Road Cycling - Seems so cheap.

Thoughts are turning to a return of the road cycling days.

In my local town today, I called in at the L.B.S, to enquire on charges for a complete strip down service before I return my road bike to duty.

I explained, I wanted a bottom bracket, hubs, headset, wheel-truing, sti, strip down and the neccesary work done.

I asked them for a price quote and was told £20, about $28
That seems to me to be very cheap for the work involved, especially as I telephoned the bike shop where i purchased my machine and they quoted me £50.

What do you guys think, what would you pay for a similar service opperation.
Do you think I can trust it to be a first class service with such a large cost variation.

Originally posted by willic
Thoughts are turning to a return of the road cycling days.

In my local town today, I called in at the L.B.S, to enquire on charges for a complete strip down service before I return my road bike to duty.

I explained, I wanted a bottom bracket, hubs, headset, wheel-truing, sti, strip down and the neccesary work done.

I asked them for a price quote and was told £20, about $28
That seems to me to be very cheap for the work involved, especially as I telephoned the bike shop where i purchased my machine and they quoted me £50.

What do you guys think, what would you pay for a similar service opperation.
Do you think I can trust it to be a first class service with such a large cost variation. Probably being done by the aprentice who also swabs toilets or the the first guy that wanders in off the street and knows the difference between a pipe wrench and a cresent wrench.

Hi Willic,

From experience, £20 does sound far too cheap to me. Any bike shop here charges £5 each for wheel truing (but this is the grim expensive south ;) ) and there is far more labour in a strip down of the hub, bottom bracket and headset bearings. With a little experience and the right tools it is easy to learn to do this maintainance yourself. There is plenty of help on the 'net, books and, not forgetting, the bike forum

Also, if it were me, I'd want to check the quality of parts that were to be used - cheap repairs have definitely let me down in the past - on one occasion a cheap bottom bracket replacement wore out in under 200 miles!



Cheers,

Ed

Ed, Pokey.

I`m kind of wavering!... The Lbs I am refering to is actually a one Man biusness apart from a lady that serves outfront.

I feel like I would like to give him my buisness just as part of the service provided localy to keep such shops open.
Although he deels mostly in the Mtb`s with the odd road bike, chatting to him he always makes sense of what he`s talking about, so I don`t doubt him in that respect.
But £20 just seems so darn cheap.
Im tempted to take my bike in, maybe its to good a deel to pass up.
Also taking my bike to where i purchased it from, means a trip into the city (Newcastle) which does not fill me with joy. Being a country boy I always dread the prospect of going into this not particularly cycle friendly city.

So I really am kinda drawn to this lbs.
Its maybe worth a first time anyway, see if he makes an O/K.job.
And I am not to great with a spanner in my hand myself.

For the price quoted they may simply look over. Not actually work on it.

There is no way that for that price they will do all that work.

Well, once in a while one finds a very rare place where they know what they are doing, work for the love of it and don't charge a fortune.
It sounds like you might have struck lucky from what you say and I understand your wish to support local business.

It is probably worth checking out on that basis,

Cheers,

Ed

Yeah. That price sounds like what shops around here call a tune-up (and cheap even for that!), where as you want an overhaul.

All they are going to do for that price is make adjustments of cables and anything that can be done in 1/2 hour or less. A good overhaul takes many hours of labor because the bike is taken apart for cleaning and such.

Maybe call back just to confirm they know exactly what you want them to do, and clarify the price.

Maybe you get a low price because its not the busy season, and he wants to get a new regular customer.

Just a reply, I decided to opt for my local bike shop doing the work on my road bike that I questioned the seemingly cheap quotation.....

I again asked for a complete strip down and tune up of my cycle for the coming season, again he quoted £20 .

I think he could see by my expression, that I doubted the service for the price, as he immediatly invited me to stay with him in the workshop and watch, which I took up the invitation.

The outcome was very pleasing as he carried out all the tasks I was asking, stripping the bottom bracket, hubs etc. Tweeking and tightening everything.

While he was busy on the main frame, the wheels were removed and a young guy (his apprentice) ran the wheels through the truing machine and tweeked the odd spoke till they were perfect.

They also questioned me about the slight rattle that had been anoying me since the purchase of the bike , which the shop where I purchased the bike from, at subsequent after sales services had insisted was a rattle on the Ultegra shifters, which they claim was a biuld problem with Ultegra systems and was something I would have to live with.

My service guy said he thought the rattle was more from the headset, so he proceeded to strip out the head.

There is your problem he exclaimed , pointing to a bad seating of one of the parts he was working on.

After re-assembly and a run down the Street outside the rattle had totaly vanished.

So I was delighted!! with the complete service.
I payed up, and insisted he charge a little more for the headset work, but he would not hear of it , and charged me the £20 quotation. After himself and the apprentice spending 2 hrs working on my bike

Exellent value for money, I think you will agree...

regards Willi`c.

Willic,

That's a fanastic service! It seems you have struck gold after all.
I have been charged 8 quid at some shops here just to fix a spoke and tweak a wheel. I hate to think what they would charge for an overhaul like that...

Cheers,

Ed

Hey, share the find in case someone around your area happens upon upon this site/thread and needs some wrenching for a good price. Sounds like the shop would like more work. Apologies if it's against the rules.

Yes Ed...... I could`nt agree with you more, they are not going to get rich with those charges... Unless as stated in one of the thread reply`s, it was to get my custom, then charge more on further visits. It remains to be seen.

Glad I chose my L. b. s as I stated, a similar service was going to cost me £50 where I purchased the bike, and they had missed the Headset rattle problem in the 4 after sales service`s, insisting they had done all they could to cure the Shifter rattle....... :(

What a great deal....congratulations...Hey Ed, Just an ignorant american here...what the hell is a quid???lol

Quid.........English slang for a Pound. Like when we call a dollar a buck.

Geez you should have seen it before the English money went metric. Now there is a 100 pence in a Pound. Before, there were pence, half pence, thruppence, guinies, bob, and about a hundred other variations that made our "two bits" etc., pale by comparison

Sounds like your LBS cut you a deal to get your busniess since you purchased the bike at another shop. This practice is common in both bike and car repair.

Oi, 'ow many knicker is in an effin' guinea? One quid and one shilling? Cor, that's a lot o' lolly!!

Oi, 'ow many knicker is in an effin' guinea? One quid and one shilling? Cor, that's a lot o' lolly!!

What was it, one pound was 12 shillings? And a guinea was 13 shillings? What a great advertising gimmick, "This new bike is only 99 Guineas!" when the real price was 108 pounds, three shillings and fivepence.

Maybe that's why they went metric.

If I remember correctly a quid, is a pound.. right?

Right-O!

How about dropping a 6 pack off to them at the end of the day :) Or bring them lunch one day.. something along those lines.

Kev! I think that is an exellent idea to show my appresasion, for a first class job and so reasonable a cost.
Next time I am in town I will take in a six pack.... thanks for that.

I remember the old British coinage, there was also a "Half Crown"
a "Shuling" ( think thats how it was spelt) a "tanner" and a "Florin" . Sorry no prizes for working out what they were worth in todays currency. :D

I know I worked in service dept for many years, doing computer service though. Every once in a while would get a customer, that would bring in pizza for lunch or something, just to show appreciation. It made the day that much better, when working service I would say 90% of the time you see people when there is a problem so they are not happy and you normaly don't get a thank you etc..

I worked 10am to 5pm in the local store today, and one satisfied customer brought us triple chocolate muffins from the muffin place upstairs....yummy!!!

Brendon
:beer: