cost for work at LBS?

snig

About to get some work done at my LBS, a new chainset/cranks fitted with BB and a new cassette and chain, what price should I expect to pay?

I'm going to ring and yes,but if it's too much I might as well buy the tools and do the work myself.

(I will be supplying the parts.)

nicklouse

Sorry but ask them.

Hourly rates vary from place to place depending on many things. Rates for supplied parts tends to be higher than for them providing the parts.

Learning to do it yourself is always a good idea.

Read parktools.

snig

nicklouse wrote:

Sorry but ask them.

Hourly rates vary from place to place depending on many things. Rates for supplied parts tends to be higher than for them providing the parts.

Learning to do it yourself is always a good idea.

Read parktools.

I said I'm going to ring and ask so not sure why you need to repeat that.

I would just like to know if my LBS is more expensive or cheaper than theaverage LBS.

I was all set to do the work myself but the bike BB may need facing so I thought the shop would be the best option if a reasonable price.

The_Boy

If you want to know if the price is reasonable then call around and get a couple of estimates. Apart from anything else, a LBS in London will no doubt charge more than the one I use which in turn will charge more than a shop in the provinces of the Scottish central belt.

trekker12

It will work out cheaper to do it yourself if you are at all mechanically minded. Spend the money on tools then you will always have them so future repairs are already paid for.

I presume this is a threaded BB not a press fit? The only part of my last bike build the LBS did was to press fit my headset races as such tools are generally quite expensive and I don't expect to do such work very often. Although there are home-made alternatives demonstrated on you-tube I figured it wasn't worth damaging a £400 frame for the sake of £40 in the shop (and they didn't charge the full amount anyway because they know me well and I buy a lot of parts from them).

Are you sourcing the parts from the internet or do you have them already? You might find the LBS will be happier and therefore offer a deal to quote a fitted part cost purchased from them than quote to fit a part from the internet because you thought you were saving a fiver.

guinea

My LBS charges an hourly rate + a percentage of the value of internet bought stuff that's being fitted.

snig

trekker12 wrote:

It will work out cheaper to do it yourself if you are at all mechanically minded. Spend the money on tools then you will always have them so future repairs are already paid for.

I presume this is a threaded BB not a press fit? The only part of my last bike build the LBS did was to press fit my headset races as such tools are generally quite expensive and I don't expect to do such work very often. Although there are home-made alternatives demonstrated on you-tube I figured it wasn't worth damaging a £400 frame for the sake of £40 in the shop (and they didn't charge the full amount anyway because they know me well and I buy a lot of parts from them).

Are you sourcing the parts from the internet or do you have them already? You might find the LBS will be happier and therefore offer a deal to quote a fitted part cost purchased from them than quote to fit a part from the internet because you thought you were saving a fiver.

getting them from the net, last time I used my LBS they looked up the cost of parts from their suppliers catalogue no discounts, so expensive!

thing is it's only the facing off the BB that is putting me off doing it myself.

I have now rang, I have a feeling he gave me the wrong price as he said £25! what I'll do is take bike in double check the price and if it's much more than £25 I'll just do it myself.

drlodge

Only time I've used an LBS is to face the BB before installing some Shimano cups, they charged £20 I think to square the BB shell ends and installed the cups as well. Seemed reasonable to me as the alternative is to buy the tool which is expensive and this is a one off job.

snig

drlodge wrote:

Only time I've used an LBS is to face the BB before installing some Shimano cups, they charged £20 I think to square the BB shell ends and installed the cups as well. Seemed reasonable to me as the alternative is to buy the tool which is expensive and this is a one off job.

that might be the best option, the bike is now booked in, I'll get a firm price when I take it in, if too expensive, I'll just get the BB fitted, and do the cassette and chain myself.

Will really erk me to pay a load of money which could be used for tools.

Colinthecop

guinea wrote:

My LBS charges an hourly rate + a percentage of the value of internet bought stuff that's being fitted.

So you're paying for something twice...?

I'd be telling that LBS where to go. :roll:

snig

Colinthecop wrote:

guinea wrote:

My LBS charges an hourly rate + a percentage of the value of internet bought stuff that's being fitted.

So you're paying for something twice...?

I'd be telling that LBS where to go. :roll:

exactly...what do they ask for as proof of cost of the parts? no way would I be taking in receipts, what the heck has it got to do with them if a BB cost me £20 or £50.

guinea

LBSs need to stay in business.

They used to do this by selling parts and charging to fit them. So sources of revenue from the same customer.

Now the customers are buying their own components, and the LBS earns less money. Rather that just suck up this loss and got bust my LBS charges more to those who are smart enough go to box shifters on the internet to get a bargain but are too dumb to fit the piece themselves.

If you want your LBS to be around in future, help them out and pay for the service.

snig

I'm not dumb, just don't have the tools or the knowledge neither one makes me dumb.

I understand they need to make a profit, or they would go bust.

Anyway got the work done, knew it was going to cost more than the quoted £20-£25, cost me double that £50.

In future those think I will do all the work myself, maybe not the headset but should be able to do most things, as £50 will buy a lot of tools.

chris_bass

snig wrote:

I'm not dumb, just don't have the tools or the knowledge neither one makes me dumb.

