My Bike is Sad

A few weeks ago I did a race in the freezing, pouring rain. It ruined my bike.

We went to the LBS to buy new parts: chain, brake pads, cassette, shifting cable and housing . . .

DH was going to fix my bike but (surprise, surprise) he decided he didn't have time and told me to go ahead and have LBS do the fixes. It took awhile for all the parts to come in but finally last week Thursday LBS called and said my bike was done. I'm a bit on edge because I haven't ridden since that last race AND I have Iceman(!!!!) this coming weekend!

I go to the LBS and immediately the mechanic has me sit down. :confused: He then explains that they haven't been able to fine-tune the shifting and that it isn't working properly. :( So they went ahead and ordered a different cassette--Shimano Mountain. DH had ordered 10 sp. SRAM. LBS believes they can get it to work with the new cassette. But . . . it will be a few days before they can get one in!!!

They did give me a demo but it's too big.

DH is mad because he thinks LBS ordered the wrong cassette and that a SRAM cassette should work just fine. LBS is telling me one thing, DH another. I don't know enough about bikes to know what's what.

Anyways, 5 days and counting down and I still don't have a bike to ride :(:(:(:( I am soooo not looking forward to getting the bill for this repair.

Ugh. If they're confident a different cassette will solve the problem, could you cover the cost of overnight shipping? That's what I did when my freehub failed a week before my triathlon.

Or, if it's backordered, I expect they'd be understanding if you sourced it somewhere else and had it overnighted.

Good idea! I'll give them a call and ask about shipping, etc.! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by limewave

DH is mad because he thinks LBS ordered the wrong cassette and that a SRAM cassette should work just fine. LBS is telling me one thing, DH another. I don't know enough about bikes to know what's what.

Anyways, 5 days and counting down and I still don't have a bike to ride :(:(:(:( I am soooo not looking forward to getting the bill for this repair.

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Hey, in the future if you ever need something like this done I know a guy who does really good wrenching work for beer.... ;)

Hope everything is good to go well before Friday!

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Originally Posted by limewave

I go to the LBS and immediately the mechanic has me sit down. :confused: He then explains that they haven't been able to fine-tune the shifting and that it isn't working properly. :( So they went ahead and ordered a different cassette--Shimano Mountain. DH had ordered 10 sp. SRAM. LBS believes they can get it to work with the new cassette. But . . . it will be a few days before they can get one in!!!

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I wonder if what your bike really needs is a new rear derailleur... The muck might have gotten into the pivot points and now the RD is sloppy.

FYI: At the bike co-op I've seen a number of post year 2000 bikes come in that won't shift properly. They've been clean and apparently low mileage bikes. And yet, the RD's have been sloppy. They'll usually shift correctly in one direction but not the other.

Even if bikes have low miles there still can be issues with dropouts etc.. my suggestion is that if the bike will shift in one direction and have troubles going the other way then there are a couple of issues. First, there is always the cable tension issue, but the logical part of me says it can also be the spring in the rear derailleur is worn out. I know that we think with low mileage bikes that this shouldn't happen, but as we all know dirt/grit do a number on bikes. The way to check this is to pedal the bike in the stand and manually push the derailleur to the opposite end of the cassette(do not use the shifters to do this). If the chain falls back to its orginal spot quickly, then that obviously isn't the issue... but if it tends to hang up and be very slow then replace the derailleur along with a new cable/housing.

Now as far as cassettes, Shimano and Sram should work fine... although I will admit that I prefer SRAM. It's very difficult to buy parts this time of year simply because all of our suppliers are waiting on orders that might take a bit... remember in bike world we are already in the 2013 calendar year. For future, I would suggest that you always have a spare chain, cassette and brake pads... that way if you're travelling for a race and the local shop doesn't have what you need then you'll be all set. I know it can be expensive, but it can save all sorts of stress in situations like this.

If your cassette doesn't arrive, why not ask whether the shop has a cassette on a new bike that you can buy and replace it with yours when it comes in. Some times this time of year, it isn't that the shipping is a problem it's that the amount of our mimimum orders are sometimes too large for this time of year... I've also had some issues like that in the past couple of weeks. As a shop owner, do you spend $150- $200 when you only need one or two items?

I do hope that your cassette arrives in time, and good luck in your race!! Let us kow how everything turns out for you.

Now I am even more freaked out about my bike!!!!! What I am confused about is that they said the back shifts just fine, it's the front that wasn't shifting at all. I don't know how a new cassette will help the front . . . but I admittedly don't know squat about the mechanics.

I quess I missed where you mentioned that it was the front that wasn't shifting OOPS! If the back is shifting well, then why is there worry about a new cassette? I guess I'm a bit confused ???

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Originally Posted by ridebikeme

I quess I missed where you mentioned that it was the front that wasn't shifting OOPS! If the back is shifting well, then why is there worry about a new cassette? I guess I'm a bit confused ???

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I don't know! I don't know what's going on. This is just what I'm being told. Sigh. I really miss my bike.

The cassette may need to be replaced because of excessive tooth wear caused by a worn-out/grunged-up chain. Ages ago I used to ride my mtb in really muddy conditions. And in one especially muddy ride (...there was so much mud on the tires that they could barely rotate between the seat stays) I managed to ruin the chain and severely wear the teeth on the freewheel and one chainring. You can bet I learned my lesson - I never rode in extremely muddy conditions again!

Went to LBS last night to check up on my bike as I hadn't heard anything. Turns out they forgot to order the parts. I made the suggestions (thanks ridebikeme for the idea) to take the parts off a bike on the floor then replace those with the ordered parts when they come in. That's what they did. I have the bike home with me now. It is still having issues shifting. The back seems to be okay but the front is very slow in shifting, especially into the littlest ring. DH still needs to replace the cable and housing--fingers crossed that will fix the issue!