Bike repairs, and as usual the shop does some really inferior work

The full suspension bike has all new disc brakes since the original Avid ones apparently are complete POS and "oxidize" after three seasons use.  We took it to the vendor xxx cycles for a complete brake replacement.  Actually we took it in for pad replacement up front and bleed the rear brake line (again!!!) but they told me I needed new brakes. WTF? Three seasons of mild use and I need complete replacement of the rotors and calipers? OK, I like safe brakes but still... big disappointment.

Great, new brakes... so how come the disappointment continues?

What we mean by that is... How come the brand new brakes installed by xxx shop staff seem... weird?

The brake levers hit the handlebars! Brand new brakes should not hit the handlebars nor should they need two or three squeezes to pump up the brake fluid because the brake lines were not bled properly.

Again... crap service from xxx. Let me clear, sometimes it is good but this is highly variable.


A few years ago they lost my quality rear wheel and installed someone else's cheap POS wheel and not my Suntour XC-Pro based wheel.  As part of the same servicing they didn't tighten the rear wheel tight enough, and it popped out of the dropouts causing me an accident and a major shoulder injury involving a one year recovery.

Did I mention the new rear wheel for the road bike where they said hey, we'll install the new tire no problem and it blew off the rim 5 minutes after I left the store? Nice work guys.

Did I mention the tiny wire from brake/shifter cable cuttings that found its way into my tire last october and caused a flat the day after a shop visit and five minutes into the ride?  Sweep the floors!

The disappointments keep adding up.

Why do I keep going back?  Why didn't I sue their asses off after the accident? How come they can't keep quality levels consistent, and by that we mean consistently high?

Quality matters. And it matters a lot.

Local bike shops need to up their game, and xxx in particular needs to improve their service department quality level a lot.