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It only went in for a service and a couple of things like new tire, swap the brakes from another bike.
I took three bikes in around middle of November to get serviced and do a couple of part swaps between bikes. I have two of them back, no problems with the service there, but the third one is nowhere to be seen. I was last at the shop at the beginning of February and was told they were just waiting on cable outers but I never actually saw my bike. Hadn't heard anything since then so emailed very early yesterday morning asking for an update, not heard anything from them yet.
I guess there are delays for various things due to current events, and maybe getting parts from the EU and beyond is difficult at the moment, but surely there's UK stock of something as commonplace as cable outers? Am I being taken for a mug here? I'm wondering if it's been damaged and/or nicked from their yard and they just don't know how to tell me.
No one here can resolve this. Think you’ll need to go and see them.
I ordered a 30m roll of Clarke’s gear outer and 100 cables from Amazon week before last, turned up a few days later. Can’t see bike shops struggling.
Have you tried ringing them or visiting them?
I know email should work, but most bike shops are a bit last century in their defence
I bought cable outer online last week, took a day. It's the sort of thing any shop would do if it came to it as hard to do any set servicing without them.
As above though you need to go see them if possible or call them if not.
That's nothing...
A customer once came in and dropped his Canyon Strive in for a service with me (last of the 26" wheeled ones), we quickly ascertained the Mavic rear wheel needed spokes and a freehub that were no longer readily available and informed the customer by way of answerphone messages (which he didn't return)...
Some 15 months later, he actually phoned the shop to find out what was going on with his bike! I politely informed him had he checked his phone messages that I repeatedly left once a week for the first 3 months his bike was in custody with us, and pretty much once a month thereafter, he might know (yes, we had already checked the phone number he left was correct by this point...).
Another 3 months passed and he turned up at the shop. In the politest terms I possibly could I told him to get the bike out of my sight in the next 2 minutes, or the £10 per week storage charge for anything over 2 weeks that I had previously waivered, would be re-administered quickly... He promptly realised that his bike wasn't worth a £750 storage charge (especially as he hadn't seen it, let alone ridden it in over 18 months!) and chucked it in his car and disappeared never to be seen again...
The moral of this story?
Give the bike shop a break... They are trying VERY hard right now, are often under staffed, always under stocked (you'd be surprised just how many common items are rarer than rocking horse poo right now), and give them the credit where it's due... Trust me, they'd rather be able to turn your bike around next day than have it sat around for months, tying up precious space and capital!
That’s nothing.
One of today’s lockdown tidying up jobs was going through uncollected repairs.
Some of which date back to the 00’s, and that’s ignoring the massive boxes already sorted through that go a lot further back than that....
They've had his bike for four months and it's his fault?
Seriously?
I would be having a not so polite word.
I agree. They've damaged something and are waiting for a replacement.
Give the bike shop a break… They are trying VERY hard right now,
Yeah, whatever.
Delay due to cable outer? Hmm something sounds suspicious to me. Just ring them up and say you’ll collect in a couple of days whether it’s done or not. You’ll either get it back or you’ll find out what’s really happened to it.
The moral of this story?
Give the bike shop a break… They are trying VERY hard right now, are often under staffed, always under stocked
I get this, but a month since he was last in and told they're waiting for a bit of cable outer; that doesn't sound particularly credible to me.
I'd be round there to request it back forthwith, outer or not.
The moral of this story?
I don't really get how your story is really relevant to the OP.
Sometimes customers suck. That's not a good excuse to deliver sucky customer service.
They’ve had his bike for four months and it’s his fault?
Yeah, I reckon so.
If he had a problem, he'd have been back already and picked it up.
Give them a call tomorrow op, that'll clear it up one way or another.
If it's just cable outers, you could settle up for work done and do that job at home perhaps?
Good luck either way buddy.👍
If he had a problem, he’d have been back already and picked it up.
The reason I've not been in and demanded my bike back is that a) I'm working away from home a lot, and b) one of the other bikes I took in is available for me to use on the times I've wanted a quick spin out somewhere. I've had no previous issues with the shop. In fact they generally go above and beyond, they're really friendly, they do home collection & delivery for bikes. Which is why this 4 month bike service is so out of character.
The outer cable issue was a big problem to the trade (as were any other parts/service items).
