Sram Corporation

I’m an avid bike rider, pun definitely intended, who prides himself on being able to solve most technical issues with my bike, in my own garage. My style of bike repair has always and forever outperformed the big companies systems where we are forced to go to the dealerships and depend on mostly disgruntled, under-​paid, $ 10/​hr. guys, who depend on tips more than their low wages, to pay their bills. Although this sucky phenomenon isn’t true across the board, it’s definitely true at 75% of most shops, where the owner is usually barely making it, and desperate. It’s no different than the big car companies trying to force us to pay big bucks for sub-​standard service. Like I said, «I CAN DO IT AT HOME BETTER!» (Not because I’m good at it, which I am, but because I can make sure it’s done right, and, most importantly, because I know what’s been done, and how well, and even more importantly, I don’t have to pay big bucks, for a «tourist» quality job. Worse than that, after paying big bucks for crappy work, I have to tip my «technician» with some sort of libation or green tip, increasing my «repair» cost to the point of maybe just throwing the damaged or worn parts away, and buying new ones off the internet for a ¹⁄₃ of what the shops are charging for it, from a different manufacturer. Most of my tech buddies, and the local shops owners would hate me for saying it, and, I don’t care! After going there, and paying & then tipping the shop guys, I consistently find major corners cut, and adjustments and re-​build/​installs in the field needed, that would never have happened in the garage. Even when I specify that I want a certain tech to work on my stuff exclusively, I later find that they arrogantly handed the job to some new guy and just lied about it, still charging me the «top of the heap rate.» It’s really easy to tell who «didn’t» work on my bike when I’m repairing it in the woods. SRAM pushes this «fake» ideology, that, by making me go to the so-​called professionals, it somehow saves me from myself. The «professional» quality they expect of their shops techs, rarely ever lives up to what the marketing guys say it will. This philosophy fails %90 of the time. Why? It’s simple. Greed. Desperation. Arrogance. Competition. Shops are simply not going to pay their techs what their worth. They can’t. The bottom line forbids it. The greedy pig who owns the shop next door, will simply undercut your prices and hire morons for $ 10/​hr, and lie to his customers. That’s why I do it at home. SRAM is severely dedicated to blocking me from finding technical info on my parts, and service procedures, to the point where I have to re-​invent them at home, which I usually do. When I can’t, I switch brands, usually to a smaller, more ingenious company, who hasn’t been bought out by SRAM yet. It’s not rocket science, so stop pretending that it is, just so you can jack up the price, and expect a $ 10/​hr. guy to step up to a $ 20/​hr. position. At least provide a contact email for tech questions, instead of leading your customers to a «Contact your dealer» link every time. My AVID brakes are the best ones I ever had, yet their now worthless, since they have no model number on them, they need new brake pads which I can’t get, since I don’t know the model number, and SRAM provide no email to ask questions on. Supposedly, all I can do is go to dealers who have provided mediocre service in the past, or I have been forced to waste tons of my personal time figuring it out myself, or finding other brands who are actually willing to help out heir customers. Shame on you, SRAM.