Going rate for a bike build?

AndyF16

Just wondered what a reasonable price would be: I'm buying a fairly expensive frame and fork from a local dealer but I'm buying virtually all components myself from various sources - presuming they will have a reasonable markup on the £1700 frame, what would be a reasonable costs for full build up and pdi? Thanks

springtide9

Just a FYI for a ball park figure...
I recently paid £130 to swap all components from one MTB to another.
I assume as it's less work building a bike from boxes of new bits, it should be a lot less.

Evil Laugh

I paid £80 I think incl headtube and bb facing.

Pokerface

I paid £20 last time. Now I just do it all myself.

Anyway - it's a couple hours' work at their going rate. Will save you a bit of money if you attach some of the bits first yourself if you can.

Depending on what frame it is, a good chunk of the time will be running the cables and setting up the gears. Otherwise it's a pretty simply job.

furrag

My LBS charge £130, which I find a rip off. I hadn't built a bike or seen anyone do such, but I bought Zinn's road bike maintenance book for £4 delivered and the video tutorials on http://www.bicycletutor.com / Youtube.

I built a Cervelo Soloist last week. There's plenty of PDF's online from manufacturers as well as instructions which come with the groupset. Saved myself a fortune and learnt so much about the bike that I'll save myself a fortune in future by servicing it myself! I wholly recommend trying it, and if you do feel out of your depth, you can always take it along to a bike builder.

markmw

Wow I could've written that post. Getting a Cervelo and doing the same. When I rang around various shops (all in the South) about the frame, I checked on build/fitting costs. A couple said £100, one said £120 and another around 3-3.5hrs @ £30/hr.
So £100 seems to around the right mark.
If you're paying close to RRP then suggest you can ask for some discount on that. If you're getting a bargain on the frame, then expect to pay more on the build.

Incidently, what frame are you getting?

AndyF16

Well if they stick to their word (on order but it's been a bit of an uphill struggle!) then it'll be a Bianchi D2 Cavaria cyclocrosser Thanks for the replies, I just felt a bit guilty buying in all the components myself so they don't get the mark up on those

I wanted to be able to strike a deal for the build cost which gave the dealer a fair crack of the whip as it were

TommyEss

AndyF16 wrote:

Well if they stick to their word (on order but it's been a bit of an uphill struggle!) then it'll be a Bianchi D2 Cavaria cyclocrosser Thanks for the replies, I just felt a bit guilty buying in all the components myself so they don't get the mark up on those

I wanted to be able to strike a deal for the build cost which gave the dealer a fair crack of the whip as it were

In my experience, if you're asking them to fit components you've sourced elsewhere, expect to pay their full labour rates.

tri-sexual

ring around as many local local shops and explain to them what you want done and get accurate quotes from them all. i think that prices can fluctuate quite alot for the same job.
use the best price you get and use that as your bargaining price point, you are in the control seat and not the other way round. dont let them make you feel as they are doing you a favour for you spending your money with them.
if you feel confident why not have a go yourself?
as mentioned before there is alot of info available and can be a valuable learning process.
headtube and BB facing is often recommended on a new builld, get the shop where you bought the frame to do this for you.
remember that anything you do can be undone so dont be too scared.
use the proper tools and use a torque wrench if you are inexperienced, you will hate yourself if you start breaking things by overtightening components.

StillGoing

Be careful with what you source as some of the prices quoted aren't for genuine 2011 items. For example; I paid £700 for a SRAM Force groupset with Red chain. Whilst I could find SRAM Force groupsets on the internet for under £600, they were built up using parts from Rival groupsets and weren't 2011 items.

Smokin Joe

Furrag wrote:

My LBS charge £130, which I find a rip off. I hadn't built a bike or seen anyone do such, but I bought Zinn's road bike maintenance book for £4 delivered and the video tutorials on http://www.bicycletutor.com / Youtube.

I built a Cervelo Soloist last week. There's plenty of PDF's online from manufacturers as well as instructions which come with the groupset. Saved myself a fortune and learnt so much about the bike that I'll save myself a fortune in future by servicing it myself! I wholly recommend trying it, and if you do feel out of your depth, you can always take it along to a bike builder.

If I was building a bike up for someone and it was my living that is around what I would charge. Try getting a plumber in for 2-3 hours and see what his bill would be. Why do people expect bike shops to be paying sweat shop wages to their staff by fitting expensive kit to top end frames for people who are too tight to pay a commercially viable rate?

Pokerface

I've got to start building bikes for a living! :oops:

moonshine

a car garage will charge well over £50 per hour labour... this has to cover overheads, equipment, training, marketing , advertising etc, and non-earning staff (e.g. admin)and make a profit.

