Spokes - and a bit of a rant

[ChrisO]

Bought a new bike in the summer so I could commute to my new place of work. It was a Trek SU600 - MTB with slick wheel basically - which was reccommended as a good commuter bike by Evans.

For the last few months I have been going through spokes on the rear wheel at the rate of one a month. My maintenance skills are limited to punctures so the costs were adding up.

So when another went today I was feeling a little annoyed as I went to the Evans shop literally across from my office on Gray's Inn Rd in London. Even more annoyed to find that there was a two week waiting list to even get into their workshop.

So I stormed off to Lamb's Conduit St where the first thing the very helpful man at Bikefix asked was whether it happened often, and suggested that the spokes should be replaced with double-butted ones which would last longer. And the cost of doing it is only one pound more than two spoke replacements at Evans. Plus they could do it all today.

I know where my future business will be going.

[Marc]

Chris

Evans are so big and sometimes priced well as to attract a lot of custom. Alas there youngish staff do not hale from the days when they could look all customers in the eye say hello and "there's a que but we'll be with you in a moment", you wait and wait for youngsters head tilted down avoiding eye contact to serve you just at the till, so I can believe the workshop has a two week wait. Additionally if they replaced the initial spoke following the failure the wheel should have been completely re-trued and tensioned, then relieved, thus not allowing subsequent failures, I feel there staff have a rather limited and basic level of training only. Lambs Conduit street - Bikefix will oblige everytime stick with them!

Marc

[ChrisO]

Thanks - they look great, and I'm sure they would be excellent on the bike. I'm seriously tempted but my other half will kill me if I spend any more money.

I've just bought a new set of Berghaus waterproofs and some merino baselayers to get me through the winter.

I'll see how these new spokes go and if I have more problems I know where to come.

[Oldknees]

Spokes don't last forever as fatigue does for them in the end. Then they tend to all go at once. Williams Cycles in Cheltenham have just retrued my rear wheel and have cleaned out all the spoke holes in the hub of my bike. They also put tiny brass washers behind each spoke head to soften any stress raisers. How long did they take? 2 days. How much did they charge? Nothing at all. We were chatting about something else and I just mentioned the wheel. They said that I should be getting better service from the wheel they sold me three months ago and so propsed that they did the work to make things better. During my visit to the shop a girl came in with the gear cable of her bike all loose - the manager fixed it there and then and charged her nothing too. A good shop or what?

[SPANNER]

Why not contact bike inn who do wheel building courses and learn to do wheels yourself they also do a wheel building video for £25 incl postage which shows you how to build a mtb rear wheel ia also bought a wheel jig frm bike inn (£84.70) and a dishing tool (£45) and learned how to do wheels in 13 weeks a wheel i have on my mtb was built last october and is still on the bike and has bever given any trouble though regards stressing a wheel this is frowned upon by bike who recommend that after 200 miles the wheel is checked in the jig.
See the bike inn website but best to type in webbline then click on home to get into the main site

[SPANNER]

Re Williams cycles freebies cycle shops do this for customer goodwill as they would rather redo a wheel which a customer bought and is having problems with than have same customer going off in the huff if they have a sorry cant do anything about that attitude as regards fixing the gear cable it only takes a matter of minutes to retension a gear cable.
The local bike shop in cupar even has the audacity to charge a £1 for a tyre check and pump up! and has apparently never heard of sigma chain links the shop in question is keith davies Bonnygate Cupar fife avoid at all costs!

[Jim Crosskell]

Spanner does'nt say what he/she does for a living or how much work he/she does for a £1!
The attitude that a LBS should do these jobs for free is ludicrous, wages, NI, rent, rates, etc. don't get paid by giving time away. The outcome is closure of all the LBS and then we are left with Halfords and the like!
Try getting a tap washer changed for a £1.00 by a plumber! (the equivalent sort of job for that trade)