Dubious "repair" at chain bike shop

JackPozzi
JackPozzi Posts: 1,191
edited November 2010 in Workshop
A colleague brought his bike in to me today asking if I could have a look at his gears as they were all over the place. I set them up perfectly a couple of months back so thought they would probably just need a minor tweak, but found that both limiter screws on the rear mech were way out of adjustment as was the barrel adjuster. It turns out he'd taken the bike in to a shop yesterday to have the tyres and tubes replaced, I don't know why, it's a simple enough job, but there you go.

So gears were working fine, but after going to the shop and getting the tyres done everything is out of adjustment. I can only think it's been done deliberately to get him to go back and pay to get the gears sorted, which frankly is terrible behaviour and I hope I'm wrong. Can anyone think of any other explanation, or has anyone heard of something similar?

Comments

  • gavintc
    gavintc Posts: 3,009
    Perhaps, your colleague tried to adjust them himself, cocked it up and was too embarrassed to admit his mistake. Blaming the shop gets him out of a problem - just a suggestion.
  • JackPozzi
    JackPozzi Posts: 1,191
    Good point, must admit I hadn't thought of that possibility! Although knowing him, if he had touched it, the rear mech would most likely be in several pieces :lol:
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    I suspect it was actually YOU that cocked it up badly several months ago and now you're just covering your own tracks! :lol::lol:

    Sometimes when you take a wheel out and put it back in, the rear mech goes out of whack. Maybe the shop tried to adjust it to fix it. Not sure why they would adjust it that far though.

    And pardon my ignorance, but how can you be sure that the limit screws and barrel adjuster 'are wrong'? There are many ways to set up gears. (I think)


    Or is it that it doesn't go into top or bottom gears at all?
  • antfly
    antfly Posts: 3,276
    OP you are making assumptions and jumping to conclusions that are a bit libellous.
    Smarter than the average bear.
  • JackPozzi
    JackPozzi Posts: 1,191
    Believe me, if it was my balls up I wouldn't have posted here in the first place :lol:

    I'm no expert on gears, but I let all the tension out of the cable and the chain wasn't getting over far enough to engage the smallest sprocket, ditto when it was a full tesnsion for the largest, which AFAIK says the limit screws are wrong. The barrel adjuster was wound all the way in, so much so I had to get a pair of pliers on it to turn it.

    I did manage to sort it out eventually, annoyingly I didn't have my work stand with me so had to hold the rear wheel up, turn the pedals and flick the shifters at the same time, which is a skill i never knew I had before...

    EDIT- Sorry was writing this when antfly posted, another good point, have amended to original post to hopefully resolve that...

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