The first thing that greeted me was a Cannondale full suspension 29er with a loose front derailleur. It's a direct mount, so I had to remove the crank and front derailleur get to the bracket. Then I removed the bracket mounting screw applied thread locker and reinstalled it before remounting the derailleur with new thread lock on all its screws. Once the derailleur was tight, the fact that it was weirdly bent became much more obvious. I got it shifting adequately, but it should be replaced. The guy was hot to go ride it, so he took it as it was.
From there I moved on to a seriously underestimated repair. Never mind the details. It reminded me to post a note about adjuster tuning cheap caliper brakes.
Adjuster tuning is a lazy shortcut used by sloppy or inexperienced mechanics. They turn out the barrel adjusters on derailleurs and brakes rather than taking up slack at the anchor bolt. But on cheap bikes with wide tires (and expensive bikes with embarrassingly inadequate quick releases) adjuster tuning allows you to get the wheel out or in without deflating the tire.
Today's Raleigh cruiser was a good candidate for adjuster tuning on the brakes. It was a good candidate for a lot of other things, too, but the owner told us exactly what he wanted and was willing to pay. Whatever you say. I write a standard disclaimer on the repair form in those cases: No other work requested or performed. If something looks really deadly I'll note that, too.
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