Where do you get your bike repaired/maintained?

[Jason Knight]

Not even sure why the chain/brand shops refuse to because a place like REI will repair/maintain ANY bike.

What praytell is a REI? *GOOGLES IT* Huh, nearest location 158 miles away. Probably why I never heard of them.

Oh wait, they own Eastern Mountain. According to Gmaps there's one of those over the hill north of Peterboro.

Might have to poke my head in and see if they're any good. Be nice to have someone less than an hour away I can point people at for things "above my pay grade".

 

[Taylor57]

I've used several different repair/maintenance options since I got my ebike.

I've done 2 mobile repair services, 2 different shops and just recently used REI (who I highly recommend for the cheapest prices and they don't care if you didn't buy your bike/ebike from them).

Back during the height of Covid, most local shops were weeks out for appointments and would take days to finish so that's why used mobile services (and sometimes they were hard to make appointments with). I like the mobile services because they come to you... and depending on the service, can be more reasonable than a repair shop. Most of the chain/brand stores will only repair their brands and usually won't repair/tune-up ebikes they don't carry. Even some independent shops won't work on eBikes.

As far as I know REI doesn't care. And they don't change their rate if it's an ebike or not. 2 other shops I called for a rear flat tube replacement upcharged because of the "extra work" to remove the wheel with the rear hub motor... but REI just told me it might take a little more time. And they only charge me $10 labor (free if you're a member). Everywhere else was $35 to $50... even my mobile guy.

Anyways... I know many of you wrench it yourself but I don't have the time for that... and if you're like me... where do you go?

Edit: Typos.

Palm Desert Bikes and Brews. They are awesome and they serve beer!

Palm Desert Bike N Brews - Home

Palm Desert Bike N Brews | FOR RIDERS BY RIDERS - Sales, rentals, E-bikes, shuttles, coffee, beer, components, good times!

pdbikenbrews.com

 

[fooferdoggie]

Palm Desert Bikes and Brews. They are awesome and they serve beer!

Palm Desert Bike N Brews - Home

Palm Desert Bike N Brews | FOR RIDERS BY RIDERS - Sales, rentals, E-bikes, shuttles, coffee, beer, components, good times!

pdbikenbrews.com

Not sure if that’s a good combo we have a hair salon that serves beer.

 

[pmcdonald]

Palm Desert Bikes and Brews. They are awesome and they serve beer!

Palm Desert Bike N Brews - Home

Palm Desert Bike N Brews | FOR RIDERS BY RIDERS - Sales, rentals, E-bikes, shuttles, coffee, beer, components, good times!

pdbikenbrews.com

Ding ding, we have a winner!

Slowly expanding/fumbling my way through the home mechanic skillset but like @fooferdoggie I leave the spokes, electronics and cables to the shops.

 

[mschwett]

…
I don't get it. Are these guys so busy they don't have time to learn?

Please, do share ANY business case where you would not be further ahead expanding your back end to improve the store's bottom line...

i think it’s that they’re so busy they have to prioritize - relatively low margin repairs or maintenance, or relatively low margin repairs or maintenance that are basically required if you want to sell bikes. few people would buy a bike at an LBS if the LBS told you they wouldn’t service it. without the capacity to service more than some number of bikes, of course they will prioritize the ones they sell.

the best shops around here often book service appointment months out, and usually a couple weeks. it’s hard to tell exactly but per Yelp there are about 60 bike shops in an 5 mile radius or so. the two closest ones are about .4 miles each, but the one I’ve bought the most bikes from and has the best service is about 2 miles.

I do most basic stuff myself, chains, cassettes, upgrades, bar tape, most flats, brake pads, rotors…. but anything involving adjusting derailleurs, hydraulic anything, wheel truing, headset or head shock... Shop time.

 

[AHicks]

i think it’s that they’re so busy they have to prioritize - relatively low margin repairs or maintenance, or relatively low margin repairs or maintenance that are basically required if you want to sell bikes. few people would buy a bike at an LBS if the LBS told you they wouldn’t service it. without the capacity to service more than some number of bikes, of course they will prioritize the ones they sell.

the best shops around here often book service appointment months out, and usually a couple weeks. it’s hard to tell exactly but per Yelp there are about 60 bike shops in an 5 mile radius or so. the two closest ones are about .4 miles each, but the one I’ve bought the most bikes from and has the best service is about 2 miles.

I do most basic stuff myself, chains, cassettes, upgrades, bar tape, most flats, brake pads, rotors…. but anything involving adjusting derailleurs, hydraulic anything, wheel truing, headset or head shock... Shop time.

Thought here is if they are booking that far out, they are either incompetent, ham strung by really poor management - or they need more help/room. When it comes to additional room to service bikes, there's no law saying you can't open a satellite store in the same neighborhood that would be used for parts and servicing bikes only - freeing up room in the main store for more sales floor.

ANYONE familiar with small business will tell you a well run back end can make more contributions to the bottom line than sales can.... or at the very least, be very competitive. The idea that the service dept. is a "necessary evil" is absolutely ignorant.....

