Good Cycle shop for HiEnd Bike repair in Chiang Mai

[Kohsamida]

Anyone have suggestion for a really good bike repair shop in Chinag Mai.  I liked Mong Cycles but the closed down a couple of months ago.  Seeking a shop you can trust a hi-end racing bike to and that's fairly priced.  Would be even better if they handle Cannondale but I know that's expecting a lot.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kohsamida

[MaeJoMTB]

Best to repair it yourself, full set of bicycle tools from Lazada around 1,200bht.

What's wrong with it?

[Kohsamida]

6 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Best to repair it yourself, full set of bicycle tools from Lazada around 1,200bht.

What's wrong with it?

Hairline crack in frame (aluminum); that's a bit beyond my skill level ?  I can't really tell if it's just a crack in the paint or it goes deeper into the aluminum which is why I want a good bike mechanic to say.  But just in general it would be nice to know of a good bike shop and mechanic. 

[Samuel Smith]

Four Heavens gets good recommendations for high end bikes.  Never been there, as i don't have high end bikes.  Probably costs more than your usual bike shops.

[MaeJoMTB]

Just now, Samuel Smith said:

Four Heavens gets good recommendations for high end bikes.  Never been there, as i don't have high end bikes.  Probably costs more than your usual bike shops.

I went there once, 5x the price for a spoke (50bht) compared to the shop in town (10bht).

 

[Kohsamida]

1 minute ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I went there once, 5x the price for a spoke (50bht) compared to the shop in town (10bht).

 

Thats what I want to avoid.  I haven't heard very many nice things said about any of the bike shops in town to be frank, except Mong, and now they have closed doors.  There must be another good shop in town with so many serious cyclist around here.

[MaeJoMTB]

23 minutes ago, Kohsamida said:

Thats what I want to avoid.  I haven't heard very many nice things said about any of the bike shops in town to be frank, except Mong, and now they have closed doors.  There must be another good shop in town with so many serious cyclist around here.

I had bad experiences with them too.

The problems with all the bike shops is only the owner cares, the staff don't give a @#$%, and generally can't do their job.

So unless you can walk in a bike shop and have the owner fix it, you'll probably be unhappy.

Pretty much the same with all shops in Thailand

[Samuel Smith]

OP said he has a "hi end" bike.  Now it's aluminium...

[MunkyBoogar]

Just now, Samuel Smith said:

OP said he has a "hi end" bike.  Now it's aluminium...

Why is aluminum not hi-end?

 

Any bike over $800 is high-end and once you upgrade components it becomes a custom high-end.

[Samuel Smith]

10 minutes ago, MunkyBoogar said:

Why is aluminum not hi-end?

 

Any bike over $800 is high-end and once you upgrade components it becomes a custom high-end.

$800 is not a high-end bike.

[MaeJoMTB]

1 hour ago, Samuel Smith said:

$800 is not a high-end bike.

What does it matter, I go past 100s of peeps with more expensive bikes than me on the way up to Wat Doi Suthep in the morning.

(15Kbht Trek 1.1 Alpha 9 speed). It's only your legs that count.

 

Anyway, back to the OP, ally bike won't have a cracked frame unless he crashed it, or a weld has gone.

I'd just scrape the paint off and see what's under, the sun out here is hell on paint.

Different if it was carbon, the silliest rub/jolt/smack/bubble can crack those frames.

 

Edited May 26, 2018 by MaeJoMTB

[Kohsamida]

2 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I had bad experiences with them too.

The problems with all the bike shops is only the owner cares, the staff don't give a @#$%, and generally can't do their job.

So unless you can walk in a bike shop and have the owner fix it, you'll probably be unhappy.

Pretty much the same with all shops in Thailand

That's a shame to hear.  As a matter of fact, I only dealt with the owner at Mong, Stu, and he was a hell of a nice guy and did a couple of excellent repairs.  Oh well...

[Kohsamida]

2 hours ago, Samuel Smith said:

OP said he has a "hi end" bike.  Now it's aluminium...

