Anyone else get stressed dealing with bike shops?

Nope. My bike only goes to one of two places when required; Stif or Setchfield Cycles.

Once you find a good one (or two) don't stray from the path.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';">" don’t get stressed about it but after a couple of incidents of poor work I no longer let anyone but me touch my bikes.  So thats my tip – learn to do stuff yourself"</span>

This^^^ for me x100.  Other than sending the forks and shock away to someone like TF Tuned for the work I just don't have the  tooling (like Nitrogen charging equipment), I do all my own spannering.  Several reasons.

1- I'll do a better job.

2- I'll get it done in less days / weeks

3 - I don't have to cock around taking the bike to the shop and retrieving it at times that suit the shop rather than the times when I'm working myself

4 - if it's late being repaired it's my own fault

5 - if it subsequently fails on the road / trail, its my own fault.

6.  It won't fail after the repair because I know I do the job right (See #1).

I've seen too many fhuckups from bike shops to scare you to death on mates bikes - inc. 2x loose brake calipers on a new Santa Cruz Bronson (FFS what a monumentally dangerous ballsup - one caliper detached after 75% of the 1st peaks downhill on a new bike. And the other was flopping about). And loose stem bolts on handlebars (yep the bars rotated around and down when 2 miles into the 1st ride - clearly not tightened correctly in the 1st place).

I’ve seen too many fhuckups from bike shops to scare you to death on mates bikes – inc. 2x loose brake calipers on a new Santa Cruz Bronson (FFS what a monumentally dangerous ballsup – one caliper detached after 75% of the 1st peaks downhill on a new bike. And the other was flopping about).

Just wait until you come across a bike shop that doesn't know there are two distinct types of brake fluid.

50% of their customers were happy with the work performed.

Only two jobs I wouldn’t take on myself, truing a wheel (always ends up worse) and bar tape (I can never do a neat job).

I used to use an LBS but stopped as I’ve found bikes are fiddly to adjust but mechanically simple to get set up (brakes, indexing etc.)  you always need to adjust something after you ride for a few kms. This needs tools and you gain the skills so why take to the shop?

Couple of the people who service and repair, ride with us on a Sunday. I do try to do most jobs myself on my bike but for the more complex tasks I'd rather give the work to an expert.

I wonder if some of the issues raised are due to increasing complexity of bikes (internal routing, electronic gears, tubeless, e-bikes etc that require a bit more than just a spotty little oik* tightening a few bolts and that some bike shops have simply not adapted to this brave new world...?

After all, if your main trade is the kids bikes and basic BSO stuff, you're going to be somewhat confused when a £5000 e-bike with disc brakes and adjustable suspension shows up for service...

*stereotype alert!

So I may have been overly harsh about the hub service. Apparently DTswiss hubs can be an absolute bugger to service.

Sending my shock off for a service is all I'll trust others with, I don't want anyone else working on my bike, I simply don't trust any shop with my bike, knowing it's done right because I've done it myself gives so much peace of mind, I'm quite handy though and can turn my hand to a lot of things, I've made a few of my own tools and jigs, always been like that since I was a nipper, pulling things apart and putting them back together.

Topstone Lefty just back from Billy Bilslands, it was in for a fork service, all done in about 10 days ( they don’t service Lefty’s in house), a general bike look over and a very well priced overall deal.

Dropped my Synapse in a few weeks back for a gear tweak after they swopped it over to Ultegra 12 di2, again, no fuss, in for a day or so.

Cannae beat a good local shop…

EDIT, similar superb service from PedalPower with my Spesh e-bikes and supply and setup of my new Diverge,

Sending my shock off for a service is all I’ll trust others with, I don’t want anyone else working on my bike, I simply don’t trust any shop with my bike, knowing it’s done right because I’ve done it myself gives so much peace of mind, I’m quite handy though and can turn my hand to a lot of things, I’ve made a few of my own tools and jigs, always been like that since I was a nipper, pulling things apart and putting them back together.

Very Much this^^

It's half a point of honour, half a sense of personal security. I'm not sure I could deal with being utterly reliant on a bike shop to do everything for me.

That said I sort of understand why some folks need to rely on a good LBS, some people just aren't mechanically inclined and glaze over if you try to explain any of it to them... that's until it's costing them money. Then they fall into two camps those incredulous at the cost of new parts and other skilled people's time, and those very much focussed on the residual value of their (heavily financed and currently non-functional) asset. I tend to avoid assisting either sort now, unless it's a true emergency...

The complexity point above is a good one too, I despise internal routing, not because I don't see the (marginal) benefits, but because having it on the outside of the bike and thus completely accessible for maintenance was just so much simpler and faster. If you're on the boundary of able to do basic spannering and preferring to pay someone else and you're suddenly faced with a brake or gear line just disappearing into a hole in the side of the downtube, I can see why that might send you off to someone with a cyctec certificate...

I don't have any problems with the shops I use 1 x Wakefield, 1 x Leeds & 1 x Slough but I don't work on bikes so I suppose they could tell me anything.

My experience of bike shops completely changed infinitely for the better when I moved out here to NZ, where here bike shops are invariably friendly, helpful and somewhat radically - put the customer first - always.

In the UK, this approach seems to be completely alien, so I previously avoided bike shops like the plague. Inevitably the UK bike shop experience would involve being talked down to (as if I was a complete ignorant twunt) in a surly condescending way by someone who probably wasn't even born by the time I started mountain biking.

Here in NZ, for example, I hand over a box of new bits that I want fitted to my bike - and they cheerfully fit them. No questions, no hassle, no condescension. They will trouble shoot any problems if they arise and cheerfully let me know possible solutions. They are always quick, professional and do a great job.

The only downside is that I've now become completely lazy about doing my own maintenance and fixing, whereas I used to do absolutely everything myself.

Like most of you I've had some truly dreadful and expensive experiences with bike shops making a mess of things.

I don't think it's unique to bike shops though. I could give you a list of bad experiences. People claiming to be experts but being bodger's at best. Farriers, plumbers, mechanics, accountants.

There are good people out there, who know their stuff, take pride in their work and expertise.

So if you are in Newcastle and want a bare foot trimmer (and discussion about shoeing horses), mechanic, decorator, carpenter etc. I can probably give you a list.

I tend to go off friends recommendations. Failing that, the streets wattsapp group is good for tradespeople.

I stopped using a local shop after getting mocked for having the wrong brakes, Granddad.

I popped in for some brake pads to be told "nobody uses those brakes any more"

I do.

"They were terribly unreliable"

I've had them years without a hitch.

"They were a cow to change the pads"

I just popped mine out while the kettle boiled...

Could he not have just said "Sorry, we don't have any of those in today"?

I did once have a shop assistant refuse to sell me a SRAM powerlink because I was using a Shimano chain 😂

@Crazylegs wrote: What I do like doing is cleaning it – I’m very happy just sitting at home and giving it a thorough clean. It’s quite therapeutic.

We can feed you one night a week if you can clean one of the bikes in our garage? it can be an ongoing thing, we've enough bikes to keep you going for a couple of months thenit will be time to start again 🙂

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