mtnbud

An 82yr old friend of mine rode off the edge of the pavement on his ebike and knocked his wheel out of true. I figured he just needed his wheel trued, but the shop told him he needed a new hub. They said they replaced his hub and charged him $130 for everything.

He said they told him he needed a new wheel, but I don't think thats what they said. I'm not sure I'm getting it straight from my friend, but I'm not sure if the bike shop was legit with him either.

What are the chances he needed a new hub from riding off the edge of the pavement?

DiabloScott

$130?
Was it a motor hub? Sounds cheap.
Was it a front hub? Sounds reasonable since they presumably re-built the wheel on a new hub.
It's not too uncommon for an axle to break by riding off curbs and such - maybe that's it.
But I think your buddy might be confused - what does the receipt say?

2old

It's possible, but unlikely. In any event they should have informed him of this before doing the work and have shown him the defective part when he picked up his bike. He may have been hosed.

Rick_D

Rim seems more likely than the hub--what's going to fail on the hub--spoke ripping its hole or something? Dubious.

Also, who gets a wheel build plus new hub for $130? That's cheap. He should ask for the old part back.

Kontact 

Sounds like not being at the bike shop and playing telephone with the conversation has ended up in a misunderstanding.

It was likely the rim that was bad and necessitated replacing the wheel - which is often cheaper and quicker than rebuilding a wheel on a used hub.

mtnbud

Thanks all. It a regular 700c wheel. The motor is at the bottom bracket.

$130 For a new hub and wheel rebuild seems too low a price to me also. He's not always completely honest with me, yet he doesn't seem to pay attention also. I guess it's not my problem, but I'd hate it if they simply trued the wheel and charged him $130. Maybe they told him the hub was broken and that they found an inexpensive wheel and replaced the whole thing. If that's the case, I'm not sure he's getting much of a wheel for $130.

I do wish he would have had them give him back his old parts so I could varify the hub was toast.

Kontact 

Confirming your friend's story will not fix his bike, but it might break your friendship.

curbtender

Well, maybe you can check out his receipt. If he is ok with whatever work was done than that's all that matters. I ride with a guy who is in his mid 80's and really doesn't care what it cost as long as it's done right. I offered to true his rear wheel after a ride and he refused. I guess my work is dubious, lol.

bboy314

seems like speculation from the internet will only add more channels to this game of telephone…

Here’s my speculation - rim was bent, hub wasn’t worth rebuilding so they replaced the wheel.

Koyote

These seem to be the salient observations.

Polaris OBark

My wife, who is otherwise in complete possession of her faculties, is a PhD-level scientist, etc, is completely incapable of distinguishing between "wheels" and "tires."

I would be lying if I have said I never took advantage of this in order to get a new wheel-set.

maddog34

parts break when going from loose surfaces to pavement... chances are that your buddy had the throttle on when he left the pavement, and still had the throttle on when he got back on the pavement... i've broken an axle on my rally car doing similar, under throttle... and you mentioned that his bike has a motor..... hub transmits E-motor torque to the rim/tire.... spoke popped a spoke hole while the rim also got shocked.... ?... rim shows "bent" due to a busted hub, etc....

sounds like he lucked out by not crashing hard, then got a smokin' deal, IMO.

Russ Roth

I'd go with not enough details to make any form of determination. Riding off a shoulder, unless it involves a crash shouldn't knock any wheel out of alignment, doesn't mean the problem wasn't already there though. The likelihood of it breaking the axle or doing similar damage is also ridiculously slim, bikes aren't rally cars and even ebike wheels are designed to survive city streets and gravel roads. But while wheel true shouldn't involve 130.00, besides the wheel potentially being out of true for any reason, the shop may have found a tire had worn out and was close enough to need replacing; a truing plus tire could easily make 130. Finding it needed to be tuned and the wheels trued can be 130.00 around me, and if a wheel needed replacing that could be 130 for something basic. Without knowing what he really ended up having done, he may have more that needed doing than just a truing. Unless you're willing to go over the details of what was actually done it isn't worth speculating.

FBinNY 

It's almost certain the hub was undamaged by the crash. However, this may be a problem in semantics.

It might be that the shop couldn't repair the rim, and felt th as t a new wheel was a better option than them building a new wheel on the old hub.

Stuff like this is a reminder of the importance of good communication and a proper estimate when getting repairs.

Crankycrank

Seems to me from the information given by the OP combined with a high potential that the friend mis-interpreted what occurred.......we have no idea of what's going on with the wheel/shop/friend.

soyabean

The creation of this thread is so unreliable and inaccurate and fake news at best by third party hearsay.

wheelreason

So your friend told you the shop told him he needs a new wheel, and from that you got that they told him he needs a new hub? AND you think your friend might not have it staright, and the shop is lying how?... See "Why are all bike mechanics a$$holes" thread....

mtnbud

I was with him when he went off the road. I did a quick inspection of his wheel and didn't see any visible damage to his hub or rim.

I've been lied to at this bike shop before. l've also caught my friend in lies before.

I appreciate others opinions because I am pondering both the honesty of the bike shop and the honesty of my friend. My initial question to my friend was out of a position of protecting him from being overcharged.

The reality is I can't trust my friend to be truthful, so I can't know if he was treated fairly, more than fairly, or taken advantage of. In a series of a 3 texts, he went from telling me they replaced his entire wheel to they replaced his hub. I highly doubt his hub was damaged. I'm dubious I got the true story from my friend. Given his disposition and his age, I don't think he really cares about it one way or the other so I won't let it concern me.

SW84

Others opinions aren't really required as you've already got your answers.

mtnbud

Thanks.

ign1te

Just go to the shop and ask them what they actually replaced. If they give you questionable answers, just avoid the shop in the future.

soyabean

What's the point of this thread? Simply to bash a good shop that offered fast and fair service to a customer that needed immediate attention?

What's the OP going to do? Print a hardcopy of this thread, use internet hearsay as legal evidence to get the shop to issue a refund? "Oh sorry we overcharged you, here is your money back."

This thead is exactly why shops have great Karen/Ken alarms and just turn them away.

mtnbud

Huh? I think you're reading more into this than what was said...

wheelreason

If someone comes in asking about someone else's stuff without the owner's knowledge and concurrence, they get nothing, (This includes wives).

abdon 

If a turd stinks do you keep going back to smell it just to make sure?

Don't go to that shop, don't concern yourself with your friend's elastic use of the truth.