Looking for input

[Bigal1463]

I have an Aventon Pace 500 And have ridden a total of 820 miles. Afer have ridden 7 miles, I got off the bike and sat down on a bench and was taking in ocean and scenery. I had glanced at my bike and noticed the that the rear tire was flat. I observed that a sliver of glass had punctured the tire. I marked the the spot on the tire and attempted to use my levelers to take out that part of the tube to locate the puncture and patch it. i could not locate the puncture even after pumping in some air.
I took the bike to a bike shop where I had previously met the owner. He is an Aventon dealer. I did not purchase the bike from him, but had gotten it online. Make a long story short. I picked the bike up two days later and he said that when I or someone attempted to remove the wheel, there were two washers missing, and also there was no liner in the wheel. I told him that at no time did I or anyone attempt to remove the wheel and it seemed strange that there was‘t a liner in the wheel. As God is my whitness, this is the truth. He charged me $53. Prior to leaving the bike, I offered to volunteer 2 days a week (I’m retired) to help him out and hopefully learn about some ebike repairs. He thanked me, and said his insurance would not cover it.
Please give me your thoughts.

 

[rich c]

My thoughts? You don't know if the glass punctured the tube and you didn't notice if there was a liner. You don't have much respect for the dealer. You didn't buy from him, but you want him there for repairs, and now it seems you don't believe much of what he tells you. $53 is not bad for a liner, new tube I assume, some replacement washers, and labor. What does him not wanting you to volunteer there got to do with the tire story? You think he purposely doesn't like you now or you believe it's more evidence that he doesn't deserve your trust?

 

[Bigal1463]

Thanks for your input.

 

[Bigal1463]

Timpo, I appreciate your response and concern. I am fairly handy, I also have a good variety of tools. It bothers me that if I get a flat tire on my bike, that I should be able to do it. what holds me back is removing and reinstalling the wheels.
on a non powered bike, I would have no problem, but there are disk brakes, the derailure and adjustments to be made. I just wish that I could take a bike mechanic course, but due to the virus, everything is temporarily put on hold.

 

[Browneye]

A hub drive wheel assembly is no different than a cassette hub as far as removal, except for unplugging the power cable.
Maybe that day the assembly line had run out of washers, or it was a new guy. Or one guy took the wheel off and stashed the washers and another guy came along and said they were missing.
Chalk it up to experience.

IMO a person should really be able to fix their own flats. We even did on the motorbikes - when you were a hundered miles from civilization no one was coming to help you and it was too far to ride out. We were on our own.

I carry a spare tube so you can just change out, patch the old one at home and carry for a spare. Just make sure whatever punctured the tube isn't still in there.

Better tires can ward off some of those types of failures. Some schwalbe touring tires with flat proofing can make all the difference.

I can get tires and tubes off or on in about 60 seconds.

 

[Sierratim]

Bigal1463,

Looks like you've found this thread on removing rear wheels. There are other threads that also cover this topic.

I can't speak to any missing washers, but tire liners are not usually standard equipment on new bikes. I do add tire liners/thorn strips as one measure to reduce flats.

Disc brakes actually make it easier to remove a wheel, no rim brake pads to release to clear the tire. Just be sure to avoid pulling or even bumping the brake lever with the wheel removed. The brake pistons will over extend. This can be remedied, but there are plastic inserts that prevent this from happening.

Do your wheels use through axles? If so, a 5 or 6mm hex is all you need to remove the axle. Most bike multi-tools include both.

Other threads discuss shifting into the smallest cog in the cassette and then extending the derailleur to remove the wheel. There shouldn't be any adjustments necessary when removing and installing a wheel.

I do recommed practicing this at home so you're all set for your next flat on the trail, and as @Browneye suggests, I always carry a flat kit. Mine includes tire levers, spare tube, patch kit, tire boot, CO2 inflator with spare cartridges, and hand pump because it's not really a question of if, but when you'll get another flat.

Park Tool offers a free series of professionally produced videos on most every bike maintenance topic. Give them a try through their web site or Google.

Ride On!

 

[BET]

My thoughts? You don't know if the glass punctured the tube and you didn't notice if there was a liner. You don't have much respect for the dealer. You didn't buy from him, but you want him there for repairs, and now it seems you don't believe much of what he tells you. $53 is not bad for a liner, new tube I assume, some replacement washers, and labor. What does him not wanting you to volunteer there got to do with the tire story? You think he purposely doesn't like you now or you believe it's more evidence that he doesn't deserve your trust?

I agree there is no reason to disbelieve the bike shop about the repair but why the shade about getting his tire fixed there. Bike shops make money on bike repairs. This is a simple repair. Who cares where he bought his bike.

 

[BigNerd]

Are Pace 500s supposed to have a liner? If so and the rear tire was missing it, you should be able to take that up with Aventon.

$53 seems reasonable for the work done.

 

[MikeDD]

As for volunteers, in Washington State, the city was required to record ss numbers of all volunteers and pay L&I insurance if you followed the rules. Most don't.

 

[AHicks]

I'll mention this as I think it needs to be mentioned any time there's talk of a flat tire.

Slime (or a similar product) is your best friend! It can/will cut your number of flats by at least half, and many times eliminate them completely. Like it or not, you can't take that away from it.....

 

[J.R.]

I can't speak to any missing washers, but tire liners are not usually standard equipment on new bikes. I do add tire liners/thorn strips as one measure to reduce flats.

Are Pace 500s supposed to have a liner?

Al used the term wheel liner, I'm sure he's talking about rim tape and not tire liners.

 

[Sierratim]

Al used the term wheel liner, I'm sure he's talking about rim tape and not tire liners.

Could be. That would match up with the missing washers.

 

[Bigal1463]

The repair person mentioned liner and how was I able to ride over 800 miles if in fact the washers were not there. He said that he couldn’t move the wheel.

 

[J.R.]

Without rim tape/liner the rim's spoke holes on a double wall rims can cause a puncture. Single wall rims the spoke/nipple can cause punctures. That might be why you initially couldn't find the puncture.

As for the washers. If your bike uses a fixed axle with nuts as opposed to thru axle or quick release, there's usually no reason to remove the nuts to remove the wheel. Typically you would just loosen them to pull the wheel from the dropouts. It's unlikely a trained bike mechanic would remove the nuts to fix a flat, therefore unlikely to lose washers.