December 11th, 2016. The date I bought my dream bike; my Santa Cruz Bronson. I promised myself that I’d look after it properly – that I’d give it proper services and clean it down after every ride. I vowed that I’d put it away carefully and that I’d make sure I read up on things I wasn’t sure how to do (rather than just having a go).
June 21st, 2018. The date I finally gave the Bronson its first proper service.
I know, I know. It’d been a bit longer than most of you would recommend. I’d had a plan that it’d be serviced as close to a year’s worth of riding as possible. That plan begun failing when I couldn’t decide where to send the bike to get its service.
I know of a few bike shops nearby but most of them are chains – Evans and Halfords. Whilst I know not all of their stores are terrible, you do hear some horror stories that put you off taking your pride and joy. That’s when Rich and Tom recommended Twisted Cogs. It’s a small bike shop on the outskirts of York run by one bloke – Tom (not the one who made the recommendation, though!).
The recommendations of folk who ride bikes and know their stuff helped put my mind at ease and I took the Bronson to Twisted Cogs. Tom really knows his stuff and gave me a rough price to go off before he’d even started the work. What’s more is he actually tried to save me money – he reminded me that Santa Cruz have a lifetime bearing replacement scheme so I could send off for new bearings free of charge.
After the first few rides back, I can tell that the bike has had a service. An A4 page of tweaks and maintenance on the bike showed exactly what Tom worked on. I don’t understand some of the things that have been serviced, but I can definitely feel a difference in quality of ride.
The gritty feeling in the bottom bracket and headset are the most noticeable changes (although I did have the bottom bracket swapped the week before whilst riding in Llandegla). But more than that, the shock and forks run like new. The delay in the reverb has disappeared entirely and the shifting has never been better. And, because Tom cleaned the bike as part of the service, I’ve managed to stay properly on top of washing.
Honestly, the Bronson has never felt better. Of course, when it first came out of the box everything felt great, but I didn’t – it took me a couple of months to get properly used to it. Now I’m getting along with the bike entirely, I can’t believe how well it rides. Twisted Cogs really have done a great job on it and I’m just another one of their customers who would highly recommend the place.