[Closed] That Awkward Feeling When You Figure Out What's Wrong With Your Mate's Bike...

You've learned two things by the sounds of it:

1) You now know when his time of the month is

2) That you need a new mate

If he doesn't trust you then he's not much of a mate then is he 😀

What Andy said. Divorce is required I think

And why is he your mate to begin with?

Tell him to go and screw himself.
APF

Should I got Frank Underwood on him and have him pushed under the train next time the Circle Line comes round?

He has been a decent enough mate until now. I think people who've not done any spannering in earnest don't appreciate how much of an MTB is a consumable. Doesn't help that we get ripped off for consumables.

He'll calm down by Monday. Trouble is, will I give enough of a toss to listen to the explanation? Or will I even care? Culling time I reckon.

Send him the bill

Good job you didn't spot a crack on his chainstay. He'd have burned your house down.

He sounds a tad unreasonable.

Why is a borked hanger a 4 figure sum?
And why is a borked hanger worth storming off about?

Wait for his apology before your next move.

It could be a long wait.

It could be a short wait.

Doesn't sound like it will be your loss though.

he sounds like a prick, he should be grateful u spotted what it was or his next ride could have been a funeral pass

A new Mech hanger is 15 to 35 quid.

They are designed to break but not when you take the wheel off

If he replaces the Mech hanger and it fixes the problem I would expect an apology and I would never offer to fix it again. ...

Unless his freehub freezes in which case I would offer to wee on it!

If a new Mech hanger doesn't solve it I'm still not sure I'd apologize as you had good intentions.

Next time spell out the rules before you start. I will fix for free but don't expect .......

It rather sounds like that if it wasn't this episode that enabled him to show his true colour's, then it would have been another at some point in the future. I daresay it's nothing personal to you, that's the way he chooses to be, until he hopefully realises at some point that his behaviour is not the best.

Might he be aware of his behaviour/attitude? Can you be the one to point it out to him? You don't have to if you don't feel its worth your while.

Hopefully, you won't let this/him taint your generous nature with others in the future, and this experience will help you to become more aware of how some people are.

I've typed and deleted three responses to your post.. I feel like I'm missing something in what you posted,
Are you 'involved' in his frame ownership or something? Or do you just help him out with spannering?
I'm confused why it's your fault unless he's a complete knob..

Dhana, the king of the spanner monkeys, wtf have you been up to now?

wot are you, twelve?

Think he was under some pressure. Doesn't help that he doesn't know enough about bikes. Doesn't help that I diagnosed his last broken derailleur as well. One was after a stack. This one he claims to have no knowledge of. Guess sometimes we don't know what's going to break them.

What an a hole.

I don't see what you did wrong?

Sounds uncharitable but never offer to fix anything for anyone. In the event that something does go wrong or it's irreparable then they will likely hold you responsible. A recent experience has hammered this home 😕

Do stuff for mates. Spannering, Fork Services, Wheel builds. Always caviat beforehand that if it goes horribly wrong and I haven't knowingly ****ed up then its on their head.

Ah well Davey boy. We aren't all pragmatic enough to deal with a loose linkage bolt while riding across a Spanish mountain pass. Takes less to break the weaker ones.

he needs teaching some manners and needs to fix his own bike in future.

does he control other people also?

Let the douche sort his own bike next time. 😉

Sounds like a cock! Let him sort his own bike next time the ungrateful bar steward!

as the saying goes "no good deed goes unpunished"
never ever

He probably knocked the bike over and knew it was damaged but was looking for someone to blame.

There seem to be a lot of perfect people on here, and who have such an endless supply of friends that they'll dump a mate over one stupid episode. Don't listen to them. Presumably he's a mate because he has other redeeming qualities apart from being a bit of a tool occasionally? Just tell him you won't do any spannering for him again, and why.

Buy a new mech hanger and fit it for him. £20 or so and calm is restored. Then explain that it breaking is one of those things and that it was broken before you touched it, hence his wheel not going in properly.

