Shop nerds: if you are hunting for 8-speed atb cassettes Merry Sales just replenished stock of S-ride stuff and apparently hasn’t announced it yet.
Which means BTI will have them soon as well!
Maybe? That stuff all comes through MS I think… did some make it through to BTI last time? Takes about 2 minutes to set up a MS account and they have Lucas racks back in stock in both colors right now too as well as Chester knockoffs for cheap enough.
not sure if this is the right thread but is this fork toasted?
I believe the headset got torqued down at an angle, and the fork sat at an angle, enough to wear down the threads. I’ve been a bit hesitant to do anything about it because the threads actually used by the headset are good, and I think mounting the headset straight will mean no issues. It’s also a fun/weird lugged unicrown fork I thought I’d never be able to replace … until I just saw someone selling one on CL near me for $50. Should I buy the replacement or is my fork fine?
Do you have a good dental plan?
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Yes, it’s toast. What was it rubbing on inside the headtube? There should be some space inside there.
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not sure! I figured the inside of the headtube but the headtube seems fine, this being the only pic of it. (Very jazzy paint job present)
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This seems kinda dumb. He compares it to furniture companies, but I think it’s different because I can still go to the furniture store and pick up a couch if I do not want to pay for shipping.
TLDR: all bikes sold will have $150 assembly fee.
I get it though. They are selling high end bikes that require high labor cost assembly and maintenance. Setting a precedent that the bike will require a certain base level cost to maintain makes some sense.
Even mid-level trail bikes are taking exponentially longer to build in many cases due to how much less they are pre-assembled to ship to dealers.
For trail bikes we recognize that proper suspension set up is necessary and another sunk cost over a hybrid or road bike.
Shit is getting more complex and margins are continuing to fall.
We tell people expect to pay 10% of the MSRP +$100 annually to keep a bike working properly.
Fancy pants bikes are like fancy pants cars. Keep that wallet open.
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It’s a little bs tho, because it’s not like I can walk into the shop and purchase the bike unassembled in the box and take it home myself to assemble and avoid the charge.
The whole point of traditional distribution through a dealer network is that the bike is assembled and there’s a physical location that stands behind the assembly. They’re sort of playing a shell game, where the MSRP that the manufacturer puts out doesn’t offer them high enough margins based on the traditional markup. So instead of saying to the manufacturer ‘hey, either raise the msrp or lower the wholesale cost’, they’re passing it on to the consumer at the retail level.
I’m sure @motorbacon has some thoughts on R&A.
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I feel like bike shops get squeezed in every way possible and if it takes this for them to make a bit more money it is fine.
Presumably R&A is doing high volume in fancy bikes, so the build is possibly better than in a local shop where they see one DuraAce Di2 a month. I mean I had to explain to a local shop that I go to only occasionally because it is 2 minutes away that there is a difference between carbon brake pads and aluminum. My regular shop knows the difference.
R&A in person is the worst customer service experience imaginable though.
Maybe your fork is fine (the wear doesn’t look like it goes deeper than the thread) and it is a threaded fork so the stem wedge would keep the thing from immediately disassembling if it cracks on the worn part, but $50 for a replacement fork that has not been misused like this? That’s about half of the copay for an emergency room visit (if you’re insured) so it’s a no-brainer to buy it and yeet this fork into the recycle bin.
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I support charging above MSRP, especially right now. At the rate that bikes are becoming available there are never enough to ship at once to save on freight, so we end up paying $50-$100 per bike too get it to the shop. On a $500 bike this is a huge hit.
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bless it. texted the guy, should scoop it up on tuesday. I will need to paint match the fork but that seems like a fun project anyway! time to get some neon pink and some clear!
Replacement for $50? Fuckin go buy it now! New crust 1" threadless conversion only option? Dither some more, but don’t ride that dangerous fork.
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if it wasn’t 1 1/8th I’d be bowing and scraping to get my hands on a Piolet fork. always liked the look of an offset segmented fork
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have sworn by the blue box superlight q-tubes for years and suddenly the case I bought early to mid pandemic is riddled with immediate failures, either on a seam or near the valve, tube after tube I replaced in a pristine setup and shortly after :bang:
had to swing by a shop and buy some sunlite and thank bless these fuckers haven’t let me down
Just gotta get a piolet frame to go with that fork and you’re golden!
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We’ve been extremely lucky with allocations and not hit quite as hard on freight as a result but yeah… I’m not against it either.
Especially when if you buy online chances are you will in fact pay a freight charge and assembly if you don’t know what you’re doing (which is most people not on tarck).
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Keeping my fingers still and mouth quiet for a bit on the issue.
It’s a fun one.
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