I think lack of knowledge might actually make you dumb (in this sense of the word).

markhewitt1978

guinea wrote:

My LBS charges an hourly rate + a percentage of the value of internet bought stuff that's being fitted.

Haha, taking the piss. Thankfully mine don't care if I get stuff online, I'm paying them for the work that they do and that's that.

markhewitt1978

Chris Bass wrote:

I think lack of knowledge might actually make you dumb (in this sense of the word).

Dumb, means stupid; if you don't know something it's because you haven't learned it or looked it up etc, it doesn't make you stupid. I'm sure many quantum physicists couldn't change a Shimano cassette but you wouldn't call the dumb.

Some times people just don't want to learn about things like bike maintenance. e.g. It's accepted these days that you don't really need to know anything about cars to drive one; if something goes wrong the garage sorts it out; same can be said with bikes, riding a bike and maintaining it don't have to go hand in hand.

thistle_

snig wrote:

Anyway got the work done, knew it was going to cost more than the quoted £20-£25, cost me double that £50.

£50 to face the bb shell seems expensive.

£50 to:
Remove chain - 5 mins
Remove pedals (may be difficult if they've not been removed recently) - 10 mins
Remove cranks/chainset - 10 mins
Remove old bb - 5 mins
Take old cassette off - 5 mins
Clean freewheel body and bb shells - 10 mins
Clean chain - 5 mins
Face/tap bb shell - 10 mins
Install new bb shells - 5 mins
Install new cranks - 5 mins
Install pedals - 5 mins
Install cassette - 5 mins
Put chain back on - 5 mins
Adjust derailleurs (likely to be needed on the front, maybe on the back, front may need height adjusting on seat tube too + cable adjusting) - 15 mins
Test ride in the car park/yard - 5 mins
General inspection of bike to make sure there's no obvious problems they need to tell you about (so you don't sue them) - 5 mins

Total guess at time 1 hr 50 mins, just over £25/hr including overheads (shop rent, credit, tools etc.) seems good value to me.

Did you find out why it went up from £25 to £50 though? Normally they would tell you why it was more expensive.

snig

Chris Bass wrote:

snig wrote:

I'm not dumb, just don't have the tools or the knowledge neither one makes me dumb.

I think lack of knowledge might actually make you dumb (in this sense of the word).

no lack of knowledge does not make you dumb, I don't know how to strip a car engine down either, that also doesn't make me dumb, think you need to check the definition of the word dumb.

snig

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

snig wrote:

Anyway got the work done, knew it was going to cost more than the quoted £20-£25, cost me double that £50.

£50 to face the bb shell seems expensive.

£50 to:
Remove chain - 5 mins
Remove pedals (may be difficult if they've not been removed recently) - 10 mins
Remove cranks/chainset - 10 mins
Remove old bb - 5 mins
Take old cassette off - 5 mins
Clean freewheel body and bb shells - 10 mins
Clean chain - 5 mins
Face/tap bb shell - 10 mins
Install new bb shells - 5 mins
Install new cranks - 5 mins
Install pedals - 5 mins
Install cassette - 5 mins
Put chain back on - 5 mins
Adjust derailleurs (likely to be needed on the front, maybe on the back, front may need height adjusting on seat tube too + cable adjusting) - 15 mins
Test ride in the car park/yard - 5 mins
General inspection of bike to make sure there's no obvious problems they need to tell you about (so you don't sue them) - 5 mins

Total guess at time 1 hr 50 mins, just over £25/hr including overheads (shop rent, credit, tools etc.) seems good value to me.

Did you find out why it went up from £25 to £50 though? Normally they would tell you why it was more expensive.

Some of your times are a little excessive, 5 mins to remove a chain! 10 minutes to remove pedals! 10 mintues to remove and replace a cassette, yeah maybe if I was doing it but no way can a bike shop run a bussiness if they allow your quote of 1 hour 50 for changing a chainset and chain and cassette, oh and it was a new chain so no cleaning needed.

When I rang I said it was for a chainset, chain and cassette ,he said about30 minutes so £20-£25 my guess is he thought the BB was staying, guess the extra was for changing the BB.

I'm not sure by your post if you are saying it was expensive or not as you seem to be saying both? tbh I was expecting between £40-£50, job must have taken best part of 1 hour, guess they charge £50 an hour for labour, can't see how they could only charge £25 as you based your costings on, and still make a profit, I think the charge was fair but as said, £50 will buy a load of tools so I'll do that now, only thing stopped me doing it this time was, first time I've had an external BB so wanted to make sure my BB was faced.

oh and as for why I didn't ask why the increase, mainly cos I knew the first quote was way out and like I said the price seemed fair for the work done.

just remembered was a bit pissed at being charged £2 for oil tho on top of the labour charge!

chris_bass

snig wrote:

just remembered was a bit pissed at being charged £2 for oil tho on top of the labour charge!

really?! that's a bit excessive, especially seeing as new chains don't need oil.

snig

Chris Bass wrote:

snig wrote:

just remembered was a bit pissed at being charged £2 for oil tho on top of the labour charge!

really?! that's a bit excessive, especially seeing as new chains don't need oil.

yep it was written on the job sheet.

That was my thought too about a new chain being already greased, guess if I challenged the charge they would have said they greased the BB

chris_bass

yeah, true.

I guess as long as the bike is running well now then that is all that really matters :-)