honestly, when my mechanic gets my shifting working flawless in about 5 minutes I would probably pay him $100 just for me not having the aggravation of doing it. I know how to setup my deraileurs and tune my bike and I usually do it myself because I have the time to do it, but man, my shop guys are so much better and so much faster that sometimes I'm happy to pony up the cash. just makesure you know that they are actually doing.

$85 here in Aus,rebuilt wheel,new cable and housing,tuned the gears,greased the bottom bracket,headset and all carbon bits.It is as quiet as when it was new 6k ago,props to the lbs.

I've never done a tune up. Do they do it at your presence, or you have to go back to pick it up the next day?

That sounds like more of an overhaul, not really a tune up.

Cartridge BBs can be serviced? I'm assuming you don't have an old loose ball BB on a bike with "all the carbon bits."

At where I bought my bike, it costs 85 for the following:

Inspect frame, fork & components
Adjust bottom bracket
Tighten crank bolts
Tighten chainring bolts
Inspect pedals for wear & tighten
Adjust headset & check stem bolts
Adjust hub bearings front & rear
True & tension wheels
Lube Cables & Housing
Align Derailleur Hanger
Adjust brakes
Adjust front derailleur
Adjust rear derailleur
Tighten & final check
Bike Wipe Down

Reads mostly as an inspection, they don't do chain cleaning/lube but they do lube other stuff like BB, maybe a little squirt of grease in the rear derailleur if needed. All in all not a bad deal since they do it all for a flat fee of 150 up front for the next 5 years of 'unlimited' tune ups.

Is it common to not include chain cleaning/lube for that price? Like you said, it's mostly an inspection. The chain seems pretty important. I mean, it's quite possible that none of those other things need any attention, but if you've been riding the bike at all, the chain will almost certainly need cleaned/lubed.

At the shop I used to work at, back in the late 1980's, a full tune up (mostly inspecting and adjusting and some liquid lube here and there) was $45. But the major thing was we adjusted the brakes, derailleurs, and hubs and if needed, re-lubed the cables/housing on the brakes and shifters, and lubed the drive train. We checked out the whole bike, all bearings and adjusted and lubed. We didn't clean the chain, or remove bearings, although we might squeeze more grease in there sometimes without charging extra.

For $85 back in late 1980's, you got an overhaul. Then we took the chain off, crank, pedals, loose parts and bearings on head set, derailleurs, seat post, freewheel/cassette, BB and hubs, put them in a shallow plastic tub with holes poked in the bottom and into the solvent tank with some ultra-sonic cleaning gizmo and filter. A few minutes later, we'd take the parts out, let drain and dry. And we'd re-install all the parts to spec with lube. During those few minutes waiting for the tank, we deflated and removed tires, inspected rims and rim-strips, and inside walls of the tire. If the bike needed new brake or derailleur cables or new rim strips, we'd call the customer with a new estimate, which might add another $15 in parts. The overhaul took all of 2 hrs really working fairly quickly. So I'd say that with inflation factored in, the $90 sounds reasonable. But this does depend on the bike shop. I do recall, that while the bike was in the shop, it was easy enough to spin the wheels and wipe down rims and spokes, and to then take a clean rag and wipe down the bike. I think customers seemed to always perceive they got a good value if we cleaned up the bikes for them. That would include the exposed BB axles on left and right side between the crank arms and BB, hub surfaces, the seat post, the main triangle tubes, and the top of the right chainstay that would always have a bunch of chain slap marks on it. Those little things might add 2 minutes to the completion of a bike, but it seemed to impress customers a lot. We had a hose out back and remember the early mtb adopters would come in with filthy bikes. A quick gentle misting, with a soft tooth brush on the drive train, rims, and tires would work huge wonders with customer satisfaction and save money on replacing filters for the ultrasonic solvent tank.

I should really look around but I believe it is just the specific store I bought my bike from that doesn't include chain cleaning/lubing. As far as I know, other LBS do offer chain cleaning and lubing with the tuning service but they are priced about the same. They do offer a complete drivetrain cleaning service which they take it all off and dunk it in the solvent tank, but I think that is bordering on overkill for a the 'simple' tune-up that is at the 85 price point. They have a 200 dollar price tune up that includes the complete drivetrain solvent tank wash, replacing all the cables+housing, actual bike frame washing, BB overhaul.