Or explain about it already being broken and tell him to stop being such a dick about it.

I'd probably go with the former.

Everyone behaves like a tit at times. It's usually triggered by something so if he's a mate then I'd ask him what's up.

Did you tell him the mech hanger was designed to fail to save the frame in a crash ?
Is he under the impression that the dropout has failed and therefore the frame is borked.
If hes a mate buy him a new mech hanger on CRC , if hes a knobber kick him into touch.

Don't know why he was behaving that way. I will check if he calls me. Bit knobbish taking out your own frustrations on a mate though.

Just going to tell people to fix their own shit from now on.

People are c@@ts. Avoid.

buy more cats

I don't tend to do spannering for mates but I have in the past. And yes when you tell them the whole drive train is shafted because they haven't a) kept their chain clean and lubed and b) replaced the chain when you advised, some can get a bit arsey.

So I don't spanner for people now but I will happily assist and guide them do their own spannering. Teach a man to fish and all that.

It does boggle my mind the number of riders who will happily spend $$$$ on carbon/xtr/etc/etc but a don't keep things running smoothly and won't go on a simple maintenance course.

I have a mate who is a complete mechanical clutz so I end up doing all kind of little jobs for him, especially as he lives just around the corner. He is however , incredibly grateful for what I do and when I break the news that something is irretrievably farkled and needs money chucking at it , he is very philosophical and still thanks me anyway.
Manners and a sense of reality needed.

Its mountain biking, things break. He needs to accept that or find a different hobby

I think you need to kiss him, full on the lips, with a bit of tounge.

It does boggle my mind the number of riders who will happily spend $$$$ on carbon/xtr/etc/etc but a don't keep things running smoothly and won't go on a simple maintenance course.

When i worked in a shop, the general customer view point was if they're spending more, it should be less likely to break, then if it did break, since it cost loads, it was the shops job to suck it up.

Or at point of sale trying to convince the same kind of customer that their new £1000 forks are going to need tlc pretty much after every other ride or else they'll run into expensive repair bills a year or two down the line, atleast a lowers service every 3-6 months went down like a lead balloon.

What customers (a horrific amount of STW too) think they should have for a pittance and what doesn't defy the laws of physics, boundaries of current technology or is deeper in cost than their pockets are completly different worlds.

It does boggle my mind the number of riders who will happily spend $$$$ on carbon/xtr/etc/etc but a don't keep things running smoothly and won't go on a simple maintenance course.

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This is why I dont have any mates , makes life so much less stressful 😉

Had a guy in store who was complaing he'd had five punctures on his road bike since he bought a tube from us, I asked him what pressure he was running them at and he said he didn't know. I checked and they were about 55 psi and all his punctures had been snakebites. I explained why it was happening and he bought a new tube and left happy. Some people's basic knowledge is non existent.

When i worked in a shop, the general customer view point was if they're spending more, it should be less likely to break, then if it did break, since it cost loads, it was the shops job to suck it up.

So many of us are buying the equivalent of F1 components (which are usually backed up with F1 mechanics when used by our "heroes"), then expecting to get VAG service intervals.

Maybe shops should do a better job of explaining "this fork is the MTB of McLaren F1, if you're not prepared to dervice it every 10-24 hours of riding, may I respectfully suggest this Golf GTi, or possibly this Skoda Roomster?"

Still they need some folk who want to pay £900 for a fork.

OP, you're "mate" sounds like a first class pr**k, sorry.

Maybe bike parts are poorly designed? If hydraulic actuators on industrial equipment and agricultural machinery needed servicing as often as Fox forks then nothing would ever get done.

Yes there is some allowance that has to made for something to be as light and responsive as possible but most things stink of poor design.

I've got a mate like the OP who helps me with some spannering on my bike, he's very helpful and normally spots faults on my bike that just don't notice, I'm pretty useless like that, anyway although it's annoying having a broken bike I don't get pissed off with my mate for spotting faults, I thank him instead for saving me from a potentially nasty accident. I always get nervous when he starts checking my bike over now.

