June 30, 2005

What is it with these bike shops!

We got an early start even though Nick noticed another broken spoke which he fixed before we left. We talked it over and he decided to replace the wheel when we came across a bike shop with one.

The ride through Cleveland in the morning was not that bad. The ACA had it mapped out pretty well to mostly avoid well-traveled roads. The route went right by the Cleveland Browns Football Stadium, which is right next to Lake Erie. From there we were on a bike trail / path for easy sailing out of the city.

Cleveland Skyline

There was good progress in the morning. By around 11:00 we rode about forty miles and decided to find a bike shop. There was one on the route but it only carried low-end bikes and had no road bike wheels. They told us of a shop about five miles away that carried high-end bikes. In the description they referred to the owner once with the phrase “but that guy?!”, which none of us picked up on. We rode there and I picked out a wheel that had a white price tag on it that said “700”, the right size. Nick opted for the owner to swap out the cassette, tire and tube. The guy seemed a bit standoffish when I explained how another shop sold Nick the wheel that had obviously been poorly built. He made a couple of comments that inferred that we didn’t know anything about bikes, but we let it slide.

He took Nicks bike downstairs to do the work. I have never seen a bike shop where the repair stands are downstairs in the basement so that the retail area would be left unattended while repairs are being done. He brought the bike up and made the comment that “the drive train on Nick’s bike is trashed”, perhaps so he could make another sale. I said it looked fine to me and that I was confident that he could finish the trip on in. I told Nick not to worry. Nick paid and we were on our way. We didn’t get three miles from the shop when Nick’s rear tire blew. At first I thought that the tube must have been gotten pinched when he put it on. It happens sometimes, but an experienced bike mechanic should not make that mistake. When Nick was fixing the flat he noticed that the tire looked way too big for the rim. I looked at it and it obviously was not a “700” wheel. It wasn’t a flat. The bigger tire on a smaller rim just caused it to come off under pressure. Nick couldn’t ride on it so Tim and I packed it up on back of my bike and rode to the shop while Nick waited under the shade of a tree.

When we got back to the shop and told him that the wheel was not a 700 and we just wanted a refund, Nick’s old wheel back and then we would be on our way. The owner became argumentative and said the tire was worn out and stretched and that was why it came off the rim. He also suggested that we parked the bike in the sun causing it to come off. When I pulled another brand new tire off a rack and showed him how even a new tire was too big for the wheel he quieted down a bit and had a sheepish look on his face. I again asked for a refund and he refused. Tim said: “Excuse me!” to which he became red faced and swore at us and said he was not refunding the money.

I told him that it just wasn’t right for him to take that position and asked him to get Nick’s old wheel so we could swap out the cassette, put his tire and a good tube on it and be on our way. I asked him to take the cassette off the new wheel. He brought it downstairs and at least did that. I asked Tim to put the tire back on so I would have time to work on the owner for a refund. The owner then did another odd thing. While we were inside he went in the back room of an adjoining shop and left us in his shop alone. Weird! When he came back I used all my negotiating skills and politely asked for a refund. He relented and credited Nick’s credit card for the cost of the wheel but not the rim tape, or the labor charge. I figured that’s the best we could do. I thanked him and as we were leaving he said we were “a colossal waste of his time”. I said as we were leaving: “We are just cross country cyclists trying to complete our trip” and I was sorry if I caused him any inconvenience. It was time to get out of Dodge. We checked Nick’s wheel for trueness when we put it back on his bike and it was way out of whack. I can’t prove it but I surmised that he put a spoke wrench and maladjusted the wheel when he brought it downstairs. The whole ordeal took about two and a half hours and put us behind on the day. I think he was a colossal waste of our time.

Once back on the road the winds were favorable and we made pretty good time even though the route back near Lake Erie had us boxing up and down instead of going straight west.

Lake Erie from the bike trail

With about ten miles to go to our planned destination Nick’s wheel broke another spoke. There was a park called the Al Cummings Sunset Park across the street that overlooked the lake so we went there to fix the wheel again.