grumpus

[Dremel_noises] A few hours later ...

Mr. 66

I do not think so. I'm thinking that you probably haven't kept up on service.

I am thinking the your chain is toast, the cassette is toast and the chainrings are worn. The cost of new rings is probably more than a crank. The price of the chain and cassette a little high but not a gouge.

It could be that all was ok not to change, and all worked fine. Here you asked for the service and that they are performing. Changing the just the chain would lend the worn cassette to 'skip' most likely in the high gears.

Have some trust, the shop wants you happy and wants your return and word to spread about to your peers.

That said I do all my own build and service. Not out lack of trust, just as a youth I thought it was normal to do these things as an owner. Of course back then I didn't know English French Italian seatposts stems bars bb's. There are a couple of times I needed more specific things, like a tread chase on 60 years old bb, or Stronglight/French bb cup removal of the octagon driveside 37.5 mm +/-.

I found that Stronglight octagon cup to have 3 different measurements.

Sy Reene

Yes, shipped to your door, but not installed

maddog34

i'd imagine Chuck would install it if i asked nice...... he's a good kid... and he's learned to be a great mail delivery person too.... granted, we were a bit worried for the first year or so....i sold a bike to him for his college-bound daughter... and tuned his wife's cruiser bike too.

soyabean

I love it when others decide for me when to perform free labor.

etherhuffer 

Try working in healthcare. You would be surprised at how little one's decade of training is valued. Besides, Dr. Google knows everything now.

For the OP, I think I have a certain amount of sympathy for folks who just don't want to wrench their own stuff, but want a fair diagnosis. Being ancient, I had to learn to fix cars, lawnmowers, appliances, bikes, you name it. Poor doesn't allow for purchased skills in many cases. Lots of failures but lots of learning too. We had a Schwinn shop in Spokane that we used. The owner was the nicest guy on the planet. If you couldn't figure something out, he would help explain how to do a repair. If you still couldn't do it, you paid him graciously. We loved that shop.

Now, here in Seattle, bikes are the new fetish. Cool, I think it's great. A baby boomer from the bike boom days, I am thrilled to see so many folks riding again. But of course, with that comes the "car dealer" ethic of shops in some cases. Dealers know how to load a bill. Some bike shops the same. It takes some time to find the right shop to deal with. When you find them, stay loyal and buy stuff from them. And as for the forum here, many of us like or are used to wrenching (save for occasional cursing). It's good if people note up front what their skill level is or interest level is in wrenching. And perfectly fair to ask if something sounds fishy. Like the car shops that said my rotors could not be turned on my car. BS. A cheap Harbor Freight micrometer told me otherwise.

panzerwagon 

Honestly, the numbers you’ve been quoted are in line for my local bike shops. If anything, given the work list for the ‘tune-up’, I’d say that’s on the low end for here.

If you want to speed things up, have a discussion with the mechanic about the crank— whether truly necessary, if it can wait, or if just one or more chainrings can be swapped instead. It doesn’t sound like they’re trying to scam you.

Remember, a good bike shop will stand behind their work, and perform any needed adjustments after a you’ve ridden the bike for bit.

Good luck!

pelirary

UPDATE!! After all the input here, which I greatly appreciated, I called the shop again. Still no success with locating the crankset. I told them to just put it back together and I would pick it up. Which I did. Glad I didn't have to pay anything, but they didn't really do anything so there is that. A couple days later I took it to a local Trek bike shop. By this point I was also considering a new bike. I went in and explained that I would like an estimate on the tuneup and whatever else they thought I would need. In addition to the tuneup they suggested a new chain and cassette. I asked what about the crankset. He looked it over again and said there seemed to be a lot of life left in the middle chain ring which is where I do most of my riding. So, it seems like the original bike shop was giving me the run around or had a different view of what is too worn.

On my way out of the store I stopped and talked to the manager. And bottom line, I ended up getting a new bike. My new bike is a Trek Domane AL 5. A couple of rides with it and I wish I had gotten a new bike years ago.

soyabean

Please stop it already.

No one was giving you the runaround.

Bring the same bike to 10 different shops, and you'll get 10 different points of views with 10 different opinions on what should be done.

You had the option to get more opinions from other shops. If you don't do it, that's your problem.

Again, bottom line is that shops like to make money and make lots of it. A shop that values their time won't give much effort into something that will occupy their time with little profit.

maddog34

you know.. you're absolutely right this time.. they weren't giving him a runaround, they were Incompetent Hacks and should be run out of business.

Do you work there?

PS.. the Shop that did well is the one that took time that they couldn't bill for to give a better estimate, then took the time to be nice... and then sold a Trek Domane to a new customer.

Pop N Wood

I haven't taken a bike into a shop for work in probably 40 years, but have to say the prices your shop is asking don't seem out of line. It is expensive running a business. Someone has to pay for all that "free" stuff people keep demanding from the government.

I don't understand some of the comments about wearing out chainrings. I've worn out countless chainrings, and I'm good about monitoring chain wear (not everyone is). Veganbikes is right, sometimes it is cheaper to replace the whole crank than the chainrings. Also consider shop labor replacing the rings vs. a whole crank assembly. They might have a good reason for doing things the way they did.

Kontact 

There is a lot of varying opinion about what constitutes a worn out chainring. I wouldn't be so quick to declare who is a hack an who is competent.


The OP's problem is really that RSX was this weird road microdrive group, and was never really supported or duplicated. It is best replaced with more typical cranks and cassettes.

However, I would bet that if the OP had used the forum to try to find a replacement chainring, he might have been successful.

mitchmellow62

A minor correction. According to Shimano's technical docs, the 1995-1999 RSX cranksets had 130 bcd with 74mm for triple inner. Replacements should be readily available.

KCT1986

You're looking at the wrong RSX crankset. The OP says it has a 36T mid ring so this is the earlier FC-A413 with a 110mm BCD, no 36T possible on 130mm.

mitchmellow62

Once again, I didn't read thoroughly enough and only used the year of the bike. My bad. You're correct.

Bill Kapaun

Some shops may be a bit "overzealous". Reason being, they may have guessed wrong in the past and had an unhappy customer when they "thought" the rings were good enough, but weren't.