As a bicycle mechanic what is your most hated job?

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As a bicycle mechanic what is your most hated job?
Author Message
flag balfabb7man
Posted: Mar 8, 2009 at 12:53 Quote
no continental road tires are the hardest f'in tires in the world to put on man i hate up to death
flag johnrichy
Posted: Mar 8, 2009 at 13:19 Quote
balfabb7man wrote:
no continental road tires are the hardest f'in tires in the world to put on man i hate up to death
my dad has continental tyres and although im nt a mechanic, i know exactly what you mean, i get so stressed out when he pays me to fix his punctures
flag balfabb7man
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 5:37 Quote
lol damn the luck huh
flag hobbnobs
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 11:12 Quote
i just hate working on shitty bikes.
flag Domm
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 11:16 Quote
i cant stand it when people bring in bikes with dog shit on the tyres
flag Beans13
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 16:48 Quote
hobbnobs wrote:
i just hate working on shitty bikes.

word that is the worst. Huffys, and walmart bikes- or just some 30 yr old hunk of shit that the custy wants to run like new.
Thats the one think Im not looking forward to this season
flag blueeyedbiker68
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 16:53 Quote
OLD FAT PEOPLES SEATS!!

OH

MY

GOD!!!

Eek
flag Onespeed38
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 16:59 Quote
Besides the obvious issue with department store bikes, my most hated job is putting BMX bars on a MTB or road bike.

I usually try to push the highest rise MTB bar on them, but there have been a few that wanted full size BMX bars. I try to dissuade them by racking up the charges and parts, making it into like a $90-100 job, but even that doesn't stop some.

Not only is it a pain in the ass to replace all the cables and housings and readjust the derailleurs (which are inevitably pieces of crap)... it just looks plain silly.

I've done several of these conversions because some out of shape guy bought a MTB but decided he didn't like the riding position, so he want's riser bars on it. For some reason a lot of bums (or recycling specialists, as we call them) like their bikes setup this way as well.
flag unknown666
Posted: Mar 9, 2009 at 17:03 Quote
BMX bars? oh no, you should try ape hangers. Not only do they have all of the problems you just described, they are so f*cking tall that if you tighten them down enough that you cant rotate them in the stem, it feels like the (inevitable peice of crap) stem is gonna have it's threads pulled out. To top it off, these had to be installed on some guy's bike who decided he wanted the whole "chopper" look, so he got his fork cut off just below the crown race and rewelded at a slacker angle by some hack!
flag twisted-soul
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 7:39 Quote
balfabb7man wrote:
no continental road tires are the hardest f'in tires in the world to put on man i hate up to death

i would have to agree they are one of the hardest tires to get on
flag ceff
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 8:51 Quote
By far the most hated job for me is fitting expensive parts on shitty bikes. Some guy came in last night with a Supercycle H****gan, bought a brand new Boxxer WC, Saint FR & RR brakes, Saint rear mech and some Easton EA50 bars. Told us to put them all on the bike. I told him most of the stuff wouldn't work so he took the bike and left with all the now useless parts he just bought.

Some people...Facepalm
flag konarider92
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 17:28 Quote
gibson243 wrote:
By far the most hated job for me is fitting expensive parts on shitty bikes. Some guy came in last night with a Supercycle H****gan, bought a brand new Boxxer WC, Saint FR & RR brakes, Saint rear mech and some Easton EA50 bars. Told us to put them all on the bike. I told him most of the stuff wouldn't work so he took the bike and left with all the now useless parts he just bought.

Some people...Facepalm

yikes.. had a guy with a real crappy walmart bike who wanted disc brakes on it and i tried to explain to him the holes on the frame were ment for rack mounts, not disc brakes, and that he would need a new wheelset with disc hubs, and the whole process would cost about as much as a new spec. hardrock with discs! seemed to want to pay the same price to get discs but didnt want to pay about the same for a whole new bike..
flag komar
O+
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 21:22 Quote
I could go on forever in this thread.

- Crap bikes that people think are nice because they spent $500 on it 20 years ago and it needs new everything, even though all of the new parts still wont make the bike work.

- People who say "My pedal fell off" to which I reply "Is it your pedal or your crank arm?" And then they say either "I don't know" or "No the pedal like that rod on the pedal"

- Infinity/Supercycle/ every other brand of bike that sells at department stores for $200 and is broken within 5 minutes because the derailleur self destructs.

- One piece cranks

- I also once got the pleasure of changing the tubes in a bunch of little wagon tires which were covered in cow crap and other farm poo

- Also adding to the 2 posters above me, one guy I work with once had some dude come in with a bike he found in the garbage and proceed to buy a camo singletrack and many other parts totalling $400.
flag konarider92
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 21:33 Quote
komar wrote:
I could go on forever in this thread.

- Crap bikes that people think are nice because they spent $500 on it 20 years ago and it needs new everything, even though all of the new parts still wont make the bike work.

- People who say "My pedal fell off" to which I reply "Is it your pedal or your crank arm?" And then they say either "I don't know" or "No the pedal like that rod on the pedal"

- Infinity/Supercycle/ every other brand of bike that sells at department stores for $200 and is broken within 5 minutes because the derailleur self destructs.

- One piece cranks

- I also once got the pleasure of changing the tubes in a bunch of little wagon tires which were covered in cow crap and other farm poo

- Also adding to the 2 posters above me, one guy I work with once had some dude come in with a bike he found in the garbage and proceed to buy a camo singletrack and many other parts totalling $400.


eh, made your totalls good! i wouldn't complain, but still thats ridiculous. sort of unrelated, but we had a guy order these huge crusier bars and he kept re ordering like 5 times because they weren't the right ones, so we had to stock all these ridiculous bars that no one will buy.
flag dirtjumpermatt2
Posted: Mar 10, 2009 at 22:19 Quote
i hate the good old "at home mechanics" , i mean if you know what your doing good, thats fine with me but there is this guy who home made a set of disk breaks (i dont know how he made a disk but thats not the point) and he asked me to figure out why they didnt work. turns out, there wernt any pads in the calibar. he even welded his own dist mounts that wernt the proper dementions, they were far to small so he crafted an adaptare to fit his needs.

 


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