Trouble with bike shops

[lauraelmore1033]

I've had brake rub from the wheel not being quite true. It was on a new bike and I was told that it is common for new wheels to go out of true rather quickly.

[OakLeaf]

Have you had a bike with brifters before?

I don't know Sora, but in other Shimano gruppi, the front shifter is designed to "trim" the front derailleur with a half-push. It takes a firm push with a long lever travel to shift it. Likewise, the rear shifter can shift one or two cogs at once depending on how far you push the lever.

Cables will stretch on a new bike and need re-adjustment several times in the first few hundred miles.

Honestly, this type of adjustment (including brake pad alignment) is something you should be able to do yourself, because you'll want to make adjustments and replace frequently worn parts without running to the LBS every time. Browse through the Maintenance & Repair section for references to good books (sorry, I don't know any myself). Or if you're already comfortable with hand tools and good shop practices, Shimano's website and the Park Tool website, between them, have everything you need to know.

[alpinerabbit]

I'm too lazy and actually a bit scaired to do/learn these types of adjustments (although last year I did learn how to fine tune the limiter screws). My bike gets a yearly "haircut" from the trusted LBS, and that's that.

Shimano gruppi

argh - bike newspeak...

someone once even suggested only Campy can even legally be called a gruppo; the big S, not being italian bred, would be a groupset; but plural? screws up my ears good

[OakLeaf]

Oh, come on, we all call those-things-that-shift-the-chain-onto-another-cog by their French name even though we all know that Tullio Campagnolo invented them...

(And the limiter screws are a WAY more advanced class than the barrel adjusters for the cables, which is all I was suggesting the OP learn!)

[greta]

I think it actually hurt me way more than the bike. Fingers still swollen nearly two months later. Maybe the wheel is untrue. I was looking for info on how to fix the thing by myself. I don't like to be helpless in this position. Tommorow night theres a free clinic at REI I'm going to and they have a comprehensive bike clinic for $60.00 that I may go to next month. It's full this month.

Is there a section here that helps you know what position you are supposed to be on the bike? Seat adjustment and such?

I haven't had a bike with brifters before and the sora is a bit different where it has thumb shifters on each side. Left one downshifts the big gears, right one upshifts the back gears. They can shift more than one gear at a time if you push it twice as far. Thanks.

[Cataboo]

Greta, I hope your fingers get better - maybe you should get an xray?

While I do think it's really helpful to learn to make small adjustments yourself, you should definitely take the bike back to the original bike shop and make them fix it till it's right - they should also be able to put your seat in the right position. But basically you want your seat height at a level where when your pedal's at the bottom, your leg is almost all the way extended - just have a slight bend in your knee.

Do you know if a lot of your problems happened after the fall? We can't see the bike - but it doesn't completely sound like the bike was put together badly or wrong to me (I'm just not certain about the competing bike shop mechanics - was the 2nd one telling you that so you wouldn't go back to the first in the future and was the 1st telling you that the 2nd screwed up, so you wouldn't take it back to the 2nd? Either way, they both sound unpleasant). But being badly put together could definitely have contributed to things if things weren't tight. But in a fall, you can knock your brake calipers to the side, you can also knock your wheel out of true, and you can bend derailleur hangers. At the same time, the cables in new bikes stretch as your ride - both would contribute to issues with your brakes and the gearing... I'd expect that in the first couple months the shifting wouldn't stay perfect.

And I know when I initially started riding with road shifters, I used to get mad at and think my shifters were broken or not working a lot.... And as I've gotten more experienced... they behave a lot better than they used to. Now I can't say whether that's just 'cause my cables were stretching to begin with, or just I'm easier on the gears than I used to be...


If you pick up your front or back wheel and spin them while looking down between your brake calipers, you can sometimes tell if the wheel is out of true - just because it appears to get closer or further from one of the calipers if it's out of true.

[greta]

I had it xray'd already yesterday, I work in a hospital and thought I'd check it. I'm thinking it's a combination of all things. The brakes did get moved, they locked up and we had to do immediate surgery on them to get home. The cables probably did stretch out. My son looked at it this morning to check if the wheel was bent but saw nothing obvious when he spinned it.

I bought the bike at a bikes direct franchise shop that has mechanics and assembles them. They do a good business there and offer free tune ups forever if you buy it there. I got my mountain bike at a different store that offers free tune ups for one year. I should have just ordered and bought the bike at the one I got my mountain bike at but I was being cheap. I guess that'll teach me.