Why so bleeding expensive......

[mattr]

25 sounds reasonable.
10 quid for labour, 15 quid for having the tools, space, knowledge and some sort of a back up if it goes wrong, or as with many bikes that end up in a workshop, a buffer to account for the fact that most of the bolts are either rounded or seized, none standard, or have already been"fixed" by the hamfisted cock womble who once hit something with a hammer until it worked, and now calls themselves an engineer.

TBH, I'd probably round it up to £40 an end if I had to deal with some of the cyclists I know.

 

[ishaw]

I must admit I'm amazed that £300 an hour sounds reasonable. I'm talking a standard, hassle free bleed here of course. Yes, I'm sure there will be occasions where more time and effort is needed, and also when problems are found, but in these cases, much like any other trade, the extra effort is passed on to the customer in the form of the hourly cost/time spent, rather than a sweeping generalisation/one size fits all policy that would seem to favour those who neglect their kit rather than look after it.

 

[clubby]

Don't forget that £4.17 per end is vat!
Consumers never take that into account.

 

[secret_squirrel]

I must admit I'm amazed that £300 an hour sounds reasonable. I'm talking a standard, hassle free bleed here of course.

You're kinda missing the point - the cost is NOT passed on to the customer unless it's in additional materials. Bear in mind that for every 4-5 jobs that are simple they probably have 1 job that's a pig - and that one job drags the average right up.

 

[ishaw]

That is my point though, surely a job should cost what it costs, not include the cost for someone else's job.

It's not a cost I'll need to incur, just seems steep for what it is.

Vat is a fair shout btw.

 

[mattr]

Some shops have flat rate service charges, prevents tight fisted cyclists arguing about the cost, it's on the wall, it's been on the wall for 18 months.
Rather than trying to justify a £50-60 hourly rate. Which is quite reasonable, and outside of London is pretty much what is actually charged.

The money/time saved *not* having to explain why it costs £50 an hour to run a workshop can be better spent elsewhere.

 

[greencat]

Re:

More and more I find it's cheaper to buy the tools and DIY or simply replace the part. Wheel truing and frame repair are the only jobs I won't try.

Sometimes the charges are just baffling though.

I took my Brompton into one store and asked them to true the back wheel and replace the tyre. They did the job for £40 incl a nice Schwabe tyre. I figured that wasn't too bad.

Six months later I had a flat so took back to the same bike shop because I was in a hurry for a meeting, and wanted to leave it somewhere so I pick it up at the end of the day. £20 to replace the tube. If it had been a tenner I'd have gone for it, but £20 makes you a blink a little so I ended up locking it up, walking and fixing it on the train home.

Sadly, my local bike shop is at the expensive end of the market. A wheel truing costs £30 so I now simply buy a good secondhand one. I've had Mavic/XT and KORE wheels which are a few years old but still in very good nick for that kind of price.

 

[highlandsflyer]

That is my point though, surely a job should cost what it costs, not include the cost for someone else's job.

It's not a cost I'll need to incur, just seems steep for what it is.

Vat is a fair shout btw.

In an ideal world. Meantime in the real world people want to know how much a job is going to cost, and don't really like getting an ambiguous answer.

We get all our 4x4s serviced and fixed by one chap.

He never tells us how much a job will cost, we always wait for the telephone call or a visit for a glass of malt, and the bad news is seldom as bad as expected, and often it turns out to be ridiculously inexpensive.

You find a bike mechanic like that and you are set.

Otherwise, you have to accept that, without spending 'paid' time assessing your job, they need to give an outline price by public demand, and that leads to the mean price rather than the bottom line.

 

[EggyBum6969]

a lbs called "Big Bills bikes" in west cheshire were advertising
"break bleed £35 per brake"

 

[Harryburgundy]

Don't forget that £4.17 per end is vat!
Consumers never take that into account.

Quite right, most forget that. Staff costs, rent, set-up costs, insurance, business rates, utilities, web hosting/maintenance, banking charges etc etc oh...and some profit!

Having said that £25 per end does seem a lot