[QUOTE=NurseCarmen]
ooh, I’ve got a lot of questions.
I commute 5 miles to work, so ten miles a day. I’ve got a specialized Sirrius flat barred road bike, aluminum. I weigh 185, then throw in a laptop, gym clothes, and in winter (My cut off is 20F) warm clothes, I easily go over 200lbs. Is that too much for that bike?
Next question: My back tire leaks slowly. It’ll be fine for a week, then it’ll feel like I’m dragging an anchor. Since the only compressors around that go up past 100psi are the bike shop, which is past my work, or at home, which takes precious morning minutes to get up to psi and fill, it sucks. So I brought it in and had the tube replaced. It still happens. But what is wierd, it it’ll retain the lower pressure until the cows come home. Is it my rim? Is it the aforementioned weight? Do all tires last only 2 weeks tops at the preferred psi? (don’t get me started on those shitty little stems)
As I mentioned, I ride in winter. But I don’t do snow or ice. But I have ridden on dry roads that have salt on them. Hosing it off in the middle of winter is not a real option. Am I killing my bike?
Last one. The only way to shift into 3 is in high 2, like 8 or 9, while going down hill. This began 2 weeks after I brought it into the shop for servicing. If you had a customer come in 2 weeks after a tune up and say it’s hosed, what would you do?
[/QUOTE]
I assume that you have this Specialized Sirrius . The Sirrius is no super-light road racer so you should be just fine with 200lbs of weight on the bike. The fact that it has 700x28c tires means that you don’t have to worry about having to run insanely high pressures to maintain good rolling resistance. If you were to add another 50lbs of weight to the bike, then I would recommend you consider some beefier components.
As for your tire pressure problem, scr4 has given the correct answer. You should get a high pressure hand pump with a dial gauge for your home and pump up once a week. Bicycle tires/tubes lose air relatively quickly compared to cars because they are maid thinner to decrease weight and rolling resistance. I like to run my road tires at 120psi and at the end of a week, they are probably at 105-110 psi.
Hosing off your bike every so often in the winter is a good idea. Just make sure you don’t leave your bike outside where it will drop below freezing before the water evaporates. Avoid pressure washers, use a garden hose instead. Do not spray directly at your bearings because you could contaminate them with water and then you will have stiff bearings whenever it is cold. Make sure to lube your chain each time you hose your bike down. And if you don’t know, make sure there is some grease on your seatpost.
As for your shifting problem, simply increase the cable tension for the front derailleur cable. There is a little adjuster nut on your front shifter/brake pod. Turn it counterclockwise a couple of turns, test, and adjust as necessary.
As for a customer with an issue with the tune-up, I would handle it on a case by case basis. I would ask what the problem is and determine if it is caused by user misunderstanding, neglect, typical wear and tear, or if I actually did something wrong. The most common issue is that a customer comes back after a couple of weeks and says his shifting has gone all haywire, even though it was working fine after a tune-up. This is often just caused by new cabling settling in and thus changing the cable tension. I make sure to “stretch” new cables to help minimize this settling but there is only so much you can do. If only people understood how to turn that cable tension barrels, then they wouldn’t have an issue. For a customer in this situation, I would just show them how to adjust the tension and that would be that.