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@cookeaa It's got nothing to do with thinking you're too important to learn how to do things, it's more to do with a time/money/enjoyment equation, at least in my case.
Other things I don't want to do so I get other people to do them for me:
- Car washing and servicing
- Garden maintenance
- Anything to do with housework, maintenance, painting etc
- Shopping (a nice man delivers stuff to my door after I press some buttons on the computer)
- Washing and ironing of clothes
I end up doing pretty much nothing else but earning money and then spending it doing stuff that I enjoy, it works for me 🙂
So without any apprecable, practical skills how does the modern slacker actually earn money to pay for all these labour/thought saving services?
Part of me can't wait for all the leccy to go off one day and force people to start re-engaging their brains for practical purposes...
I end up doing pretty much nothing else but earning money and then spending it doing stuff that I enjoy, it works for me
This would be my choice too, although I quite enjoy tinckering on the bike and car so wouldn't pay for that.
The missus on the other hand refuses to pay anyone for anything, which means we lived in a house with no kitchen for 8 months, the laminate flooring ends about an inch from the doorways, the plaster below the wall lights looks like it has cellulite and she regulalry complains that she'd not been out for ages and needs a break as she'd been doing all the DIY. I told her it's not my fault, I spend time fixing my bike and don't expect her to show some kind of sympathy for that! That and she spends more time doig DIY than is healthy. Has the house fallen down: no, is DIY nececary: no! Half of what she does seems to consist of fixing previous DIY mistakes!
@cookeaa The modern slacker probably works in a knowledge industry where they use cerebral function more than brawn. You overrate "practical" skills; manual labour isn't very taxing on the brain, which is why it doesn't pay very well.
Part of owning and riding a decent bike is the maintenance. I can understand a family who ride a few times a year with their kids needing to take their bikes in for a service, but if you plan to buy an expinsive bike you really should learn the basics of bike mainenance.
Some forks/shocks need to be sent off due to the tools needed but for most drivetrain and bearing maintenance the tools are cheap and its easy to do.It'l save you so much money in the future.
Some of what you list is more "skilled trades" than "manual labour", though. Building maintenance and car servicing, for example. Being a car mechanic may not pay all that well, but it's still costing you £40-50 an hour or so. Obviously if you earn more than that it's a no-brainer unless you like tinkering with cars 🙂
I assume there's a sort of gated logic process or internal questionaire that is gone through for every activity where a stunt double is brought in then...
-Is task more complex than tying my own shoelaces? Yes
-Is there a chance I might break a nail and/or dirty my paws? Yes
-Can I get an iPhone app to do it for me? No
-Can I pay a lesser lifeform to do it for me? Yes
-Is the cost prohibitive? Eh?
-Will I whinge about paying for this service on the interwebs? Probably
-Can I claim that not bothering with said menial task freed up my Oh-So valuable time so I could enjoy various other more exciting activities (Playing COD for two hours then have a sly ****)? Yes
-Can I revel in my total lack of mechanical apptitude? Of course!
Right then - Call in the Dancing Monkey!!!
This thread makes me want to self harm, so for that reason: I'm oot.
@cookea
What if in your terminology, the modern day slacker didnt spend that 2 hours playing COD or having a sly whatever, but instead were out on their bike for an extra 2 hours?
Obviously you're still going to be highly disappointed in them for not being as mechanically aware as you are but, adds a different viewpoint to the situation here.
I'm somebody that likes to learn how things work and attempt them, but I also know a lot of people who dont care how things work until they stop.
Doesnt really affect me though, I don't get annoyed about it?
So, after 5 pages of tense debate, all we've established is that some people are more practical than others.
Well done.
Excellent work.
😀
Blimey - you lot get soooo worked up.
Go and torque your spokes up or something.
And for the record - it's my bloody money.
[img] 
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Service?!
The rear mech there is a M952 from Circa 2001.
The chainset is from 2003. The non-driveside arm is from a later XT
The front mech is knackered so I've popped some outers into the front mech to create a chainguide.
It all STILL works.
No its not. Its theirs actually 😆And for the record - it's my bloody money
Chapeau Mr Starship...171 ever increasingly stoopid responses off the back of one post-with no extra input.Your Mong Fu is strong.
You can derelict my balls, capi-tan
You've only got the money till they outsource your highly paid "Knowledge based" Job to Bangalore... Then you'll wish you'd learned how to operate a spanner...
What if in your terminology, the modern day slacker didnt spend that 2 hours playing COD or having a sly whatever, but instead were out on their bike for an extra 2 hours?
Well our hypothetical modern slacker's bike was in a shop being Serviced, COD or knocking one out were his only real options, his missus had already left because he kept pissing all their money up the wall getting people to do the jobs he should have been doing for himself...
There's quite clearly a bunch of lazy buggers on STW who've been polishing the justifications for "getting a man in" to do stuff any self respecting able-bodied human should be doing for themself...
I think Mr Starship has done quite nicely, start the topic and then allow it to brew naturally without constant OP input, it's how the best interwebery is done plant a seed and watch it grow...
People like cookea make my teeth itch.
It's people like you who prevented my nephew from getting a shipyard apprenticeship.
Folk are building ships at home these days.
Putain 😉
Derek, its better than him making your cock itch 😯
[i]Derek, its better than him making your cock itch[/i]
Yeah....
