Why is a good bicycle mechanic so hard to find?After reading some good comments about the mechanic at a new independent shop, I headed there about a month ago. Shifting my rear dérailleur felt mushy, and the front dérailleur was over-shifting. I was ready to leave the bike with them, but they seemed eager to make some adjustments and send me on my way.
Had I ever replaced the cables? Yes, but I could not remember when. A good next question might have been "Have you put more than 3,000 (4,000? 5,000?) miles on the bike since then?"
With the bike clamped in their repair stand, the angle of the handlebar looked wrong to me. The mechanic had failed to notice that the stem's grip was not-quite-tight-enough, which had allowed the handlebar to rotate slightly, which affects the cable tension. Could that be the real problem?
They replaced the rear brake pads [it was time]. At home, I immediately saw that a pad dragged on one side of the rim. The mechanic had failed to notice that the wheel was slightly out of true.
Their dérailleur adjustments helped ... for a short time. The frayed cable finally snapped. With broken pieces embedded in the shifter, it will now be replaced; it is not designed to be disassembled.
The last time shifting felt mushy, a (better) mechanic at a different shop replaced the cables. Five years, and more than 10,000 miles ago.
Cables are cheap. Shifters are not. You have been warned.
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I once took my bike to a shop for some routine maintenance. When the mechanic looked over my bike, he quickly commented that I was not braking properly. When I asked what he meant, he explained that my rear brake pads had half the wear of my front brake pads, which means I am using my rear brake too much.
ReplyDeleteI was a bit shocked by this, and proceeded to explain to him that because my front brake gets way more use, I replaced the front pads fairly recently, but left the same set on the rear because they still had enough material on them.
I stopped going to that shop. Not because the mechanic was condescending, but because he demonstrated a lack of critical thinking that important to be able to diagnose and debug mechanical problems.
I was actually thankful he spent the time to demonstrate to me that he jumps to conclusions without considering all possibilities.
Nicely put, and a point well taken. $800 though? Yikes.
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