How to Keep Your Mechanic Happy
By James Thompson
Full disclosure: the author works at a local bike shop.
If you are a bicycle mechanic, these are probably a lot of the things you want to say to customers. Feel free to post this on your shop wall, or distribute to new bike customers.
If you are a cyclist who relies on local bike shops or friends to get your stuff fixed, you should definitely read on. We intend to make it easier for you to ride your bike by keeping your mechanic and your local shop happy. Mechanics can be feisty people, and they have a lot of pet peeves and preferences, most of which are related to safety, some of which are simply tradition (and some of which just make us pains in the arse). Enjoy the following tips!
Clean your bike before it goes to the shop. If you are getting a tire replaced, a brake adjusted, or diagnosing a drive train problem, mud and dirt make things more difficult for your mechanic. Some shops will charge an extra fee for bike cleaning before they will even touch the bike.
Don't clean your bike before you take it in. Some shops actually include cleaning of the bike and/or drivetrain in their "tune-up" service, and so they feel obligated to discount your tune-up if the bike is clean, therefore providing less service and making less money! Be sure to ask your mechanic or shop which they prefer. Gainesville tends to be a "don't clean your bike, we'd like to charge you for it, thanks!" kind of town. I like it that way, personally. Just remember to get the big stuff off.
Be calm. Riders often come into the shop completely verklempt after a wreck, catastrophic equipment failure, or near-death experience. This can be very frustrating for a mechanic who is coolly trying to diagnose the bicycle's problem. Take a deep breath, grab some water or adult beverage, and calmly explain your problem. Even better, just leave the shop, let the pros handle it, and find a shop that you trust to do you right.
Enter the repair area only when invited. Grinders, compressors, powertools, hammers, and flying parts make the bicycle repair area every bit as dangerous as an automotive shop. Yet customers consistently enter the repair area without permission, whereas an auto shop is conceived off limits. At shops I've worked at, we've grown to accept this behavior. A newer generation of mechanics, in my opinion, is extremely more tolerant than the old. Still, it is better to ask and be counted among the polite, than to get barked at or to cause someone harm.
Never ever touch a repair bike or "help" a mechanic. A good practice is to hand your bike to the diagnostician or mechanic, and then don't come close to it again until it is handed back to you. It is extremely rare that a bicycle repair can be aided with the addition of another mechanic, and even more rare that a mechanic will ask a customer for assistance. Indeed, that would be bad form. If you have a good relationship with your mechanic and are invited (or you ask) to observe a repair, it is kosher to stand slightly back from the immediate area of the bike. Even better, ask your mechanic where you can stand to safely observe the repair. My personal favorite customer mistake is to spin the back wheel backwards while I'm working on the drivetrain. Off with the fingers, DOH! If you are a touchy-feely kind of person, it sometimes helps to hold your hands behind your back. I sometimes ask particularly touchy people to do this, and always with a smile. Mechanics, remember, for your part, that customers are less familiar with mechanic etiquette in a bike shop than auto shop, so be patient, calm, and polite. Customers are already challenged and humbled by all the wierd tools and arcane knowledge we have, don't make them any less comfortable.
Bring in your bike, not its constituent parts. We can't fix a shift lever without the drivetrain around it, and the wheels and frame needed to test ride it. Also, you should reassemble your bike if you transported it by car. Bringing a bike into the shop with the wheels off is generally frowned upon, unless you are having difficulty reassembling it (which is okay!).
Keep the rubber side down. Mechanics and shop staff get very frustrated when a bicycle gets turned upside down in preparation for the customer's explanation of a problem. No bicycle gets fixed in a shop while upside down, and it is easier for the bike to fall over while propped on handlebars and saddle in the upside down position. Always lean the bike against a wall, not against the glass counter, and never lay it down on the floor.
Don't worry too much over ticks and clicks. Contemporary bicycle parts and frames have very low "tolerances," meaning the fit between "male" and "female" parts and threads is extremely tight and precise. This means that a grain of sand, properly situated in a bottom bracket thread or stem and bar interface, can resonate with operatic force throughout your frame. You can spend a lot of money removing and replacing parts to eliminate noise, or you can save a lot of money trusting that your mechanic says the bike is safe to ride. Of course, good bike build on a new or refurbished bike begins with a sharp mechanic filling these spaces with grease.
Respect the professionalism of your mechanic. Bicycle wrenching is an artisan skill, typically passed down from craftsperson to craftsperson. It involves cold forging of metals, manipulation of high-performance machinery, and arcane knowledge like building and truing wheels. There are at least several dozen tools unique to bicycle repair, including freewheel, cassette, bottom bracket, and frame prepping tools about which even the most experienced automotive mechanics know very little. It would cost you several thousand dollars to purchase the tools that most shops keep at every stand. What we're getting at is, treat your mechanic with the respect (nay, adoration?) that you give to anyone else that works for a living. This doesn't give mechanics the right to be snobs, but it does give them the right to be respected.
Accept the truth. Customers will argue about bicycle repairs more than auto repairs. The machinery is visible and apparently understandable to anyone with eyes and common sense. Yet, the opposite is true. Often, we can't replace a chain without replacing a cassette. We can't fix a flat without replacing the broken rim or wheel that is puncturing the tube. Bicycles are complicated. If you don't trust someone, that is another issue. If you trust the person and the shop, trust the decision and diagnosis of your mechanic. What some people see as gouging, is really just us trying to make something 100% safe and ride-able. If you don't trust your mechanic, then find someplace where you _do_ trust them, instead of arguing with them. One good idea is to compare price from shop to shop for a similar service about which you are very familiar. If one shop is way off (over or under the average) ask them to explain. Sometimes, you will discover amazing things in the process, like that a mechanic or particular shop is telling you complicated stories about simple repairs, or, even better, that a particular shop is exposing common myths and misperceptions. My favorite is the honest plumber story. The plumber was asked why he charged $50 to stare at a valve for five minutes and turn a screw 2/3rds of a rotation. His answer: "Sir, it took me five years to learn which screw to turn, and how much to turn it!" The dishonest plumber's answer, on the other hand, involves elaborate explanations, jargon, and a wink and a nod to the devil on their shoulder.
Never ask to have an unsafe bike repaired. "I know my frame is cracked in half, but can you just fix my flat so I can ride home?" No shop of integrity will fix a bike that is fundamentally unsafe to ride. If a mechanic cannot make your bike safe, the typical protocol is they will charge a portion of the estimated fee (or none at all if no real work was done). They will then inform you that your bike is unsafe and should not be ridden. Understand that, while you may love your bike, liability and ethics makes it impossible for us to help you. I'm not going to send you out the door with a cracked shotgun or jet engine that I just "fixed." I'm not going to charge you or ask you to ride a cracked bicycle, either.
James Thompson has worked in bike shops, raced bikes, and often wondered aloud why he continues to do it off and on for twenty-five years.