Is my bike costing me a fortune?

[Cloud]

Well my full suspension mountain bike cost more to run than my car in repairs.

Every ride something expensive would break and we are talking a high end machine. I asked the shop why my £220 basic hardtail was tougher than a two grand bike and the manager said "you pay for the technology".

The people who follow freeriding actually praise the breaking of a grands worth of frame during a jump. These snowboarding type rich little bastards are brainwashed by stupid mags such as MBUK into providing a never ending source of income in replacement parts for bike shops selling the extreme lifestyle to any idiot able to burn the cash.

That's why I got out of it. I still ride my £220 mountain bike and it's tough as nails which I was under the presumption mountain bikes were all about.

 

[mauvais]

That's why I don't buy XTR or equivalent - at a certain price point, possibly even XT, things magically become more likely to break.

 

[dynamicbaddog]

£20 for a tyre? You can get decent puncture proof tyres for £10 or less (schwalbe) and tubes for about £3-4 (bontrager)

you sure? I just got new schwalbe tyres fitted, and it cost £50...

 

[Herbsman.]

you sure? I just got new schwalbe tyres fitted, and it cost £50...

Are you f*cking joking?!

Is that including labour?

Shwalbe blizzard sport tyres are £11 online and £12 in my 'local' bike shop - he charges me £8 for new ones though and £6 for barely used ones (ones that he's gone out for one ride on)

If he fitted them for me he'd have charged £5 labour (or perhaps £10 to usual customers) - that's £34 in total! £24 if you fit them yourself!

 

[dynamicbaddog]

Are you f*cking joking?!

Is that including labour?

Shwalbe blizzard sport tyres are £11 online and £12 in my 'local' bike shop - he charges me £8 for new ones though and £6 for barely used ones (ones that he's gone out for one ride on)

If he fitted them for me he'd have charged £5 labour (or perhaps £10 to usual customers) - that's £34 in total! £24 if you fit them yourself!

blimey!
I think he charged me about a fiver for the labour. Did'nt realise how much cheaper I could have done this for It's all my own fault really I've been on bike maintence courses etc but I seem to have a bit of a mechanical block on anything to do with fixing my bike. I can just about mend a puncture. So this bike shop I go to are always fixing little things for me for free. So if I've got the money I do go to them first to buy stuff out of loyality even though I know it's going to be a more expensive as they are a small shop. (today he fixed my dodgy brakes for me free of charge while he was doing the tyres )

 

[mauvais]

blimey!
I think he charged me about a fiver for the labour. Did'nt realise how much cheaper I could have done this for It's all my own fault really

Depends what you got, e.g. £50 would be reasonable for:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/SearchResults.aspx?Search=schwalbe&x=0&y=0

 

[Herbsman.]

I can't believe those Stelvio's are £24 but not even puncture resistant.

They probably only cost that much because of the "Prominent graphics" that give them an "unmistakable appearance"

And they fold, which is a bonus I suppose, if you're using it as a spare.

 

[nickolarse]

Cheap when you think about it. A tank of petrol a week, road tax, insurance etc. etc.

 

[Herbsman.]

Well, compared to the luxury of driving the car, I'd say the price of bike stuff is just about right, but not 'cheap'.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

I've just paid over £100 for my bike to have a service and the cassette and chain to be replaced and the brakes to be adjusted(and some other things i can't now recall)

what ever poster said they wished they'd never touched their brakes - I;m with you on that one - i've had a whole catalogue of problems with them since I started adjusting them myself (not changing the pads - I can do that)
and in the end have had to have them so loose to stop the pads rubbing the rim all the time that i've had virtually no brakes


anyway i picked it up from london fields today and i have brakes that work again - although i nearly fell off when applying both brakes together - i stopped that quickly!

i;ll try and consider that it's been costing me lots in public transport recently as i've only been using my bike for the very short commute to work and back rather than say hackney to brixton so hopefully i'll recoup some money and get my fitness back up to a better level

 

[mauvais]

Sounds like a lot, though I don't know what you had done. I got a Shimano XT (fairly nice kit) cassette and chain for under £50, and servicing costs me £25.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

it is a lot - its time for me to learn how to do more things for my bike myself

 

[mauvais]

There's nothing wrong with having it shop serviced - for the things you describe, I'd probably do the same - but you should get itemised bills, and having done that, shop around. Bike shops used to be mostly rip off merchants but they've got a lot more competitive - there's still a few bad ones though.

 

[Herbsman.]

Changing a cassette isn't that easy especially if the lockring has been put on tight with too little grease.

I did it myself when I needed to, but it was a pain in the arse, and I broke my wheel in a fit of rage.

After that fit of rage I calmed down and used my brain to solve the problem: Instead of trying to do it by hand I wedged the handle of the chain whip under the sofa bed, held the wheel, and stamped my foot on the spanner attached to the lockring removal tool. It came off almost straight away.

