Caveat Emptor!

Or in plain english - buyer beware! We have had two bikes this week bought on e-bay and another forum where the descriptions have 'implied' that the bike is ok and in working order. I hate to be the one who has to go back to someone who, in genuine faith, has bought a bike this way only to find that all is not as it seems. Sad to say there are some unscrupulous folk out there - they don't lie, they just don't tell it like it is and rely on the fact that most folk are not bike mechanics. One of these bikes had scratched and worn stanchions & knackered springs in the forks, worn bushings on the rear shock (we didn't go as far as examining the state of the shock), and a worn bottom bracket which we cannot access as the crank arm threads are destroyed and it failed to respond to the old -fashioned type puller. The only way to remove the crank will be to destroy it at the expense of the new owner. The other had chain, cassette & gear cables worn out, very tired forks, the wrong gear mech hanger and a cracked hydraulic caliper. The former description just listed the components on the bike - no comment about the condition - the latter merely commented about a small tear in the saddle cover - nothing else - to the average punter it seems that all would be well. Neither bike was cheap either - one was very expensive. Both purchasers are going back to the person who they bought from but this is never easy as the 'Caveat Emptor' clause rules. They are between a rock and a hard place and I feel for them.

The darkness descends!

Please, please can I make a plea for all cyclists to light up now that the dark evenings are upon us. Mums & Dads - if your kid is out on his/her bike please make sure they have lights on. I passed two quite young cyclists on my way to deliver a bike the other evening and there they were - unlit, no reflectors or anything. There are loads of cheap LED lights available so no excuse.
The bike that was left on my doorstep a few weeks back is no more. There was nothing worth keeping off it so it is broken down and off to the scrapyard for recycling into something useful. Annoyingly, I now have to dispose of the tyres and other non-recyclable bits that came off it. Thanks to hwoever it was - not. Will think of fitting CCTV if it happens again so I can return the unwanted goods!!!
Workshop has been quiet but steady - we have had the joys of changing twist-grip gear cables and lots of hub & freehub servicing along with rebuilding Avid hose & brake calipers of various kinds for various folk.
Good time to get your bike in condition for getting through the winter - make sure all bearings are nicely greaed up and cables running smoothly plus a good coat of polish to kepe the water and salt at bay.

A free bike - and a week of freehub problems

Popped out this morning and whilst out somebody left a bike propped up against my garage wall. No message, phone call, email to explain. It is very old and tatty, has no chain and the rear hub is shot as well as the back tyre. I don't know if it wants fixing, scrapping or if it is a free pre-xmas gift!
Had a week of freehub problems. Fun bit was getting the Bontrager one off - firstly it requires an unusual size allen key - 11mm - plus a vice and a strong arm! Removal of the seal on the body revealed a lot of orange gunge and a distinct notchiness. Next freehub was making a grating, creaking noise and once removed (easier!) showed it too was full of orange gunge and the inner workings were slopping about.
Another Bontrager hub looked like it would be a problem but turned out to be easy enough once the big plastic mallet was brought out. Nice new cartridge bearings in that one now.
Be careful how you route your hydraulic hoses by the way. I have one to replace as it was lashed to the fork crown (not a good idea). Not only has it worn the crown badly it has also abraided the outer casing of the hose and is down to the plastic inner.

Fork and shock time

This is a good time of year to get forks and shocks serviced before winter to ensure they are in tip top condition to get through whatever the weather may throw at us between now and spring. If we are doing these jobs for you pleae be aware that we may need to keep your bike for a week if it is a full service - so find a time when you are not going to be needing it. Folk do neglect these items, or put off because of the expense - but it can be very costly to not pay attention to them. Service intervals are way more often than what you think - in some instances every 50 hours which is not a lot of riding time. Trouble is you won't see it until it is too late! And even lower price range forks like Suntours can benenfit from a lower leg strip and clean. Talk to us about your requirements and we'll advise.

Avid's live up to their name!

Word of warning for anyone considering fitting Avid Elixir brakes - if you need to replace the hose it will cost you. The fitting at the caliper end is swaged so you have to buy the hose and fitting complete. This will set you back over £30 just for the part. If you have other makes then it will cost a lot less. Hope for example will cost you less than £10 because you can take it to pieces and buy all the individual bits needed. Avid by name and rather avid on the price!!!

Sorry we haven't posted for a while!

