This is going to be big and long. Where shall we start... I'll leave the rant at the end. Well then.
Last Friday I come home at night to two boxes sitting in the garage. One was the 02 Marzocchi Dirt Jumper 1:
and the other was a Hope Bulb 20mm hub on a Mammoth rim:
Delighted to see new toys, I got to work asap. Had the Jr. T off the bike within minutes, and cleaned everything off, but I ended up having trouble with the last cup of the headset that is stuck on the steerer tube. Retired for the night, and came back online. Dog reminded me of the book he sent me, and I consulted it the next morning:
Good stuff Dog, thank you once again.
So, back to my workshop:
and the last cup is off within 15 minutes. The install of the fork went smoothly afterwards, except for some missing headset spacers. No problem, I'll take care of that later.
Here is where stuff goes wrong. I try and take off the Hope 8" rotor from my old wheel. What happens? Two of the bolts come out, the rest are stripped to hell. Done. No luck in getting them out. I bring it over to Pacific Bicycle since they were closest and I knew one of the guys in there would know what to do. We tried to saw slits in the bolts, but that didn't quite work out as we did not want to damage the rotor. Fine. Out comes the drill and chisel - this is the result:
Well, I wasn't quite happy. Pretty disappointed to say the least, but hey.. at least the rotor was salvaged. Some of the bolts are still stuck in that hub, and one of the threads just came out. That's ok, I guess crap happens right? Hope should include some deeper hex bolts next time, or convert to torx heads.
But what really pisses me off? In the past, I have been to Pacific Bicycle more than once. And I do know how the manager is like. Very satirical, almost sarcastic, attitude. When I walked in, I avoided him and walked straight to the back, no problem there as he was helping a customer anyway. He finishes up with some customers about 15-30 minutes later, and comes out back to the shop. I am sitting there along with Jimmy, in front of the counter waiting for Phil (nice guy, the mechanic) to help us out. He casually strolls by, and then remarks with that tone of his, "You guys do know that you have to pay for this right?"
WELL NO SH**!!!! You think I was going to take that much time and work out of the mechanic's day and walk out of there, expecting labor to be free? Of course not! I had no intention of doing so, and was gladly going to pay the mechanic. I sat there open mouthed, unable to say a thing as I was stunned, too bitter to make a come back, which was probably a good thing as I might have been extremely explicit with a retort. He eyes me, and keeps going on to say, "Phil, have you asked these guys about pricing yet? How much are you going to charge them? Hm?" Something along the lines of that. Phil, busy workin on the wheel still, grunts out "$15".
That's fine. I understand that this is a bike shop, and labor can be expensive, and they DO need to make money, it's their living. I would have paid that, no big deal. What ticks me off and almost shot me out of my pants was the manager's attitude. It's ridiculous. Every single time I have been out there, this manager has kept this same old attitude, a perky, fake, idiotic smile of an indecent salesman, with rhetorical questions and a tone of "I don't want to help you. I just want your money."
Now, I have already tried to stay away from the bike shop as much as possible. I don't even buy from there anymore, due to the way he treats me, as well as my friends. After Phil had finished up, I went to the cash register with him, and told him to pocket $5 and leave the other $10. He couldn't do that he said, just as I had thought. Here is what ticks me off again. Why should I pay the shop for this? He was the one out back, sweating his butt off, doing his best to give me the least damage he could. Good person, as is the other mechanic back there. Both excellent attitudes. Maybe it is none of my business how these guys get paid, but crapola.. that manager deserves none of this. I guess it is just a result of my reactions after the little remarks by the manager.
What can you do. What's done is done.
Anyway, back to the bike buildup. I return home, have some lunch, then get back to work again. Seems to be ok, but then I accidentally tighten the top bolt on top of the stem too much, and I end up pulling the star nut out. I head over to Chain Reaction instead, and ask for some spacers and walked out the door with a new starnut INSTALLED for $3, plus another buck or two for the spacers. No bad attitudes there. Looks like I may head over there from now on, even though their prices are a bit high at times.
Here's the finished product.
And this is a small ramp that was built years ago that I was screwin around on earlier today:
My impressions of the setup? Wow, that DJ1 is a big change over the Jr. T. Definitely not as plush. 20mm is heavier and stiffer, even with a single crown I think, but it could be psychological. Disc brakes were rubbing a heck of a lot last week, but I stole some spacers from the rear and added it to the front. Quiet like a charm on the front, but have some rubbing on the rear. Ended up doing the business card trick, and loosening the bolt a bit in the handle lever. Seems to work a little better now.
Thanks for listening guys. Just had to let people know.
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