If the shop ordered a bulk roll during Lockdown 1, 2 or 3 they may still be waiting for delivery of back order.
Inferior brands were available but Shimano wasn't.
It's very easy to listen to the keyboard warriors about stuff but pick the phone up or pop into the shop and clarify what's going on. They may have a massive backlog of bikes to service/deal with and need a reminder.
It’s like a soap opera, do come back with tomorrow instalment. My ending is that the bike is a singlespeed, the shop owner has been baffled by this early 2000s niche contraption and is hoping he can somehow add gears.
The moral of this story?
Don’t assume that any form of indirect communication has reached the intended recipient.
Phone them and talk to someone.
The outer cable issue was a big problem to the trade (as were any other parts/service items).
If the shop ordered a bulk roll during Lockdown 1, 2 or 3 they may still be waiting for delivery of back order.
And there we have the very reason I asked the question. No point me phoning up all annoyed if there's a legitimate reason for things being delayed.
If I get a singlespeed back though I'll be furious. Degenerates to a man, anyone who has one of those things.
Do phone up nice and polite though, get it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
If they are really waiting on some gear cable outer suggest you just buy some sp41 online yourself, get it delivered in about 2 days and take that in for them to finish the job. Of course they'll miss out on charging as much for a metre as you pay for the roll, but it gets the bike out of their shop and back in your hands.
Unless its some kinda super duper exotic special outer like shimano discontinued yumeya there's no excuse, sp41 or jagwire lex supplies have not been devastated during the pandemic, I could have sorted you out with sp41 in 4 different colour options. If I was a shop waiting on bulk orders stuck in transit I'd just buy some from wherever to get your bike back to you and out of the shop, something iffy is going on.
Just buy some cable outer online and take it to them in the shop problem solved see what happens that is what I would do. Or ask them for the bike back?
IME if you dont mither people your request drops further and further down the priority list. a quick phone call to politely check the status fires it back to the top! thats in all walks not just bike shops. but applies particularly to bike shops in fairness.
If they have gone 3 or 4 months without hearing from you they assume your not that bothered about it and are busy dealing with the mitherers!
I was last at the shop at the beginning of February and was told they were just waiting on cable outers but I never actually saw my bike
NWS this apparent global and long lasting shortage on cable outer (if that's been going on best part of 12 months how have any bikes been built) something just doesn't sound right.
I agree with speaking to them rather than burning the shop down as a proportionate response, but I don't think it's keyboard warrioring to be asking for it to be either fixed immediately*, or I'd be taking it back and doing the job myself.
* as in - I'll be in tomorrow / at the weekend, not 'when you get round to it'
If your bike has been delayed for 4 months due to a shortage of outers then you would have to assume every bike that has needed new outers in the last four months has also been delayed.
That's an awful lot of bikes to store.
Do people really take bikes into shops for a 'service'...?
so what have they said after you phoned?
Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?
Yes. As much as I enjoy spannering, if something needs attention & I haven't got time I'm perfectly happy to pay somebody else to do it for me.
It would defeat the object if they kept it 4 months though 🙂
Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?
I mean, it wanted brakes swapping from another bike, new brake hoses, new brake fluid, new gear cables, fork service, dropper service and a tubeless tyre swap. I have precisely zero tools that will do those jobs, no cable cutters, no brake bleed kits, nothing for properly crimping things that need crimping, no c-clip opener thingys, no compressed air for seating the tyre. What else should I do?
For those asking for an update I've not phoned yet as I'm super busy at work, clearly evidenced by my chatting away in this thread. Sometime this afternoon...
Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?
Of course, loads do.
Unlike the inhabitants of STW, the majority of the public are not mechanics who'd snapped up by a world tour team if they had any sense. I suspect most could fix a puncture but anything gear or brake related gets sent to the shop.
OP, give then a call, not an e-mail, a call, speak to them and set a deadline when you'll be collecting it if needed. Bike shops and e-mail are not a good mix IMO.
If a company provides a means of contacting you, either by phone, email, smoke signals etc they should monitor those communication methods and reply to them as needed.
I can’t imagine a bike shop, unless it has a big online presence, having more than a handful of emails each day to respond to.
It’s the 21st century for crying out loud. It’s not as if emails are a new thing.
Do people really take bikes into shops for a ‘service’…?
