Framebuilders - fair price for a steel frame repair?

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Rancid
07-25-09, 02:19 PM
I tracked down a machinist who works in a bike shop here in spokane who quoted me 40-50 for the tube itself and 100-130 for labor...sounded pretty fair to me and I don't want to trash the frame (04 specialized allez chromo) over a single tube bend....does this guy sound like he is offering a legitimate price?


NoReg
07-25-09, 08:42 PM
Don't know. A single chromo tube is about 10 bucks retail, unless it is something exotic. So that is steep, but if he has to order a single part just for you that is probably what it costs him, plus a necesarry mark-up. 100-130 for labour is probably reasonable, when you consider fixturing, removal and clean-up, forming the new tube, and then joining it, and cleaning that up. Could it take 2 hours to do? And is a shop rate of 60+ reasonable, quite possibly. Would someone else quote less, maybe, particularly to the degree they do this kind of repair all the time, which would seem an unlikely shop to come across.

A little more info on the repair wouldn't help me any, but might help someone else. I just assumed you are talking about replacing a single broken tube. Which tube, and how oddball it may be could have a big affect on cost.