Sorry to any regular viewers - we've been so busy over the summer that we have hardly had time to ourselves - except for squeezing in a lovely short cycle tour in the Orkney Islands!
Today's workshop 'disasters' - very seized bottom bracket - so seized it broke the remover tool; disk brake pads worn down to metal - x 2: carbon steerer bung not tight + end of steerer poking above stem = loose headset. Par for the course...but also had some nice bikes recently - a Felt and a Principia - nice and light and clean and a joy to work on!

Ridden into the ground!

We have had a couple of bikes this week which have been rather well-used! But sadly owners have left it rather late to pay attention to the obvious problems and have persisted in riding them. I am always amazed at why folk do this.
This is the first time I have seen an external bottom bracket cup flapping in the breeze. When the chap rang and said he had play in the cranks I assumed he had a splined or square taper bottom bracket. But no - it was external cups. The drive side one was loose and because it had been ridden since coming loose it had worn away the threads on itself and on the frame shell threads too. The bearing was jammed onto the crank too and required a hammer and punch to get it off.The shell threads now have a lovely stepped ridge in them. This may well mean that the frame is u/s as it is ally. This is the second expensive bike where the owner has continued to ride with this sort of problem and it can cost dear. PLEASE do not ride if the cranks have any wobble in them - it will not go away AND it will get worse and cost more the longer you leave it.
Another had 'a creaky headset' - I am not surprised it creaked. The steering was stiff and notchy and grating which is never a good sign. When the forks were taken (rather hammered) out the bearing races fell to pieces. Instead of just new bearings ad some grease - we are now looking at a replacement headset!!!

Dangerous!

Bike in today - mtb front wheel felt a bit loose so went to tighten up q/r. Found that someone had obviously lost the screw end so had cobbled it together - the lever of the q/r was directly against the dropout on one side - the rubber 'knuckle part was on the otehr side and the whole thing held in place by a tiny alloy wingnut. The wheel could never have been tightened up properly and would probably have come out on the first bump. Fortunately no damaged to the drop out - but the q/r lever end was badly damaged so had to be replaced. This was a very dangerous set-up! I assume the same person was responsible for the cobbled together B screw at the derailleur end too!!!

Too busy to blog!

It has been very hectic in the workshop recently. The glorious weather before Easter had everyone getting their bikes out and wanting them fixed ready for the holiday. Lots of folk getting very old bikes out of sheds too and I am always amazed at what folk will spend on geting them fixed up even when we say it isn't worth it. We will fix them but don't expect miracles!
We saw an expensive mistake last week - we had to replace almost new hydraulic brakes as somebody used the wrong fuid in them - and being Shimano they were not serviceable. If you are having a go at doing these by yourself please at least read the manual and check the type of fluid - there are only two types - mineral oil and DOT 4/5.1. Mixing the two is a complete no-no. Other erroneous substances will not do any good either - don' try and save money by using Mum's cooking oil!
We have had lots of kid's bikes in recently too and many of them are in a poor state of repair. Please get them serviced - they need the same treatment as an adult bike - if not more so as most kids are pretty tough on bikes - after all it is their safety at stake.

Back to busy-ness again

Well, the workshop has gone mad this week. Better weather and pending school and Easter holidays mean that everyone is getting their bikes out. Plus many are turning to two wheels due to the horrendous cost of fuel. I filled my van up the other day and it cost me over £100. We had a great start to the week on Monday helping out at the Bike Inn in Lincolnshire where some trainee bike mechanics were doing their City & Guilds qualification - we were there to give them tuition on hydraulic brakes and suspension servicing. It was a really good day with enthusiastic students!
We also sold our last second-hand bike - these are getting to be in short supply now! So if you have bike you no longer want get it advertisied and it will likely be snapped up.

Horrible headset

Had a bike today which came in only for a new bottom bracket - supposedly. When Mike picked it up he did advise the lady that a full inspection was perhaps in order before anything else as, when he saw it he realised there could be trouble ahead. Good advice!
Result of inspection - spds knackered beyond repair, chain off the measuring scale, cassette knackered rings almost worn out, jockey wheels worn out, gear cables almost unusable, forks almost non-compressible, rear tyre worn out, headset so bad you had to forcefully push the handlebars around.
The bottom bracket was fine however, - thank god for that...

Getting busy again!

