Blaireau

I purchased a Tirreno Razza 2.0 at performance bike last wed.
On thursday I went there and had them install a couple of armadillo tyres, and the mechanic had a nice youg sales guy install it (not a mech). He also loosened the brakes. They were both super nice.
Fast forward to this morning: on the downhill I hit the brakes and there is no rear braking
So I had a very light crash against the pavement. I scraped the pedal (don't care) but also my shimano 105 derailleur (Do care! ) and also the right handlebar )....
So I came in to performance this morning. The mechanic checked it out and diagnosed the Shimano 105 to be fine. He also tightened the brakes. The manager of the store gave me a carbon water cage (which the mechanic installed) for my troubles.

I feel I've been had. But the guys at the shop have been nice (if incompetent as far as the sales guy wanna be mech. was concerned), and I don;t really want to go through the hassle of (1) getting my money back; (2) searching for a new bike elswhere (I really like this Turreno).

Any advice on what I should do? Was I "had" or am I acting reasonably?

botto 

1. move on, you're not gonna get your money back

2. buy lennard zinn's bike maintenance book, or one like it

3. learn how to change your own tires

4. learn how to check your own brakes before a ride.

barba

What do you mean "loosened the brakes"? Did he flip the quick release on the caliper or did he loosen the cable. In either case, this a good learning experience. You should check your bike for things like that before every ride. My suspicion is that the release was open. They could have left it open or you could have accidentally done it. It would be hard to prove either way. I would just be happy you didn’t get hurt.

Every new bike gets a scratch eventually. They build character.

hollow

I certainly don't think that you've been "had" and I can't say if you're acting reasonably since you don't say what you've done/are going to do. At worst, they overlooked something, but doubtful it was intentional. Even if this is the case, it is still your responsibility to check out your bike before you ride it. I never just assume everything is okay, even if I just rode it yesterday and nobody has been near it since. I check the tires, make sure the skewers are tight, etc.

Plus, what is the real damage. You indicated that the derailleur is scraped. Is there any functional damage? If not and it's just cosmetic, no big deal. If that's the case I think you got a good deal. Those carbon cages are at least $40. If I got one of those for every scrape on my bike I wouldn't have enough room for them on all my bikes.

jbhowat

Your fault. Should have done a pre-ride check. Sorry dude. The rear brakes only provide about 10% of the braking force or something and I am 100% sure you should have been able to avoid this using only the front brakes. You realized they were loose why would you ride that way? I really am not sure why you are so upset over this.

Edit: Also, that carbon cage IS going to break. Just so you know - those things are overpriced pieces of crap (the Performance ones).

allez

front brakes.......?

ManBearPig

The issue is not whether or not you were acting reasonably. The issue is whether you have any damages.

In your words, a light crash, a scraped pedal, and a scraped rear derailleur. Why would you even consider getting a refund on the whole bike?

Now, change the fact pattern, had you plummeted down the hill, and but for the lack of rear brakes, crashed into an 18-wheeler and been paralyzed. That's when you explore your reasonableness vs that of the bike shop to apportion fault between you and shop. In this case, no damages, so it's all a non-issue. Save yourself the embarassment of asking for a refund because they didn't flip down the quick-release latch on the rear brake.

mike9903

You sell the carbon cage that they gave you on eBay for $40-50 and go on your merry way.

MacMan

This is the correct answer.

slacker_express

There are quite a few threads here about similar situations, and I couldn't tell you whether there is one right answer.

Option 1: You blame them because they worked on your bike and gave it back to you in an unsafe condition. Maybe you think you deserve replacements of everything that was damaged. I would say the time to do this was when you brought it in to have them look at it. If you've accepted the bottle cage, this seems to infer that this is sufficient remuneration for your losses. At this point, can you go back and say you've had second thoughts and want more? I guess so, but on what grounds? Second thoughts?

Option 2: Maybe you think that the damages are not significant and that you can live with them. Maybe you share part of the blame? Hard to say, but you do mention that the person at the shop loosened the brakes. Not enough information in your post as to whether you learned this before the incident, after the incident, or was told this by the shop. Some might even say that we are all responsible for checking the soundness of our bikes before each ride (brakes, skewers, tires, etc.). Of course I guess it is reasonable to assume that a new bike is sound to ride. But then again, I have released brakes by accident while transporting my bike, so I know that it can be a problem any time.

I don't really think that the answer is that clear. I'm the type of person that would want to be sure that it wasn't my fault (either partially or completely) before I placed the blame with someone else (regardless of how upset I am about what happened). If I thought I shared some of the blame, I may have gone down the bottle cage (or other) path. If I was convinced that the shop was negligent and completely to blame, I would expect much more.

