Maelochs

I also have gotten bikes in the mail ... mostly as completely unrelated shipments, but also a lot of bikes in a box, from two manufacturers as I recall. (I have also been in bike shops watching unboxing ... for what it is worth.)

As I recall the wheels were not installed, the seats were separate, the bars were not installed but were hanging by the cables ... though I think I have seen a bike with the bars turned sideways to minimize width. The pedals were not installed.

A boxed bike with bars installed is about two feet wide, and with bars off or sideways, less than half that. Take the wheels off and lay them next to the frame, and within that approximately one-foot width, you can fit the bike in a box not much taller than the height from the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube. Angle the frame in the box and the box can be even smaller.

Considering that most delivery services charge more for oversized boxes (fewer will fit on the truck, which means more runs in the truck and runs in the truck are really expensive) it makes sense that some engineer at the factory would work out the most space-efficient way to package the bike ... and since the website says "Some assembly required" (though I don't know if there is a warning on dealer-specific sites) the buyer has been warned.

Anyone who cannot tell the difference between a bike and a bread machine should regale us with stories of his or her bread-machine rides.

indyfabz

I can tell the difference between my bikes and a toaster oven. The bikes are hotter.

urbanknight

Add musical instruments to the list, especially string ones which should be adjusted and "set up" by a luthier. Radio control vehicles, even if labeled "RTR". Skis/snowboards. Yep, it goes on and on.

Maelochs

In before the edit .... but appreciated.

indyfabz

My bread machine has Look pedals. My bikes have Shimano pedals.

Eric F 

My bread machine is powered with electricity. No pedals required.

mr,grumpy 

They "accidentally" sent me an email today about some new bike they are launching. Not if it was free.

urbanknight

Win-win!!

Eric F 

Are you under the impression that someone at Salsa made a conscious decision to send a promotional email specifically to you, and are aware that you are a disgruntled customer?

mr,grumpy 

I have considered the possibility. I figured it it was truly in error the rest of you Salsa Simps would have also gotten it, which apparently you have not and , therefore, I AM indeed as special as my mother has always told me the I was.

Eric F 

The most likely reason is that you're on Salsa's mass email list because you're a customer. Marketing emails for new products tend to get "send to all" treatment, without thought about who on the list is naughty or nice. Since I'm not a customer, I don't get emails from Salsa.

In the case of your issue, it makes zero difference which brand the bike is. This has been covered - repeatedly - by people who have personal experience with such matters.

genejockey 

Say what you will, this guy really commits to the bit.

veganbikes

So if you believe that every bike from a factory should be perfect you would be sorely mistaken. Should they have properly torqued everything, probably yes. Do they, certainly not. I am not saying your shop is a bad shop I have worked in shops for over a decade now and every person who I have worked with is a human being and they can make mistakes or do the same thing you did which was believe that is was set up from the factory. In reality you should check over the entire bike, not everyone does it and sometimes problems come up after longer rides but you should always have a bike fully checked over because they are trying to get a large volume of bikes in boxes to get to their distributors so they can get them to your local dealers. They aren't generally going through the bikes with a fine tooth comb they are trying to stick to time frames which aren't realistic for proper careful assembly and tuning.

Salsa didn't do anything wrong and your local shop didn't really do anything so wrong but in the end it is on that shop to go through the bike throughly and deal with this problems.

In terms of paint and cable rub I have seen the clear stickers come with the box most of the time if it comes with them but in some cases not and in a few cases I could swear they came on the bike from factory but isn't super common. In the end he was very much right it is up to you to figure out what you want to do. I personally hate those stickers and the wear does suck but the stickers especially on a gravel or mountain bike or similar bike that will get dirty those stickers look bad after a time. I prefer some shrink-wrap on the housings or those little rubber baby buggy bumpers that Jagwaire and others have or something similar or just get titanium and don't worry about it...LOL.

