Conference noted::bicycle

>    My question is, does the Bike shop I bought the bike from have
>    any responsibilty with truing the wheels of a new bike? Or is
>    customary that they take the bike out of the box and just 
>    assemble it without checking the wheels.     

Well, they should have some responsibility for it, as long as you didn't 
obviously abuse it. And the second is true in a lot of cases - out of 
the box, onto the bike. Better shops will at least give an eyeball check 
for true; few seem to bother to put the wheel on the trueing stand though.    

>    And what about a brand new tire loosing all it's tire pressure
>    over just one night with no apparent puncture?
    
Did you check it (the tube) underwater? That's occasionally the only way 
to find small glass cuts, snakebites, or rim strip failures.
                                                            ken

    	RE: 1188.1
    
    	Ken,
    
    	I don't want to hear about any snakebites! Where in the
    	world have you been riding, the desert?
    
    	Scott (I hate snakes)

>    	I don't want to hear about any snakebites! Where in the
>    	world have you been riding, the desert?
>    	Scott (I hate snakes)

Maybe it was Ireland? No, wait, they don't have snakes... Actually, 
snakebite is an OFFICIAL bicycling word, referring to those TWO holes 
you get in a tube when the tube gets pinched between road and rim, for 
instance (like hitting a big rock at speed...). Well, maybe it's not 
really OFFICIAL, but most bike folks I know refer to a double 
puncture/single cause as a snakebite.... not as easy to avoid as the 
crawly slithery kind either.
                                           ken

    The noters are correct. I doubt if many go through the motion 
    of checking trueness other than seeing how they behave through
    the brake pads.
    
    They are responsible. The wheels were definitely not put together
    correctly! You aren't over 300lbs riding on a 28 spoke wheel are
    you? If the answer is no and you didn't take it down 30 flites
    of stairs then make sure they do it and ask them what they've
    done to make sure that you you don't have the same thing happen
    again a few minutes into your next "virgin" ride. My sympathy
    goes out to you.
    
    Chip

    
    	They certainly owe you good wheels on your new bike.   I once
    had a bike shop completely rebuild a new wheel, when I noticed that
    the valve was between the crossed spokes, rather than between the
    parallel spokes where it should be.    Just as with any large
    purchase, you should work with them to get a satisfactory machine.
    
    	The flat may be hard to figure, but if it was, for instance
    poked out by a sharp spoke sticking through the rimstrip, then
    they should take care of that too.    It's real easy to get
    flats though.
    
    						Alan.

>    	The flat may be hard to figure, but if it was, for instance
>    poked out by a sharp spoke sticking through the rimstrip, then
>    they should take care of that too.    It's real easy to get
>    flats though.
    
Also, a snakebite is kinda a special case - usually caused by 
underinflated tires. Within a couple daze of buying a bike, snakebite is 
sorta the shop's responsibility - they should have sent you out with 
inflated tires, unless you request otherwise. But after a couple days, 
it's then YOUR responsibility to keep the tires inflated, so snakebite 
becomes YOUR problem. (I'm not making this up; when I was in biz, we had 
customers come back with 'bites after 2 MONTHS, and were miffed when we 
told them they had to pump up the tires now 'n' then).
                                                     ken

    Snakebite?  Yuh, sure.  And I suppose those slow leaks that are hard
    to find are mosquito bites!
    
    :-)
    
    ed

>    Snakebite?  Yuh, sure.  And I suppose those slow leaks that are hard
>    to find are mosquito bites!

The HOLES are hard to find in that case, but finding the mosquito is 
easy - they're inflated to about the size of basketballs! :-)

                                             ken

    I went back this weekend to the bike shop where I purchased 
    my bike, after being out on a ride for about 15miles and  
    finding that my Sampson Cleat was just getting near to 
    impossible to get into. I went back and the shop helped
    with adjusting the tension in the pedal so I could more
    easily get into it. The salesperson said there was nothing
    they could do about the broken spoke when I explained to 
    them in person about it.
    
    They cited it was possibly the factory who
    set up the tension on the spokes so erractically. As far
    as the snakebite flat, they didn't reimburse me with a 
    spare tube. So...they didn't help me really at all, other
    than to say that when I brought my bike in for a one month
    checkup...they would true up the wheels when they did the
    normal maintenance check on the bike.
    
    -Arthur
          

    If they sold you the bike and would not even take the time to
    replace a broken spoke, I would never go back to buy anything.
    
    ed