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Before I go off on some ill-informed rant, how much does your LBS charge for labour? I've done my own spannering for a while and therefore, not used a LBS for service work but due to not having certain tools, I enquired about charges at a shop local to me. I was quite shocked at the hourly rate - maybe I'm just out of touch or they are actually over the top.
Some figures, please, before I embarrass myself.
:/
and whats your hourly rate, not what your paid but what your employer would charge for your services.
not sure on UK prices but just found this online
http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/location/store/nottingham
All seem reasonable to me, cost of tools, heat, light, tea breaks and the rest.
Logically it should be the gross cost per hour of the person doing the work inc. NI, a portion of the cost of the rent and rates, a portion of the business overhead like accounting, HR, management, etc, likely cost of consumables and tool wear, and a profit margin so the business is actually a worthwhile business, multiplied by a factor to protect against jobs unexpectedly taking longer than quoted.
Add all that up and I'd expect it to be a hell of a lot higher than the hourly wage of the mechanic, assuming the shop wants to stay in business!
A quick Google suggest that around £30 would be average and sounds about the right amount to me (or maybe a bit low)
Just asking for information.......not an argument, ta. Compared to my old LBS - admittedly a couple of years back, the quote for labour was excessive, imo.
Those LLB prices are pretty good. £10 to fit a mudguard is a proper bargain!
Is your old LBS still in business?toxicsoks - Member - Quote
Just asking for information.......not an argument, ta. Compared to my old LBS - admittedly a couple of years back, the quote for labour was excessive, imo.
what was the quote and for what?
Some things like avid bleeds are priced to put people off 😉
Not used a LBS for mechanical work for, well, ever as prefer to do it myself so I'm going at this entirely unbiased by actual knowledge!
What would seem reasonable? I'd imagine a cycle shop mechanic is on about £10ph. Must be costing the shop therefore about £13.50ph to employ them. Double that to cover shop expenses and add a little profit then add VAT to the total. Circa £30ph? For every pound I'm out on a mechanic's hourly wage add £3 to the cost to the customer.
kerley - that's the ballpark I was expecting. The quote I was given was, somewhat, north of that.
well looking at the LL price list I reckon that will come to 30-50/hr based on the fixed price stuff. Not unreasonable for a decent mechanic using the proper tools.
The work? Push fit BB30 (road) faffage/replacement - I don't have the tools.
and the price?
0.5 hrs - £25. Obviously, I'm out of touch with pricing. As I said in my original post, I didn't want to go off on one without establishing some facts. It is what it is - no offence intended.
0.5 hrs - £25.
As a one off, where the job [i]might[/i] take longer than 30mins I think I'd just suck that up.
Mine is on a par with LLB and if the job is not listed on the menu labour rate is £30 per hour which considering garages around here charge approaching £100 per hour for plug and play based repair work (proper independent garages who actually repair things are £60 per hour) is reasonable in my book.
He also fits for free components bought in store if the bike has been one he has maintained
Bring the bike in dirty and there is a £30 valet charge although he does give the option for you to clean it in the yard if you want for free
I was quoted 40 quid/hour and an hour's work by my LBS to replace a BB30 bottom bracket- a job which I didn't have the tools for (until I was quoted 40 quid and bought them from CRC for less than a tenner). When I did get the tools it took me about 20 minutes- I think it's a job that seems to attract a higher rate because with all the new standards people can't be bothered to buy the tools and it's an easy money spinner. Which is fair enough in business terms I suppose, and I doubt many people would do what I did. Pressfit BBs are a minefield of types and sizes and getting the right tool isn't guaranteed, it's a faff and it's not obvious how to do it like it is with a threaded BB so it's easier to take it the LBS who will charge a little over the odds to sort you out.
As I say, though, the tools are cheap on CRC (I used the FSA ones and a hammer) and if you know how to work on a bike it's easy enough to do.
By the way, I'm not saying 40 pounds an hour is unreasonable, far from it, but for 20 minutes it's a bit keen.