An example of this is easy. Check out your local car dealers, or maybe boat and RV dealers as well. There's little screwing around with these business plans. They've been fine tuned for many years. Can you even imagine a service manager telling you "we don't work on anything we didn't sell" at a car dealer? He'd be fired on the spot!

And kudos to those willing to get their hands dirty to learn something new. My bet is, your confidence will grow a little every time you get through a repair successfully - leading you to consider more and more of your own repair work.

 

[Taylor57]

Thought here is if they are booking that far out, they are either incompetent, ham strung by really poor management - or they need more help/room. When it comes to additional room to service bikes, there's no law saying you can't open a satellite store in the same neighborhood that would be used for parts and servicing bikes only - freeing up room in the main store for more sales floor.

ANYONE familiar with small business will tell you a well run back end can make more contributions to the bottom line than sales can.... or at the very least, be very competitive. The idea that the service dept. is a "necessary evil" is absolutely ignorant.....

An example of this is easy. Check out your local car dealers, or maybe boat and RV dealers as well. There's little screwing around with these business plans. They've been fine tuned for many years. Can you even imagine a service manager telling you "we don't work on anything we didn't sell" at a car dealer? He'd be fired on the spot!

And kudos to those willing to get their hands dirty to learn something new. My bet is, your confidence will grow a little every time you get through a repair successfully - leading you to consider more and more of your own repair work.

I agree on getting your hands dirty once in awhile. However, I still work so I dont have as much time. I have in the past, assembled my own bikes (7 of em), changed flats, added suspension stems and seatposts, swapped out handlebars and adjusted brakes. I leave the flats now to the LBS as well as any brake bleeding. The Lectric XP back tire flat fix almost killed me. Now I enjoy hoisting the bike on to my 1up rack and dropping at the LBS for a cool refreshing beverage. Sometimes they get it fixed after only 1 beer!

 

[mschwett]

Thought here is if they are booking that far out, they are either incompetent, ham strung by really poor management - or they need more help/room. When it comes to additional room to service bikes, there's no law saying you can't open a satellite store in the same neighborhood that would be used for parts and servicing bikes only - freeing up room in the main store for more sales floor.

ANYONE familiar with small business will tell you a well run back end can make more contributions to the bottom line than sales can.... or at the very least, be very competitive. The idea that the service dept. is a "necessary evil" is absolutely ignorant.....

An example of this is easy. Check out your local car dealers, or maybe boat and RV dealers as well. There's little screwing around with these business plans. They've been fine tuned for many years. Can you even imagine a service manager telling you "we don't work on anything we didn't sell" at a car dealer? He'd be fired on the spot!

And kudos to those willing to get their hands dirty to learn something new. My bet is, your confidence will grow a little every time you get through a repair successfully - leading you to consider more and more of your own repair work.

i’m not sure i’d use car dealers as a good business model - well, actually i’m sure i wouldn’t - but i’m pretty sure they are required by their franchise agreements to service any car in the brand. i can guarantee if you bring a toyota into a porsche dealer around here to get some routine maintenance done, they ain’t touching it!

i think the main issue around shops here is labor and parts. space too, but the bigger ones already have satellite locations for certain types of service, new bike assembly, etc. hard to find qualified mechanics at a rate the market will support, which i believe is around $25/hr plus benefits. the better ones all have “experienced mechanics wanted” signs up and lots of new faces behind the counter.

 

[AHicks]

i’m not sure i’d use car dealers as a good business model - well, actually i’m sure i wouldn’t - but i’m pretty sure they are required by their franchise agreements to service any car in the brand. i can guarantee if you bring a toyota into a porsche dealer around here to get some routine maintenance done, they ain’t touching it!

i think the main issue around shops here is labor and parts. space too, but the bigger ones already have satellite locations for certain types of service, new bike assembly, etc. hard to find qualified mechanics at a rate the market will support, which i believe is around $25/hr plus benefits. the better ones all have “experienced mechanics wanted” signs up and lots of new faces behind the counter.

OTOH, if you bring your F150 into a Chev. dealer for non warranty related work, with the Ford vs. Chev competition being what it is, I'm thinking there would be no issue?

Less about the franchise agreement, more about aggressive management looking for every opportunity to make a dollar, and corral a customer with awesome service...

 

[mschwett]

OTOH, if you bring your F150 into a Chev. dealer for non warranty related work, with the Ford vs. Chev competition being what it is, I'm thinking there would be no issue?

Less about the franchise agreement, more about aggressive management looking for every opportunity to make a dollar, and corral a customer with awesome service...

you know, i wonder about that! i’m guessing they’ll say no, but it would be interesting. would they even have the expertise or parts to troubleshoot a complex issue on a non-chevy vehicle? why would they have the service manuals, software subscriptions etc? of course regular bikes aren’t there yet, but eBikes seem to be going that route.

most bike shops refuse to work on my commuter, which has a front hub motor, cheap IGH with automatic shifter, and a bunch of other integrated stuff. for just about anything i can’t do it has to go to the brand store!

