Rob S.
Yelp
Very POOR experience with this shop on a simple bike repair.
I took my bike in to the Bicycle Pedaler in Wichita, Kansas, for a new tube. The teenager who was supposedly the "bike mechanic" on duty wasn't sure which direction to turn the nuts to loosen the wheel and turned them the wrong way at first. Then he had a lot of trouble getting the rim out of the frame. After he got the new tube installed, he inflated the tire to full pressure and then tried to force it back into place on the frame, ripping a brake pad loose from the caliper. He half-heartedly pressed the pad back on, but it was not secure. At that point, the brake pads weren't aligned to press on the rim on both sides - one was actually pressing on the tire, until I mentioned that it should press on the RIM. I was watching all this but he never admitted to accidentally busting the rubber brake pad loose.
When I got home, I had to get the rim straight in the frame again, adjust the derailleur (which would not shift smoothly after the "mechanic" replaced the tube), and for safety reasons, I put a new set of brake pads on the calipers. As you can see from the photos, the "mechanic's" attempt to reinsert the pad did not re-seat it securely and NO WAY was I going to rely on that to stop with when it looked like the pad could come out.
Considering my own time to fix the issues my bike had from being "repaired" by this shop, plus the cost of a new pair of brake pads, and I should have just installed the new tube myself. No plans to go back to the Bicycle Pedaler.