I've been wondering about this too Alhall esp after having given a local shop about 120. to change out my rear tire for labor. I used to do my dirt bikes growing up all the time, but what about these bikes and the importance of alignment to nth degree etc? I mean I've seen laser jigs and other specialty tools for this right.
I've adjusted my wife's metric bike for chain stretch and resultant common sense alignment from that. Seems to ride fine with no specialty procedure.
So what says you guys, most all these scare tactics related to handling talk or wear usually taken to the extreme by the shops to get you to use 'em for business or what? I need to check my bearing out for my 10k service am thinking.