Aluminum can't be high-end?  Guess you don't know much about bikes, but that's OK.  Thanks for your insight; I'm sure it was helpful to all who read this thread.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kohsamida

[Kohsamida]

1 hour ago, MaeJoMTB said:

What does it matter, I go past 100s of peeps with more expensive bikes than me on the way up to Wat Doi Suthep in the morning.

(15Kbht Trek 1.1 Alpha 9 speed). It's only your legs that count.

 

Anyway, back to the OP, ally bike won't have a cracked frame unless he crashed it, or a weld has gone.

I'd just scrape the paint off and see what's under, the sun out here is hell on paint.

Different if it was carbon, the silliest rub/jolt/smack/bubble can crack those frames.

 

I did crash it actually, coming down around the last curve on Doi Suthep too fast.  I tried scraping the paint a little but it's right at the weld at the bottom bracket and downtube, so kind of hard to really tell.  Bike's not riding funny and no creaking when I grind uphill hard so I think it's OK but since it's right at the bottom bracket just makes me nervous, ya know?

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kohsamida

[Kohsamida]

3 hours ago, MunkyBoogar said:

Why is aluminum not hi-end?

 

Any bike over $800 is high-end and once you upgrade components it becomes a custom high-end.

Any bike that would make you sad if it got irreparably broke or stolen is a "high-end" bike in my book.  My Cannondale is such a bike.  It really has little to do with cost or what it's made of.  But yeah, top line components ain't cheap.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kohsamida

[Puwa]

Try Cherry Bike.

[Thailsacien]

Try "bicycle addict", on the 3rd ring road near the juction with canal road.

Just type "bicycle addict" on Google maps.
They used to have Cannondale and the owner is a REAL bicycle technician.

[MunkyBoogar]

10 hours ago, Kohsamida said:

Any bike that would make you sad if it got irreparably broke or stolen is a "high-end" bike in my book.  My Cannondale is such a bike.  It really has little to do with cost or what it's made of.  But yeah, top line components ain't cheap.

A bit off topic but I love my Cannondale CAAD5 F800 lefty MTB. I do all of the normal maintenance because I always end up tweaking adjustments that were made by shops. I had to do some major tweaking after I let a shop upgrade my destroyed LX/XT components to full XTR after I had a major spill. I will most likely pick up a Cannondale Touring Apex 1 SE (I can get it for $1400 USD in my location) after we get settled at our new location next month for transportation to work and for exercise.

 

There are plenty of bikes in the $800~$1500 range that ride just as well as their much pricier siblings.

 

Back on topic:

Just make sure the shop that does the repair drills the ends of the cracks before welding. This is done to stop the crack from progressing. If possible get the crack magnafluxed to show the full extent of the damage. Where is the location of the crack? Headtube or bottom bracket?

Edited May 27, 2018 by MunkyBoogar

[CMKiwi]

12 hours ago, Kohsamida said:

That's a shame to hear.  As a matter of fact, I only dealt with the owner at Mong, Stu, and he was a hell of a nice guy and did a couple of excellent repairs.  Oh well...

Sad to hear Stu closed down, I think the rent was just getting too high amongst other things.

 

When he took over the shop he got his own workers in and trained them to his standard.  The previous people weren't so exacting and Stu knew this.

 

I had a good conversation with him some time ago, he was so mad with shoddy workmanship that he decided to have his own shop.

 

I wouldn't know where to take a good bike to now....

Edited May 27, 2018 by CMKiwi

[Kohsamida]

11 minutes ago, CMKiwi said:

Sad to hear Stu closed down, I think the rent was just getting too high amongst other things.

 

When he took over the shop he got his own workers in and trained them to his standard.  The previous people weren't so exacting and Stu knew this.

 

I had a good conversation with him some time ago, he was so mad with shoddy workmanship that he decided to have his own shop.

 

I wouldn't know where to take a good bike to now....

He ran a great operation and I was sorry to see him go.  He told me he and Mong were just fed up with the noise and congestion of the location.  Actually, they moved to Chiang Rai and he said he’d be running a smaller bike operation up there.  

