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Date: 10 Jul 2007 20:30:26
From: Don Wiss
Subject: My front wheel got warped and I...
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So I took my Dahon Glide* to Sweden. It came over a day after I did and
somewhere on its two flights and two baggage handling services it got a bit
banged up. I was able to fix most of the things myself, but the front wheel
was hitting the brakes pads as it went around. As I lost one of my only two
full days on the island of Gotland, I decided I would open up the brake,
use the bike on my remaining full day, and get the wheel fixed in the
morning of my last day. I bused my bike on that full day to the smaller
island of Faro. I was eating lunch in Sundersand and I was telling the
waitress my bike story and she suggested the man nearby that fixed up her
bike. So when I got around to passing his place I stopped in. When I
explained I was just biking the island and was returning to Visby that
night, he agreed to fix it then. So I wandered off. After a half hour I
returned and found it fixed. He charged me 30 SEK. Now for those of you
that are not familiar with Swedish currency, that's $4.30 US. That made my
day.
* http://dahon.com/us/glidep8.htm
Don <www.donwiss.com/joyrides > (e-mail link at page bottom).
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 16:11:15
From: Luigi de Guzman
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:05:50 -0500, Mike Kruger wrote:
> I broke a spoke yesterday and was lucky enough to do it on a Monday, when a
> local shop is open late. Paid $20 and they fixed it on the spot. Didn't seem
> unreasonable to me, although I would have been happy to pay less.
>
> $4.30 sounds like a favor, especially in an expensive country like Sweden.
> According to the Economist's Big Mac index, prices in Sweden are 42% higher
> than the US.
What did it for me was the attitude I caught when I rolled in. Tough to
describe--but I'd just as soon not deal with that shop again, if I can
possibly help it.
--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 15:43:40
From: victor.kan@gmail.com
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On Jul 11, 8:21 am, dgk <d...@somewhere.com > wrote:
> I broke a spoke in Cape May New Jersey last year (I'm going to be
> there during August this year as well). The whole town is bike
> friendly and there are a few large bike rental places. One does work
> and fixed the spoke for something like eight dollars. My local places
> charge $20 or $25.
Is that $20-25 based on your local shops having a posted minimum
service job price or did they actually charge you that historically?
It could depend on the particular failure you brought in to the shop.
Replacing a spoke on a radially laced front wheel is trivial and I can
easily see a shop doing it for just the cost of the spoke and a
friendly smile on a slow day, but an inbound, drive side spoke on a 3-
cross rear wheel with a stuck-on-really-tight-freewheel-that-needs-a-
big-cheater-pipe-to-break-free can be a bit harder, I imagine.
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 08:21:02
From: dgk
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:30:26 -0400, Don Wiss <donwiss@no_spam.com >
wrote:
>So I took my Dahon Glide* to Sweden. It came over a day after I did and
>somewhere on its two flights and two baggage handling services it got a bit
>banged up. I was able to fix most of the things myself, but the front wheel
>was hitting the brakes pads as it went around. As I lost one of my only two
>full days on the island of Gotland, I decided I would open up the brake,
>use the bike on my remaining full day, and get the wheel fixed in the
>morning of my last day. I bused my bike on that full day to the smaller
>island of Faro. I was eating lunch in Sundersand and I was telling the
>waitress my bike story and she suggested the man nearby that fixed up her
>bike. So when I got around to passing his place I stopped in. When I
>explained I was just biking the island and was returning to Visby that
>night, he agreed to fix it then. So I wandered off. After a half hour I
>returned and found it fixed. He charged me 30 SEK. Now for those of you
>that are not familiar with Swedish currency, that's $4.30 US. That made my
>day.
>
>* http://dahon.com/us/glidep8.htm
>
>Don <www.donwiss.com/joyrides> (e-mail link at page bottom).
I broke a spoke in Cape May New Jersey last year (I'm going to be
there during August this year as well). The whole town is bike
friendly and there are a few large bike rental places. One does work
and fixed the spoke for something like eight dollars. My local places
charge $20 or $25.
I could do it myself but getting the spoke is the big problem. I did
buy a good wheel for the rear (with double or triple butted spokes)
and haven't broken one since I put it on, which is at least five
months.
