Tuneup and repair time

Bikes can go a very long time without tuneups. But sooner or later...

The fast bike got a complete makeover after getting semi-demolished by a little old lady. This means a new fork (apparently from marinoni), new crankset, new front wheel and tire, and the shop renewed the cables/housings ancient brake pads and the handlebar tape (these last few were getting quite old or icky).  They did not return to me any of the replaced parts.

The bouncy full suspension mountain bike got the bearings refreshed, and we would have been a bit happier if they had tightened the steering system, because the handle bars rapidly turned around when I started to ride. A BIG accident could have occurred, and the shop was not serious enough in its response to this failure of their quality control process. Ho Ho Ho sorry. Yeah, I could have died eh, real funny.

Last on the list was the city bike aka converted old mountain bike aka "Blue" (a bike that is perfect for locking up outside anywhere). We had a squeaky rear wheel (the famous rear wheel that isn't our XC-pro wheelset but stealthily turned up on the bike a few years ago after a visit to this same bike shop - and the next day came loose in the dropouts when starting up from a corner and causing us a year of shoulder rehab) and we finally put fenders on it since it is supposed to be the backup bike for commuting in poor conditions.  I had them cut off the seat post bolt since it was stripped. Imagine my surprise when they didn't replace the bolt.  I had to go back and get the bolt, (which they installed with a smile but then then did not cut off the excess bolt length).  The fender had to be attached to the fork with zip ties because the old fork does not have a bolt hole. But natch they did not return the unused bolt to me, which would have been nice since I paid for it.  Also, the rear wheel still squeaks! The rim was changed late last year so all the spokes are new but since this week we had the rear hub serviced (this was the point of the whole service visit) and the wheel still makes a noisy racket it must be the spokes and this is not a good outcome from the major coin I spent getting a rim replaced (supposedly bu trained professional bike mechanics) instead of buying a new cheapo wheelset.

Update:  It would have been nice if the shop had also adjusted the brakes after changing the pads, but that's easy to solve (after the first oh fuck shit the bike isn't stopping and the brake levers are touching the handlebars!). Less easy to solve is the re-growing of elbow and knee skin after the bike went down to the ground after the rear wheel came out of the dropouts because the shop didn't secure the quick release tightly enough. This is the second time this occurs.  I am generally ok but I get to regrow skin, which is an activity I do not enjoy at all.  My hand is fucked up too, hopefully not permanently.   I didn't name the shop, but I had enough with this and the full suspension mountain bike coming back with the handlebar stem loose causing the handle bars to suddenly twist when I started to ride home from the shop. Enough bullshit and I am lucky to be alive (three times I nearly got killed this week because their mechanics fucked up).

lesson: check your bike when receiving it back from the shop. Because even the big name, long standing bike shops screw up the work we pay them to do correctly, and the fact is they screw up regularly.