Failed yet again

Almost every time I trust my local bike shop (LBS), I am disappointed.

Brought the black bike in to get the front wheel trued after my clumsy re-spoking. Just knew they would screw something up.

I'm assuming they got the wheel trued OK. I don't know for sure because, now I have a flat tire. It went flat within two hours.

I'm just glad I didn't try to ride it home. What if I had had a blowout barrelling down the main drag in traffic?

I don't know why the tire is flat. I noticed the valve cap was missing in the store, but I didn't suspect this. What kind of jive-ass fix are they putting on it that it will go flat in two hours?

In all fairness, it's hard to work on a wheel when you can't really disassemble all the wired in stuff from my Wilderness computer brain, etc. It's also way heavy.

I don't know what's going on in the wheel, why it's flat. I'm too tired to check. I called to let them know. They said bring it in. I don't want to waste any more time, or risk any more damage. I hope they didn't fuck up my schweet new Schwalbe tires.

Bottom line: your LBS probably hasn't seen an electric bike before, and probably won't do such a great job. Possibly safer to do your own for maintenance, even basic bike stuff.

Charleston bike fitting vid

Rather than critique, I just repost: A sad little video with some redeeming feetures. DON'T FORGET THE LUBE.

Bike shop bitchin'

Can I find at least one decent bike shop in this godforsaken dump of a town? I am still counting the ways the last one (rhymes with "about broken") dicked me over. I ordered a partial overhaul (including new cassette) and and they chipped a piece out of my GripShift. Also, the front brakes were so loose they did not stop at all. I had to get the guy to redo 'em. The bill was over $100. Then I went to another shop to replace the front chainring. They did a good job but after I got home it lost its ability to shift into the top ring. I had to tighten it up myself with my meager collection of multitools, kinking and fraying the wire.

I can never go into a store and just relax and look at all the stuff. The help are always asking a bunch of questions or ogling you like you've got sticky fingers. Dude. I don't know what I want. I just want to look to see what I might need. I might want to admire the bikes, see the next best things down the line. Respect my need for space!

Unfortunately I need bike shops in my life as the bike mechanix can get complicated. I avoid them though. At least there is one halfway decent one around there. Buying on eBay is odd too; they probably have their friends bidding stuff up and maybe it's junk to begin with. If I get it on the Bay, it better be a steal. Wait, maybe it is stolen. Online retailers like BikeParts.com have been pretty good, but pricey. There is no one perfect solution.