Today I got lazy

Early this afternoon I broke a spoke, hardly a difficult situation to remedy I would've thought. Just take it to the LBS, they replace the spoke & true the wheel, pick it up later this arvo. But that is where I got lazy & thought I'll just duck up the road to the closest bike shop instead of my trusted usual LBS which is about a 15min drive. It seems they don't have the required spoke in stock & bike won't be ready until later tomorrow meaning no Scuzzi ride tonight or WOMGIE tomorrow morning. My wheels are Alex R500, hardly top end limited edition stuff, so would've thought the average bike shop should be constantly in stock. Maybe I'm expecting too much but sure do wish I'd gone to my usual LBS, then I'd be out riding instead of having this rant!

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Permalink Reply by Rider B on July 10, 2012 at 23:11
A bike shop that doesn't have a typical road wheel spoke.. Sorry but that is really poor and a bad image for the industry
Permalink Reply by Dstone on July 11, 2012 at 12:33

Yeah def a bad image particularly in light of the the online V LBS stuff. All for a $3 spoke. You cant stock every spoke but just talking to our head mechanic it is just a standard spoke and cant imagine it being a weird length

Permalink Reply by Dstone on July 11, 2012 at 1:35

Was it the hub that was the problem? I thought those rims took a standard spoke.

Permalink Reply by Peter Hill on July 11, 2012 at 13:47

Broken spokes??? don't talk to me about broken spokes...but now you've got me on that topic:

A big thanks to Kim at North Adelaide bike shop on Melbourne Street for fixing the diabolical spoke mess left in the wake of 4 warranty returns to point of purchase for my Specialized Crosstrail.  4 broken spokes in one year followed by an amateur hour attempt at re-spoking the rear wheel.

Thanks to Kim, my wheels are round and bike now goes straight when I want it to.

Permalink Reply by Torsten Bunge on July 11, 2012 at 19:07

+1 for North Adelaide Cycles, my usual bike shop of choice.

Permalink Reply by Torsten Bunge on July 11, 2012 at 19:35

The saga continues, returned to said bike shop at 4pm today to pick up fixed wheel only to find it hadn't even been looked at, the excuse given was "Sorry mate, I was off yesterday and no-one told me about your repair". Now I don't like to name and shame so I'll keep it cryptic, this bike shop on Nth East Rd must be stopped!!! I took my unfixed wheel, a quick trip to North Adelaide Cycles and the response from Kim was "Give me 15 minutes and I'll have it fixed for you". Now this was at around 4:45 this afternoon, why didn't I do this yesterday!! 

Permalink Reply by Blake on July 11, 2012 at 20:32

Very impressive! Credit where due, might have to stop in and have a look. 

Permalink Reply by Torsten Bunge on July 11, 2012 at 21:28
Just a bloke by himself, keeps prices down by not having too much money tied up in stock but usually has the basics, what he doesn't have he can normally get within a couple of days. Where he really wins me over is with old fashioned customer service, nothing is too much trouble & over and above all of that he is just a really good bloke.
Permalink Reply by Clive Palfrey on July 11, 2012 at 21:22

There are 2 LBS's on Nth East, frankly I wouldn't go to either of them unless for an emergency accessory purchase

Permalink Reply by Torsten Bunge on July 11, 2012 at 21:32
Know them both and couldn't agree more!
Permalink Reply by Jase "Flatty" C on July 12, 2012 at 13:31

I have the art of wheel truing down to a fine ... err ... art.  1/4 turns of the spoke key are the key. I use a couple of my daughters hair clips on the spokes I just tightened so that I know what to reverse if necessary. Time, patience and common sense are all that's needed. 

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