ME.Alex

Hi guys,

I took my bike to a local shop to get the rim changed. I had banged it up pretty good (see attachment).

I went today to pick it up. The guy had mentionned that he didn't end up replacing the dim. He was able to hammer it back into shape and true it.

So I get the bike and inspect it real quick before loading it into the car...... The tire is almost dead! the read is worn to **** and the sire is coming apart at the seams. I don't remember my tire being so ****ed up.

I get back in and I tell em they may have put back on the wrong tire. They deny it fervently.

I cant prove anything at that point so I come back home.

I look closer, and I think they may have switched cassette & derailer too... same model name, but i'm really not certain. But the thing is I'm not sure if it's paranoia or what. The cassette is suntour, everything else is shimano............

But these are lowend parts.. Why would they want them?

The tire is gone. It needs replacement soon. everything else 'seems' ok.But I can;t be sure. the holder for

I have some pictures I took real quick but theyre not bridght and detailed enough to tell anything.

The problem is, i don't know if I remember the tire being messed up or not. I'll show you what pictures I had and what it looks like today

My question is, is this kind of thing common? And if so, do I have any recourse?

First three are before pics

Last ones are from today.Tire is unraveling and the tread is completely bald.

ME.Alex

Dammit, it didnt keep order.

Pic 2, 3, 4 are Before

the rest are today

Marlin523

First of all let me say this is not a common problem. If you don't have a good feeling about the bike shop, you need to find another one. Most shops count on return business. If the shop you've dealt with has been in business awhile and has a good reputation, I don't really know what to tell you other than talking with the owner. If the shop is not "established," I would suck it up and take your business elsewhere.

LowCel 

How many miles do you have on the chain and cassette? If they have quite a few miles on them you will probably be able to tell if someone swapped out the cassette since you will start getting some bad shifts and chain skipping. For the derailleur check to see if there is a new imprint on the cable. If there is then the derailleur may have been replaced. If not then it is probably the same derailleur.

roadwarrior

With all due respect...

I read the thread twice. What I took from it was:

I think I am getting screwed.

I cannot remember if my tire was messed up, but the one on the bike now, is.

I cannot remember what components were on my bike, but I think they switched them.

I am lost here....

First off, again with all due respect, if you had brought in a Dura Ace, Record, Chorus, Ultegra bike, it MIGHT be worth it if the people were dishonest. BTW...it makes no sense for this to happen since many of us in shops pay extremely discounted prices for superior equipment.

Your question is a good one....they were low end parts...why would they want them?

Also, I find it unusual that a rider would not know what's on the bike.

1955

+++1

Very strange post.

dtrain

My LBS experience was even worse. I took my Madone in for a wheel true and new chain and those guys replaced it with a Sora-equiped 1000. But it wasn't until the next weekend's ride that I noticed the difference, and I couldn't really prove it. I don't give them my business anymore.

Stupid Trek dealer.

1955

Please tell me you frogot to put the in this!

Sirrobinofcoxly

Nice Delta brake. Classic!

In the before pics, the tire looks a little old anyhow. It could be that the old and dry rubber started to flake a bit when they took the tire off, and that's why it looks worse. But since I don't know YOUR bike, I would go with your wits. Keep in mind that some parts look a bit different once they are cleaned up a bit.

dtrain

Yeah, I guess I did, 1955.

Okay, on a more serious note...

Did you take the 'before pictures' just before bringing the bike in? Or are those from some time ago? It's hard to tell for sure, but the gum sidewall of the rear tire does look a little worse in pictures 1, 5, 6 and 7. But (as mentioned) just taking the tire on and off and bringing it up to the proper pressure probably causes a tire of this age/condition to get considerably worse (drier). Even if a 'swap' did happen, I'm sure it was an honest mistake. Why would a shop steal your nearly spent $10 tire? And the derailleur and cassette make even less sense. Why would they have extra vintage stuff around (of the same make/model) and want to swap them for yours? I'm guessing you just haven't had a reason to look closely at the wear and tear on these parts until now. If you are this paranoid, maybe you'll want to learn to do your own wrenching?

ME.Alex

I rode the bike for a grand total of 3 weeks last summer. Ever. I am brand new to biking so I didn't know the first thing. I didnt buy the bike, so I have no idea what was on it.

If you look at picture 3-4 and compare with 6-7, it is clearly different looking. Sidewall is different, and definitely much smoother. Here's the problem, because I don't know the bike well, and the 3-4 pics are pretty bad (****tier camera), i'm not sure whether the tire was changed or if it was always like this. I do remember seeing a tire in this condition before, but I dunno if it was on this bike to begin with. May have been on a friend's bike. Or not. It was just too long ago since I last looked at the bike.

AFAIK the tires on this thing are original. Is it 'normal' to get ridiculous wear on the rear time while the front tire looks new? I know most of the weight is on the rear, but still.

And from the tread it doesn't at all look like the same tire.

