It's been a while that my mountain bike shifters have been a bit tricky to get the chain onto the bigger gears. I would have to flip it a few times to get it to catch before it would shift. Going to smaller gears hasn't been a problem.
I've just lived with it until that bike had a flat and I had to switch to my older Specialized Hard Rock, which had a new set of shifters installed a couple of years ago. That one shifts precisely every time, up or down.
So I decided to give in and replace the shifters to fix the issue. It currently has Shimano Deore XT shifter/brake units. I decided to go visit the local bike shops and see how much it was going to cost me. I would install them myself. The first place I visited had some Shimano shifters for $65, but I would have to buy separate brake levers for $25. The second bike shop (which I had never visited before) said that they could order something for about $40 that would work.
Since I'm a member at REI, I decided to check there too. After the tech looked at the bike for a couple of minutes, he informed me that they could service the shifters - clean and lubricate - for $13 each. That's all I really need done, so I signed up and will drop the bike off there in a couple of days to have it done.
So now I'm trying to figure out why the other bike shops couldn't have offered to do something similar. I think I'll be sticking with REI as my go-to bike shop from here on.
I've just lived with it until that bike had a flat and I had to switch to my older Specialized Hard Rock, which had a new set of shifters installed a couple of years ago. That one shifts precisely every time, up or down.
So I decided to give in and replace the shifters to fix the issue. It currently has Shimano Deore XT shifter/brake units. I decided to go visit the local bike shops and see how much it was going to cost me. I would install them myself. The first place I visited had some Shimano shifters for $65, but I would have to buy separate brake levers for $25. The second bike shop (which I had never visited before) said that they could order something for about $40 that would work.
Since I'm a member at REI, I decided to check there too. After the tech looked at the bike for a couple of minutes, he informed me that they could service the shifters - clean and lubricate - for $13 each. That's all I really need done, so I signed up and will drop the bike off there in a couple of days to have it done.
So now I'm trying to figure out why the other bike shops couldn't have offered to do something similar. I think I'll be sticking with REI as my go-to bike shop from here on.
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