Buying a bike from out of town

[Sam02]

ohk, yesterday i bought a new bike, a giant trance 3, from Ivanhoe cycles. Now i bought it because of the price it was going at and it was the bike i wanted, but i live 3 hrs away from melbourne, and thats where ive bought it from. Im now wondering if i have done the wrong thing? I wont be able to take advantage of the free services and if anything goes wrong with the bike than ill have to make a 3 hr trip to melbourne.

Has anyone else bought there bike from out of town and had problems, or is it normally all sweet?

And off topic, does anyone know much about ivanhoe cycles, good workshop?, dodgy?, good or bad...?

cheers

[Binaural]

It won't matter much if at all. With the money you saved from buying further away you can afford to pay for a bit of service work now and then. The first service is important, so get it done at your local. It is mostly about checking for subtle errors that weren't picked up during the build and tensioning the spokes after their first couple of uses. Shouldn't be expensive, so don't stress about it, and only a bike shop that doesn't deserve your custom will give you heat for buying a bike from somewhere else.

[Drizz]

I bought my first bike from Phantom Cycles which is around 2 hours from me door-to-door. Took it back for 2 services and that was it. Most of the things that pop up were pretty minor and encourage me to DIY. Since the bike was on discount so I just price the free services into the discount itself.

[Refreshinglygood]

Most shops "free Service" is about adjusting the gears, cable stretching, maybe a wheel true if your lucky (yes I realize they do more, but they are pretty minor things).

Doesn't take much to learn to do this stuff yourself.


The only thing that my LBS does for me is fork and shock service, and wheel true (Sorry, thats a lie, (the only mechanical things that they do), My LBS actually have a large community that I tap into for social rides, good deals, general mateship and tom foolery etc etc etc)

Don't worry about the free service, it often takes more time to load the bike up, get it to the shop, come back later, load up the bike and bring it home than it would take for you to do the service yourself.

[Sam02]

thanks guys, has anyone had any experience with Ivanhoe cycles?

[roxy12]

Im not to sure about ivanhoe but when i purchased a bike froma city store and a warrenty issue came up rather then getting me to drive 2hrs in they simply had me send the part, they dealt with it, and sent it back. May be an option if something happens to go wrong?

the guys above are riht about the services though.

[Nos23]

I've used Ivanhoe Cycles for the last 13 or 14 years. They're pretty good in that they have a clue about cycling and have been run by the same people for all those years.

My experience with them is that they like to concentrate on road bikes, though they are still good with mountain bikes.

Never had a problem with them servicing my bike and they have some good deals.

[bransly]

I brought my bike from thredbo which is about 7 hours away but im getting it posted upto sydney...

[Sam02]

Why are you getting it posted up to sydney, seems a bit strange!

[doggi]

Ivanhoe Cycles are top guys nothing but praise , i wish i hade off bought my bike from there as i have snaped my frame and i has taken 3 months to sort out