I thought I’d beat the storm today and ride early. I left home about 8:15 AM, planning on riding the same 19.2 mile route I’ve been working on this year. I got to the half way point in 31 minutes, about the same as my last attempt. But, instead of turning around, I continued east. At approximately mile 25 I turned around, a 50 mile ride would be enough. Between mile 40 and 41 I heard a hissing sound. Not a big deal, eh? Well, I thought I’d be clever and ride without a spare tube, patch kit or pump, since it was only going to be a 20 mile ride. The leak was fairly slow, and I made it to the next town, at mile 41.7. Since the storm was coming in (I’m lazy, and didn’t feel like fixing the problem), I caught a ride home from Rachel and Sheltese. (Thanks!) Anyway, the total for today was 41.7 miles, 17.1 MPH average, and 2:26 total time.
Shimano issued a recall on some of their XT, XTR, 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace skewers. After finding out about the recall, and that my front skewer was recalled, I went to the shop that built my wheels to get the skewer replaced. Shimano would not deal with the shop, since they were not an authorized Shimano dealer. Ok, so I go to another shop in town that is an authorized dealer. This shop was not interested in helping because they didn’t build the wheels. Nice, I should also mention that we have purchased a bike (recently) from this shop, and have been going there for almost 10 years. We’ll, if that’s how they treat their customers then I’m not interested. After calling Shimano directly, which is what they suggested to get me out the door, I was told that I could not get the part replaced because I did not have an “account number”. I suppose only people with “account numbers” need safe equipment. As for the rest of us?
I went back to the shop that built my wheels and scored a set of Salsa flip-offs and trashed the Shimano skewer. I’ve never had to deal with Shimano before, and now that I have, I am not impressed. I am also very disappointed with the other shop in town passing the buck and not helping. Guess where I won’t be going anymore?
Footnote: I finally got the replacement window regulator for the Acura. The dealer that shipped the wrong part shipped the correct part and refunded my return shipping. The $9.02 they refunded for the shipping did not cost them much, but kept a customer. Something a certain bike shop I know of might learn from. Oh, and installing a Accord/CL window regulator is simple and quick. The window works again, and I saved quite a bit on labor. I give the other regulator another year, max.
