Having suffered horrendous service (and I really do mean horrendous) at various independent local bike shops, my faith in finding a decent one in my locale one has hit an all time low.
I have come to the conclusion that I may as well just do it myself. At least if I cock up I can berate myself rather than going through the stress of having to berate some idiot at a LBS and explain to this goon that I do actually know how to change gears as I have owned the bike for 18 months and anyway the gear changes were crisp and smooth prior to bringing it in to you for a service and now they are clunky, slow, not engaging properly and making a god awful noise and I have told you all this twice already!!
Ignoring that I have previously bought two new well known branded bikes from two separate LBS and had the pain of trying to put right a horrendous initial bike set up for both bikes. The best service and the best initial bike set up I have received so far was when I bought a £ 150 Road BSO from Cycle King!!!!
Anyway apologies rant over I have found a 2 day course at Downland cycles in Kent and was thinking of booking on that for a start and maybe adding on wheel building a bit later or even doing their in depth course.
What I want out of the course initially is for me to be able to service my own bike, able to upgrade Chains, Brakes even as far as groupsets and wheels as well as being able to put right and adjust anything that goes wrong.
I am a bit of a mechanical numpty but only to the extent that I was a bit scared of tinkering around and messing things up but generally show me something once, look over me doing it and then I tend to get it. Anyway I have gone beyond that now and I am sure that if I let my 4 yr old loose on the bike it wouldn’t have come back in much worse a state than from these so called LBS bike experts!
Because of the service I have received in the past I am quite anxious that I will be throwing further money away and
Would this course suit my needs and are Downland good?
I am based in Essex so it is a bit of a schlep to get across to Canterbury are there any decent courses in East Anglia?
EDIT: Many thansk for any advice
I have come to the conclusion that I may as well just do it myself. At least if I cock up I can berate myself rather than going through the stress of having to berate some idiot at a LBS and explain to this goon that I do actually know how to change gears as I have owned the bike for 18 months and anyway the gear changes were crisp and smooth prior to bringing it in to you for a service and now they are clunky, slow, not engaging properly and making a god awful noise and I have told you all this twice already!!
Ignoring that I have previously bought two new well known branded bikes from two separate LBS and had the pain of trying to put right a horrendous initial bike set up for both bikes. The best service and the best initial bike set up I have received so far was when I bought a £ 150 Road BSO from Cycle King!!!!
Anyway apologies rant over I have found a 2 day course at Downland cycles in Kent and was thinking of booking on that for a start and maybe adding on wheel building a bit later or even doing their in depth course.
What I want out of the course initially is for me to be able to service my own bike, able to upgrade Chains, Brakes even as far as groupsets and wheels as well as being able to put right and adjust anything that goes wrong.
I am a bit of a mechanical numpty but only to the extent that I was a bit scared of tinkering around and messing things up but generally show me something once, look over me doing it and then I tend to get it. Anyway I have gone beyond that now and I am sure that if I let my 4 yr old loose on the bike it wouldn’t have come back in much worse a state than from these so called LBS bike experts!
Because of the service I have received in the past I am quite anxious that I will be throwing further money away and
Would this course suit my needs and are Downland good?
I am based in Essex so it is a bit of a schlep to get across to Canterbury are there any decent courses in East Anglia?
EDIT: Many thansk for any advice