I'm planning on taking mine in soon. I don't have much space for bike maintenance, or to store tools that only get used twice a year.
Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I'd be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.
Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I’d be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.
This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes or change a tyre, tubeless or not, is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!
Fork and dropper servicing I can understand, but most stuff on bikes are 10 minutes to half an hour jobs...
Maybe its just me but if a bike shop had my bike for nearly 4 months to do some basic stuff to it, pandemic or not, I’d be down there getting my bike back and taking it elsewhere.
Or at least giving them a call instead of conducting an opinion poll on the internet.
(But I really want to know what the reason is!)
This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes or change a tyre, tubeless or not, is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!
It's weird to me too. It's not the money thing, there are jobs I can't be arsed to do that I'd rather pay to make not my problem, it's that it's significantly less time to just do it myself than it is to take it to a bike shop.
This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes ...is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!
To you yes, but I’d never bother changing over brakes myself. I don’t have bleed kits, olives or spares, no garage to work in and no inclination to start bleeding brakes. Unless it can all be swapped by unbolting lever and caliper it’s going in to be done.
Fork and dropper servicing I can understand, but most stuff on bikes are 10 minutes to half an hour jobs…
You clearly haven't seen the "can you just...?" and "it'll only be a 10 minute job..." stuff that gets taken into bike shops!
The vast majority of bikes taken in to most shops (super boutique/custom end excepted) are treated just like any other "useful tool" like a car or a kitchen appliance or a boiler; the owners neither know nor care about how to fix any aspect of them and/or don't have the time, tools or space to do the job or the inclination to learn.
Edit: exactly like @kilo said ^^ while I was typing that out!
Fair enough I'll give you brakes if its all internally routed and you've never bled them before. But it's only a half hour job to bleed brakes, so would save time in the long run if you give it a go. Take it to the shop if you really can't do it, but I reckon most people would be able to do most stuff if they just had a go. You don't actually need that many non standard tools either....
looking forward to hearing the reason...
You clearly haven’t seen the “can you just…?” and “it’ll only be a 10 minute job…” stuff that gets taken into bike shops!
Au contraire - some of the shit my mates have presented me with over the years.....
But thats ind of my point, 10 minutes or half an hour here and there and bike generally run pretty well. Forks, shocks, droppers other than general maintenance, ye get them to the shop!
Take it to the shop if you really can’t do it, but I reckon most people would be able to do most stuff if they just had a go.
Given the number and state of bikes that I used to get in the shop after the owner had given up on the DIY route would suggest there is a significant percentage of the population who can't and/or shouldn't.
No reason yet I'm afraid. I tried phoning on my lunch hour but it's half day closing on a Wednesday. I'll try again tomorrow, I promise. I didn't realise my little saga would pique so many interests.
As for not understanding why I took the bikes in: apart from not having any of the tools required to do the work, I'm away with work for a bare minimum of 4 weeks at a time (the time away also explains why I've not already made more of a noise about it). I'm not riding my bikes when I'm working so why not just take them to the shop? I thought supporting your local bike shop was what all the cool kids were doing?
I thought supporting your local bike shop was what all the cool kids were doing?
One of the quirks of STW is you should support your LBS but if you support them by having them work on your bike you are an inadequate bike owner.
You should only support them by paying full RRP for components that you would probably get quicker if you ordered them online.
I reckon the OP was the bike shop's 10,000th customer and his prize is that they have spent all year converting his bike into a £10,000 concept superbike with custom gold paint job for free
But still with no outers
I used to leave bike at shop and say hey, I’m going to be on holiday no rush, fit it in when you can or similar. In these cases there was never a time and it always got put back on the queue. I walk in, say hi and make a joke, gets fixed within 24 hrs.
If it’s parts they are struggling on I will offer to source / pay corkage equivalent. Whenever I do this they always find the part very quickly.
I find best mechanics are often not the best admin people but all good. I’d rather that then great admin, bad mech.
This. Taking a bike to a shop to swap over brakes or change a tyre, tubeless or not, is just rediculous to me. People must have too much money!
Fair enough I’ll give you brakes if its all internally routed and you’ve never bled them before. But it’s only a half hour job to bleed brakes, so would save time in the long run if you give it a go.
Never heard the phrase 'cash rich, time poor'?