If only I'd done that (or taken it to the shop instead) before I got frustrated and destroyed my wheel

 

[Miss-Shelf]

herbsman sympathy.
something i've been learning (again) recently with my brake mal adjustmant fiasco is that
- i only learn by making mistakes
- and i should ask for help AND attend to problems earlier

this applies to my bike and most other things in my life

 

[Psychonaut]

Well my full suspension mountain bike cost more to run than my car in repairs.

Every ride something expensive would break and we are talking a high end machine. I asked the shop why my £220 basic hardtail was tougher than a two grand bike and the manager said "you pay for the technology".

i was planning to get an 07 full sus between £400-600 sale price.

Is that the norm tho, or are particular brands/bad quality control more prone to trouble?

When you say 'every ride' are we talking extreme DH or gentle XC?

 

[mauvais]

i was planning to get an 07 full sus between £400-600 sale price.

Is that the norm tho, or are particular brands/bad quality control more prone to trouble?

When you say 'every ride' are we talking extreme DH or gentle XC?

I don't think it's the norm, but I'm a coward so don't ride anything particularly challenging.

Full sus adds another, and serious, element to go wrong though - I'm sticking with hardtails

 

[Herbsman.]

i was planning to get an 07 full sus between £400-600 sale price.

Is that the norm tho, or are particular brands/bad quality control more prone to trouble?

When you say 'every ride' are we talking extreme DH or gentle XC?

Full sus? £400-600? Don't bother.

A similar-priced hardtail will have better quality parts and less to go wrong. The rear sus on bikes in that price bracket is generally not very good.

 

[Psychonaut]

Full sus? £400-600? Don't bother.

A similar-priced hardtail will have better quality parts and less to go wrong. The rear sus on bikes in that price bracket is generally not very good.

Yeah, that seems to be the concensus but i wondered if their was the occasional exception.

Its mainly the thought of theft thats put me off spending more, but ive been looking into insurance & thats relaxed me. I can see my budget drifting past 800 in the next few days...

 

[Psychonaut]

Full sus adds another, and serious, element to go wrong though - I'm sticking with hardtails

Do you mean serious as in PITA to get fixed, or seriously dangerous in case something snaps and collapses the frame at speed?

 

[mauvais]

Do you mean serious as in PITA to get fixed, or seriously dangerous in case something snaps and collapses the frame at speed?

Both - though I'd hope you wouldn't be getting into that many situations where the latter's a problem! I hardly know anything about FS to be honest, but it obviously adds at least two more points of failure - the pivot and the shock.

 

[Herbsman.]

Yeah, that seems to be the concensus but i wondered if their was the occasional exception.

Its mainly the thought of theft thats put me off spending more, but ive been looking into insurance & thats relaxed me. I can see my budget drifting past 800 in the next few days...

If I remember correctly, the mongoose teocali comp FS bikes are about £800 and have fairly decent rear sus. plus generally good components all round.

personally i'm going to stick with front sus and v-brakes, just cos i cant be arsed / can't afford the maintenance of hydraulic discs and rear sus.

 

[mauvais]

Hydraulic discs are probably cheaper, and definitely easier, to maintain. I've changed the pads once this year after about 4000 miles. Looked at doing a bleed but they said it didn't need it.

 

[Herbsman.]

I wouldn't want to bleed them myself

or replace a snapped hose

and the brake pads are a bit fiddly

 

[Cid]

Brake pads on hydros are actually pretty simple tbh, slightly fiddly to get in and out but then they hardly ever need replacing, personally find them simpler than Vs. My brakes (well, brake - only run a disk up front) are self adjusting so you don't really need to do anything. Makes quick tube changes a lot easier too as you don't have to mess around with the brakes to get the wheel off. They're actually ideally suited to the uk as well, one of the largest benefits is consistent wet weather performance, especially in mud (which, lets face it, we have a lot of).

 

[Herbsman.]

True, but I can carry a spare cable around if my cable snaps. If a hydraulic hose broke while I was out MTB'ing I'd be fucked unless I was carrying some brake fluid, a jug and a spare hose

 

[Cid]

Yep, but on the other hand you'll have to do something pretty spectacular to break decent disk brake hose (eg Goodridge).

 

[Miss-Shelf]

shelling out more money that i wanted on my bike has given me a gloriously safe and speedy bike again

i didn't know how much my riding had been compromised in speed and safety because of the brakes either applying too much (ie rubbing all the time) or too little (ie hardly working at all) it was such hard work riding the thing last week

now its a dream

so it was worth it given that its my main transport apart from buses

 

[wrysmile]

Well, in the end I had to get a new brake thingamy - on the bright side, it was £18 well spent cause now it's all working a treat (and I'd tried to fix it to no avail, although thanks for the tips, all). Anyway, hopefully I now will ride my bike for ages with no trouble. I was going to get a new one cause my work does a bike loan which is very tempting, but now I have to get my money's worth from this one!!

 

[Psychonaut]

I dont think anyones mentioned mechanical disc brakes? Is that because the performance isnt much better than V's?