Portis

HOw does your LBS regard installing components that you purchase online or elsewhere. In other words, if you haul in a new suspension fork and ask them to install it will they be offended? How much would a shop charge to install a new front suspension fork?

urban_assault

I have always assumed they would be offended, so I learned to do my own repairs. If I cannot do the repair myself, then I buy the part from the LBS and let them install it.

I just think it's rude to do that and if the shop charges standard rates to install a part bought elsewhere, I'd consider myself lucky. To balance out the karma a bit, buy a couple of things while you are there.

chipcom 

Kinda like walking into a restaurant with a dozen eggs asking them to cook them up for you.

Portis

OK. So suppose, I have a used fork from a different bike that i want to have them put on it. What is the primary difference? They still are installing something that i didn't buy from them.

Waldo

Does your LBS deal in used forks?

sydney

Simply put, some shops have less of an attiude about it than others.

Portis

I see your point. It just seems like they would be ok with installing something that was used because it is presumed that a used purchase was possibly not an outright attempt to NOT buy something from them. IOW, maybe you were able to pick it up cheaply or you already had it at home.

Seems less insulting to them.

urban_assault

A used fork would be pretty obvious I think, so they might not worry about that. Call the shop and ask them what the policy is at that shop.

zonatandem

$35 per hour for labor in most shops.

Waldo

Indeed. As Sydney says, the reality is that some shops will give you an attitude about it. Best bet is to call around or ask your favorite shop how much they would charge you for the install. Find out what it would cost to buy the same fork (or other part) from them and have them install it. By the time you add in shipping and sometimes subtract or discount labor, prices can become quite similar.
Above all, don't bring in a disc-only fork for a bike with cantis on it and scream at them when they tell you it's not going to work for you.

georgiaboy

When I bought my first bike the owner of the bike shop was very cordial and always came out of his office to see me whenever I came to visit. (The bike shop is in my neighborhood.)

Subsequently, I built my own bike and sold my previous one. Now when I go into the shop with my present bicycle the owner does not have much to say.

neil0502

Don't be surprised, though, if they are more particular about installing used parts than about new. If there's a failure, it could come back to haunt them. With new parts, they're likely to worry less about that.

I don't think I'd be keen to install your used parts for you....

SDRider

My LBS does not have a problem with this. I bought my bike from them and quite a bit of other gear from them as well. They happily installed my new cranks for me. Of course, it wasn't free.

CurtloDork

The simple reality is that I can get parts, not a whole bike, but parts cheaper and, more important to me, quicker online than in a shop. Every time I have asked a LBS to order me something, it takes a week at the least, 2 weeks at the most. When I need something, I need it, and won't hesitate to buy it online, and pay for 1-2 day shipping. Then again, I know how to install every piece of my bikes myself. But, a very good friend of mine also owned a LBS. This was not so easy, as he'd see what I had on my bike and know if I had bought it from him. I bought a few things from him, and he was cool with that arrangement. But I also learned how much the repairs/install side of his business meant to his bottom line. He relied on the installs to stay open, and in fact tinkered with the idea of converting his shop to ONLY a install business. So, in my opinion, if a LBS says anything to you about where you got the part, I'd go somewhere else. A professional bike shop should simply quote you the rate for the work to be performed. Where you got the part does not matter if they want your install business. Now, if a LBS would provide free installation on things like forks, stems, whatever, then there might be the motivation for more people to take their chances and order something from the shop. Back in the early '90s, when I started really dumping money into my mountain bikes, I went to one shop. I spent thousands and thousands there. He installed everything I bought for free if I couldn't do it or didn't have the tools. That was great. BUT, the big difference is he stocked everything - all the high end parts, forks, cranks, you name it. He took the chance to stock it, and he sold it. Every single LBS I have been to in the last 5 years has virtually nothing in parts in stock. So, I, along with many others have no choice but to go where the parts are. That's my experience - FWIW.

MattP.

When I bought a new fork off Nashbar (Black Platinum) i brought it in to my local mechanic, and he was physced (sp?) that i was upgrading. He happily put it on. He charged $20 for the whole thing i think.

I think it all depends on how well you know your mechanic.

hypersnazz

Wow, that was *almost* magnanimous. Our shop doesn't have a problem with it, and if the stuff you brings in turns out to be the problem, we're more than happy to sell you more labor or better parts.

cs1

My favorite LBS is an almost all repair shop.
I couldn't agree more.
My favorite shop does this. When you figure out insatllation in the equation, he is actually cheaper than the average shop because of the free installation.
My experience also. If you are a Campy guy, like me, the situation is even worse. They don't even want to order the parts because they can't figure out how to set up properly.