I'm not cash rich, but right now am extremely 'time poor', work is all consuming, we're moving house and have a bored and under-stimulated 3.5yr old to look after.
Working on my bikes would be LUXURY to be honest. The only reason I don't get a shop to look at them is I don't have the time to take them to a shop that I'd trust!
and this half arsed attempt at contacting shop is why it's been there so long 🙄
Where is it, I’ll call up if I can have it 😉
Fair enough I’ll give you brakes if its all internally routed and you’ve never bled them before. But it’s only a half hour job to bleed brakes, so would save time in the long run if you give it a go. Take it to the shop if you really can’t do it, but I reckon most people would be able to do most stuff if they just had a go.
I probably could do it but I can’t be arsed to. I’m not sure I see the pleasure in bleeding a brake tbh and given it’s not something I need to do that often and it’s not a particularly transferable skill, why bother. Also my lbs is about ten minutes away any time saving would be minimal.
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
Why? What changes?
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes
Sheesh we’ve got twenty one bikes, does this mean I can or can’t support our lbs
To you yes, but I’d never bother changing over brakes myself. I don’t have bleed kits, olives or spares, no garage to work in and no inclination to start bleeding brakes. Unless it can all be swapped by unbolting lever and caliper it’s going in to be done.
Which is fair enough. But would you leave it 4 months until you wondered where your bike was?
Half day closing on Wednesday, can’t believe that’s still a thing.
Must admit, I was taken aback by that too. Thought that had died out last century.
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
For many people riding a bike is a hobby, something to do when they have a bit of spare time. That's riding it, not maintaining it or upgrading it or turning it into the next superendrodownhillmonstertrail bike. Surprisingly most folks have other things to do with their lives.
I'm also interested in what changes I should make, and how you've gleaned that information from this post 😆
So I have three bikes? One belongs to my wife, one is an 11 year old beater with some admittedly nice-at-the-time bits, one's a second hand bike I wanted change some stuff on, mainly a rear tyre because the previous owner lives in southern Spain and I live in Scotland. Hardly indicative of an extravagant life being thoroughly ill-lived I would have thought, but please greeny30, help me see the error of my ways.
Half day closing on Wednesday, can’t believe that’s still a thing.
Round my way, they don't even bother with half day. They take the whole day off. Seriously, most of the high street bar the two supermarkets are closed all day on Wednesdays.
And all this stuff about not bothering with a bike shop - just cos you have all the tools and time and space to fix bikes doesn't mean everyone does! Nothing wrong with supporting the LBS - most make their living off maintenance work!
People with no tools or time or bike maintenance skills or mates with tools but own three bikes maybe need to make some changes.
Well that's you told OP. 😉
You need to get cracking on some tool buying ,pronto.
Have a quick blast round some Youtube bike fixin films,then when you have a mo get your blinkin work/life balance sorted out.🤣😜
I do all my work on my bikes but when I’ve seen friends take theirs to the local bike shop I’ve always been amazed how cheap the work is. I’ve no idea how bike shops make money as lots of jobs seem to be £5 or £10 plus parts. If I didn’t enjoy working on mine the cost of using a shop wouldn’t be a consideration.
Seems to be a STW theme that everything is expensive, ebikes, bike parks etc etc or maybe cyclists are just tight and like moaning about spending on anything.
About the same amount of time as I've been waiting for a Hope five20 RS front wheel.
I'm a shit mechanic, cheaper to get it done right than buying another bit to fit.
Ooh ooh ooh I too currently own 3 bikes and don't have any mates that I can borrow tools from, or any maintenance skills either. @greeny30 please advise me on how I can become as super awsumz as you?
Tom-B, there is no hope for you, sorry. Incompetent Billy no mates will never be as super awsumz as me 😀
Never mind the bickering, are we gonna find out today?
im thinking this now
and this half arsed attempt at contacting shop is why it’s been there so long 🙄
OP has put a lot more effort into this thread than he has getting his bike back.
It's got to be over 4 months with how long this thread feels like it's been going.
Phoned them just now. Delay has been brake hoses, they're on it today. Don't worry though: I told them I'm out of the country unti mid-late March and not to rush, so it's going right back to the end of the queue 😀
Better than "Bike? What bike?"
Which hoses do you need?
🙂
Which hoses do you need?
They've had the hoses for ages, they just left it at the back of the queue.
