Maybe, you can install a BB with a hammer and piece of wood. Most of my cyclist friends would struggle with swapping brake pads. Most, however, can afford the service of a bike shop in dealing with a crankset swap.

I consider myself pretty handy, and i would not like to take a hammer (or a mallet on the safe side), and risk hammering a BB shell in at the wrong angle.

About 1cm in, there are grooves for snap rings (which are missing in the photo), which functioned as the bearing seats. That was the standard BB30 setup for several years (looks like Specialized did it exactly like we did back then):



I'm a little confused by what you mean by "go full BB30". As this allowed us to use a BB30 crank (and was identical to many other BB30 frames at the time), it seems to me that it was "full BB30". Using that sleeve was *less* cost. Less time and labor is involved in leaving the shell insert closed, rather than machining holes in it...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

I remember those frames, that was a bit of a design flaw. It seems like the approach the mechanic wanted to take would have been pretty burdensome but would have ended up netting you a new frame while the approach the owner took may have invalidated your warranty on that? I knew a number of people who had those things warrantied and a couple more who had them fail outside of warranty and ended up throwing the frame away

It's already fixed, are you suggesting he have them undo the labor rather than paying for it? Because I'm pretty sure he'd have a hard time leaving with his bike without paying. And the shop is "reputable" the OP has been doing his business there for 14 years.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

You think he should accept gear cables on the brakes?

If there really is gear cables used for brakes, it's not fixed. In fact it's border line attempted murder. A hard stop could pop the end right off the cable. And the brake's clinch bolt is designed for a larger diameter cable, so it's digging into the smaller cable more, so that's another place the cable is ripe for snapping. Any mechanic that would do this, should find other work. Unless he just doesn't know any better? The cable ENDS are exactly the same for some base bar brake cables, and barrel end style shift cables. Often the ends of the brake cables are painted red to alert the mechanic to the difference. I've wondered why the industry would do this, as it would be so easy to screw up, and use the wrong cable. But until this thread, I'd never heard of anyone actually doing it.

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Athlinks / Strava

To close out the thread, I did go speak to the owner today and we agreed to a compromise on the cost of labor. It's still way more than the initial $107, but he explained that the $107 was for tuning the bike and inspecting the build-up that I had done (I'm not sure what the going rate is for tuning a bike. This is the third time I've had someone else do it, as I usually do it myself but am unfamiliar with Ultegra R8000 and didn't have time to learn). The difference was for all of the issues that they found.

Here's what was accomplished:

1) The headset had a wobble that I had asked them to tighten, which ended up being incorrectly assembled on my part during the build-up. I've never had any issues with assembling them before, but if messed it up, then I'll own it.

2) I asked them to put a serrated washer under the rear brake as I didn't have one when I put the bike together, but they stated that the carbon layup inside the rear stays where the brake mounting nut is inserted had been "crushed" due to repeated over-tightening and they had to file down a washer to fit underneath the nut.

3) Regarding the brake cables, the mechanic stated that the two brake cables that I had installed were actually shifter cables, which I have a hard time believing. I've replaced brake cables a dozen times and can easily identify brake cables from shifter cables. Either way, I misheard the mechanic when I initially went to get the bike and was corrected this afternoon when the owner was explaining everything to me. For that misunderstanding, I'll eat crow.

4) The front derailleur cable apparently took over three hours to install, which entailed some disassembly and PFM (Pure Fucking Magic) to get it to go though.

5) The owner agreed that the mechanic should have called me regarding all of the extra work that they were putting in and agreed to replace the Jagwire Elite Link housing at no additional cost that I had installed so that all of the housing would match at least.

So, all that said, I'm still sore at the price and stand by my opinion that the mechanic should have called first to tell me that things weren't going well and that even more maintenance would need to be done, but I'm happy that we were able to discuss it amicably and salvage our LBS/Customer relationship. Will I go back? Probably, but with some clearer expectations of the cost and better communication should they encounter something unexpected.

Looks like best case scenario all things considered. Glad you guys could work it out

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

In that regard, it's like when I took my truck to my mechanic to fix my a/c. He had a $90 solution done (which was the cost of labor figuring out the problem), then gave me estimates on what would be required to fix it, let me have a think on it, then I said let's do it and fixed the problem completely. Instead of fixing everything and giving me a bill at the end.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

You shouldn't have paid more than $107.

They screwed you without lube.

Just wanted to circle back to your post because every single thing you said ended up basically being right but it was totally ignored.

