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I finally got a customer to agree to a full drivetrain clean and the bike came back in two days
This guy brought in his gravel bike, a real mud monster from the local trails. The chain was black and the cassette was packed. I gave him the usual talk about how a deep clean would make it shift like new and save parts in the long run. He agreed, so I pulled the chain, soaked the cassette in my parts washer, the whole deal. Two days later, he's back saying the shifting is worse and it's making a grinding noise. I looked at it, and the issue was the chain. It was a cheap, worn-out chain that was just hiding its wear under all the gunk. The clean job made the fresh, clean cassette teeth and the worn chain links not play nice anymore. It shifted fine when it was dirty because everything was slipping. I learned that a super dirty bike can mask a ton of wear, and now I check chain stretch before any big clean. Has anyone else had a clean-up job reveal a bigger problem you then had to explain to the customer?
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masongonzalez27d agoMost Upvoted
Totally get that, a clean drivetrain is like a truth serum for worn parts. I had a customer's chain skip like crazy after a degrease because the cassette was totally shot. Now a quick wear check is just part of the wash.
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taylor.sean27d ago
That's a tough spot to be in. Do you now have a standard policy for checking chain and cassette wear before quoting a deep clean, or do you still get surprised sometimes? I've found that being upfront about the possibility of finding more work can save that awkward conversation later.
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