 

Aside from bike repairs he was so knowledgeable about cycling in general, being an avid cyclist himself, and traveling all over the world with his Bike.  I liked just hanging there and hearing his stories.  I’m gonna miss them...just real nice people.

[Kohsamida]

53 minutes ago, MunkyBoogar said:

A bit off topic but I love my Cannondale CAAD5 F800 lefty MTB. I do all of the normal maintenance because I always end up tweaking adjustments that were made by shops. I had to do some major tweaking after I let a shop upgrade my destroyed LX/XT components to full XTR after I had a major spill. I will most likely pick up a Cannondale Touring Apex 1 SE (I can get it for $1400 USD in my location) after we get settled at our new location next month for transportation to work and for exercise.

 

There are plenty of bikes in the $800~$1500 range that ride just as well as their much pricier siblings.

 

Back on topic:

Just make sure the shop that does the repair drills the ends of the cracks before welding. This is done to stop the crack from progressing. If possible get the crack magnafluxed to show the full extent of the damage. Where is the location of the crack? Headtube or bottom bracket?

Where are you getting your Cannondale, somewhere here in the Kingdom?  Y

 

On Stu’s (Mong) advice, I took my bike to a machine shop here in town but the owner seemed clueless about my issue.  Where can you get “magnafluxing” done here?

 

The crack is just horizontal hairline at the weld between down tube and bottom bracket.  Im hoping it’s just paint crazing and scraped paint to see but the texture of weld makes it difficult to tell.

 

i also enjoy maintaining my bike.  It’s now 10 years old M900, so hardly state-of-art but I love the bike, and I’ve upgrading all components over time to Shimano XTR, good wheels and tires, and a custom leather saddle (oh yeahhh ?) which I love.  Being a MTB, I guess I look a little funny riding it up Doi Suthep as a road bike but I sure get a good workout from it LOL.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Kohsamida

[MunkyBoogar]

I currently live in Japan. I love my lefty but I need something that will be better for longer rides of 50 to 100km. The MTB will be relegated to trial riding and short rides.

 

Usually if you see a crack on the weld it really is a crack. You will definitely need to find a good fabrication/welding shop that will make sure that the weld repair penetrates completely. A "topical" pretty weld or "glob does the job" weld could put your life in danger. Actually I gave you some bad information about magnaflux because that is used for steel. You will need to find a ship that can check the crack with a specialized dye and UV light. The process is called Dye Penetration Examination. I got this "correct" information from a fabrication site cars that I often visit. You might want to also look for a replacement frame. M900 frames are very affordable.

[Kohsamida]

42 minutes ago, MunkyBoogar said:

I currently live in Japan. I love my lefty but I need something that will be better for longer rides of 50 to 100km. The MTB will be relegated to trial riding and short rides.

 

Usually if you see a crack on the weld it really is a crack. You will definitely need to find a good fabrication/welding shop that will make sure that the weld repair penetrates completely. A "topical" pretty weld or "glob does the job" weld could put your life in danger. Actually I gave you some bad information about magnaflux because that is used for steel. You will need to find a ship that can check the crack with a specialized dye and UV light. The process is called Dye Penetration Examination. I got this "correct" information from a fabrication site cars that I often visit. You might want to also look for a replacement frame. M900 frames are very affordable.

Thanks for suggestions but I wouldn’t have a clue who around here could do that.  Doubt I’d find a M900 frame around here either.  Other than visually, I have no other indications of a crack (no creaking) so I’m just keeping fingers crossed.  Besides, I’m also thinking of pulling the trigger on a road bike since that’s mostly what I do now.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Kohsamida

[CMKiwi]

I know of a metal fabrication shop out Mae Rim way....it's actually a shop that makes aftermarket exhausts/mufflers/silencers for motorbikes.

 

I don't know the name of it but they produce the Home brand of slip on mufflers.

 

I've had several welding jobs done there. Mild steel and alloy and their welding is very good.

 

If you look for or head towards Sala Cafe then you are in the right area.  At a T intersection there is a shop on the right known as the red bar. Drive straight ahead about 150 metres and the shop is on the right.

 

Word of warning, the guys don't speak a word of English. 

