A bad Bike service

I'm just horrified to learn that someone would take in a dirty bike to their LBS, I clean mine even when I'm merely going to buy a spare inner tube.

In the same way I valet my car before taking it for a service and tidy my hotel room before checking out.

A mild form of OCD, I guess.

I've had a 105 rear mech fall to bits on me and I couldn't blame it on a poor service. Something jammed it, a jockey wheel snapped in two and the cage snapped apart after tangling in the rear wheel. It was probably just bad luck and luckily a replacement mech and hanger didn't cost a fortune.

You don't mention how much you paid for the service, what you were expecting from the service or whether you know who carried it out. Many bike shops offer a 'stage one' or basic service which seems to include little more than a replacement of brake blocks (regardless of condition) and a readjustment of brake cables. It may also be carried out by the most junior member of staff. This really is money for nothing and might cost you £50 or £60. In my view it is only worth paying for a full strip down and rebuild or for the replacement of a specific part that you don't feel confident doing yourself. All carried out by a mechanic that you know and trust.

Ultimately no-one cares as much about your bike as you do so the more cleaning and maintenance that you do yourself the better condition your bike will be in. All you need are a few tools, some patience and a good manual or access to youtube and you'll be able to do almost any maintenance job yourself.

I think this has been summed up pretty nicely.

I used to love it when a bike came in filthy for a service. Suddenly the service cost was approaching three figures without parts. Thems were the days... the trick was having the right sort of clients that would happily pay that money.

Stuff happens with bikes, it's the way of the world. There is a point to be noted here (I think), and that is when stuff is not right, act on it straight away. If you were dissatisfied with the service, you should have gone straight back. Its hard to moan about a dirty chain after riding it in filthy conditions for a month.

I have just learnt this lesson with my mobile phone. The outer casing had cracked in several places and I kept meaning to take it back to the shop as it is blatantly a manufacturing defect... alas, on Saturday I dropped my phone and chipped the corner. Obviously I can't take it back now, and will have to live with the cracking for a further 18 months.

A chap down at the bike shop told me an interesting story the other day. A woman came in for her six week service, moaning about the rear wheel. The long and short of it is that the axle had failed and she'd simply carried on riding it for several weeks. In doing so she had destroyed the wheel and significantly damaged the frame.

She wanted a new bike for free. She simply couldn't see that her actions had been the major contributor to the damage. Its a bit like buying a new tyre for your car, it going flat, and then you driving it for a month.

If you've been riding it without any problems since it came back from the shop, then it was most probably OK when it left the shop, and you cant expect the mechanic to have a crystal ball about whats going to happen in a month (unless you pay extra ). I agree with several other comments. Spend money on tools and such so you can fix it yourself, rather than on 'services'. You'll get to know how everything works, why it does certain things, and if you have an issue on the road, a better chance of fixing it.

If you take it to the bike shop filthy, you can only expect them to do whats possible whilst its filthy. That's the way it is. If you clean it, you might as well muck about with it yourself, as that's the interesting bit!

learn to be your own mechanic, not always easy, but that way you can be sure everything's done to your standards. This time of year I clean the drive chain after every ride, degrease and re lube.

What tickles me is that people will dedicate hours of time and effort trying to force a bike mechanic to take 100% blame for any and all foibles with a bike. They must spend more time doing that than it would take to simply read Sheldons guide and then fix very simple stuff them self. You must work with the bike shop and at least take some responsibility for your own safety by checking the bike weekly and cleaning it, bike mechanics are not serfs or slaves put there to clean up your mess, neither are they whipping boys there to take the blame for every mechanical niggle that is down to daily use. You pay them for a set task, that does not mean you paid them for one job but now they must have caused all the other problems simply because they took a spanner to it last. It's a nasty trick that one is, take it in for something simple and fail to mention another problem - then when it finally fails you go back blaming them. The 40 Stone Cyclist has form for that trick and this thread reads in an awfully familiar manner.

You should never take a bike in dirty to be serviced, but I disagree with Racingcondor.

If you take it in dirty, it should come back clean, with an extra charge for the cleaning, if a bike shop says it has serviced your bike, but it is still dirty, tell them to do it properly....

If you took your bike in dirty, you can expect it to come back dirty. You're paying them to check the wear, limit screws and cables, not clean.

I'm afraid I'm with the others, if it was a month later that it failed it could have been wear, something catching in it or possibly something that could have been picked up.

I'd chalk it down to experience, be thankful that the derailleur didn't end up in your wheel and that the repair will be fairly cheap. Hope you got a few years wear out of it though.

if it was working ok for a month, then it's difficult to argue a bad service was the cause, I think.

Maybe ask around your club to see if people are generally happy with the bike shop before you bring it back for another service?

Mech or mech hanger could have taken a knock a any time too.

Di 2 will fix it....

There are many reasons for rear mech's to fail. To put it down to a service a month ago is wrong.

How many miles have you put in since the service?
How often do you check the chain for wear and lube it?
How often do you lube and check jockey wheels?

I could go on....