Inverse Principle of Bike Mechanics

As a professional bike mechanic again after 30 years, I'm discovering some inverse principles about bikes.

1. The smaller the bike, the more trouble it is to work on.

Kid's bikes with bolt-on wheels and coaster brakes and training wheels are a pita just to change a flat. And sometimes they have chainguards you have to remove before you can do anything else. Yesterday I had to tune up a kid's Lightning McQueen bike with plastic covers over the spokes, so couldn't true the wheels until I removed the wheel from the bike and removed the plastic covers (4 screws with tiny nuts). That bike also had the fork backwards and a front rim brake way out of kilter and a very sticky bottom bracket. Then there are the BMX bikes with 20" wheels that have the long steel pegs on the axles and weigh a TON.

2. The cheaper the bike, the more work it needs, but the less the owner wants to spend.

We put in $65 of work on a really cheap bike with a stripped pedal thread on a steel crank arm. Gave it a used crank from another cheap bike (because we didn't have anything appropriately cheap in new parts) and even swaped the BB spindle. The owner had the nerve to say "I only paid $50 for the bike. Can you give me a price break?" :mad:

Then sometimes we get the opposite, people who make you smile. Like the woman I called to tell about extra things I found wrong with her bike, so the repair going to be expensive. She said "I really love the bike, it fits me perfectly, so do the work." Or the man this week, when given the choice of having his flat repaired in one day, or leaving the bike for 3 days for a full tune-up, chose the quick flat repair because he rides so much he didn't want to be without the bike for 3 days. But he will come back for the tune-up in the fall because he wants to treat his beloved 20-year-old bike well. I also enjoyed helping a couple of youngsters this week who I bet are going to grow up to be bike mechanics. :D

Hear hear!

The $2000 bike will always go together easier than the $200 bike. The $200 bike will require 2 hours of tuning before it brakes and shifts well enough to sell it. You could have built 4 $2000 bikes in that time...

The number of people who would rather pay $15 to have a flat change than learn to do it themselves is astronomical. I still can't understand this one....but then again, I'm notoriously cheap.

Becky- That is SO true. I'll change tires myself if I want new ones, change a flat - and fix anything I know how to fix mechanically. DH, on the other hand, would rather drive the wheel to the shop and get them to change his tire. I just don't get it.

CA

I smile when I remember the guys at my old LBS always working on certain cheap bikes for free. There are a couple of mentally-disabled guys who roam around the town doing odd jobs, always on the fringe, but ride their bikes everywhere. One of them thinks he has to have completely fresh air in his tires every day. The guys patiently deflate and inflate his tires every morning and work on those "special" cheap and cranky bikes for free. Customers will sometimes pitch in with spare parts scavenged from similar bikes dying in their garage.

This really makes you smile.

I love the fresh air story:)

Our guys definitely do that too. When we have old parts we aren't going to use, they get first pick before we take them to the Bike Coop.

CA

I had a customer last night bring in a Schwinn purchased from Toys R Us. He said he originally had a single speed but wanted to do the Moonlight Ramble (St. Louis's midnight bike ride) so he felt he needed gears. He also said he felt he wasn't good enough for a bike shop bike.

Well his first ride was the Moonlight Ramble. His chain broke during the ride. My mechanic was providing SAG support and was able to fix his chain.

He hasn't ridden it since and wanted us to go over the bike. Basically we have to rebuild the bike since multiple things were never adjusted properly from the beginning. We are also putting on a new chain for him.

I asked him what he spent on this new bike. He said $200. Well now he's spending about $85 more with a tune up and new chain. I explained how that got him to an introductory price point with a bike shop. I also explained how the warranties work on bike shop bikes and our own service warranty. No he doesn't have either of those from Toys R Us. I finally asked him if anyone assisted him in choosing the right size bike - no there was only one size to choose from.

So we have a new customer. We'll assist him in anyway he needs us to with the hopes in the future he purchases a bike shop bike - especially something that fits his needs and his size.

I know this is repeated daily at shops across the country. I completely agree with Deb that working on a cheap bike is considerably more challenging than working on a nice higher quality bike.

SadieKatie--the changing to fresh air every day is a priceless story. I HAVE to file that way for use in a fiction story. Just priceless. Please give the mechancis a kiss for me for being so very kind and sweet and compassionate.

Love the fresh air story

Geoff just had to start requiring a 50% deposit on all xmart bikes. Too many people weren't picking them up after they were fixed.

I know he would rather work on and build $2000 bikes rather than mess around with the other ones.

They also have a $20 "while you wait" flat tire service which gets used a lot. That's too rich for my blood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DebW

The owner had the nerve to say "I only paid $50 for the bike. Can you give me a price break?" :mad:

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How do people not understand that you should buy bicycles in a bike shop and NOT in a department store? We buy new cars at the dealership, not at the shopping mall...

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Originally Posted by TxDoc

How do people not understand that you should buy bicycles in a bike shop and NOT in a department store? We buy new cars at the dealership, not at the shopping mall...

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Only because they don't *sell* cars at shopping malls. I bet the same people who bought a bike from Wal-Mart would buy a car from Wal-Mart too, if they could.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TxDoc

How do people not understand that you should buy bicycles in a bike shop and NOT in a department store? We buy new cars at the dealership, not at the shopping mall...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by kfergos

Only because they don't *sell* cars at shopping malls.

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LOL! We have a Mini dealership in the mall here. It's not even the Mall of America, it's a smaller mall closer to my house, Southdale Center. The dealership is named Southdale Mini. They keep all the Minis in the mall parking lot (in a special section, of course). I really want a mini, so DH and I may actually be buying a car at a shopping mall this spring!

I made the mistake of getting a $200 single-speed bike from Performance with the intention of making it into a fixed gear. The stuff on it was so cheap I have spent $200-$300 just to make it rideable (read that as a new 2nd hand crank set to accommodate the standardized pedals, crank set adapter because it was an American sized BB, new fixie wheel, new front wheel because it was junk before, various cogs to get the right size, and I'm still not done!) And that isn't even all labor because my friend is an LBS guy and does a lot of the work I can't do for me for free.

It's always better to put the money into the bike upfront. Quality goes far!! :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pinkychique

I made the mistake of getting a $200 single-speed bike from Performance with the intention of making it into a fixed gear. The stuff on it was so cheap I have spent $200-$300 just to make it rideable (read that as a new 2nd hand crank set to accommodate the standardized pedals, crank set adapter because it was an American sized BB, new fixie wheel, new front wheel because it was junk before, various cogs to get the right size, and I'm still not done!) And that isn't even all labor because my friend is an LBS guy and does a lot of the work I can't do for me for free.

It's always better to put the money into the bike upfront. Quality goes far!! :p

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This reminds me of the song "Thousand Dollar Car" from the Bottle Rockets.

A line in it:
A $1000 car ain't even gonna roll,
til you throw at least another thousand in the hole.
Sink your money in it, and there you are
the owner of a 2,000 dollar 1,000 dollar car.