That reminds me he needs to bleed my brakes

Maybe bike parts are poorly designed? If hydraulic actuators on industrial equipment and agricultural machinery needed servicing as often as Fox forks then nothing would ever get done.

Yes there is some allowance that has to made for something to be as light and responsive as possible but most things stink of poor design.

Maybe bike parts are poorly designed? If hydraulic actuators on industrial equipment and agricultural machinery needed servicing as often as Fox forks then nothing would ever get done.

But that was my point, hydraulic actuators on those are not the same as F1 parts. What the majority of us are buying (being sold) are F1 parts, in an effort to feed the beast. How many of us 40+ blokes carrying a few extra pounds really need the same levels of Performance from our bikes as Peaty, Gracia or any of the Athertons?? None, but we're buying into the hype without recognising (or choosing to recognise) the service teams behind the scenes maintaining these products for those guys and girls. They're serviced so regularly because there is so much investment/reputation/reward/livelihoods riding on it, they need the pinnacle of performance. At Penmachno, Llandegla, Stiniog, Cannock all that's riding on it is a slightly oveweight bloke having fun and not wanting to hurt himself so that he can get back to work in one piece on Monday morning and earn enough cash to pay for some more toys.

We've got McLaren tastes and Skoda money.

We are not buying "f1 parts". Not in the slightest. Sorry but that is a load of rubbish.

We are buying mass produced items. They make thousands of everything, not a handful where parts need to be turned around in a week to get onto the car for a race.

The lifetime of a lot of bike parts is dreadful. They are overpriced and poorly engineered.

Similar applies to buying and selling between friends and family.

If you aren't prepared to accept that something might break a while after you bought it you really need to expand that to the logical conclusion that you don't really trust the friend/family member and if you buy things from people you don't trust, frankly you have it coming anyway.

Mech hangers in particular are misunderstood just like the fuses they are analogous to. They're meant to break. Beefier ones are *not* an upgrade. Usually if they break it's because you did something stupid.

TBH I admire your patience. I think if I'd been working on a mates' bike and this happened, I'd have put anything not still on the bike in a bag and shown him the door.

A bit of gentle p1ss taking about 'breaking my bike' for a while is one thing and ok if good natured, but full on hissy strop like this...

The lifetime of a lot of bike parts is dreadful. They are overpriced and poorly engineered.

Light, Cheap, Strong...

My stuff generally lasts pretty well and when it breaks I can usually see why. This stuff all has service requirements. Don't oil your mech pivots: stops shifting. Jetwash your frame instead of using a brush or sponge: Bearings dead in double quick time. Use whatever scraps of brake fluid you had in an old bottle: unbleedable due to water contamination gassing in very small system under use.

F1 is probably overkill as a comparison, but I bet there's a lot of expensive bikes that don't even get cleaned properly after a hammering.

Ignoring even doing simple maintenance properly or whacking stuff up 'Yorkshire Tight' regardless of correct fitting is what kills most parts, not poor design/evil manufacturers.

Legend has it Shimano sent a team to the Peaks one year to find out why the UK break so many of their mechs though and the UK got rated 'most hostile general riding conditions'...

I have a few mates that are the opposite almost. For example they might need a new cassette, and they're going to lose a weekend of riding because of it. I'll offer to do it there and then for them, they just stare at me for a bit then look away again as if I'd not said a thing. The concept of a mortal changing a cassette is beyond them.
Years down the line and most still can't change a tyre/fix a puncture. They'll still ride with their brake Q/R's open rather than sort them out. They'd still rather swivel their bars to get the hoods where they want them rather than sort and re tape. Goes on and on.

Ignoring even doing simple maintenance properly or whacking stuff up 'Yorkshire Tight' regardless of correct fitting is what kills most parts, not poor design/evil manufacturers.

