rumrunn6

the OP mentioned not going to his regular LBS & I sensed a little justification for the decision. now he has to deal with all this. meaning, if he went to his regular shop, one might assume, the damage wouldn't have happened. not blaming the victim, these things happen to all of us & we make our best decisions, with the information we have on hand. I've done it myself & will again in the future. in fact right now I'm debating internally which shop to use for a certain bike I want looked at. my local 1 man LBS who is absolutely great but I don't want to burden him with some labor that he under charges for, or a bigger shop with a team of technicians that are also great & can bang out the work much faster (& charge me for it). what will I decide? how will it turn out?

Equinox

That's just dumb

Polaris OBark

It is not so clear...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...ung-vs-brought

Camilo

When we had a tandem, I used two repair stands. One is an old style that supports the bike with the down tube and bottom bracket. The other I used on the rear seat post.

Another way I did it was to put the rear wheel on a trainer to adjust shifting.

KerryIrons

No. When you put too much clamping force on a tube, you dent it. If the tube was bent, it would no longer be in a straight line. Pretty hard to do with a tube that is anchored at both ends by other frame tubes.

njkayaker

Pedantic and wrong.

njkayaker

It's clearly wrong. And your link is discussing something else anyway.

mstateglfr 

It is best to clamp any bike by the seatpost because that is a thick and supportive tube. Top tubes are meant to be very thin and it is easier to dent with the clamp if you tighten it too much. This holds true for aluminum and steel bikes because those can dent. A carbon fiber frame would just crack rather than dent, since the fiber layup isnt 'dentable'. Also, mounting by the top tube can easily lead to scratched/rubbed paint if the frame moves laterally in the clamp.

With that said, I mount bikes by the top tube all the time for quick issues on bikes that have a wedge bag in place and not enough easily accessible seatpost. I either wont clamp it at all and just balance the bike, or I will clamp it and tighten only to the point of the clamp contacting the tube and no tighter.
You also shouldnt mount it by the seat tube, to be clear.

mstateglfr 

This site needs a downvote.

himespau 

I think, as much as excessive clamping force, damage comes when you've got it clamped by the top tube and then do something that requires a lot of torque elsewhere (getting out a stuck BB?). Now, instead of the force being evenly distributed along the clamp, it's focused at the edges of the jaws. But yeah, overtightening the clamp (especially if you use the quick release and have incorrectly estimated the compression from that, will do it too.

rumrunn6

well, the next time the OP needs service, where will he go?
his usual shop that is very good, or the shop that broke the bike?

mstateglfr 

That isnt Karma though. And claiming it is Karma is a really low thing to say. You use that term when a moral decision was the wrong one to make as it is a judgement phrase. That doesnt belong here. The guy took it to a shop that he thought could do the job because his regular place was both inconvenient and backed up. Nobody deserves to have their bike broken just because they frequented a different shop, but that is what you are essentially claiming.

rumrunn6

I agree wrong word. certainly didn't mean he deserved it! I guess I explained the comment badly. thank you

rumrunn6

sometimes, at my 2nd gig, we use 2 fork lifts to put the floppy 16' composite decking into the store racks

Paul Barnard

Negative. The correct word was took.

njkayaker

No. Still pedantic. Still wrong. "Took" isn't wrong but neither is "brought".

You are making the claim. Do more than just repeating it to convince people.

PeteHski

Every time I think about getting my bike serviced at a bike shop I read about another crap bike mechanic! Accidents can happen of course. But clamping a tandem by the top tube is not an accident. It's just ignorance or stupidity.

rekmeyata

Lots of issues here, you would have to had pictures of it at the shop before they took it to the back, then if they still deny paying for the damages it's off to small claims court you go, but even an award in your favor could result in a bike shop dragging their feet forever, so then you would have to put a lien on their store, and or vehicles, a huge nightmare for the customer. I once had an employee steal $5,000 from me, he had no money, I put a lien on his house, I guess he still owns the house after 25 some odd years because I never received any money; then if it takes 25 or more years to get the money back all you get is the original $5,000 lien, you don't get what the money is worth today after inflation.

So maybe this is a warning to us readers to take pictures of our bikes at the shop just before we turn it in to them for repairs.

Equinox

Also, ask them if they are insured if your bike is damaged, or what their policy is for repairing damage they cause.

ted_major

It’s also much easier (and cheaper) to replace a seat post than a top tube.

Camilo

With the length and weight at both ends of a tandem, I wouldn't support it by either seat tube or either top tube. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think the potential leverage is too much for either method. But I don't know what professional bike shops do. I mentioned I used two bike stands, I wonder what the alternative in a professional setting is.

Reynolds 

+1. Just out of mechanical common sense, I'd use a rear wheel stand or such.

dabac

Oh, certainly.
That’s what got me started on doing my own wrenching past flats and chain lubes.

PeteHski

Apparently they clamp it by the top tube and then apologize nicely to the customer when it bends.

Equinox

We got our tandem back yesterday, and the damage looks like what you would expect a top tube to look like when someone put a clamp on it. A couple of dents. The paint is intact. I wonder if it really is worth repairing. Stripping, shipping etc. are just more chances for something to go wrong. I'll talk to the shop owner and CoMotion and see how much this is going to cost. I'm guessing, all told, it could be around a thousand or so, and I don't think the shop owner should be on hook for that considering it's really close to cosmetic damage. If I do decide to repair it, I would chip in something.