For a few years now, wrenching on bikes, “What is this $5 ‘saved your life surcharge’?” has been my favourite customer phrase to overhear in the bike shop. Everyone who works, and has worked, there handles the question differently. Some folks are as smooth as butter – heavily salted butter of course – and some folks “umm” their way through an apology of sorts. The industry gladly accepts all types. If there’s genuine pushback I’d guess it typically gets removed, but I don’t follow up. When someone notices, then the point has been made.
I can’t explain the SYLS in simple terms without sounding like a complete dickhead so I have to provide a bit of history.
First off, for the record, I’m encouraging of folks to do as much of their own maintenance as they’re comfortable and capable of and to push their own boundaries. I’m even happy to help sort out the results of boundaries that are pushed a bit too far. I’d like to think I’m generous with my own time, and maybe too generous with my employer’s time, answering questions. And I’m, almost, always happy to do piecemeal work. I know riders for whom I just bleed brakes, or just overhaul frame bearings, or just true wheels. Regardless, the work is appreciated.
But then ‘it’ kept happening. ‘It’ being men* bringing their bike into the shop, proclaiming their mechanical prowess, and then all but demanding, and sometimes actually demanding a certain minor service with all other potential issues to be completely ignored. It’s like a red flag that’s been marinated overnight in acetone and then ignited with a flame thrower.
*Almost always men, I’ve also had a few women with the “my boyfriend/husband is a former/almost pro rider and he works on my bike.”
So it just so happened that on one of these occasions, the dude’s grips were both so f*cking throttle-loose that one was oriented upside down from the other on the bar. So in addition to a couple of brake bleeds, I tightened them in place and added a five-dollar charge to the work order that read “Grips Loose/$5 Saved Your Life Surcharge.” Then it was some properly loose stem-on-steerer bolts, a bar that rotated in the stem clamp, more loose grips, pedals I could pull off the axles, brake calipers about to fall off, and you get the picture.
And somehow that morphed into just tacking on $5 to any service where the grips or stem is loose. Now generally the repairs I’m doing are hundreds of dollars or hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Who’s going to notice $5 tacked onto a superb SuspensionWerx fork and shock service, brake bleeds, hub services, cables, housing, etc.? But people notice!
Often they blame the last person who worked on their bike, and fair enough. Sometimes they blame torque spec and, well, if your grips still twist they aren’t tight enough no matter what arbitrary number the manufacturer laser etched on the clamp. Sometimes they own their sh*t. Very, very, occasionally they get pissed off and I’m okay with that too.
Tunnel Talk #17