"Can you fix it, Doctor?"

As a mechanic, especially a Sport Chalet trained/certified mechanic, when you evaluate a customer's bike for repair you have to consider several factors. How old is it? What condition is it in; damaged/worn/intensity of use/corroded by weather and time? What quality was it originally? What would the price be for repair versus replacement? If repaired, would the customer get enough use to make it worth it?

That's enough to get you stressed right there. But then you add a customer who has financial stress, and it can push you into a zone only fools enter. That's the zone where you repair the symptom, and not the cause of the problem. If a customer brings a wheel for truing, for example, and they tell you they've been riding all the time; that's a good thing. As a Professional Mechanic, you use the tools available to assess the wheel. Wheel goes into the truing stand, you check the bearings for looseness. You then spin the wheel to observe lateral and vertical runout, it's acceptable vertically but goes 10mm to the right and left in every rotation. Using a spoke tension meter, you find that you can "probably" fix this. The repair process to straighten the rim will shift the spoke tension unevenly around the wheel, which will make it less stable. The customer is riding some tough trails, and this wheel belongs to a ~$250 bike that's only three months old. We didn't sell them the bike. What do you do?

If you have already done a repair like this, and had the customer come back mad because the wheel "Got crooked again in the first mile" you know what to do. That wheel is not 10mm off, it is 20mm off! There is no guideline for "go/no go" on repairs like this, it is all experience based. But this wheel smells like toast, and the burnt kind of toast. The major weak spot on bikes in this price level are the wheels, they are built for gentle bike path use. This customer is going well beyond that use, and you should seriously promote the value of a Deore/Mavic XM117 wheelset for $90 retail or a LX/Sun Rhyno Lite wheelset for $140 retail. If you are a new mechanic, your empathy for the customer may lead you into doing the truing repair. Part of the correct wheel purchase price will be removed from the customer, with little to show for it.

In our training classes, we discuss the concept of "doing the right thing" for the customer, even if it's the opposite of what they want. Trust in your training, use the tools available (Wrenches and catalogs) and strive toward building a group of customers that trust your expert recommendations. Do the "right" thing for the customer and your employer, in that order!