Good to hear the OP's LBS is busy though.
🙂
Better than “Bike? What bike?”
I wouldn't have been entirely surprised to hear that - glad it's not the case!
We had a policy of selling off repaired bikes after a certain period of zero contact (6 months IIRC). There was a schedule of phone calls you had to go through but we did sell a couple when the owner failed to get back to us.
Another branch of the store had an incident where they'd done that and then the guy had arrived to collect his bike a further 2 months down the line. He tried to claim he'd changed his phone number but a member of staff who could overhear this argument on the shop floor nipped into the office and called the number they had on record for him. He answered. 🤣
Christ theres some drivel on this thread.
mugs get mugged off, more effort has gone into your post than getting your sh*t together, have a safe trip, at least the average IQ of the country will go up for a couple of weeks, useless muppet.
Was that meant to be light hearted as well?
One of my customers has no clue at all about his bike. He even brings it to me to adjust his saddle height.
Clearly he's a low IQ useless muppet and I am far superior to him.
But then he's spent the last year developing a covid vaccine, whilst I've been fitting brake cables to rusty Apollos.
I suspect his time is more valuable than mine. Lovely guy as well.
Every one has different skills.
Well there's a few minutes I won't get back 😀
What's probably happened is likely innocent enough - to start with anyway.
Shop took bike in, forgot to order parts and it got left.
Customer didn't chase, so it got left some more.
Shop may have realised at some point it was there but it had been so long since customer brought it in and said customer hasn't chased, that it would be embarrassing to speak to customer now.
More time passes and customer finally calls. On the spot 'reason' for delay is made.
Customer lets them off and gives even more time.
Bike goes back to where it was and is forgotten about.
Until the next instalment.
Six of one and half dozen the other but, a fair bit of the 'problem' could have been avoided if the OP had chased them earlier. Not doing so after more than say a couple of weeks because he thought they would be busy etc was a little short sighted imho.
They want stuff in and out as quick as we (should) want bikes back.
@boriselbrus Actually, I have a. similar friend. Before rides, if we didn't tell him to put clothes on, wear a helmet, pump up tires etc he would simply not do it, and then wonder why he was cold, bike was hard to pedal, has a puncture etc. In fact, all the those things have actually happened.
I'm stunned he is such a Wally, but then he is a super f'ing amazing research doctor right at the cutting edge of Alzheimer's treatment, so we just call him a plonker, have a laugh and help him out. Crazy genius.
Every one has different skills.
Nutshell
Shop took bike in, forgot to order parts and it got left.
Customer didn’t chase, so it got left some more.
Not quite. Took all three bikes in November - actually the bike shop came and collected them from my house, they're a good shop.
Got first bike back the first week of December. Paid the bill over the phone, "your other two bikes are waiting for parts, Mr TheFlyingOx". No problem.
Went away with work mid-December, 2nd bike was ready mid-January and they delivered back to the house. When I got home at the beginning of Feb I went in to pay for the work on the 2nd bike, "still waiting on some parts for the bike we still have, Mr TheFlyingOx". No problem.
I come away to work again on 16th Feb. Was speaking to my wife a couple of days ago and asked if LBS had been in touch yet. She says "no", and me not wanting to cause a scene by blindly asking why the devil it's taken them nearly 4 months so far ask on here to see if any of the resident bike shop experts know of a reason why there might be delays, e.g. getting bits from Europe due to Covid/Brexit. Turns out there are, as per @ginsterdrz. No problem.
Somehow this is evidence of me being shit at spannering, having no mates, having a low IQ, getting my work/life balance all wrong, having poor time management, having too much money, getting mugged off, being a muppet, and not making enough effort to contact the LBS. I've enjoyed it immensely 😀
Thought that had died out last century.
Nope my new-to-me LBS does as well.
As for taking it in for servicing, stuff like frame bearings and wheel building etc I'll always take it in, the job will be done correctly and will work...Other stuff, I'm pretty much have a go at.
Frankly I'd be happy to have an LBS to fling things at on occasion, as it is my nearest is at the other end of the shire.
Unlike the inhabitants of STW, the majority of the public are not mechanics who’d snapped up by a world tour team if they had any sense
Hmm, considering most of the inhitants struggle to set up a front mech I wouldn't be so sure.