The purpose of this page is to convey in plain language what we, Bicycle Roots Bike Shop, guarantee to our customers. Here we will attempt to address the types of customer service situations that commonly arise, and how we handle them. In the page below, “You” indicates the customer and “We,” “Our Shop,” “Our Mechanics,” “Our Staff” etc. indicate Bicycle Roots Bike Shop or its staff. 

Situation #1… You bought a bike from us and now it needs maintenance.

We provide a service package of “Lifetime Free Brake and Gear Adjustments” on all the new bikes that we sell. “Brake and Gear Adjustments” means any adjustments to your bicycle’s brakes or gears that can be accomplished without installing new parts and without aligning the frame or truing the wheels. While brake and gear adjustments do not encompass all the maintenance your bicycle will ever need, they do include most of the minor, frequent maintenance that will keep your bike running smoothly for as long as possible and extend the time period in between more expensive repairs. “Brake and Gear Adjustments” are that and only that. They do not include Wheel Trues, Flat Tire Repairs, Installing New Parts, or any other repairs or service. 

We offer “Lifetime Free Brake and Gear Adjustments” to the original owners of the bikes we sell. So if you are the second (or third, fourth, etc.) owner of a bicycle originally purchased from our shop, we can’t offer you this service. In addition, we install a snazzy little sticker on each bike we sell to indicate that it was originally purchased at our shop. If the sticker has been removed, the bicycle is no longer covered under our lifetime service policy.

Occasionally, we encounter the misperception that “Free” Adjustments means “Instant” Adjustments. At times our shop can get quite busy, and even in the off season we usually have a queue of customers waiting for service. When you bring your bike in for Free Brake and Gear Adjustments we will put it in our service queue and our mechanics will repair it as soon as they can – this usually won’t be a “while you wait” situation, and the length of time that we ask you to leave your bike in the store will always depend on how many bikes are in the queue ahead of it. 

If you bought a bike from us and you’d like to bring it in for Free Brake and Gear Adjustments, drop by during business hours, you can also contact us by phone or email.

TL:DR We provide Free Brake and Gear Adjustments for Life for all the bikes we sell, to the original owner. 

Situation #2… You had your bike fixed at our shop and now something is wrong with it.

If our mechanics did any kind of service on your bike, we want you to be 100% satisfied. Please drop by during business hours, you can also contact us by phone or email within 7 days of picking up your bike, to let us know what’s wrong. We’ll arrange a mutually convenient time for you to drop off your bike for a second look. 

We guarantee our work for 7 days after you pick up your bike. This doesn’t mean that when we fix a bike, we expect the fix to reverse itself after 7 days, but it does mean that after we fix your bike, you have 7 days within which to let us know that the fix was ineffective. If you let us know within this time frame, and upon assessing your bike we determine that its current problem is our fault, then we will remedy the problem at no extra charge. But if you do not let us know of any continuing or additional problems with your bike until after the guarantee period is over, then we will charge you for additional service. We’re still happy to do the additional service, of course, but it will probably incur an additional cost. 

TL:DR… Drop by or contact us within 7 days of picking up your bike so that we may arrange a time for you to bring in your bike for a second look. If we find that the problem is our fault, we’ll fix it at no additional charge.

Situation #3… You bought something at our store (EXCEPT inner tubes) and now there’s a problem with it.

We sell products from a long list of brands, and each brand has its own unique warranty policy. 

Usually a brand will provide a period of time in which its products are guaranteed to be free of manufacturing defects, and if a product is deemed to have a manufacturing defect within that time period, the brand will provide a replacement product to the customer at no additional charge. When you buy something from us, we are happy to serve as a “go between,” making it easy for you to get any defective product warrantied. 

If you believe that you have purchased a defective product from our shop, contact us by phone or email and let us know the details. We’ll look up your original sales receipt using your name, so be sure to tell us if the name on the sales receipt is different from the name in your email. We’ll probably ask you to email us some pictures of the defective item. If the defective item is a bicycle, we’ll also ask you to email us a picture of the bicycle serial number, which is usually found printed on a sticker underneath the down tube (that’s the tube that connects the cranky pedal-y thing to the handlebar turn-y thing) or engraved into the frame underneath the bottom bracket shell (that’s the part of the frame situated between one side and the other side of the cranky pedal-y thing). 