[Kohsamida]

14 minutes ago, CMKiwi said:

I know of a metal fabrication shop out Mae Rim way....it's actually a shop that makes aftermarket exhausts/mufflers/silencers for motorbikes.

 

I don't know the name of it but they produce the Home brand of slip on mufflers.

 

I've had several welding jobs done there. Mild steel and alloy and their welding is very good.

 

If you look for or head towards Sala Cafe then you are in the right area.  At a T intersection there is a shop on the right known as the red bar. Drive straight ahead about 150 metres and the shop is on the right.

 

Word of warning, the guys don't speak a word of English. 

Hey, thanks.  I’ll look into that.  No English? No problem; I’m getting pretty good at using my hands to communicate here in Thailand ?

 

[Puwa]

Looks like you have  4 choices:

 

1) Ignore it. Maybe a crack, maybe not, it will probably creak audibly before it goes.

 

2) Repair it. If you can find an experienced welder and will feel 100% confident riding afterward. If you ever ride trails, you might not want to trust a repair.

 

3) Get a new MTB frame and transfer over your good components. The problem is that the M900 is an old frame, last produced twenty years ago, in 1998. With a new frame, you'll probably upgrade to new wheels and brakes to take advantage of newer technology like discs and better gearing. So the cost adds up. If you are mostly a road rider, you might want to go for something bigger than old MTB 26" wheels

 

4) Replace the bike. Doesn't mean you have to go splash $3K on a new one,  but sometimes it's just better to start with a clean slate, even secondhand.  Moving from a road-friendly 26" wheel mountain bike to a proper road bike with 700c wheels can be like moving from a VW Bug to a BMW 5 series. Old steel-framed Japanese road bikes are a great match to Thailand's bumpy roads.

 

 

[Kohsamida]

3 minutes ago, Puwa said:

Looks like you have  4 choices:

 

1) Ignore it. Maybe a crack, maybe not, it will probably creak audibly before it goes.

 

2) Repair it. If you can find an experienced welder and will feel 100% confident riding afterward. If you ever ride trails, you might not want to trust a repair.

 

3) Get a new MTB frame and transfer over your good components. The problem is that the M900 is an old frame, last produced twenty years ago, in 1998. With a new frame, you'll probably upgrade to new wheels and brakes to take advantage of newer technology like discs and better gearing. So the cost adds up. If you are mostly a road rider, you might want to go for something bigger than old MTB 26" wheels

 

4) Replace the bike. Doesn't mean you have to go splash $3K on a new one,  but sometimes it's just better to start with a clean slate, even secondhand.  Moving from a road-friendly 26" wheel mountain bike to a proper road bike with 700c wheels can be like moving from a VW Bug to a BMW 5 series. Old steel-framed Japanese road bikes are a great match to Thailand's bumpy roads.

 

 

The bike has a lot of sentimental value  but I am leaning towards option 4.

[Puwa]

3 minutes ago, Kohsamida said:

The bike has a lot of sentimental value  but I am leaning towards option 4.

I hear you, I have a lot of old bikes and I love each one for different reasons. It's not an entirely logical situation lol. Anyway, here's a value guide to the M900 which might help inform your decision. https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?item=79994

[Kohsamida]

16 hours ago, Puwa said:

I hear you, I have a lot of old bikes and I love each one for different reasons. It's not an entirely logical situation lol. Anyway, here's a value guide to the M900 which might help inform your decision. https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?item=79994

Cool resource!  Thanks.  I got it as a birthday gift from my parents while in high school, thus the sentimental value.  Over the years, I have completely upgraded the bike as parts wore out.  Today, it has top-line components (Shimano xtr, Coda machined crank, etc), and I just love the retro look of the bike so even if I have to just hang it on the wall like in “Seinfeld”, I’ll never part with it.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Kohsamida

[MunkyBoogar]

Nice bike! My first MTB was a Trek 7000 and road the living piss out of it. I easily did 200km a week and that was a combo of trail and road riding. I think hardtail setups give more feedback. Here's a pic of my F800 before I upgraded the components.