I guess I can see some logic in not offering a entry level cleaning service for the chain because if they don't clean the cassette and chainring, it'll get dirty super fast anyways. All of none in there opinion. It really is a simple inspection, and if they find something they recommend it, like cable replacement, chain replacement. At that point they only charge for parts and not labor. They charge 60 for a complete drivetrain cleaning btw.

I just had mine in for both a drive train cleaning and a tune up, and after riding it today I'm pretty certain they didn't lube the chain after they cleaned it. At least, the drive train is making a whole helluva lot more noise now that it was when I took it in. It has me scratching my head a bit though... since I don't know how the hell they can really tune the thing and adjust the shifting if the chain isn't lubed.

I guess what has me really frustrated is... I was riding by the store and stopped in because my indexing was off a few months ago. I usually do this myself but I figured - heck, I'm right here and they do it for free. Well at that point they shot the chain up full of lube without cleaning anything off of it and the chain shot grime and dirt all over everything before I could get it home and get it cleaned off.

So... apparently they only lube it if they don't clean it... which really makes no sense at all.

And after the tune-up, I didn't notice any difference in the shifting. Maybe it'll get better with some lube on it.

If you are interested in learning how to tune up your bike, most good shops offer tune up classes where you do the work alongside the mechanic. Some will even offer reduced prices on repair manuals and tools after taking the class.

In regards to the chain cleaning/lube.... I clean my drive chain before taking the bike in for work, a clean bike is easier to work on. I feel it's kind of like going to the doctor and not putting on clean underwear......

yeah, ill look into classes and what not. thanks guys

You don't mention the type of bike, how old it is, how hard it has been used since last tune up or how long that has been.

If both wheels needed a lot of truing work, hub/bb/headset, bearings needed repacking, cables replaced and/or brakes/derailleurs cleaned/lubes adjusted, chain cleaned and lubed then $90 would be very reasonable.
How long would it take you to do all of those things?
One of the biggest problems any mechanic has (bicycle/ auto ect...) is that you never really know how much you will have to do to get everything just right until you actually get into whatever you are working on. At least half the time you find "little surprises" that require additional time and/or parts.

$90 for a tune up is the norm where I live and they don't do a complete overhaul. Basically, their tune up includes brake adjustments, gear adjustments, minor wheel truing, lubrication of drive train, seat and stem adjustments, re-torque of all bolts & fasteners, and an overall safety inspection. I got free lifetime tune ups with the purchase of my bike and 3 years free with the purchase of my husbands.

[QUOTE=BikeWise1;13172770]The answer depends on many factors.....



Wheels trued, tensioned and equilibrated. Hub bearings adjusted if applicable. Tires inspected.


I understand "trued" and "tensioned" but I'm not familiar with "equilibrated?" Just learning.... Thanks

Very interesting thread. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about bike maintenance. Taking care of things on a regular basis can avoid expensive problems later on. Also, it's nice to know how the job is done, even if I'm paying the shop to do it. I figure at a minimum, I can keep everything clean, and lube the chain. I bought the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair; good reading.

I recently paid $27 to have a spoke replaced on the cassette side of my back wheel. I thought that was kind of expensive, but he did it for me while I waited, and I was up and running again. But, I would like to be able to do this myself so that I'm not dead in the water with a broken bike.

RSBG

For anybody in San Diego, the guy I get tune-ups from advertises on CL, charges $25, and encourages clients to watch and discuss while he works. Here's his latest CL ad:

So (a) if you live in San Diego, I posted that to throw my guy some publicity, and (b) this gives you some data about what kinds of things are included in a tune-up. It is to be expected that this guy charges less than a LBS because he just works out of his apartment parking lot (no costs for inventory, retail space, middle-men).

I'm pretty cheap, so I would be hesitant to spend $90 for a tune-up. But $25 is I think a steal. Note also the end of the ad, price goes up to $75 for "bike overhaul", maybe that more intensive "tune-up" is more comparable to a full-service LBS tune-up?

No costs for liability insurance, and probably against the lease to do business in the parking lot....

Does this guy even have a business license? Pay taxes?

His ad copy is hilarious. "high end road bikes are my specialty,so everything else is a piece of cake" As if! High end bikes are the cake compared to having to deal with the built-in imprecision of a low end derailleur!

my bikes a trek 4300 totally stock.


prety fun

I do my own work, but for all that work being done I'll ride up from Florida! That is thorough and I hope those that partake appreciate that. I would/do!

May be of interest ...

http://www.evanscycles.com/uploads/F..._pricelist.pdf