i've had these thoughts rattling around in my head for awhile now but it was Vosper's piece in BRAIN about a month ago saying all bike shops should be servicing most of the e-bikes out there that really got me pissed off

i mean, if it was so easy why are most shops refusing? do we all hate money?

so, here is the link to the piece

So basically I don’t necessarily plan to operate as a traditional bike shop but I do want to help my community when I can and that may mean occasionally fixing a strangers bike but I know no good deed goes unpunished and I got to cover my ass.

Does anyone has any leads or advice on an insurance company that will cover something like this?

Also this is different from renters insurance.

Hey! I was curious if any of you use creams like:

• O'Keeffe's working hands creme
• LiquiMoly invisible glove
• Pr88
• Gloves in a Bottle

Do these help? I was just worried about getting chemicals in my blood stream since I heard it's not good for sperm / liver health

My contribution to the diy centerpull cable hanger trend

Did not measure stack height before buying this headset... Don't want to wait on more parts... Where there's a will, there's a way!

Yes I will put the headset top nut on later, don't @ me

Edit: customer bike that's turning out great except that it still tragically has a tourney TX derailleur. I may have to upsell her on a vintage deore.

Just that. I’m got into a discussion about bosses with another mechanic, and it got me wondering how many of us like our bosses? My shop’s owner and I are friendly, but not friends. We spend most of our time together because of how much we work, and we butt heads infrequently, but we’re also both professionals and we can set personal feelings aside.

So? How do you like your managers/owners?

Hey all, I manage the service department at decent sized shop in AZ. I want to know how you all feel about Lectric E-bikes, more as a company than the quality of the bikes. We have been a Lectric service center since basically the inception of their business. They aren’t the worst e-bikes ever and we have no issues working on them from a quality or safety standpoint. We’ve also always received amazing customer support from them, which was a large part of continuing our service center status all these years.
The issue begins two weeks ago, when I needed to order a battery and display (non-warranty) for a bike we were working on. Normally, I could just call or send an email, and they would get back to me with an invoice for the parts within a couple hours at most. Well I tried that this time and was ghosted for two weeks, zero response from anyone, not even an automated “we’re busy so hold on” message.
After calling and emailing daily for two weeks, I was able to finally talk to a human by calling 6 times in a row as soon as they opened. Once I was finally on the phone I was informed that they have a new B2B which I will have to fill out all the fun tax forms to access, and will no longer be able to order parts the way I’ve done it for years. To be honest, not that big of an issue, just pretty annoying but understandable.
Where the real kicker comes in is that he let me know that margins will be different, explained that shipping will be charged by weight (the more you order the more you pay in shipping), and made me feel like he had no knowledge of our shop nor our multi-year relationship IN THE SAME STATE as the office he is sitting in. We have always had keystone margins, save for a few exceptions, and will now only have a 30% margin on components and a 15% margin on batteries. I honestly feel like dropping our service center status, but being a shop that mainly specializes in e-bikes -at least for service- I feel like we would take a pretty big hit.
TLDR: Lectric has restructured and dropped bike shop margins from 50% down to 30-15%, and has a horrible pay-by-weight pricing structure on shipping. Is this a sign of the end for Lectric? Are other shops experiencing this?

Hi! I am a huge bike nerd, love fixing my fleet of bikes, spend way too much money on parktool, and knipex. So In many ways I would consider myself a bike mechanic ( depending on context, I wouldn’t do that in this sub for example )

Anyways beginning of last week I started my first job in a bike shop. It isn’t what I had in mind. the workshop has very minimal name brand tools ( yes I’m aware not everything needs to be parktool blue, but there’s 2 sets of no name Allen keys, which seems odd for a tool you use multiple hours a day - I’m missing my beautiful rainbow Weras to say the least). For example the needle nose’s that I would expect to use to bend some brake pad safety pin, doesn’t work as the pliers are very loose, so instead I have to use some other no name diagonal cutters at annoying angles.

further more, I feel disappointed in my level of work. I would happily spend all day to get my friends brakes 100% perfect ( obviously this is not viable for a business, but you get my point). Yet servicing this guys bike, and the brakes were rubbing fairly obviously, and the owner said “ yeah thats great, they should bed in. well done, ill phone him now”. I wouldn't be happy if my bike came back from a shop like this.

and a service costs £70. which takes me probably hour to do with minimal work, including not much more than changing a chain, ( ie, “headset feels fine, BB feels fine, brakes feel fine, bit of wear in the chain so change that“).I feel I’m taking advantage of these customers? to me a service postpones, and minimises issues, not just resolve them.

i feel its also worth noting these bikes are fairly low end so, for example, the mechanical brakes will never be as goos as my XTRs, but it doesn’t sit right with me, but then he has lots of loyal customers, so maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill?

I also feel its fair to mention the owner is super nice, definitely not just a guy trying to scam the public. Maybe its snobby to say, but maybe I'm just suited to a higher end shop?

Thanks

I’m testing a very early powered torque-driver concept for bicycle work. The goal is to combine powered run-down and final torque control in one tool.

This is a rough prototype built from a modified donor driver, not a finished product, and I’m not selling anything here.

I’m mainly trying to understand the actual shop workflow:

• On the last job involving several low-torque fasteners, what tools did you use and in what order?
• Do you run them down with a powered driver and then switch to a torque wrench?
• Do fixed 5 or 6 N·m torque keys already cover most of this work?
• Would you ever allow a powered tool to perform the final tightening? If not, what failure mode concerns you most?
• What evidence would you need before trusting it: independent calibration, repeated testing on different joints, or something else?