I cannot speak to Salsa as my Salsa was a frame but it has been a great bike like my Foundry and my old Surly which I believe is now in South or Central America living its third life. QBP generally does pretty well but like any bike company aside from most custom builders who are spending a lot of time on your bike because it is for you, there are always going to be issues with complete bikes. It happens and it just needs to be gone over before it goes to you and that shop who builds it is last in the line of defense. They may not have thought to check those bolts but they should have checked them.

If the bike is rideable now, go out and ride and enjoy it, don't worry so much.

Someone earlier mentioned working in some sort of service job and that is super true. Having dealt with customers some like you and some way worse I can better deal with situations where I am less than happy sometimes rationally and maybe sometimes not. Things will always happen, humans and humans and we ALL make mistakes and we all have the same emotions and feelings and lives beyond the work we do and we have to always realize that when dealing with others. There are times when yeah sometimes you need to escalate a little, like I said we are all humans and sometimes we humans can be buttholes but most of the time it is a little patience and understanding and you will be in better shape.

indyfabz

Lazy kids today. When I was a wee-un we churned ice cream by hand.

Do you work for Salsa in the brake lever department?

tomato coupe

ftfy

rosefarts

Bike shops actually suck. I recently had them do a Campy Ekar build for me only because I was low on time and didn’t want to mess with the hydraulic brakes.

So the service was a brake setup and bleed, lever installation, derailleur installation, and handlebar wrap.

Literally the only thing they got right was the brakes (so far). The levers were loose, the bars were wrapped to where I could see exposed clamp, and the cable housing was so long I had to redo it. So after all that, I ended up redoing everything but the brakes. And this is from a very high end shop on a grail type of build.

So I’m sure on middle of the road model, they barely looked at yours.

What I can’t understand is why you think it’s not the shops fault?

veganbikes

But that is a silly conclusion. One shop and people are like bike shops suck. There are some people who work at them who aren't great and some shops that could use improvement but saying they all suck is silly.

Also I don't know the shop and their side of it but I do know I haven't had a chance to play with Ekar yet but would love to. However yeah if what happened happened that does suck but could be that mechanic or other factors but there are many other shops on this big blue green marble we call Earth.

rosefarts

Just a single example. I just pointed that out because it seems like the sort of thing they’d really want to get right. They told me that they’d done lots of Ekar setups.

They did end up crediting me the price of a few of the services. It left such a foul taste in my mouth that I wish I’d just done it and let them bleed the brakes.

There was also the time I got a new fuel pump and the first time I got gas after picking it up, I dumped gas all over the ground. They hadn’t reconnected the line from the fuel tank to the gas cap.

veganbikes

That was the point it was a single example yet you started your post with bike shops suck. I mean most customers can always find faults because we are humans and good at that and we like people to cater to us and in any retail environment that deals with a lot of different people that cannot always happen because everyone is so vastly different you have to get a median and there will be unhappy folks and that is normal for various reasons some good and some not so good.

Granted yes saying you have done a bunch of Ekar builds and not doing a good job is not a good way to go but then that would be on that one specific shop.

phughes

Anybody need anything while I'm up?

Eric F 

Do you think that your experience is universal for everyone at every LBS?

LesterOfPuppets

Usually just one guy handling the bike box, even for eBikes.

You usually don't get a fully assembled bike, gotta do some work with bars/stems/front wheel/saddle/seatpost.

We'd only ship fully assembled bikes from the sales floor once in a blue moon (and they still needed seatpost install, bar angle adjustment and front wheel re-install, of course), and occasionally we'd ship fully built to a customer also.

Some guys called them pie boxes, I always thought of them as slices of cheese. Even these can be handled by one man, but a little more awkward than the standard rectangular-section box. For MTBs we always put them in rectangular section boxes since the bars needed removal anyway.

OldTryGuy

Some Clase Azul Plata Tequila if you please.

Black wallnut 

A big red marker to correct the run on sentences... for some reason that just irks me today!

phughes