GJBikes

The rear hub (wheel) of my bicycle started to make noises. I knew immediately that the ball bearings have gone bad. We were planning to go for a long bike ride the next day, so I decided to go to a bike shop to see if they could fix it right away. I took my bicycle to this shop (Bicycle Outfitters) in Grand Junction (GJ), Colorado. I am pretty good in fixing bikes, however, we are temporarily in GJ for a three-month period and I do not have my tools with me. The owner of this bike shop wanted to put the bike on the stand (which usually means they locked you into letting them fix your bike). He wanted to look at the rear hub to see what was wrong with it (which could have been done while the bike was on the floor). To make sure he realized that he cannot charge me for just looking at the bike without fixing it, I asked him: What if he cannot fix it immediately? He said he would not charge me. He took the rear wheel out and could not open the hub to see what is happening with the bearings. He started pounding the hub in the wheel with heavy hammers and tried to open it with a vise grip, hammering from below, etc. I told him it is a sealed hub. He said there is not such a thing as a sealed hub. He then decided that he will lend me a wheel while he is working on the hub. He found a wheel and after installing it, decided it would not work with my bike, although I wasnt sure that was really true. Then he looked around the shop for another wheel, and asked me to follow him while he was doing that. After going through many wheels, he concluded that he does not have a wheel that is compatible with my bike that he can lend me. My bike has a 700c, 10 speed rear cassette, standard for bikes. He then suggested that I buy a wheel from him. I refused. It was then that he said I either have to buy a wheel, leave the bike with him (which he knew I was not planning on doing) or he will put the bike back together and let me take it with me. I said I will take the last option. Then he said: Then I have to charge you for the labor. I was planning to give him something for his efforts, but when he demanded it, I no longer were willing to give him anything. I said you have not done anything but banging hard on my wheel and I have no idea what that did to the wheel. He suddenly gave me the unattached cassette wheels, the skewer (and other separated items) that were taken from the bike, and took the rest of the bike from the stand and told me leave the bike shop. I told him I will give him a very bad review in the Internet. It was then that he backed up and said to leave the bike there and he will fix it before 10:00 AM the next day, and I can have it then. Before this happened he asked me to come into the work space (shop) while he was working on the bike. All the above conversation took place while we were in the middle of the shop and other employees were all around us (around 6 of them). After we got into the heated argument, the employees started crowding us. Even after he started walking out of the shop with my bike to kick me out, they still were crowding us. I felt very insecure and threatened. When he suggested I leave the bike with him until tomorrow, it was a relief and I said OK, left the bike there, and left immediately. I surely was not going to go there alone anymore. The next day, Sunday (5/15) I decided to go to the police station to see if they have a service that an officer can come with me to the shop. They said they do. They also made it very clear that the officer will be only an observer, and as long as there is no criminal activity (something beyond a civil dispute) they cannot interfere. That is all I needed: An observer that can stop any attack or criminal act toward me while I am there. So we went to the shop. The policeman drove to the shop by himself, and when I arrived he already was there, and apparently had talked to the owner why he was there. When I arrived the owner was mad. The owner said, he was going to lend me a wheel, but not anymore (which was fine with me). He was in the process of taking that wheel off. That also showed that the bike shop owner was not able to fix the hub and wanted to lend me a wheel (I have no idea how he suddenly found one to lend me!) so he could work further on the hub. At this time, he also started shouting that I leave the shop. I asked the officer if he can do that (he had accepted to work on my bike and he still had my bike in the shop, I could not see if he had that right). The officer said it is his property and he can do that. So I left the shop and waited outside. Apparently where I was standing was keeping the sliding door open (I did not realize that) and he came out yelling at me that I am keeping the sliding door open. I went to my car, where my wife was waiting, and waited. He eventually brought my bike to our car, unassembled, the hub busted open, and there were missing parts and broken/damaged parts. I thanked the police officer and we left with my bike in the back of the car (I could not use the bike rack on the car without the back wheel attached). Today I took the wheel with the busted hub to another bike shop (The Bike Shop, GJ). He looked at it and immediately said: Whoever did this did not know what he was doing. Then he found out that this back wheel is cracked and I need a new wheel. We decided that if the front wheel is also cracked, I need a set. I came home and looked at the front wheel, there are no cracks in it. So most probably the cracks in the rear wheel were created when he banged the hub and wheel with a heavy hammer and forcefully busted the hub open. Do not go to this shop. You will not be served well. If I could give them -5 stars I would have!