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Recommend a shop to service the bike?
Hi Guys,
Can anyone recommend somewhere for servicing? I will otherwise go to Bike Addiction in Manly and I would think they will be pretty good but I haven't been there before and also have no idea what it will cost. Any suggestions/advice?? (I live in Mona Vale)
And just generally....is there somewhere in the forums with some basic stuff about what to do to care for the bike? I wash it and oil it back up again after most rides...but realise when people talk about casette brushes on their drive chains (Rob) that I have NO idea what they are talking about!
Any help will be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks,
T
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Hi Tanya,
My suggestion would be to do a search of these forums, as I remember many topics over the last few months (since I have been using this website) relating to DIY bike maintenance and bike shops.
Can't personally suggest much about my own DIY bike maintenance experience as I normally get my professionals across the street to do it for me... for a fee of course! Anything more than the really basic, I would leave to the technical / mechanical prowess of others.
Otherwise I could recommend the bikeshop I use at Hornsby called Kuringai Cycles on the Pacific Highway. Unless they have to order a part in, they rarely take more than a day to complete bike maintenance. And I have never had a hassle there. Although it does help to purchase the bike from the shop you get the maintenance from. Which I did.
FWIW. Hope it helps,
Liam : )
Being the geek that I am, I actually like fiddling with my bike and fixing it when it breaks.
Some stuff is time-consuming and not fun, like drivetrain cleaning. At the moment I'm going to Renegade Cycles in Lane Cove - mostly geographical convenience - but they've been pretty good and know what they're doing.
Shops generally charge about $1/minute and have schedules on their websites. A full drivetrain clean is generally about $40, which is a lot faster than I can get it done.
I've had little bits of work done at Wooly's Wheels (Paddington) and Inner City Cycles (Glebe) and it's been fine. I bought a bike from Clarence St (Sydney) and I'm still finding build problems... hopefully that was just a one-off.
The brushes Rob was talking about was a little chain cleaner that clips onto the chain like this:
http://www.phantomcycles.com.au/product.php?prod...
The chain cleaner is great, but you also need a cassette brush. This is closest looking thing Phantom have:
http://www.phantomcycles.com.au/product.php?prod...
Basically, like a thin toothbrush, that will fit between the cogs on your cassette and pull all the gunk out. The one I have is hard and serrated one end, and has two different length brushes the other.
A bottle bush is also great for getting into all the nooks and crannies of the frame.
When I'm done and it's dry I lube with Teflon oil in a can stuff. Oh see, like this:
http://www.phantomcycles.com.au/product.php?prod...
Chain 'wax' stuff is supposed to be good as it's self cleaning, but not sure I've seen it work. When the chain gets really clogged I degrease it with some cheapo stuff I got at AutoOne for a couple of bucks. Do not use heavy bike chain oil you'll find there though, I had to once as emergency and it was far too thick! Got cleaned and replaced by TF2 as soon as I was home.
but please don't be distracted by that....is the drivetrain the bit that the chain moves through off the back wheel?? Or somewhere else....? How do I find this stuff out? If only bikes came with a manual much like an Ikea catalogue with all the names of the bits labelled.
Is it best just to go to a shop and ask them to show me stuff, tell me how to take care of it myself??
is also located at Torpedo7. Try these:
Lubes and Cleaners:
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/lefthandcategorydispl...
Tools:
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/lefthandcategorydispl...
Hello Tanya,
Most bike shops on the northern beaches are capable of servicing your bike, but I geuss the questions is, what wrong with it do all the gears and brakes work o.k, and if so from what you have said wash and lube the chain might be o.k. I think BA was holdind maintanence nights.
Regards
JasonB
I have been to one of these mtb nights at BA in their old fairlight store, they are worth going to to learn how to do the basics!
If you are looking for a bike manual i highly recommend "Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance"
Good luck
sambo
also run maintenance nights, only been in there store a couple of times but they have always been helpful. I think they will also do customised nights for specific things like fork, shock servicing. Check there web site for more info.
My brakes are really noisy..someone commented on the weekend that they sound like an old squeaky gate!..so wanted to check them out. They're hydraulics. And otherwise just wanted to have things checked and get them to tell me whether there are things I should be doing to look after it that I haven't been doing. I'll look for maintenance nights at BA and Renegade.
Thanks again.
A bit of a smaller store that often goes under the radar, but DY Beach Cycles is very, very good for servicing.
Really great attention to detail, often fix a problem that you didn't even know you had ( before you find out about it at the worst possible time), you can actually step into the workshop and talk to the guy doing the job about what's going on, and about half price of every other bike shop on the Northen Beaches.