After we receive your initial contact, we will tell you if the item you purchased is inside of its warranty period. If the product is still covered under warranty, we will ask you to bring it into the shop, where we will usually provide a replacement from the manufacturer. In some cases we may issue a refund in the form of store credit. You can then use your store credit to purchase something else, or save it for use at a later date. 

If the defective item can be repaired, such as if it is a bicycle with a defective part, we will make arrangements to do so. Sometimes this means we will need to contact the manufacturer of the bicycle and arrange to get replacement parts. This process can sometimes take 7-14 days. We will always endeavor to provide efficient service, but bear in mind that when we need to source replacement parts, there may be factors outside of our control delaying the process.

Note that whenever possible, we try to carry premium products that are unlikely to give our customers headaches down the road. Over the years we’ve even stopped carrying product lines when the percentage of defective products was too high. We’re always monitoring the quality of the products that we sell, so if you buy something from us that proves to be defective, we want to know! 

TL:DR Contact us as soon as you are aware of a problem and we will honor the manufacturer’s warranty by repairing, replacing, or refunding the defective item for store credit. 

Situation #4… You bought an inner tube at our store and now there’s a problem with it.

We do not provide any type of guarantee on inner tubes, unless we are the ones who installed the inner tube. The brands of tubes that we sell are all inflation tested for defects in the factory before being packed up and shipped out. As one Internet commenter whose name has been lost to history so eloquently put it, returning an inner tube is like returning a cold slice of pizza. Virtually all “defective” tubes have been incorrectly installed, or there’s a problem with the tire/rim tape/rim that was not properly addressed before installing a new tube. If you purchased an inner tube from us, you installed it yourself (or your riding buddy/parent/child/significant other/person by the side of the road etc. installed it), and the inner tube went flat, the culprit is almost certainly user error. 

In addition, we accept NO returns on inner tubes, EVER, even if they have not been installed. If you purchase an inner tube from us and then realize that it’s the wrong size(even after we’ve asked you what size and valve type you require), or you decide you don’t want it anymore for any other reason, we will not take a return on it, even if you have not installed it. We only take returns on components that are truly defective (in which case, see above: your tube is not defective) or that we can re-sell. We cannot resell an inner tube that has left the shop and come back, because if we did so we cannot guarantee that what we’re selling to someone else is 100% brand new every time. 

TL:DR Nope. No returns, exchanges, or guarantees on inner tubes. If we sell and install an inner tube, and that inner tube goes flat immediately due to a demonstrable flaw in the quality of our work, then we will replace the inner tube a second time at no additional charge, but that’s it. 

Situation #5… You bought something somewhere else and now there’s a problem with it.

If you purchased a product at a different store, second hand, or from any other source, we will not provide warranty service on that product, or to serve as a go-between on your behalf with the product manufacturer. We make one exception: If you purchased a bicycle from Giant (including Giant, Liv, and Momentum branded bicycles) and it demonstrates any flaw covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, we will contact Giant Bicycles on your behalf and do our best to provide warranty service. Similarly, if you purchase a Giant, Liv, or Momentum brand bicycle from our shop, and it demonstrates a flaw covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, you can bring it to any bicycle shop that is a Giant dealer for warranty service. 

TL:DR Nope, unless it’s a Giant bike with a defect covered under Giant’s warranty. 

Some general notes: Warranty service is intended to protect you against manufacturing defects or faulty labor. For example, if you buy a bicycle, and one day, while just riding along, the bicycle frame breaks: that’s a manufacturing defect. Or you bring your bike to our store to get the wheel trued, and when we re-install the wheel in your frame we install it off-center, causing it to rub the frame and making the bike difficult for you to ride: that’s faulty labor. 

Our warranty policies do not cover wear and tear. All bicycle components wear out eventually, and if a part wears out due to use or the passage of time, that is not a warranty issue. Our warranty policies also do not cover any sort of catastrophic damage, such as a bike being involved in a collision, or weather damage, such as a bicycle being left exposed to the elements. They do not cover theft, malicious tampering, user error, or any of the events colloquially included under the heading “shit happens.” 

We cannot protect you against every bad thing that happens in life. But we will always try to be the best, most honest, and most diligent that we can be. By providing the warranty policies above we intend to guide our customers as to what to do in a variety of situations, not to make any blanket guarantees.