Etiquette for Bribing Bike Mech?

Sounds about right, ideal.

Fix that bike up - sounds like you've really hammered it and not looked after it at all though. 2k is not a heap of miles, but then I know that London is a dirty place in winter and can really kill chains (and then the rest of your drive train, as you have discovered) quickly.

Then save up and buy a single speed winter bike with mudguards. A yearly complete change of transmission will cost you about £40 and you can DIY it very easily. And you will stay dry and not kill all your cycling clothes with road paste too... Ride you nice bike once a week on dry days and on the weekend. At your rate this bike will pay itself off in year

Personally I do do chains, brake blocks and sometimes cables (some last longer than others) every 2500 miles. ( chains are stretched to oblivion by this point, I do a lot of steep hills)

I swap wheels and cassettes/ freewheels around so not sure on miles with these.

My front and rear Record rear mechs are used 10 months of the year and are about 20,000 miles in with only the second set of jockey wheels, around 20,000 miles on them. Jockeys get regular strip and grease though.

I do keep the driveline clean though, every second ride or every wet ride the chain gets cleaned and Rocknroll extreme for the wet months and pedros ice wax for the summer, mid range SRAM chains.

My BB is loose ball, gets stripped and cleaned annually, balls last 3 years before looking dull (never rough)

Stronglight headset probably needs bearings this autumn.....it's been on there 5 years, though I do use mudguards from October to May.

These days kit is comparatively cheap, I'm from a different era, when the kit was all European and very expensive and everyone did most of their their own maintenance bar frame and wheel building.

Are you mixing sand with your chain lubricant? Learn to do some chain cleaning and you're riding will be cheaper....

I think you will have to go to a bike shop and say "How much to do this?", then say "How much to do this, this quickly?".

I'd take a crate of beer in, then ask.

Quote:

I tend to grind a lot in Upper gears since changing gears in zones whilst maneuvering

This doesn't actually make any sense, but I refer you to my previous comment.

If you'd kept the same chain and worn the whole lot together like nature intended it would be good for 5-6k miles...

With that little mileage a clean may well just sort it! Prob need a new chain and rear cassette but that's a tenner per item plus a chain breaker and a cassette tool at another tenner each. £40. Go all out and change your cables and you're done for under £60! And possibly an hour labour.

** order parts online and add elbow grease for DIY labour.

Bloody hell only 2000 miles ! Were they milk chocolate parts then ?