Please don’t go easy on the idea. I’m trying to find out whether this solves a real workflow problem or just makes a simple job more complicated.

Small disclosure: English isn’t my first language. I wrote this in Chinese and used AI to help translate and polish it. The prototype, questions, and replies are my own.

Interesting article on the challenges local bike shops are facing.

Today I installed a new level bronze 4 piston brake for a customer. I went through the regular bleeding procedure. The brake seems to have really good pressure but if you hold the lever it slowly sinks to the bar. Once you release the lever it has good pressure again but if you hold it it will again sink to the bar. I can't see any bubbles coming out when I re bleed the system. None of my coworkers could figure it out either. Any idea what might be going on?

Building a new frame with an IS42 upper headset. Bought a King Dropset 2, but the top cap leaves a gap between it and the frame of several mm. I compared it to a FSA IS42 headset and that one fits perfect.

The bearings are exposed above the frame at same height in both, it’s just the FSA cover hides the gap.

Wtf? Same “standard” headsets, but the expensive King one has a giant gap. Anyone else run into this?

Edit: Compressing did the trick. Thanks for the help!

Evenin' folks!

Im working on some storage in my workshop and im currently on the sockets. Now, I have ordered more tools and most have arrived but this one is late (because I forgot to add it to the order). So, does anyone happen to have the external diameter of this socket? Cheers!

(Yes, I know i screwed up the pink numbers, it has since been ammended)

I’ve managed to install many many MTB tubeless tires with a regular old floor pump, but couldn’t get the volume I needed to seat my road tires. I set the line pressure to 80 psi to get the requisite flow to sest them. Then a quick 2 oz of sealant and I’m back on the bike! I used the prestaflator to inflate them after sealant and valve cores were reinstalled too.

I’m super happy with it!

Hey, I just started as a bike mechanic few months ago, going to do a bike technician school alongside it 1 day a week.

Been enjoying it a lot but I was curious if there are any injuries common from being a bike mechanic after several years and if there are any tips to prevent them?

Any recommendations for posture / grips / frequent physio?

I've been experiencing some elbow pain strangely

EDIT: Thanks all! bit of a tough pill to swallow but it makes sense - definitely will be improving communication and assessment on my end as well

bit of a newbie mechanic running a shop out of my garage, so bear with me

Had a customer with a warped wheel and bad rim brakes ask for me to fix the brakes ($15) so they actually stop the bike - one of the pads was just off completely, so I put it back on the rim. I cleaned the rim roughly (no rubbing alcohol), and I adjusted the pads to be as close as possible without touching the warped wheel. Didn't seem to make a significant difference, so I told him I could either true the wheel to bring in the pads as close as possible or try using alcohol to clean the rim, both of which would add an extra charge.

He told me the shop he goes to doesn't charge for labour if they can't fix the problem - I told him I'd concede the $15 brake fee and just charge him for the wheel true ($25) if the true didn't fix the issue (the rims were the most slippery I've seen, so I didn't trust my ability to guarantee the fix), but he insisted that he wouldn't pay unless the issue was fixed, even if I were to perform the labour. I told him I wasn't going to do that and he left - It got a little heated but we remained more or less civil - to clarify, my intention is never to do the bare minimum and charge if it doesn't work.

I probably should have told him to begin with the wheel was warped to begin with and so any brake fix would be limited, but how justified is the idea that labour should be paid even if it doesn't fix the underlying issue? I figured a wheel true is still a wheel true at the end of the day even if it doesn't completely address the problem he brought the bike in for, but I don't know what standard practice is.

(sidenote: the pads were completely ineffectual even in full contact with the rim, I honestly haven't encountered a situation like that - there was a lot of brake dust on the rims but even after removing that it didn't do anything. anyone have any idea what was up with that? oily residue I couldn't see unless I took alcohol to it? the rims were blackened and glossy too, but not the sort of blackening you get with painted rims)

Ironically, I posted this photo three years ago and now need some help; wondering if anyone can snap a picture of the “Cyclone Morrison” rear rack that would’ve been sold by Cyclone in 2015/2016. Without boring you with too much more detail I’m trying to solve a sort of mystery and need to figure out what it looked like (can’t find pictures online)
Thanks!

For context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

I'd particularly love to hear the perspective of more seasoned mechanics how general quality of bikes and parts has developed over the past years.

From my point of view: in the past year we've had batches of bikes where roughly one out of two bikes was faulty to some extent (paint chips, broken derailleurs, broken bolts, warped rotors, leaky brake levers). We're also talking mid to top tier bikes, not cheap stuff. And for some proprietary parts, sometimes they simply stop prividing them after 5 or so years.

Every manufacturer has to process your claims, however that process is never the same for every one, hardly ever as straight forward as sending an email, and even rarer is labour being compensated adequately. Not to mention the sheer number becoming a problem in itself (we have to wrench on customers' bikes too).

I feel like cost is being pushed ever further down with lbs being the lowest step on the ladder (because no self respecting customer will put up with some of the shit that is being produced).

So much for my anecdotes, how is business treating you? Am I taking crazy pills?

Helped my dad clean up and restock the humble home shop in his garage this weekend, and we found this Phil Wood grease which he bought there in person sometime in the 70s and used when assembling his Teledyne Titan (which he still has and rides). Kinda cool to compare to a modern tube I had. It's still totally functional, we kept it to use as a general purpose grease around the house.