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amazed a late 80’s Cannondale with a 6′ rider is not cracked anyway. BITD most of them my riding friends owned did (in the seat tube area)
Maybe the seatpost insertion wasn't deep enough ? 😉
In my lbs employee days, I would not have charged for this.
I'd hope I'd have refused to pay too, but no one enjoys these situations.
FWIW I've seen all sorts of odd things in seat tubes in terms of butting, they're not like other tubes in that a seatpost has to go in there and a manufacturer may do odd things to get an accepted size in.
LBS generally aren’t no win no fee.
A fair few are a bit though. If they take a job in and fail ( removing a siezed bottom bracket maybe) they don't charge. They loose a bit of time but profession pride means they won't charge for failure.
True. But if I brought in a frame which couldn’t be sorted due to no fault of the shop, I’d pay.
Customer: "Can you ream out this seat tube so that I can get this seat post in it?"
Shop: "OK"
After this exchange I wouldn't expect to pay anything if the job wasn't done.
Customer: "Can you ream out this seat tube so that I can get this seat post in it?"
Shop: "OK but if it turns out it's the tube butting that's stopping the post going in then it won't be possible. We can try but if it doesn't work we still have to charge you."
After this exchange the customer doesn't really have anything to complain about.
The LBS should have used this loss of £20 to learn a valuable lesson in customer communication. As it happened, they'll probably do the same thing with the next customer who comes in with an iffy job and lose another potential repeat customer.
Repeat until bankruptcy.
LBS generally aren’t no win no fee.
This for me. Assuming no parts are involved, you asked them to do some (skilled) labour for you, for which the charge was £20.
But they didn't do it .
I just work on principle if I was to supply bits which didn’t / couldn’t work then I’d expect to pay for thier wasted time. £20 - without a second thought. More and I’d have second thoughts / start sucking my teeth.
Not going to bother adding to the debate re if they should have charged (they should have) but merely comment that £20 seems way too little for this job. £20 barely gets you out of Saturday boy mending a puncture for a lazy commuter using his cub scout bicycle maintenance badge skills and a couple of spoon ends. Changing the wall thickness/internal diameter of the frame is a proper job with proper tools and has the potential to bork the bike. £20 for that would have been blinding; £20 for a poke around to see if it was possible still feels ok VFM.
cool where do you live as I will look at your bike, not do what you want and I get £20 and you get VFM
It a win win scenario for us both
With respect you know sweet didly about anything I'd pay for being more at the beaver end of the expertise pantheon. £1.75 and a cadbury fudge and you've got a deal (more as a bob-a-job style sympathy gift).
Hacksaw + Seatpost = job done.
My expertise is irrelevant, as I wont be doing the job.
as I wont be doing the job.
Me neither. Not for that whingy **** anyway.
I hope the "whingy ****“ comment wasn't aimed at me..? I've tried throughout to take pains not to moan or whinge (as I'm not), merely query the situation and ask for input, which has been gratefully received and I've accepted that I was being partly unreasonable in the way that I was feeling.
I have, however, found it interesting that several of the people who are working/have worked in bike shops have been the ones that have said they wouldn't have charged the full amount, or at all - whilst those who (I assume) don't have had the opposing view.
I find it depressing how many folk say "well you asked them to do something so you should expect to pay even if they did something else of no value to you" - what kind of victims are you as consumers?
Also I think the OP is out a bit out too, seatpost reaming isn't necessarily an easy or quick job, it can turn into a nightmare, tools are easily damaged and expensive
Al - two contrasting comments but together probably about right. LBS should (may have, just the OP didn't want to hear it so didn't) said something along the lines of 'we'll give it a go but success is not a certainty, but it'll cost you for us to spend time trying' which would have cleared up where everyone stood from the outset.
Agree with those last two, You cannot charge full whack for not doing the agreed job but you cannot expect them to work for free either
I'd be a little pissed off myself in your situation. It's not what was agreed.
I'd be more pissed off and people making a judgement on my character based on asking on here and even taking on board the comments.
I'd probably not use that shop again.
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Yes, you are bring unreasonable as are a number of respondants.
You asked for non standard modifications and after agreeing, they discovered in the workshop that your frame would not safely (their opinion) cope with the mod. As you would doubtlessly hold them responsible if they had modded the frame as requested and it had failed, it’s reasonable that they can say ‘actually this isn’t safe’.
You’ve paid for time and an expert opinion and they haven’t doggedly wrecked your frame to carry out orders. Sounds fine to me.
Right, bit of a technical update for all those suggesting what I was asking was an unsafe frame modification that would wreck the frame...
I've had a look down the seat tube myself (something I should have done first, but we'll gloss over that), and there's no big lip, no internal butting, nothing like that - what is preventing the seatpost from inserting further is merely the edge of the original factory reaming. The outer diameter of the seat tube is a constant 32.0mm including paint thickness, and the top 190mm has been reamed to accept a 27.2mm seatpost, giving a wall thickness of just over 2mm allowing for paint.
To prove a point, I put a 26.8mm seatpost in, and surprise surprise, it went all the way in. So all that needs to be taken off is 0.2mm all the way round - well within the correct tolerance for that size of reamer.
My guess is that back in the '80s, the inner diameter of the tubing was merely a nominal diameter that was required to be reamed accurately for the expected seatpost size. Which is what I will be going back and asking for, seeing as I've already paid for it. But nicely, because you know, civilised and all that...!
Not going to bother adding to the debate re if they should have charged (they should have)
Ha Ha brilliant stuff .
So all that needs to be taken off is 0.2mm all the way round – well within the correct tolerance for that size of reamer.
Bike shop reamers are not designed AFAIK to remove that amount of material, it's just not as simple as you want to believe.
Do you have a machine shop nearby? They will have someone who reams stuff daily.
Fit a 26.8 post of your choice with a 27.2 shim anywhere between 100-190mm long.
😉
For the third time.....
You probably need an ADJUSTABLE reamer to take out that amount of material.
I've almost offered to help you out if local (as I have access to a full set) but you haven't bothered to indicate roughly where in the country you live.
And I'd also suggest removing the bb unless you want it full of swarf and cutting fluid.
Sorry, I completely missed that! I do apologise, and thank-you for the input - the BB shell is sealed with no vent hole into the seat tube so I'd just need to flush out the swarf.
I'm based in Surrey/Hants borders area, and we do have a machine shop at work (but no machine reamer of the correct size), and one locally that we use for production work actually.
Unfortunately wrong end of the country.
Would be worth you asking in any local small machine at shops as they may have an adjustable set tucked away somewhere. Our set at work just hides at the back of a cupboard - 90% of it's use is me after hours!