The other folks answering the thread so far were talking about spokes,
but it doesn't appear that you broke one. Did it just need to be
trued? I'm confused about how a wheel can be damaged so that it can be
fixed by truing. I don't know too much about wheels but if the wheel
was actually bent then doesn't it really need to be replaced?
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 19:41:46
From: Don Wiss
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:21:02 -0400, dgk <dgk@somewhere.com > wrote:
>The other folks answering the thread so far were talking about spokes,
>but it doesn't appear that you broke one. Did it just need to be
>trued? I'm confused about how a wheel can be damaged so that it can be
>fixed by truing. I don't know too much about wheels but if the wheel
>was actually bent then doesn't it really need to be replaced?
The spokes were fine. The bike was in its bag. It was just trued. As for
the comment about Sweden being expensive, that is true, but note that I
wrote that this was a very small island, and this was sort of just a shack
set back in a field. And the fellow was not young. I don't think he only
chargede what he did as a favor. I think on Faro things are just a little
different than what we expect in a populated place.
Don <www.donwiss.com > (e-mail link at home page bottom).
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 18:48:56
From: Dennis Ferguson
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On 2007-07-11, dgk <dgk@somewhere.com > wrote:
> The other folks answering the thread so far were talking about spokes,
> but it doesn't appear that you broke one. Did it just need to be
> trued? I'm confused about how a wheel can be damaged so that it can be
> fixed by truing. I don't know too much about wheels but if the wheel
> was actually bent then doesn't it really need to be replaced?
I've had this happen at least half a dozen times, with an S&S coupled
travel bike in the soft case. You pack your bike, give it to the baggage
handlers at the airport, they throw it around and pile stuff on top of it,
and when you get the bike back the wheel (always the front in my case)
is no longer perfectly straight. You true it to take the bumps out
and go ride. If a bump was really serious I might have to bend it
out of the rim first, but it has never been that bad.
This isn't optimum (the spoke tensions in my wheel are no longer
perfectly even, for example), but I must have 8,000 or 10,000 miles
on the wheel so far and it has so far given me no problems other than
this. I'd prefer that this didn't happen, but the only way I can see
guaranteeing this is to quit travelling with the bike, which kind of
defeats the purpose of having the bike. If you travel frequently with
a bike some bits unavoidably get additional wear and tear they weren't
necessarily designed for; you deal with it.
Dennis Ferguson
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Date: 11 Jul 2007 00:57:37
From: Luigi de Guzman
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:30:26 -0400, Don Wiss wrote:
. When I
> explained I was just biking the island and was returning to Visby that
> night, he agreed to fix it then. So I wandered off. After a half hour I
> returned and found it fixed. He charged me 30 SEK. Now for those of you
> that are not familiar with Swedish currency, that's $4.30 US. That made my
> day.
>
> * http://dahon.com/us/glidep8.htm
>
> Don <www.donwiss.com/joyrides> (e-mail link at page bottom).
It's good to know there are still wrenches out there who do good work at a
reasonable rate and won't stiff you. I popped three spokes here locally
(Northern VA) and one shop charged me twenty-six bucks! I rode out of
there and swore never to spend a penny there again.
--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com
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Date: 10 Jul 2007 22:05:50
From: Mike Kruger
Subject: Re: My front wheel got warped and I...
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Luigi de Guzman wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:30:26 -0400, Don Wiss wrote:
> . When I
>> explained I was just biking the island and was returning to Visby
>> that night, he agreed to fix it then. So I wandered off. After a
>> half hour I returned and found it fixed. He charged me 30 SEK. Now
>> for those of you that are not familiar with Swedish currency, that's
>> $4.30 US. That made my day.
>>
>> * http://dahon.com/us/glidep8.htm
>>
>> Don <www.donwiss.com/joyrides> (e-mail link at page bottom).
>
> It's good to know there are still wrenches out there who do good work
> at a reasonable rate and won't stiff you. I popped three spokes here
> locally (Northern VA) and one shop charged me twenty-six bucks! I
> rode out of there and swore never to spend a penny there again.
I broke a spoke yesterday and was lucky enough to do it on a Monday, when a
local shop is open late. Paid $20 and they fixed it on the spot. Didn't seem
unreasonable to me, although I would have been happy to pay less.
$4.30 sounds like a favor, especially in an expensive country like Sweden.
According to the Economist's Big Mac index, prices in Sweden are 42% higher
than the US.
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