Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Approx. 13 of the 15 minutes would involve removing wheel from bike, getting tire off the rim installing new or patched tube, inflation, remount wheel on bike; only 2 minutes to patch tube. If an LBS is giving away 13 minutes of free labor just to earn the profit from a new bike tube, it won't be in business for long.
I have never had a tube replaced by a LBS so I do not know the cost. I was going off of what San Rensho said in his post earlier. Even if they charge $10 or $15 for a tube w/ installation, how much do you expect them to charge for a patch with installation to make it worthwhile? Plus if it goes flat, that customer will blame the patch and cause more headache than it is worth.
The glue for a patch says to wait 5 minutes, I was adding 10min for the wheel removal and installation.