I feel sorry for the poor chap who has to hand paint on all the NM recommendations just for decoration

Or at point of sale trying to convince the same kind of customer that their new £1000 forks are going to need tlc pretty much after every other ride or else they'll run into expensive repair bills a year or two

Fox?...

I do a lot of (roadie) spannering for matey members of the tri club my better half is a member of, most of them are completely clueless about bike mechanics. So far no problems, lots of gratitude and a fair few bottles of wine despite me saying explicitly I don't expect anything.

Your mate *sounds* like a complete prat, but you know him, we don't, and as has been said maybe it was the final straw on top of other matters. He might now be sat at home feeling a complete prat himself?

I feel sorry for the poor chap who has to hand paint on all the NM recommendations just for decoration

There isn't room on a stem clamp to write "tighten 'til the thread strips, then back it off half a turn" 🙂

[quote=crashtestmonkey muttered bleakly]
There isn't room on a stem clamp to write "tighten 'til the thread strips, then back it off half a turn"

Amateur. You only to back off a quarter at most

Open bath Marzocchi's .Massive service intervals,bomb proof and great damping.No one bought them because they were 10% heavier than Fox.You bring it on yourselves.

This. I still only run my original Marz's on my new bikes because they work first time, every time,and have sod all maintenance needs while performing perfectly well for 95% of my riding needs.

And the OP's mate sounds like an acquaintance. No mate would take a bike to another mate for help and then complain that they broke something (that was already likely to be dead) unless the mate doing the spannering was being a complete tool at the time and clearly not taking care. IF you go to someone asking for free help you need to be prepared for the worst. If you pay a professional you can complain, a little, but not in this case!

I didn't ever actually understand whether it was a broken, replaceable mech hanger, or the actual drop out was knackered?

In the scale of things, £15 or £20 for a mech hanger is sod all.

Hanger luckily.

He's apologised now. Few things going on in the background that led to the problem too. Doesn't excuse the behaviour. Not that I don't forgive, but I don't forget these things easily.

Is it so hard to deal with your own problems without taking it out on someone else?

+1 for anyone basically saying he can't be that much of a mate.

He brings the bike to you complaining that something isn't working properly. You identify the problem, thus helping him. As a seemingly unfortunate by product you do the last 1% of breakage when trying to fix it. But what mood would he have been in if it broke in the middle of nowhere? Or when he'd got excited about a day out and it broke within 50 yards of the car park?

Unless he is taking the piss and you have fallen for it (not unknown in some circles), you have two things to do.

A. Realise he is a cock.

B. Decide whether his cockdom can be tolerated or not.

If the answer to B is 'no', then excommunication is the way to go.

I used to look after a mate's bike, every time it came to me I looked at the drivetrain and said "every part of that is ****ed, I'm not touching it with a 10 foot pole" because I knew it was only working out of peversity, and if I so much as looked at it hard it'd crumble to dust.

Put a pound of lead down his seat tube.

I was going to suggest a text to him enquiring as to whether his hormone levels had dropped to more normal levels?

I'll pick faults in most of my mates bikes, but i will fix them if im able. My brother in law's bike has cables and hoses which need about 3" lopping off them. Its getting to ME every time I see it, such that I NEED to shorten them!!

Put a pound of lead down his seat tube.

Ooer missus!.

We used a socket extension bar in the seat tube of a colleagues brand new ultralight frame that arrived on his day off, fitted his seat post, and left it in his workstand. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to witness the disappointment in his little face when he picked it up,a shame as I gather it was well worth it 😀

Put a pound of [s]lead[/s] [i]sausages[/i] down his seat tube.

also a good trick 🙂

"We used a socket extension bar in the seat tube of a colleagues brand new ultralight frame"

Ultralite new bike that was soooooo good and going to be so fast according to its new owner.
Did you know its possible to fill inner tubes with water.

A tri rider at work was sent to see me because his bike had let him done on a 30km section at an event.
He had a flat, was using tubes, had to abandon. what could he do to stop it happening again?