Tim

Guest

Some shops I went to charged extra if I bought the parts someplace else. I had one shop in Chicago where he didn't care and would put anything on that I wanted. Guess who ended up getting all my business (thousands of dollars, especially in the wintertime when things were slow) as a result of their willingness to work with me?

Koffee

Socket155

Money is money. I'm sure a bike shop would rather charge you to put it on then to have you figure out how to do it yourself.

lala

I do it all the time. I believe they make their money on repairs/service anyways. I still buy other things in the shop: clothes, misc parts, mags, impulse buys.

Dunwood

I've installed all of my own parts so far so I can't comment on bike store policy.

For cars I install my own parts OR in special cases I supply the parts and have the "I know you mark up parts, please increase the labor cost as you see reasonable to offset the lost revenue". I bought my own parts for my wife's Volvo front end rebuild, the front end shop didn't know where to buy quality Volvo parts.

I have furnished the parts in the past for the diesel Benz, but I do most of my own work on that car too, so its been quite a few years since I had to supply parts to a mechanic.

In general I would think a shop would like to furnish their own parts if they are doing the installation, but as one poster mentioned, the smaller shops just can't afford to stock and carry all the different parts. So we are forced to forage for ourselves and sometimes supply our own parts.

ricardo kuhn

that is a Exelent analogy...

the fact is that most shops losee money on the "Repairs" do to a variaty of reasons, in fact the mecanics salary is pays by the sales of bikes and acesories, I work in at least 10 really high end shops over the years and I don't think even one of them was making a profit working on the bikes.

Actually i work at two shops were we have "Diferencial rates" on a "bigold" chart for people to see,, i guess was a statement more than anything, maybe a little offensive for some, but work really well in kepping the "Cheap skates" away.
in fact some of this people will be so missinform
they will buy the wrong parts and then prettend we exchange for them "just because"

the fact is that Most of this great shops I use to work are Long gone (the REAL wheelsmith in palo alto for example) do to the mail order price cutting competicion that left the real shop with out sufficient margin to survive and pay the rent, personally as much as I love working on bikes i need to leave the "Profession" since you get paid way to little and you can not survive or at least have a decent life, I did meet some amazing people along the way most of them when to diferent fields and they are doing much better..

Just remenber shops don't charge MORE...
They just charge RETAIL,,,.A.K.A. the prices the parts are soppose to sell for.

BostonFixed

If I paid this 'restaurant' to cook my eggs, then I'd expect them to do a good job on it.

Another side note: My shop doesn't install used parts.

slowchris

I own a small guitar shop in Louisiana & we get HAMMERED by the big-box, super-discount, mail-order, wal-mart type outfits. It gets extremely frustrating but you just can't expect everyone to buy everything from you. So whenever someone brings us a guitar that they'd bought from one of these places we are more than happy to do the work for them at our regular rates. I'd much rather get that business from them than no business at all. Plus, my train of thought is that if we are really cool to this guy & do a good job of taking care of him then maybe the next time he's ready to buy a new guitar or amplifier he'll seriously consider buying it from us. Of course whenever you buy a new guitar from us we will set it up for free w/ new strings & the whole deal.

I'd say any shop that wants to give attitude &/or refuse to service parts or bikes bought elswhere (though I completely understand) needs to get over it & suck it up because they'll only be shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.

Just remember; Big-box, super-discount, mail-order, wal-mart type stores don't put the cool little mom & pop shops out of business. ...The consumers do.

slowchris

I just wanted to add.. Very recently a friend of mine (albiet not a very good one) purchased a brand new drumset from a discount mail-order store. Even though I could have gotten him the exact same kit for probably less than what he paid in the same amount of time, he didn't even bother to ask. Automatically assuming mail-order would be cheaper he just went and bought them. The day they came in the mail he called me and asked me if he could use some space in my shop to un-box them, set them up, & tune them up. Apparently his apartment is too small. When I told him that I'd have to charge him our regular drum re-head & tune labor rate ($17.50 per drum) he scoffed & explained that he'd be the one doing the work so he shouldn't be charged any labor. At that point I just told him to call the mail-order place where he bought the drums & ask if they would let him use their space to set up & tune his drums.

Why would he expect such great service from us but not the place he made the purchase?

I should add that had he bought the drums from us we would have gladly set them up & tuned them free of charge.