them myself, i feel my bike could do with an overhaul. So is it worth the money and what do they usually consist of?

Cheers

Zoglug

If you're not yet confident enough to service your own bike, then at least pay for it this time otherwise there may be something dangerously wrong that you're not aware of.

However, get yourself a good bicycle maintenance book, or go on a bike maintenance course (mate of mine did a 1-day course that covered all the basics).

There may be an initial cost of buying a few tools, but you'll save a lot in the long run, plus you'll be more adept at road-side repairs and 'get-you-home' bodges :-)

rake

im quite surprised at the amount of people who have got into road cycling and never seem to have used a tool box. from about 9 years old most people i knew used spanners otherwise the bike got rusty in the shed.

zoglug

rake wrote:

im quite surprised at the amount of people who have got into road cycling and never seem to have used a tool box. from about 9 years old most people i knew used spanners otherwise the bike got rusty in the shed.

ive used tools all my life! Step dad was a mechanic so ive always got my car in bits, recently changed the timing belt and water pump on my Fiat under his guidance. I guess im worried about if something goes wrong, i dont know a bike mechanic to help me put it right.

I plan on starting off small, i need to replace the break pads before my 100 mile ride and then just doing general maintenance. Hopefully the book will help and i guess ill also need a decentish bike stand too!

But thanks for the advice guys! Looking forward to receiving my book!

rake

a bike stand would be very usefull although not necessary. can still do any job without one.
i cant say whats worth the money, if you are rich and have more favorable ways to use your time then paying for a service probably suits. if you enjoy spannering or learning new bike things you may well save some money for a pint afterwards. of course there are many other options/reasons as well.

ian_s

It may be obvious but there is a lot of helpful stuff on the internet.
Sheldon brown/Park tools type of sites are a good start
just googling the job you want will likely bring up several guides - some are on youtube with a video to boot.
and don't forget eg Shimano's own tech documentation for setting up specific components.

robz400

Wouldn't bother buying a book - search youtube. It has everything you need to know.

Only thing about doing it yourself as it is costly to start with as you need specialist tools eg chain whip, lock ring nut, crank extracter etc... once you;ve got them though your sorted.

I've got no training but so far have, set up gears, replaced the forks with a carbon one, replaced the bottom bracket, brake pads and tyres - none of it complicated if you follow a tutorial on youtube

thesquireofbanwell

This is one of 48 similar easy to follow video tutorials from the same website.
Hope it helps
http://bicycletutor.com/tune-up/

Bill-87

I thought i'd take my bike into a bike shop, this was the mountain bike and not the road bike mind you, and when I went to get it back there was a huge chip out of the paintwork. I had already paid aswell, I kicked up a stink but it was a case of my word against yours from him. Always knew the guy was an ass since I was a kid, gave him the benfit of the doubt but it got me nowhere.

I won't be back that's for sure.

thesquireofbanwell

Maybe the other contributors of this forum should be warned of this ass?
A few more details would assist to save a recurrence.

rodgers73

As my bike cost virtually nothing I'm trying to do any jobs myself to keep the costs down.

I'd feel stupid spending more on a service/repair than the bike actually cost. So far I've adjusted brakes and sorted front and rear dérailleur with some success.

I went down to LBS to get some bearings and a cone wrench and the guy offered to do the bearings for me for only £5 - cant really argue with that so I've put off that job for a bit.

I enjoy tinkering though so I'm happy to take stuff like this on - I just used youtube tutorials and websites for guidance.

ride_whenever

Basically depends on the shop and how much you can be arsed...

If you have the time and inclination then learn, if not pay for someone COMPETENT to do it. That said, the LBS where I work do a high level service for £80 which includes bike cleaning and we'll completely take apart shifters and brakes etc. and clean them (including polishing if they're pitted) and do all the bearings. That is well worth it on a decent bike because we actually take the time with these jobs because we know that they're worth it.

We recently did an old rusted shopper, cleaned off all the rust etc. and it look like new despite being 20 years old!

Bill-87

thesquireofbanwell wrote:

Maybe the other contributors of this forum should be warned of this ass?
A few more details would assist to save a recurrence.

I doubt anyone on here is from round here but I live in a town called Alloa, the shop is called Glass & Steele. Alloa is just outside of Stirling, Scotland.

I had considered going back to the shop and kicking the sh*t out of him but that would have got me nowhere.

gregster10217

I'm slowly learning and have done some small bits on the road bike with success, but went to try to sort the gears on my mountain bike a couple of days ago and failed miserably!!! Wouldn't shift onto small front ring, so had a go at adjusting cable and mech and ended up taking it to LBS. Picked it up yesterday, £10 for new cable, re-indexed front and minor adjustment to rear. Absolute bargain IMHO. Geoff Wiles in Strood, always been very good.

rhext

Last time I asked, the list of things that they do was really rather pathetic for the £45 they wanted to charge for the service. It was what I would consider as basic maintenance: sort out gear indexing, lube all the obvious stuff, pump up the tyres, check wheels for trueness etc. But they didn't seem to do the more useful things that you might expect from a service, like strip and grease the hubs and the headset. I must confess, having taken the bike in the past, I'm pretty sure that they did grease the headset, but I suspect that because I keep the bike in pretty good nick anyway that what they actually do is sell you an hour's labour and do as much as they can once they've got the minimum out of the way.

But most bike maintenance is actually pretty straightforward: it's worth establishing a routine based on cleaning it thoroughly (esp drive train), checking to see if anything needs attention (new brake pads?, gears not quite indexing properly?) and then relubing every week or so, and then setting a slightly longer-term schedule for more involved jobs. There's lots of jobs which only need doing infreqently (like stripping a hub and replacing the bearings, servicing a headset etc etc) so you can afford to turn those into little mini-projects where you do a bit of internet research, buy the tools and do it yourself.

The thing is, when I took the bike in for the service the first time, it was noticeably smoother when they'd finished with it. I thought to myself "this is great, but I want it to ride like this all the time, not just for a week after it's been serviced"....and learning how to clean it and do the basics yourself does that for you!

datpat64

Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenace and a £40 set of tools from BBB or Ice Toolz

Everything you need to do all of the things you'll get at service, plus the more regular bits like lubing and cleaning chain.

That's all I ever used and it's stood me in pretty good stead

Yours faithfully

Mark Cavendish

France