LBS bike service, worth it?

[Alcdrew]

My bike is coming up to a year old now, so I think it is time for it to be serviced, as I would with my car. So is it worth me taking it to the LBS who offer

A-Service: £100 + Parts - Complete Strip Down and Rebuild, Wheels Serviced, Headset Serviced, Disc Mount faced (if applicable)

So maybe with a couple of cables or something will end up costing £110-120, I reckon. And probably take 2-3 days.

or shall I just give it a good clean and re-oil/grease?

It's a Trek 7.5fx with disc brakes, cost £550 so nothing super special but not that cheap either. It as only done about 2500 miles so far, and gets used prety much on a daily bases.

Whats your views, do you have your bike reguarly serviced? If so how oftern, after x amount of miles or a set time period?

 

[Danny]

I am sure there will be people on this forum who religeously service their bikes on an annual basis (or even much more often).

However most of the internal components on your bike will be sealed so you can probably get away with a much less regular service. Also not sure about the Trek, but components on many bikes are now non-serviceable and are designed to be replaced periodically.

If you LBS is any good they should be able to carry out a quick inspection of your bike and advise you on whether any components specifically need attention. It should cheaper to do that then go for a "full service".

 

[Zoiders]

No it isnt worth it for a £550 bike, cable discs I imagine?

Learn to do it yourself, you could buy every tool you need for that amount of money apart from maybe the disc facing tool, and thats a job that needs doing once and takes a few minutes

Everything else will be splined interface new kit or non replacable, there is not a single component that could not be described as "drop in"

 

[palinurus]

Few years back I used to just abuse my commuting bike all winter and just take it to the LBS and tell them to sort it out whatever it cost (economically this was justifiable; it wasn't even a quarter of my public transport cost if they replaced the entire transmission and all the cables and serviced the headset too).

Except now I sort stuff out as I go along when necessary, saving money for unnecessary things like fancy bottle cages and pretty coloured tyres.

I take it to the LBS when I can't fix it, headsets are pretty much the only thing I can't do tho'. Or really stuck things.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

Get a good book like Dorling Kindersley's Bike Repair Manual by Chris Sidwells (Tom Simpsons Nephew) £8.99 from all good book sellers. Loads of clear easy to follow instructions accompanied with clear colour pictures, there's nothing secret about servicing a pedal cycle, Get down to Lidl's next week and buy their bike tool kit £19.99... sorted total £21.97 save your self a shed load of dosh, and learn some skills into the bargain.

 

[Chris James]

I don't know, do you think the bike needs stripping down? How does it feel like it is running? Do the wheels spin freely, are they true? Slip the chain off and have a fiddle with the bottom bracket - any play or roughness? Likewsie for the headset?

If not then I would suggest lubing up regularly, learning how to adjust the derailleurs properly (if you don't already know) and then running the bike on until something feels wrong!

If it is of any help to make you feel better for following my policy of relative 'neglect', I am a mechanical engineer.

 

[Alcdrew]

Thanks for the advice.

I could do it myself I don't doubt that. It's been awhile since I've stripped a bike down but apart from the headset been changed from the old stem type. I don't see anything I couldn't do. I would need to get a stand and tool kit, even though I have said in the past I don’t need a stand my Dad and his Dad didn’t use them and they fixed bikes without too much trouble. My main reason for considering the LBS is laziness/time I reckon I'd probably take a week at minimum to strip it down and clean it and then moan a lot about having to do it. But as has been pointed out this probably isn't needed these days, with most things been sealed. A shame that were such a throw away society and no-one repairs anything, or even makes things that are repairable, but that’s another topic… Although I would like to take off the front and rear derailleurs off and clean them, but this is no big deal.

As for the bike, it’s running OKish, some may remember that I crashed it a few weeks ago and the steering feels a bit jittery, bit of a pull to the left…, so I will be taking it to the LBS to look at that. Brakes are a bit spongy but just need adjusting a little. The gears are fine as I adjusted them not long ago as they started jumping.

 

[palinurus]

A stand is probably nice. If it isn't raining I just hang my bike in a tree by the nose of the saddle. You do need a tree which has a branch of about the right height. My landlord has one, for which I'm thankful.

You don't need to take the mechs off to clean 'em pretty thoroughly. Years back I'd do this (and clean them in the ultrasonic bath at work). Frankly it was a total waste of time. Toothbrush and your preferred degreaser, couple minutes work.

 

[Alcdrew]

A tree, see I don't have one of those. Would need a stand... but again would be bought out of easy to me, I could build a wooden make shift stand that would work fine, but again I'd moan about doing it. Iam starting to realise I'm a lazy moaner need to get a better out look on life and the thing we have to do.

So Mr. Paul, how old should a bike be before needing such a service?

 

[Alcdrew]

Unless you've spent the last 12 months driving through mud and rain, falling off it, and never cleaned or fiddled with the bike, I doubt it would need stripping down.

Not far off. Been riden through rain, snow, wind and sun, o and mud since I seem to live on a building site. Only fallen of it the once, which was quite serious needing a new wheel and brake disc. It has however been cleaned reguarly more so since moving to the building site, and I have fiddled with it now and then, mainly just gears and break adjustment, but after the crash I did strip the front down, to check of obvious damage.

 

[pbar]

A tree, see I don't have one of those. Would need a stand... but again would be bought out of easy to me, I could build a wooden make shift stand that would work fine, but again I'd moan about doing it. Iam starting to realise I'm a lazy moaner need to get a better out look on life and the thing we have to do.

So Mr. Paul, how old should a bike be before needing such a service?

I started another thread recently about gear adjustments, and mentioned there about my huge left bicep due to holding up the bike for countless aeons after adjustments whilst my other hand changes gear and rotates the pedals. A couple of guys have made some brilliant suggestions to hold the bike up, resting it over a broom handle across 2 chairs, or hanging from a hook in a garden shed roof using washing line under the saddle.
I've been thinking about using my step ladders, they're the A frame opening type, having the bike underneath hung on a pole or rope acorss the rungs.
Any other ideas? (Resumes rubbing of sore bicep)

 

[John the Monkey]

...saving money for unnecessary things like fancy bottle cages and pretty coloured tyres.

Unnecessary!?!?! Heresy, surely

 

[mr_hippo]

LBS bike service, worth it? In my case - yes! Costs about £6.

 

[Tynan]

bought a stand somewhere for £29 recently and it's lovely, until you've used one I don't think you know what you're missing

 

[pbar]

bought a stand somewhere for £29 recently and it's lovely, until you've used one I don't think you know what you're missing

Can you remember where you got it from? That's a good price. I've seen some on Ebay at that kinda cost, but you don't know the quality a lot of the time when you get cheap stuff off there.