Rants and Raves
Here is a chance for Paramount Bicycle Repair let it all hang out. Rants. Raves. The good the bad and the ugly...anything goes. Product reviews. Issues related to safe riding in urban areas. New rides that are worth sharing. Crappy days. New wheel designs. Whatever gets us fired up that day. All right here (for better or for worse!)
November 2, 2006
O.K. now, the name of my shop is what i do. simple. paramount bicycle repair. ya i sell some stuff and do some bike sales etc, but..it's repair i do best! i rock this, treat people fairly, good prices and i dont lie! simple. so.... to days rant is about the shops i co rouse, spy on that kinda thing, just. to see what there repair prices are and stuff. i've come to the conclusion that people are gettin riped off, BIG TIME!...some shops don't even tell you what they do in a " tune up " .just look at the web sites....and still doubt it. sucks. i'm seeing a HUGE difference in the quality of the repair "offered". for instance, last week a young lady came in after having her 10 year ol cromoly/steel beauty worked on (at the " evil Empire bike store ;-) ,.so she drops $140 bucks! it was a mess. An absolute mess she needed new brake pads, some cable here an there, but the mechanic, or whom ever didnt note the the whole bike was TOAST!! both hubs were super crunchy, dry as hell. the head set totally over tightened or just never adjusted ( doubt she could take her hands off the bars to adjust a wedgie (( not that you should do that, i mean take your hands off the bars ;) she had the chain and cassette replaced due to slippage, but it still slipped. she went back and basically got blown off. i thought it was the chain rings being so worn,so i replaced it with a $30 super entry level all in one crank.o.h. and to be nice any shop worth it's sweat should pull your bottom bracket to be sure it does move. it didnt, well the drive side did but the other was seized . to acomidate some schedueling and that kinda stuff, i slpaped the cranks back on to see if the skipin problem would work out. hey guess what? i was wrong. yea i can mess up tooo but not $140 bad. the cranks i'm sure helped a bit. but as it turned out, after spending time with the beast. soakin it with liquid wrench. putin the torker on it. alass no movment. the bike was toast! is toast. it'll function for awhile, probably git through the winter. but being that the bottom bracket is ( did i tell you this. crunchville/toast/done...and it wont come out ..well at least not with out alot of work. possibly a toarch ( no guarantees mam.) considdering it's a 10 year ol bike and virtualy ALL of the stuff on the bike is done. the " bike store" shoulda either checked the bb first ( cause thoes chain rings were DONE!)( AND REMEMBER!! YA PULL THE CRANKS YA PULL THE BB.) or acess the bike as it is, toast.the age of the bike is a tell all too... just spinnin the wheels all ya feel is a RUMBLE. and even the cassett hub body ( thats the part the cogs on the rear are attached to , they make that clickity sound.) was rockin all over.WHAT A MESS. so i spend the time. try to pull the bb. i couldnt even charge her the whole amount that i spent. one a bit of the ol concience and the factor that i also thought it was just the chain rings...well well well...the whole thing done she droped like a quater of a new bike on the ol clunker. $200 clams! $140 to them and $60 for me yeah. So i just called er for the follow up. she wants to buy a SURLY crossxcheck. From me. Odd way to make a friend and a few clams.
