urbanknight

When I was a bicycle mechanic, my boss expected me to take less than 15 minutes, less than 10 for a single speed. It's been a while, but I recall checking tires/brake pads, cables for wear, adjusting shifters and brakes, checking wheels for true, checking all bolts for torque, inflating the tires, and cleaning the bike. Anything discovered that was needed beyond that (replace cables, replace brake pads, replace tires, true wheels, etc.) cost extra and was a different job, usually a different ticket once we called the customer and got their approval.

I tell my friends that a tune-up at a bike shop is a waste. Keep an eye on your bike and if something gets worn or goes out of adjustment that you can't do yourself, take it to the shop and get just that fixed. They charge $50-70 for a tune-up, but adjusting the shifters or brakes is $15-20.

edit: I usually came in under the allotted time, but the head mechanic was often much faster than me.

drlogik 

This was a long time ago (1975 to around 1981) but my goal (and expectation from the shop owner), when I worked in shops was no more than 30 minutes for a multi-speed bike. Generally it took 20 mins or less. That should be sufficient to adjust brakes, derailleurs, quick check or adjustment of bearings/cones, true the wheels and check the tightness of critical components (Headset, bottom bracket and handle bars). It rarely went longer than that and often times could be done in 15 minutes if the rider took good care of their bike.

A good shop owner wants good work done fast, not fast work done poorly. A poor tune-up bites the owner when the bike is returned for re-work. We lost money on re-work, so we took the time to do it right the first time.

A full overhaul was about an hour. These were more challenging from a business perspective because the margin to make money was generally smaller than two tune-ups (sometimes 3) in the same amount of time. This was "production pace" not leisurely la-dee-da pace like we do at home. Big difference.

This was back in the day when all bearings were ball bearings and races. They had to be de-greased, cleaned and re-packed from front to back: headset, bottom bracket, both wheel bearings and sometimes the freewheel too. Then we had to pull the brake and derailleur cables and then do a full tune-up...all in an hour. Sometimes they ran longer if problems were encountered. The owners generally didn't get too upset.

With replaceable bearings like bikes have now a good mechanic, I think, should be able to do the same job in 45 minutes.

Don't jump down my neck, I haven't worked in shops for over 41 years but I do the same type of work on my own bikes now, and that's about how long it takes me on my modern bikes. My old Pinarello, Raleigh Wyoming and Nishiki Ariel take longer of course. And I have most of the professional quality tools that a well stocked bike shop has and they help speed up the work.

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cpach

I'm all about the PBMA trying to get mechanics up to some sort of consistent standards of professionalism.

As far as tune-ups--ever notice how there's no such thing on, say, a car? They might have packages for recommended service intervals and beyond that charge for service by the line item. I'm not optimistic that the term will ever mean much of anything specific in the bike industry any time soon, unfortunately. There IS some intrinsic time savings doing more comprehensive work, so I do feel like discounting beyond the accumulated line items makes sense.

Really whatever it means is fine as long as there's understanding between the customer and the shop. This is where the inconsistency of the term sucks. Explaining that your tune-up costs twice as much because your service package involves three times as much work as another shop's "tune up" can be a real time suck. Best you can do is to list what service packages entail in relatively precise, consumer-readable language.

For OP, get a clear idea of what you're expected to do, and if it seems to seriously mismatch the amount of time that you need to do things to a professional standard, talk to your supervisor. If there's friction over this, try to see if you can get any try timing service with other mechanics and assessing the resulting quality of work. Also, remember that your pay rate should be rationally tied to your productivity. You can't expect to pay a pittance and get professional results at a fast pace. Remember, that in most conceptions service time is typically conceptualized as time physically working on the bike--service writing, talking to the customer,and any other interruptions are for better or worse typically externalized. When you tell someone they need to do something faster, you're telling them they need to be more efficient, and/or they need to do less work (lower standards). Make sure you're clear about what's being asked of you. If you're being asked to work to a standard you don't feel is professional, that's a hard conversation.

I personally do like having what is basically an "do the most good in the shortest time possible" "quick tune" or whatever you want to call it service package for those who really need to the lowest cost service and need you to do whatever you can within that framework to hand them a safe and (essentially) functional bike.

oldbobcat

Our shop manager insisted the overhaul could be done in 2.5. I told him I'd try but wasn't going to compromise on the work. Then they promoted him to store manager, and the new shop manager started telling him he was being delusional. I think my record was 3.5, but that was a newer bike with a lot of sealed bearings. The part he didn't understand was the cleaning. He believed you could strip off the components, throw them in the washer for ten minutes, dry them, and throw them back on the bike. He didn't understand that there was always at least a half-hour of scrubbing. And, of course, the longer a job took, the more interruptions it also took.

We were always pressured to try to sell an upgrade. My calculations said even at 2.5 hours we were losing money relative to a basic tune, because cables and housing were included. It was better for our margin and the customer's bike to add parts to a more basic servicing. And it gave us more time to service more customers. Better to slap in a new cable and housing than to spend a half-hour trying to get a dirty, rusty old one to work almost like new. Better to slap on new brake pads than trying to remove the alloy shards and lips on the old ones with a pick and a utility knife. And it was always better if the service writer caught this stuff and got visual confirmation from the customer than the mechanic trying to call the customer back and explain why the service writer missed it. Damn, I don't miss that shop for a minute.