The day a customer brought in a 'fixed' bike that was just a bag of parts

Guy walks in yesterday with a duffel bag, dumps it on my bench. Says he saw a video online and 'fixed' his own derailleur. It was a 2018 Trek Checkpoint, and the hanger was snapped clean. He had the new one, but also every single bolt from the rear triangle, the chain, and the cassette in the bag, all mixed together. No order, no notes. He said 'I got it all apart, now you just put it back together, right?' Took me three hours just to sort and identify everything, and I had to charge him for a full rebuild. Has anyone else had a 'fix' turn into a complete teardown rescue job?

2 comments

2 Comments

nelson.wesley7d ago

Forensic assembly" seems a bit much for sorting some bolts.

the_sam7d ago

Oh man, that's a classic! Honestly, calling it a 'full rebuild' charge is being nice. That's basically a forensic assembly at that point. Sorting a random parts bag eats up so much more time than just doing the actual repair. You basically had to start from zero like it was a boxed bike. Hope he learned his lesson about taking pictures before taking things apart.