A lot more bikes coming into the workshop now that the cold and icy weather has relented around here and folks are thinking more about cycling again. One horror story today on an expensive full suspension mtb whose owner said he thought something had broken inside the brake as it was making a racket. Sadly, he has failed to keep an eye on disk brake pad wear since he got the bike 12 months ago. The rear brake was down to the metal base on one side - it has been ridden like this for sometime as we calculated he had worn about 1/2mm of metal off the base plate AFTER the pad material went. The two prongs on the pad spring had also been sheared off in the process(see picture).The other pad was almost down to the metal on the other - the result - a very, very badly scratched rotor which now has to be binned. The front pads were almost gone too but we got to them in time. Please, please - if your brake is making a noise there is something wrong with it. Don't continue to ride - get it seen too. If you don't it will be a Big Bill!

Some nice feedback

We have just carried out a major strip down service for a new customer who uses his bike mainly for commuting and sent us some nice feedback:
"Just a note to say that the bike is performing great, I have had a couple of small runs on it and the gears are perfect again (1st time in 3 years) and it feels like a new bike."
It is so nice to hear from customers like that. It helps to know we are doing things right.

Don't forget to light up!

It has been a busy week or so in the workshop - lots of folks wanting to get out to fulfil those New Year Resolutions! And the weather has got a lot warmer which helps too. But the days are still short and you can be easily overtaken by the dark - we ended up with full lights on on Tuesday by 3.30pm. I was out delivering bkes that evening and I saw a lot of cyclists out in the dark, in dark clothing, no reflectors, no lights or ineffectual lights. Some seem to think that riding down the pavement means you don't need lights - you are wrong on two counts. Please can I persuade parents - if you are letting your kids out in the dark on their bike make sure they have working lights. If you are riding your own PLEASE light up. Whilst you can get very cheap lights - think about where you are riding - not only do you need to be seen, you need to see where you are rding- little flashy LEDs don't give you a pool of light to see where you are going - there are lots of big holes in the roads at the moment and it will hurt if you don't see one and hit it - big damage to your wheels at least - damage to you at worst! Get a decent set of lights - remember the law requires you to have a static light at each end - it's fine to have flashing ones as well - I normally have two LEDs ont the back - one flashing, one static and a very bright front. A tiny little flashy thing cannot be picked out against the general background of car headlamps. So please up your wattage!!!

Fantastic service!

We have just had a great bit of customer service from Hope Technology at Barnoldswick. We sent them a battery for one of their two-LED lights which had ceased working. It had only been used a few times but was out of its warranty period. However, they have replaced it free of charge and the new one was back this morning - only 3 working days later! Now that is customer service. Thnak you Hope!

More on buying bikes on the internet

We keep banging on about this - but it keeps happening. Before xmas a customer bought a bike on the net - a £1300 job but at a bargain price of £700 or so - it came in a box - so we put it together for them - all was well until we came to the front wheel which is an SLX 20mm thru-hub type (Maxle) which screws into the fork leg. There is play in the hub bearing - it needs a 28mm cone spanner to adjust it - not many folk have one of them including us!(We have now). But problem is if we touch it and it isn't right we invalidate any warranty the customer may have. Bike back to the customer as it really isn't our problem as we didn't supply it - they call the company and they send a part - believe it or not just a hub - thought you could fit it yourself they say to our customer!! Yeah, right...it would mean rebuilding the wheel - it is a thru-hub which needs a special tool to put it in a jig to rebuild it - it costs £60 + - am I going to buy one for the odd thru-hub wheel build I might do?? Naaahh! Back to customer - they ring the company back and they now agree to send a new wheel. We will wait and see...all this grief for a bike we didn't supply and problems which, if bought locally, could have been sorted right away. He still hasn't been able to ride the Bargain bike. But why did the company who sold it not just say for me to adjust the hub (when I got the tool) - after all I'm a qualified and experienced mechanic - and agree it wouldn't affect the warranty? Duhhh....

Happy new year

Best wishes for 2011 to all of our customers. We look forward to looking after your bicycles in the coming year. Wr've enjoyed a festive break although we only managed one outing on our bikes due to ice, snow and ultra-low temperatures. We had a record low here (well, since we moved here some years ago)in Whittle of -10.4 degrees - bit too nippy for biking. Be aware that in these temperatures componetns on yuor bike can cease to work - especially if you leave them in a cold place as well. One of our customers, who keeps a bike in a standalone garage suffered from a frozen freehub - once we took the wheel into our nice warm kitchen it was back working within half an hour! Hopefully we won't see too much more of this very cold stuff.