I’m posting on a throwaway account because I don’t want to ruin my regular Rideit account. (I like you guys, although you may not like me after reading this…sorry, but I gotta get this off my chest)
I’ll get right to the point…Until today, I worked at a major bike shop outside of Chicago, IL. I mean a MAJOR shop, like one of the first three that come up when you do a google search for bike shops in the area. Anyway, today at the end of the shift I was “let go” without notice for “working on one of my bikes in the shop” on my DAY OFF last weekend even though it’s not an official rule that you can’t bring in your own stuff. (its bullshit because the bosses and the other mechanics all do it, and alot of the time they’re actually just stripping a stolen bike that they’re saying is a “track bike”…you get in with the bosses, and they don’t see anything…they don’t like you and you get ****ed for bullshit reasons.)
So **** em. **** em in the ass. I’m here to expose their dirty little secret: THEY ARE ****ING WITH PARKED BIKES IN TOWN!! When I first started at the bike shop a few years back, my main job was to go around and drum up business. Nothing harmful or destructive of course, but just enough to get some people into the shop with mystery problems.
The main thing I did was go around and unhook one or two sparkplug wires from people’s bikes in parking lots. I would just pull it off just enough so that the boot was still on, and it might spark, but it would make the engine stumble and run rough. The VERY FIRST THING that the shop would do is check the plug wires, and usually hit the customer for bullshit charges like carb cleanings or tuneups after (privitely) laughing and making fun of them in the shop for being such dumbasses. THey NEVER cleaned a carb or did a tuneup, they’d just fix the plugwire or charge for new ones and then call the customer a day or two later and tell them they’re bike was done.
I’m sorry to say that I would only get $15 a bike, out of a typically $200-250 repair bill. But I was young and it was good money, because the shop did a lot of “tuneups”, and I didn’t mind doing it at first. It was easy and it was even kind of exciting, like when you get that rush because you know you’re up to some bullshit. I would just ride my bike around until I found some likely prospects, and then do my thing. Most of the time I’d do a few bikes, then hit up my boy and get toked and play xbox before doing a few more. Nobody questions a guy in full riding gear standing around some motorcycles, and people don’t even look up if a bike alarm goes off in the city, although they are more common now than a few years ago.
I know it was shady, and I’m sorry anyway, but I’m done with all that now, but I wanted to let Rideitors know that this is a real scam and that I wasn’t the only guy whose job this was. If your bike starts running like shit, CHECK YOUR SPARKPLUG WIRES. Don’t take it to a shop, they’ll **** you over like the scum they are. This is way more common than you probably realize. And again, sorry if this happened to you, I was younger and didn’t know or care that I was hurting people, it was all just money to me. I would never do that today, this is why I am warning you guys. CHECK YOUR PLUGS BEFORE YOU GO TO A SHOP!!!