I was talking to a guy at the LBS today and he told me about the QBP service center. You can send your brakes, shocks and forks to them to get work done. Any body have any experiance with them good or bad.
I've never had a problem with QBP in the 6 years I've worked in the bike industry. It makes sense to have distributors also serve as service centers since some of them handle warranties for shops and manufactures. It helps shops who don’t have the man power, the knowledge and more importantly the parts to work on some components. I’d rather have a SRAM trained mechanic, who bleeds brakes and overhauls forks and shocks for a living, work on my bike than 17 year old punk who can’t get a QBP order right. QBP is the largest Rock Shox parts and components distributor in the world. Who is going to have seals and Red Rum for my 2001 SID XC? QBP or my LBS? I’m putting my money down on QBP.
I've never had a problem with QBP in the 6 years I've worked in the bike industry. It makes sense to have distributors also serve as service centers since some of them handle warranties for shops and manufactures. It helps shops who dont have the man power, the knowledge and more importantly the parts to work on some components. Id rather have a SRAM trained mechanic, who bleeds brakes and overhauls forks and shocks for a living, work on my bike than 17 year old punk who cant get a QBP order right. QBP is the largest Rock Shox parts and components distributor in the world. Who is going to have seals and Red Rum for my 2001 SID XC? QBP or my LBS? Im putting my money down on QBP.
I've never had a problem with QBP in the 6 years I've worked in the bike industry. It makes sense to have distributors also serve as service centers since some of them handle warranties for shops and manufactures. It helps shops who dont have the man power, the knowledge and more importantly the parts to work on some components. Id rather have a SRAM trained mechanic, who bleeds brakes and overhauls forks and shocks for a living, work on my bike than 17 year old punk who cant get a QBP order right. QBP is the largest Rock Shox parts and components distributor in the world. Who is going to have seals and Red Rum for my 2001 SID XC? QBP or my LBS? Im putting my money down on QBP.
Anyone who can read and has 2 hands can properly service a Rockshox fork with $20 worth of tools. Why waste nearly $100 and nearly a week of downtime sending the thing out when you could simply take the time to do it yourself? The prices that QBP charge shops for the services they offer are significantly higher than the prices I charge customers directly to offer the same service, and higher what any half decent shop can and will offer.
If a shop is unwilling to learn how to properly and profitably repair suspension or brakes maybe they should get out of the high end MTB market? Mechanics who do not service suspension or brakes do it out of sheer laziness and inertia, not because it is any more difficult or specialized than any other task...
i may be 17 - but i still have a evidence based opinion on their services - my shop (www.revocycles.com) is a killer shop - our reputaion is nothing but excelence in service - were probably the fastest growing shop in all of Orange County - PLUS the # 1 TITUS Dealer in the state - i'de say we know what were doing
i may be 17 - but i still have a evidence based opinion on their services - my shop (www.revocycles.com) is a killer shop - our reputaion is nothing but excelence in service - were probably the fastest growing shop in all of Orange County - PLUS the # 1 TITUS Dealer in the state - i'de say we know what were doing
Anyone who can read and has 2 hands can properly service a Rockshox fork with $20 worth of tools. Why waste nearly $100 and nearly a week of downtime sending the thing out when you could simply take the time to do it yourself? The prices that QBP charge shops for the services they offer are significantly higher than the prices I charge customers directly to offer the same service, and higher what any half decent shop can and will offer.
If a shop is unwilling to learn how to properly and profitably repair suspension or brakes maybe they should get out of the high end MTB market? Mechanics who do not service suspension or brakes do it out of sheer laziness and inertia, not because it is any more difficult or specialized than any other task...
Before any aspersions are thrown my way, my shop is expert at fork rebuilds and brake bleeds. I usually handle the Marzocchi rebuilds and my boss can bleed a Hayes in less than 5 minutes.
On that note, I think many shops, in particular road shops, are incapable of these services. They don't have enough offroad customers or frankly their mechanics are stupid.
While it is nice to say that these shops are losing business and anyone can rebuild a fork, the reality is that to do profitably, this task has to be done in a certain amount of time.
An inexperienced fork rebuilder can take 2-3 hours to disassemble, replace seals, and reassemble; even longer if there is some diagnose required. However, this job is capped at about $50, which is less than most shop hourly rates.
Little things like a 24mm socket, a graduated metric container, or most importantly, a seal press, can turn a simple job into a nightmare.
On that note, while I have not seen every fork in existence, my experience with other fork rebuilds, as well as a large assortment of tools, allows me to get a new fork done within a reasonable amount of time.
Circlip pliers, 2.5, 4,5,6 mm allen wrenches, adjustable wrench for topcaps, rubber mallet, graduated cylinder, clean rags, rubbing alcohol, a few $00.10-rings. A truvatuve BB tool works as a dust seal press and oil seals are easy enough to set by hand.
All most people would need to buy are circlip pliers and a graduated cylinder (and even then you could just measure oil height...)
Circlip pliers, 2.5, 4,5,6 mm allen wrenches, adjustable wrench for topcaps, rubber mallet, graduated cylinder, clean rags, rubbing alcohol, a few $00.10-rings. A truvatuve BB tool works as a dust seal press and oil seals are easy enough to set by hand.
All most people would need to buy are circlip pliers and a graduated cylinder (and even then you could just measure oil height...)
If a shop is unwilling to learn how to properly and profitably repair suspension or brakes maybe they should get out of the high end MTB market? Mechanics who do not service suspension or brakes do it out of sheer laziness and inertia, not because it is any more difficult or specialized than any other task...
There are cities and towns out there that dont have a high end MTB shop at all. So kids in these towns should only ride hard tails??
Hell I live in Seattle, and there are only a couple shops here that know suspension at all. There is not a single shop that i would consider 'high end' in the sense that they both know how to work on hydaulics AND actually carry some higher end product. 13th largest metro area in the U.S @ 13.5 mil...
I have had good luck with all aspects of QBP. It would be awesome if we all lived somewhere that we could get all the work done locally (or stop being helpless americans and learn how to take care of it on our own but... read RM again). If it is your 'only' option I think they would do the work right.
Bushing removal tool? I never replace bushings, by the time the bushings are worn the lowers are usually sufficently damaged to just replace the whole lower assembly. New lowers are actually a little bit cheaper than the tools to replace bushings, and about 2x the price of what a "service center" would charge to replace them. Then again I've replaced plenty of marz and boxxer bushings using nothing but a sharp screwdriver a socket extension and a rag....
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