Not the most unreasonable, some places have a minimum charge too
Bit more than your standard HT BB
If you don't look at it as £25 for 1/2 hour, but look at it as £25 for a job you can't do, or don't have the tools for it seems a lot more reasonable.
If you don't look at it as £25 for 1/2 hour, but look at it as £25 for a job you can't do, or don't have the tools for it seems a lot more reasonable.
This. £20-25 is pretty much spot on.
(I used the FSA ones and a hammer)
By the way, I'm not saying 40 pounds an hour is unreasonable, far from it, but for 20 minutes it's a bit keen.
Much rather have someone using a press than a hammer thanks 😉
The fewer hours the job takes, the more cost needs adding to cover all the other bits related to the transaction. And the shorter the job should be, the greater the chance a problem will increase the time taken by a large percentage.
£25 to do a job which needs specialist tools and risks screwing up your frame permanently if done wrong, seems perfectly reasonable. Especially as with stupid pressfit BBs there's a fair chance you'll be back soon enough complaining it's creaking and can they have a look at it?!
If LBS all charged what many on here expect them to then they'd have all gone bust - and many have!
£40-50 per hour is pretty normal
Blimey! My LBS are a bargain then! Had my XT brakeset bled and they charged £20 a brake and that was for everything.
Bleeding XT's about 15 mins each end if you do enough?
True, but then there's the liquid and buying bleed kit and not being bothered, I thought it was a good price anyway.
yeah, it's a fair price, probably comparable with the hourly rate of the OP.
As well as buying their time, you are also buying their skill
My LBS charge £50/hr IIRC or per job for the bread-and-butter stuff. Saying that I think I've only paid the advertised rate on one job in 5 years!!
I don't use their workshop that often though so I could be wrong on the price but I've never walked out thinking I'd paid over the odds for what they've done and I've never had to go back for them to repeat the work. That tells me they're good at what they do and not overcharging at all.
Next job going their way is a new press-fit BB, if it creaks I can blame them 😉
Thanks for the insight, all. The LBS gets the job on Monday.
My LBS sells labour on a price per job basis, but I'd guess it's £50 ish an hour, but they sell it in 15mim slots. They're too kind to me though, replaced my headset for less than Merlin wanted and didn't charge me for labour, I've been bothering them with stupid questions for almost a decade though.
I sell labour in work at £75 an hour, £150 for weekends and evenings.
I sell labour in work at £75 an hour, £150 for weekends and evenings.
Anyone care to guess the line of work? 😉 😆
Mine is Icycles, so everything costs an apparently random amount 😆
£48/hour where I work.
I cut grass at an ave of £1/min and i don't have a shop to pay for. Seems ok to me, but you have the freedom to choose your shop, or buy the tools.
I'm supposed to put around £30/hour through the till but we work on fixed pricing so you win some and you lose some. For example we charge £9 plus a tube for a puncture repair. If a customer brings in a loose wheel I can do it in under 3 minutes and we win! Then sometimes it's an electric bike with corroded connections...
liking the times people are giving for a job!
Yes maybe if it you own bike and you know the bike, and you can tweak things on the go, you can do things quickly but when a customer brings in a bike, things need to be checked that connected to that job!
So take a BB change, remove cranks, faff with making sure you got the right BB etc. refit the cranks (prob after a quick clean as well)
You then need to check the front shifting, prob have to tweak it as well. all adds time, so not as quick as it "should be"
Oh and before you go, but he didn't ask for his front shifter to checked/adjusted, try handing the bike back with out checking it, you prob getting them back in v soon complaining about the shifting not working and "it was fine before you did the BB" so have to stop doing other work to fix and FOC (not worth the hassle arguing) or they don't come back and slag the shop of for doing a crap job!
Same with rear wheel puncture, chances are the gears are out and brakes are rubbing.
So might as well cost these little things (but adds time) into the job/price, and just do them, And when handing the bike back, "we done XX as you asked but we also tweaked YY as it was not as good as it could be"
I think it a good way to get and keep customers.
Oh and if it all ok after doing the job, and quickly just knock a few quid off!