I would expect a bike shop to have an hourly rate in the region of £35 plus.... multiply that by how long the task should take - say 3 hours? there is your answer...

rate will be affected by things such s local salaries & premisis rates... clearly a town centre / chain / London shop & would be expected to be more expensive than a one man band in a low rent location


If you hav bought all the stuff yourself, then i concur with an searlier poster wrt being charged the full rate ( i.e. no discount)


***edit*** oh, don't forget soon to be 20% VAT as well

Anonymous

I eventually learnt to do it myself and can't believe how easy it is now :oops:

Jut the initial outlay for tools but this soon pays for itself.

I'll do it you for 50 quid

As an aside, one thing I did that helped massively was arranging with my friendly LBS mechanic to come in early one Sunday Morn and I had a crash course whilst building up one of my bikes, cost me a crate of beer.

NW Postie

I recently had some bits swapped by a LBS and their rate was £30ph which i think is reasonable considering the work involved... Yes i could have done it myself but i am always wary about cutting down steerers and it was more convenient for me.

When i had my old Colnago bits transferred to my Ribble, they quoted £30ph for the build of the new bike, however as the parts were still on the old bike they said it could be anything upto 3/3.5 hours labour to strip off one bike and build onto the new one. Similarly i recently paid £45ph at the stealers to have my car checked over, again more convenient as i know that if there is a problem i can always go back to the source of the work

Anonymous

NW Postie wrote:

i am always wary about cutting down steerers

That's one thing I won't do!!

moonshine

NapoleonD wrote:

I eventually learnt to do it myself and can't believe how easy it is now :oops:

Jut the initial outlay for tools but this soon pays for itself.

I'll do it you for 50 quid

As an aside, one thing I did that helped massively was arranging with my friendly LBS mechanic to come in early one Sunday Morn and I had a crash course whilst building up one of my bikes, cost me a crate of beer.

Yip....

I'm not saying it is hard, but it is a job that takes time.... and if the OP wants someone to spend 2 - 3 hours building it up, then that will cost the going rate.

I build up myself as well, but i prob still get (and pay) my LBS to face & fit the BB (and perhaps headset) just because i've duffed up a BB thread before (on an old steel frame) and if you bodge the BB instllation, you risk trashing a good frame. Everything else is pretty intuative.

I think the more expensive hte frame... the less likely i would do it myself...imagine cross threading or stripping the BB threads in a 3K frame... :oops: :oops:

NW Postie

NapoleonD wrote:

NW Postie wrote:

i am always wary about cutting down steerers

That's one thing I won't do!!

Its one job i will never do, luckily i have a friend who is a cycle mechanic and get him to sort my steerers out.

moonshine

NapoleonD wrote:

NW Postie wrote:

i am always wary about cutting down steerers

That's one thing I won't do!!

ditto... i paid to get my TT carbon stearer cut down too.

AndyF16

TommyEss wrote:

In my experience, if you're asking them to fit components you've sourced elsewhere, expect to pay their full labour rates.

Absolutely, I don't know if it came across in my initial post, but I'm actually wanting to kind of compensate the dealer rather than screw them down; when the full bike was suddenly not available they helpfully put together an itemised quote to as closely match the manufacturer's spec as possible, and it came out 15% more expensive.

It's in most people's DNA to love a bargain, and some of the items like shifters I got at 30% off list, but for me it's as much the 'fun' of sourcing parts (all those feelgood cartons delivered to the door!) as the discount, I really wanted matching Deda bars/stem/seatpost so that's what I got, again at a goodly saving over (yeah, maybe unrealistic) list prices.

I wouldn't even consider farting around with cutting steerers, or even cabling to be honest, so I'm happy to pay a fair rate or just above to make up for their loss of mark-up on the components That way I get a better spec for the same money and the dealer still get a fair deal too

DaSy

I would say that between £70 and £100 would be a reasonable charge. It would depend on what was required in the way of facing etc.

What a lot of people seem to overlook is the cost of the specialised tools that are required to do the job efficiently and correctly. A BB facing and taping tool costs around £400 alone plus the cost of extra taps for Italian threads at £70 a set, and the taps only last a limited amount of time. Add the cost for headset press, facing tools, steerer jig, wheel truing stand etc, and you start to have quite an investment in tools alone.

You can bodge with DIY tools, but if you take your bike to a shop, you expect it to be equipped with quality tools. These are just some of the overheads that have to be factored into the cost of doing these type of jobs.

paulbox

Personally I think it is a great opportunity to learn how your bike works inside out. I would use the money to buy the necessary tools, you can get a half decent starter set for under £50, and maybe just use an lbs for a couple of jobs where the the necessary tool would be too expensive (having said that, I have fitted a new headset with a hammer and a couple of blocks of wood...).

The only things that you might possible mess up are cables and they arent exactly going to break the bank.

You will also have the tools for any future repairs/adjustments rather than having to go back to an lbs each time.