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.

BEWARE - Boxed bike

Just completed another internet bought boxed bike build for a kiddy bike. I get really frustrated about these. An awful lot of the bikes that are bought on the internet do not turn out to be such a bargain especially when you have to get your LBS (most won't) or mobile outfit to put it together for you- a customer wasn't very happy about the price we charged for sorting out his purchase - he felt that because it came 'part built' he should pay a lower charge. I'm sorry but 'part built' only meant it had the back wheel on - everything else needed fettling. The front wheel was well buckled so the brake would never have worked unless we spent a fair bit of time turing it up so the wheel would go round. Both brakes needed a lot of fiddling to get them as right and as safe as possible. The bar grips were made of soft spongy rubber and had been destroyed in transit so needed replacing - which is a pain because we had to cut standard grips down to fit a kiddy bike. The components on these bikes are dreadful. Oh and plus we provided a door-to-door service going out on icy roads saving him the effort and fuel - and a round trip of 36 miles!!! He could have saved himslef this cost by going down to his local bike shop and buying the bike there - and the PDI and problem solving would have been done by them at no extra cost! OK he may have had to pay a little more for the bike than he did on the web but not what it has cost him to get me out. All of the things wrong with this bike we see so often with internet purchases and it may be in future that we decide not to handle them as they can be more trouble than what they are worth!! Rant over

A bit of snow

Having been smug about escaping the worst of the bad weather, it duly arrived last night and we have six inches or so here - very pretty. Even the A6 which is a big road was just passable. Still we managed to deliver a promised bike back this morning much to the surprise and delight of its owner - not that he'll be going out on it at the moment! Let it never be said that we don't deliver on our promises.