I finally have collected all of the parts to put together my TT bike (BP Stealth OCRR), but I don’t know which shop in Reno to build it. I’ve seen three or four places in town, and none of them strike me as places I want to drop off $3000 of bike parts. Seems like most are no more than a few high school kids with monkey wrenches. I have visions of my beautiful carbon coming back scratched to hell and broken.
Can anyone recommend a good shop in town to build a bike? Also, aside from taking pictures of the condition of my frame/fork/parts before I drop them off, is there anything else I can do to insure I don’t get screwed?
Thanks, good advice. I have the book. But I don’t have a headset press. Nor do I have a bottom bracket tool. I think a shop will charge $60 for a build. I have the feeling I’ll jack up the bottom bracket installation.
Headset press will run you over a hundred dollars ($130?). At a shop I worked at someone broke the headset press, so as the only non-retarded person there I had to install a king headset with a rag, a 2x4 and a hammer. Not cool. If the shop has a headset press, that’s pretty hard to f up. But if you’re not confident in their mechanical abilities, DO NOT have them ream and face the bb. Doing it yourself is not good either most likely.
Okay, guys, thanks for the input. Bottom line, I don’t have the time/desire to own/operate a headset press, nor learn to ream and face headtubes/bb areas, especially on this particular bike. I want pieces put together in the correct order without some jackass hammering my nothreadset into the headtube.
Are there any precautions I can take aside from taking pictures of things before I drop stuff off? Also, what do I do if my shit comes back with a scratch in the carbon that wasn’t there originally? I want to cover the bases on this stuff before I get it built up.
Other than pictures I’d talk to the manager explicitly before you go in to get the work done and gauge his/her response. If he sees how important the job is to you and how “particular” you are, he won’t put his high school drop out mechanic on your bike job. Also, you may be able to gauge his competency to handle the work you need to get done. If you see lots of $200 bikes and nothing above $2000, chances are that bb work may not occur often enough for the mechanics to be comfortable with it (not always, but generally)
Great, thanks. Good advice. I’ll definitely do that. The one shop in town I’m considering has the owner working on Mondays. I’ll go in there and have a word with him. Excellent advice.
The best option is Bicycle Warehouse on Lakeside. They’re the official tri shop of the Reno Area Triathletes, and they work on most of our tri bikes. They’re the only guys to go to for your bike assembly.
Thanks. I called this shop up and the guy was absolutely friendly as hell. He puts me on a 24 hour turn around time and says the build will be no big deal. I’ll go next week and take a look at the shop and maybe ask some questions. If all looks good, there will be bike porn here in a matter of days. Thanks everyone for the input.
I also highly recommend Bicycle Warehouse. Top notch mechanics. I also understand you can get some outstanding pizza and salads at this Eclipse Pizza joint in Reno as well. www.eclipsepizza.net (upcoming theme nights include - Totally ugly Christmas sweater night - Disco night - and Stuck up turtleneck guy night).
Along with some of the better high brow beers around, You are damn right you can get a Bud in a can! Those are “My People”. I fully embrace the Bud in a can beer drinkers and most times, sit down and enjoy one with them.