The LBS mech still should've called the guy when it turned out it was gonna be a several hundred dollars tab, in my opinion.

Go figure, eh?

Yup. They definitely should have called.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Beena long while, but I am pretty sure for $500 my LBS would do a complete breakdown a relube, including all bearings. That shop wouldn't see my business again. At the minimum, that wrench would never touch it again.

Sounds like something similar a LBS did to me. I had them quote me on doing a "Pro Service" on my bike because I was super busy (and being lazy) to just do it myself. I went to pick up my bike two days later and it was more dirty than when I dropped it off and none of what the pro service covers was even done, let alone the most basic package. When picking it up they were also were trying to charge me more for things they couldn't explain.

Ultimately the owner did finally refund my money after showing him the bike, explaining I actually know what I'm talking about, and then having to send photos again. He kept tying to say that he shouldn't refund my money because, "I was just trying to screw the shop over." There's two shops around where I live that I trust and should have taken my bike to one of them instead of going to a closer shop out of convenience.

Any shop should have called before doing anything that would go above and beyond the quote, but sadly there's a lot of businesses out there that don't care and just try to do what they want. Hopefully everything gets sorted out.

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Team RWB Rochester / Team First Knight

"Regarding the brake cables, the mechanic stated that the two brake cables that I had installed were actually shifter cables, which I have a hard time believing. I've replaced brake cables a dozen times and can easily identify brake cables from shifter cables."


Do you believe what the mechanic said?

Not sure what is meant by crushed carbon but I would definitely follow this up. Carbon doesn't just crush and maintain its structural integrity. You are talking about an area of the bike that is critical to safety and over torquing bolts into carbon is no joke.

Honestly if there is clear damage to the seat stay the mechanic should have stopped and called you before doing proceeding further. Even if they thought it was safe you are the one riding the bike and its your call about starting to grind washers and bodge things together. Every shop I can remember working with has been upfront that if/when they find a potential safety concern they can't fix in a standard way they stop work and call the client. They still charge for the work they have done but the risk is transferred to the client in a transparent way rather than just noted after the fact as a charge add-on.

Last time I spent anywhere near that at my LBS, it included a full bike fit, a high/far stem for my Speed Concept, and re-cabling and re-housing the whole thing.

Done as quoted. Actually, under the quoted price even though the mech said he’d be happy never to refit an SC ever again.

I’d be looking for a new shop in your case.

I want to know how anybody can ram a brake cable into a shift housing. The diameters aren't exactly such that a brake cable shoved into a shift housing would "slide right in".

A shift cable is visibly a lot smaller diameter than a brake cable is. One is stopping you and saving your life, the other just changes the gears and has no real forces on it.

Also, the ends on a brake cable and shift cable are totally different. They wouldn't even fit or work in the opposing "stops" in the shifter/brake end of things.

So, something one way or another isn't right here.

Incorrect. Vision brake cables, used in base bar brake levers, have the identical end as shifter cables. They paint the end red so you can tell the difference. Also, the tolerances of cable to housing is quite large, and yes indeed, the Vision brake cable, will slide right into a shifter cable housing. I’m not sure how well they would work in a brifter, as I’ve never done it, but they work fantastic in bar end and down tube shifters, I know, because I’ve done it. Simply because their added thickness gives more precise shifting, and possible longevity. Several years ago, I bought a bulk of Vision brake cables, discovered their interchangeability, and have been using them as heavy duty shift cables ever since.

That said however, I think you’ve got the OP backwards. He didn’t use brake cables for shifters... the LBS accused him of using shift cables for brakes. Since the ends are identical, I can see the possibility of this mistake, but with the thickness of the cables, it would be hard to miss. Either the OP really did I this, or the LBS, seeing the possibility, lied about it, to cover up for something, justify the time spent jacking around, or simply wanted to see what they could get away with, inflating the price. Personally, I would request the old cables back... solve that one right there.

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Athlinks / Strava

And the bike shop conveniently says, "Oh, we tossed all your old parts in the garbage".

And that was another part of our service policy: All old parts were saved and offered back to the customer when they picked up their bike. If they didn't want them back, only then would we toss them...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Unlike half the people who responded here, you sound like a reasonable person.
I also think the bike shop would love to see you again as a customer. You can be sure that Mechanic learned his lesson.

Threatening that is complete horse shit. I'm guessing you've never worked retail before where the company looks at Yelp reviews?

Be an adult and talk to the shop. Don't threaten to go whine on the internet.

I would talk to them nicely first.