The parts are cheap stuff. Unless they had al old bike and couldn't find parts for it, or had bum parts, I see no reason why they'd swap stuff out.

I really should have taken some decent pictures.

But the consensus is that this is exceedingly rare/never happens?

Sorry to hear about that DTRAIN.

I'm starting to think that we should invest in engine stamping gear and stamp our initials on each and every part.

curt in denver

Hard to believe any of these places are in business. My LBS is great.

Grasschopper

Not out of the question especially with old tires that may be dry rotted. I did in a set of brand new Kenda Koncept tires in 500 miles on my first road bike. The rear wore through the tread and the front was in OK but not great shape. So yes it could happen.

For the price of a tire vs the bridges you will (or already have) burn I wouldn't worry about it. I also doubt they took any components off your bike.

Also if those are tubular tires it is REALLY unlikely that they changed it but they may have had to remove the tire to fix the rim which may have taken a little work if the glue wasn't giving up...this could cause some damage to the appearance of the tire. Do you know if that is a tubular (no inner tube) or clincher tire setup?

ME.Alex

Guess I'm just worried if they did anything else to it. I guess it's possible that removing and remounting cracked it. These are ancient tires. And the pictures are from at least 7-8 months ago. They've taken winter temps at almost full pressure too so who knows what that may have done

I don't generally like letting people do stuff for me. Car or computer stuff, i'll gladly do myself. But I don't know how to true a wheel so thats why I had a shop do it. I'm probably just paranoid. I can't shake the feeling though.

Sirro,

Thanks, I really love these brakes. It's too bad I can't find pads for em. Once they're worn, it's over for these brakes.

dtrain

Good Idea! I don't want those guys stealing my Sora deraillers or hubs.

Listen, it's very unlikely that anything fishy happened here. And it looks like you were about due for new tires anyway. Dried out sidewalls can suffer quite a bit when they are removed and re-installed. Then they probably put more air in than you'd been using as well. Get some new tires and get out riding.

operator

This seems to be a recurring theme around here. There was another thread which had like the exact same post content.

1) brought bike into shop for fix
2) got bike back
3) components seemed swap out but not sure
4) profit??

...
Better make damn sure you have proof and are certain someone ripped you off before you do anything crazy.

slide

OP, you need to allow for a part of human psychology here. People will seriously look at and examine something coming from a shop and notice things they didn't notice before. You aren't sure the tire was swapped and you aren't sure the cassette was swapped either. You got the bike used. It could be as simple as you just really took a close look at the bike for the first time because that's what we do when we get something back from the repair shop.

You can imagine how many people notice little nicks on their cars after getting them back from the shop. That's why shops catering to old pharts (who are nuts on noticing things due to nothing else to do) note each little scratch and nick on a car when it comes in and then DEMAND that the old phart sign the chart.

You've learned a lesson to know your bike. Nobody can swap anything on my bike just because I know it. I think it highly unlikely that you were cheated in any way, but if you know your bike, you'll avoid this bad feeliing you have now.

ME.Alex

Best advice yet.

Thanks dude.

Case closed, then. I'll pick up a couple good tires, and be on my way.

27x.25 GT2 Kevlar any good?

worker4youth

ME.Alex, your tires are probably worth $5 at most, if you were to sell them on ebay. Your cassette and derailleur is also probably worth $5.

If they did ruin it/switch them out (highly unlikely), your total loss would be $10 or less.

webist

ME.Alex, I believe that if I worked at your LBS I'd decline to serve you.

Waldo

That's what I got out of it. Think of it this way, your parts are not exactly high value. This means two things-it's super unlikely someone at the shop took the stuff, and it's equally unlikely that they took the parts for use on some other bike. First, it's not worth their time to do a swap, second it's ridiculously stupid for business.
There's also that whole issue of you not even knowing what parts you had on there to begin with...I tend to be a little more cautious when accusing someone of wrongdoing than some of the members on here.
Smoke less weed, maybe?

Sirrobinofcoxly

Dude, hold on to that brake when the pads go. That stuff is bike museum gold!

tippy

The last time I took my bike in for repairs, they wrote the details of my equipment on the work order (ie rim brand style, hub brand style, cassette brand style, bag rack, 2 bottle holders, etc). When the tune up/repair was complete, I just used the work order to compare hardware.
Of course, they were super reputable and probably didn't need the work order effort but then again, that's how they became reputable in the first place.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

cooker

I don't think that's the least bit unusual. For sure the vast majority of cyclists have only a minimal knowledge of their bikes, probably not much more than the brand name, and sometimes not even that.

cooker

I have to admit it looks like a different tire in the 'before' picture IMG_0172.jpg, where it seems to have a smooth yellow sidewall, and in the 'after' picture IMG_0001.jpg where it seems to have a corduroy-like diagonally textured beige sidewall. Does the front tire have a smooth yellow sidewall?

Edit: even if they did switch the tire by mistake, it would be too much work to bother switching anything else.