Air Can Service & “Just A Spoke Replacement”
I’m doing a quick spot of work on an old friend’s* bike. A “huge favour” sorting out a rear brake tonight that needs to function tomorrow. And, he’s giving me this peculiar look. Hmm? “My brake bolts are a 5mm not a 4mm.” I look down at the yellow Wera hex-key in my hand. Oh, yes, this is to check if your stem is tight.
By the way, you should keep an eye on that cable. You can see it’s frayed where your dropper post remote pivots? They’re notorious for eating cables, I’d guess sometime in the next few rides that will snap. Not something you really want to deal with on the trail. Also, your rear axle is loose, your main pivot bolt is loose, and your derailleur isn’t tight to the hanger.
I’m not going to go on some Tunnel Talk rant here, but this is why booking piecemeal work is for suckers. Legally and ethically I have to safety check every bike I work on in the shop anyway, so, at minimum, any service should be billed on top a basic check-over.
“My bike’s in good shape!” Your f*cking lock-on grips were throttle loose. I tightened them before I even carried your bike inside! “Oh, right, but that’s not common is it?” … “Is it?“
*{Drewitors note: This is actually a stylized aggregate of three different but entirely the same last minute favour events, featuring three different friends. If, by chance, they’re reading this, they know who they are.}
He looks over at a small stack of spokes on my bench. “Oh, do you think you have the right spoke for my back wheel? I broke one a while ago and I’ve been running a 31-spoke wheel.” I might, but we don’t have time to deal with that today. “Just a spoke replacement?” That ‘just a spoke replacement’ requires me to remove and reinstall your cassette, tubeless tire, and rim tape. “And… CushCore.” Right, and CushCore.
Plus, do you just want a spoke in there so it looks right or do you actually want me to take some time to sort out the wheel true and tension? I’m not the world’s best wheel builder, it takes me a bit of time to hit that as-best-as-possible phase.
“When I had a couple spokes replaced last year the mechanic told me it would be cheaper if I removed everything and brought it in off the bike.” Oh, so how many spokes have you broken? I like Nice Guy Geoff’s Rule-of-Three. Once you break three spokes it’s time for a relace and in most cases with an aluminum rim, a new hoop.
The brake bleeds up fine. There’s a bit of noise between the pads and rotor. Not that uncommon with a system that hasn’t been ridden for a while that also has glazed pads. You can run it as is and the noise will probably go away, or clean the rotor with ISO, surface the pads, bed the system in again, and it might be good.
“Might?” Yeah, in a shop I’d be selling you new pads. I’ve wasted tons of unbillable time trying to save pads that were contaminated. You can buy some automotive brake clean for the rotor, it comes in two varieties, more cancer and less cancer, so use it outside and think about wearing a mask.
I drop the bike to the floor give the brakes another squeeze, cycle the fork {this needs a service, “Yes, I know.“} and then push on the saddle. The shock makes a squelching noise. I give him a look as I adjust the rebound knob, the only position that provides any damping adjust at all is fully closed. A closer look reveals wear on the shock body.
I thought you said you just had this serviced? “Oh, yeah, the shop said there wasn’t time for a full rebuild, so they did me a favour and serviced the air can so I can ride it this weekend.” That’s not doing you a favour. This thing could sh*t the bed any moment. It’s not like you’re going to be a ten minute walk from your car and even if it doesn’t fail, your bike is going to be awful.
What’s the point in dropping this much on a battery-shifted full-Factory-Kashima-suspended super bike when it’s in such a state that my friction-shifted Marinster Truck has significantly better working suspension. “Your El Roy? It’s a hardtail with a Suntour fork?” Exactly.
“Well, to be fair, the shop didn’t charge me any labour to do the shock.” Great, so everybody loses. They burn shop time that could have been helping to keep the lights on, and their mechanics paid, doing you a ‘favour’ that has pretty good odds of blowing up in everyone’s face. If your shock dies in the middle of somewhere are you still going be pumping their tires for doing you a favour? “No, I’ll be pissed.” Exactly.
“So, what would you do?” Well, you could call JacAttack in the morning and see if Essential has any bikes available to rent. Actually, your shock is the same size as one of their rental rigs so you could ask if they have a backup shock they would rent you. I mean, if you really want to take your own bike,
Or, you can borrow the Marinster Truck. It has CushCore and over-built everything but lets be clear, you break it, you buy it. “Uh, hardtail. No thanks. I’ll call Essential in the morning and otherwise I’ll just chance it.” Okay, but remember if you ‘chance it’ and, at best, spend the whole time riding an over-pressurized shock with no damper support or, at worst, pedaling a fully sagged chopper, I tried to warn you.
“Okay. The shop should have offered to sell me a replacement shock. I probably would have bought it if they could have installed it this week.“
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