 

[BigNerd]

What praytell is a REI? *GOOGLES IT* Huh, nearest location 158 miles away. Probably why I never heard of them.

Oh wait, they own Eastern Mountain. According to Gmaps there's one of those over the hill north of Peterboro.

Might have to poke my head in and see if they're any good. Be nice to have someone less than an hour away I can point people at for things "above my pay grade".

Sorry, REI is just an example of a big chain retail store here in the West that will work on any ebike... most other chains/brands will only work on their own.

 

[BigNerd]

Palm Desert Bikes and Brews. They are awesome and they serve beer!

Palm Desert Bike N Brews - Home

Palm Desert Bike N Brews | FOR RIDERS BY RIDERS - Sales, rentals, E-bikes, shuttles, coffee, beer, components, good times!

pdbikenbrews.com

Need some place called Bikes and Burgers... or Bikes and Bulgogi (make someone Google that) near me.

 

[J.R.]

What praytell is a REI? *GOOGLES IT* Huh, nearest location 158 miles away. Probably why I never heard of them.

Oh wait, they own Eastern Mountain. According to Gmaps there's one of those over the hill north of Peterboro.

Might have to poke my head in and see if they're any good. Be nice to have someone less than an hour away I can point people at for things "above my pay grade".

Eastern Mountain Sports used to have a store here in central PA, but it closed a year ago or so. They are like REI in that it's a member's coop of sorts. There is an REI in northern Maryland I've been to. Prices are good with membership.

EMS is a really nice store, worth a look. They might work on bikes in the same way REI does. EMS is now owned by a British sporting goods giant.

Frasers Group - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Taylor57]

Need some place called Bikes and Burgers... or Bikes and Bulgogi (make someone Google that) near me.

Love me the Bulgogi!

 

[BigNerd]

Here is an example of what my local REI charges for non-members:

For members, I think most of the $10 services are free and the others are 20% off ($30 for lifetime membership).

Other bike shops are slightly higher and either don't repair eBikes or charge more... these prices are the same regardless.

 

[norcalflat]

I worked in a couple shops for a combined 15 years, and haven't let anyone touch any of my bikes for the last 25 or so(excluding initial assembly of a new bike, but even then I will usually disassemble and build it myself). In those years I worked with 3, maybe 4 people I would fully trust to work on my bike. I saw dozens of people come and go, so many of them ended up getting moved to flat repairs and sales because they were just terrible mechanics. Just because someone works at a shop, it doesn't mean they're going to do a better job than you could with $20 worth of tools and a 10 minute Youtube video.
With that said, if you are the flat repair and sales type, I think it's worth at least having a civil relationship with at least one local shop. Being specific on what you want done and what your budget is up front and being friendly will get you farther than being a prick, walking in and demanding help will get you denied nearly every time. Even if a shop doesn't work on bikes they didn't sell or don't work on eBikes, it's always worth it to just ask for some friendly advice, and if they snub you and act like you're not worth their time at least you know to avoid them the next you have money burning a hole in your pocket.

 

[Jason Knight]

it’s hard to tell exactly but per Yelp there are about 60 bike shops in an 5 mile radius or so. the two closest ones are about .4 miles each, but the one I’ve bought the most bikes from and has the best service is about 2 miles.

The {expletive omitted} you say?!? I don't think there are that many bicycle stores in my entire STATE. Did you omit a zero... or two on that "5 miles" 'cause... well...

 

[tomjasz]

What praytell is a REI?

Every backpacker Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker, fan I know going back to 1966 is a lifetime member. In 2021 the were 24.5 million members. I’m the 204554th. The were no retail stores except in WA for decades. A small catalogue printed like the current Campmor b/w on common paper print stock.

@J.R. EMS had a store in St Paul MN, long before an REI. It was a favorite. Back when Campmor made “Patagucci“ quality “mountain parkas” we bought two. As I remember in 1973 they were priced like current Patagonia and we ate boxed Mac n Cheese and canned green beans a lot for the next month. Mine lasted until I worked on a Forest Circus Helitac crew driving the Jet A fuel chase truck, my wife’s went St Vincent DePaul Las Vegas store still usable in 1999. likely the only piece of clothing that ever had an emotional attachment. To the cash poor but spirit rich days of young love.

An excerpt from the CF link,

“In 1956 he moved to California. Most likely he wouldn’t have stayed there for long, if he hadn’t got the crazy idea of discovering it on foot.

Two years later, he walked the length of the state from the Mexican Border to Oregon, a journey that was the basis for his book The Thousand-Mile Summer.

In 1963, he became the first man to walk the length of Grand Canyon National Park entirely within the rim of the canyon 'in one go', as chronicled in his book The Man Who Walked Through Time.”

In 1968, Colin published The Complete Walker.”

 

[dodgeman]

I take mine to the local LBS, which isn’t that local, it’s and hour drive. I’ve worked on cars a lot in the past and still do to some extent so I have a lot of mechanics tools.

 

[tomjasz]

Local LBS is strictly a Trek dealer but will work on all bicycle components, excepting big box Walmart type bikes. Then again few of them ask or will spend the $$ on their beaters.