Well worth giving these guys a look into.
Saves you heaps of money and inconvenience in the long run, just pick up decent quality tools as you go along and if you're serious about it you'll use them again and again and they'll last ages. Plus if you know your bike well you can generally fix things out on the trail that others are scratching their head over and save your ride ;-}
getting to know your bike is pretty straightforward these days as long as you don't need to service shocks! The days of having to scramble around the garage floor for all those ball bearings that fell out of your hubs and headset are long gone!
I concur with Sammy that theres a few decent books out there that are indispensible for the newbie, good bike shops should be able to help out there too, just check that it deals with all the technology that's on your bike. Also bike mags and manufacturers instructions can be pretty useful, you can pick a fair bit up off the web.
In between rides you shouldn't need to do too much. Just clean off the grime from any suspension seals you have with a soft cloth and/or cotton bud, give your chain, jockey wheels (small ones on your derailleur) and cassette a wipe with a cloth and re-lube the chain with a wax/dry lube. Always do the re-lubing long before your next ride, it's best just after your last ride! To give the lube time to settle into the chain. Don't worry too much about other stiff unless it's broken or complaining and remember the water restrictions - no hosing!
If you do need to ignore all of the above and use a shop... then from my limited experience Wooly's are good, Clarence St are good if you get the right person but can take a while, CBD used to be good but not sure about their staff retention, Bike addiction I've had bad experiences with but again it depends who you get I think, my fave is Wooly's.
Everything you ever wanted to know and more can be found here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
Bow before the knowledge of Sheldon Brown ;-}
hi tanya...
you can get your bike serviced at most bike shops. in my experience i have found Hornsby Cycles to be good and KOM at Neutral Bay to be bad.
you can compare prices by going to shop websites but its generally between 50 and 100 $ for standard service.
if you want to maintain yourself you can buy a book from a bike shop or try out this fantastic website:
http://www.webmountainbike.com/maintenance.html
happy riding!
as anyone who has ridden with me knows I don't do anything to my bike but oil it and clean it and it's survived just fine! So far!!
However! At the Fling I had a problem with my brakes, it took the guys who were there to 'help' an hour to NOT fix them - I took the bike to Brookvale Bike Factory and they fixed them in about three mins - plus they were really nice...I find them the friendliest of the local shops myself...
for all the advice. I did end up going to Bike Addiction and they quoted a service for $70 but it's going to be $90 with some extra stuff they had to do (that's OK). They were very friendly and helpful and did the service for me in a day despite originally saying they were booked up till after Easter. They spent some time explaining things and recommending products.
They do maintenance nights which are pretty steep at $220 for two people, though did say that at the end of the night you've gotten a full service ($70 normally) and extra knowledge out of it. If any of the newbies or dare I say it, 'chicks' think they might want to do this...let me know. It gets cheaper the more people you have but they don't have big nights with lots of people the way they used to, I guess people didn't learn very much.
in going along to one of these im always looking to hone what little skills i have in maintaining my bike if your serious about it keep me posted
Hey Tanya,
I went to one of BA's service nights and it was fantastic. I was the only girl there with about 6 or seven guys and the BA boys were really helpful.
They even give you some handout notes to take home, and provide pizza for din dins.
BA are great...I spend all my mulla there on bike gear there/ service etc etc..
Anna
"as anyone who has ridden with me knows I don't do anything to my bike..."
are you sure you are not blond??? But I have to say I do the same, oil or wax the chain and clean after only very dirty rides!...like the TH ride in Rain and Mud.
"Otherwise I could recommend the bikeshop I use at Hornsby called Kuringai Cycles on the Pacific Highway" agree with Liam, do the same, they are good!!!
Bernd
Hornsby Cycles is the shop for me. I find that if you stick to one shop, they get to know you, you get to know them and they tend to look after you better.
Quick story, I damaged my rear disk and pads after a ride. Needed new bits for a early ride on Sat. Running late from work on Friday evening and rang the store. I let them know I was going to be late, they said no problems, we will leave the new bits at the milk bar next door and pay us next time your in the shop. You cannot get better service than that.
Cya
Evan
seeya Monday, Manly Dam , 8-30?
How is the new bike after the "Mud bath"?
Bernd
Bike OK, but shredded my pads. Got new ones on the back now.
Evan
Damn cant believe you shredded the pads already Ev, I know mine are a little worse for wear but didnt know rain and sand could cause so much damage. I must give mine a proper check before riding the damn tomorrow or it could get interesting!
DY cycles Chris and Mark are great mechanics , cheaper than anyone else( but so are there jokes) good blokes they will look after you