Blaireau

I think you all are right on, thanks for setting me straight!
(Btw, the guy loosened the cable, I think).

Basically, I am going for a test ride in an hour --and if it works fine, fine. If not, I'll just bring it back to them.

I like the part about building charecter. And I didn't know the carbon cages where so valuable sweet.

I was super polite the entire time with all of them, and even complimented the mechanic (for changing the tires immediately) when the manager cam along today. I guess it paid off.

Oh, and I will get a bike maintenace book. Its just that putting those Armadillo tyres was a ***** and I could not do myself. Even the guys at perfomance had to team up to do it!

Thanks again!

jbhowat

Yeah. If they caused something to break or fail that is not part of a normal checklist (and I'm not sure what this would be - maybe an over-tightened seat post collar that failed and caused your seat to slide down ) then they are to blame. Just so you know, most pros have their brakes loose enough that they can get the tire out without flipping that lever and the brifters will almost hit the bar if you squeeze them hard. Easier to modulate and control when your fingers are more curled.

Houston_Biker

Sorry that you crashed. It is not fun to get a scuff on a brand new purchase. Glad you are ok.

I don't think you have been had. You should have checked that the brakes were in working order after the Performance technician tightened them. You also should do a safety check before a ride. This often is no more than just riding the parking lot, or wherever you are taking off from at a very slow pace.

oilman_15106

4. learn how to check your own brakes before a ride.

+++1.

not2fast

#5. Add any expensive bike you have to your renters or Home owners insurance policy. A floater will probably only cost $30 a year, and will cover just about anything, even crashing, or being stolen. I have floaters for my firearms and for my laptop.

Recommend anyone with an expensive bike look in to it.

biker7

Its your responsiblity to make sure your brakes are adjusted properly before you take the bike out.
I wouldn't let anybody adjust my bikes but me.
George

badkarma

I just use www.sheldonbrown.com and that has most of the information I need to adjust/fix anything on my bike.

My advice, invest in:
spare tube, patch kit, minipump (CO2 or regular pump), multitool, and tirelevers (and a saddle pouch to put them in).

When you flat, you're going to need the above tools to get yourself on your way.

Just another piece of advice, your tires will lose approximately 10-15 psi of pressure every week. It's very important to have properly inflated tires, so perhaps consider investing in a floor pump with a pressure gauge on it.

slide13

I agree that you should always do a quick pre-ride check, so it is partially your fault but it also never should have left the shop that way. That being said, people are people and because of that they make mistakes on occasion. When I was working in the shop we made every effort to make sure each bike that left was something we would feel perfetly safe on but we did have one or two slip through with something wrong over the years. Nothing bad every happened thankfully, but each time we felt absolutely terrible. So, while it's unfortunate, it's not necessarily the sign of a bad shop in my oppinion. Even the very best of mechanics can have a bad day, get distracted, etc. and let something slip once in a while.

Blaireau

Well, the deal was that the guy who "fixed" the brakes was NOT a mechanic, he was a sales person who wants to be a mechanic and was allowed to "unofficially" check out my bike. So that's a twist that kind of pissed me off...

But I took the bike for ride, and it seems fine. I mean I hear some noise when I am on the smallest "ring" and the smalest "plate", and also when I am on the biggest "plate" and the largest "ring." But the manager said that was normal, and I cannot remember whether it occured before the "crash" or not....
PS: Sorry about the lack of lingo re: plates and rings
PPS: I know a guy who works for Performance at their corporate offices and I might tell him the story and see what he has to say about it...Mind you I don't know if he works there as a janitor or assistant to the CEO, lol.

55/Rad

It is somewhat normal and also one good reason to avoid these extreme big/big and small/small combinations. Another good reason to avoid cross-chaining is that it put less side torque stress on your chain.

7rider

+1

What happened to you was really nothing. I had a buddy in San Francisco who forgot to hook his front brake cable hanger back on after changing his front tube. He lives at the top of a hill and fortunately he didn't make it all the way down to the intersection before he realized he had no stopping power on the front wheel. A sharp turn and some sliding managed to stop him without any harm, but he was glad he didn't bomb down the hill before applying the brakes.

botto 

this thread always makes me smile.

GuitarWizard

Ah, memories

rumatt

What he said.

How did the lack of a rear brake cause a crash?

Brian Ratliff

Only in the good o'l USofA... It's always someone else's fault.