😉
cookeaa - Member
You've only got the money till they outsource your highly paid "Knowledge based" Job to Bangalore... Then you'll wish you'd learned how to operate a spanner...
didn;t Derek get made redundant last month when his job was offshored to china?
People like cookea make my teeth itch.
I can sort that out for you no problem,
If you haven't bothered to learn how to do basic dentistry that is.
It will cost approximately £450.
This thread has just had me in tears. It's not all laziness @cookeaa.
I wake up at 6am on a Monday morning and I go to work. I get home around 8pm, we have some tea, wash the pots and then go to bed. Repeat through to Friday night. By which point I'm knackered and I have 3 options:
1. Spend a good chunk of Saturday servicing bike instead of cleaning flat, house work, food shopping, doing things the OH wants to do -attending weddings, going out for dinner that kind of thing.
2. Throw some money at it and get someone else to do it
3. Don't ride on Sunday so I have time to fix it
I would say I do either of those on a 33% split roughly depending on what needs doing etc.
Derek, if you're gonna add up all the little bits and compare against CRC mate then it does seem expensive, but when you compare it to the monthly mortgage payment it doesn't seem too bad. Bike shop has to make money from somewhere.
Rockitman I hear you but it takes me <1hour to build a bike.
It doesn't have to be a rush though, you can pop some music on, have a few beers, relax and enjoy.
I only learnt to build/swap frames myself as A) the "LBS" was awful B) Condescending and always telling me bits were worn out and C) Refer to B.
Bits are normally cosmetically worn way way way before their usefulness is past.
Yeah!
That's Me told!
Hush down now RJ you were late into the fray and weighed down by your with your apparently Mekon-esq brain...
I think you'll find is I'm what is known as "Internet Brave" emboldened by the annonimity of interweb forums I can happily call strangers names and question their motivations, personal values and beliefs without any actual comeback...
In real life I'm very amiable and polite and helpful, but STW isn't real so IMO it's OK to be a bit of a prick in a consequence free environment...
So calling you Lazy isn't personal, however as you chose to take it that way, it suggests I may have caught a raw nerve, and that in fact you are actually a bit Lazy, and in denial about it...
Your Nephew wants to get onto an Engineering apprentiship you say?
Well I applaud him (We need more young blood, the world already has enough games programmers and phone salesmen) I suggest he takes every oportunity to get hands on with anything mechanical that he can, like his halfwitted Uncles humped bike rather than letting the Mug pay some bike shop gibbon over the odds...
Sounds like it might be you keeping him down - not me... 😉
cookeaa you make my cock itch.
cookeaa you make my cock itch.
Back at ya Baby!
Hora, I'm not helped by the fact I live in a flat. A lovely white and cream flat. Bike repairs take place in the spare room. I'm sure you can understand what a ballache this is. The only things I haven't done in there are sticking a headset in and building a wheel 🙂
Well I'm just someone else's troll account so what does that make this argument you fools
[i]I can sort that out for you no problem,
If you haven't bothered to learn how to do basic dentistry that is.
It will cost approximately £450.
[/i]
You haven't just put your bike in for a service have you ?.
[i]cookeaa you make my cock itch. [/i]
Then I suggest you wash it.
You filthy man.
Well I'm just someone else's troll account so what does that make this argument you fools
Eh?
[img] 
[/img]
bloomin' heck!
Should have brought it round to mine to be serviced as I only charge for bits. No hourly rate, just a contribution to the beer fund please.
For £450 you could have bought a new donor bike 🙂
Its all relative you see. If I want I can do extra work on weekends, weeknights for extra money I can.
I don't do this cause I value my private time, life/work balance etc.
Most of my private time is potential income lost.
As long as I am paying someone less than I could potentially earn in that time, I am saving money.
If I have to pay a mechanic half a days wages to repair my bike then I'd rather do that than lose half a day of my private time.
It would probably take me a whole day to acheive what he can in half anyhow. Its a winner for everybody. 😆
This doen't apply only to my bike but lots of chores that I'd rather not do. Its not meant to sound arrogant but when you already work long hours you don't want to spend your free time doing chores that you could palm off to a professional.
ourmaninthenorth - MemberI regularly work beyond the European safe hours directive which effectively means I am uninsured so yes I do
I smell BS....
Unlike most professions medicos cannot leave when the clock strikes 5. Cant remember the last time I did.
Meh! All you silly slackers, buying components from CRC and Merlin instead of crafting them yourselves. Have you no shame? You must have more money than sense.
I don't have a nephew. It was a J. O. K. E.
This Thread:
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i think that one is james he was a right stroppy get compared to thomas.
no james is red pretty sure it is Edward
I reckon it's Gordon. Number 4 wasn't he?
200
I struggle with long sentences
Summary anyone?
Summary anyone?
Man takes abused bike into bike shop, gives them blank cheque to fix it.
Man gets phonecall telling him how much it is to fix.
Man goes on Singletrack Forum to ask if he's paying too much.
Man omits lots of details, leaving scope for lots of people with half baked ideas to argue with each other.
Some 200(ish) posts later, general consensus is that man could save himself a lot of money by learning to do some of the work himself, that he is paying a fair rate given the RRP on parts and shop labour prices, that lots of people are pretty sure he didn't need new mechs/cranks which would have saved a good few quid too, and that nice and cheap as the likes of CRC/Merlin/Rosebikes are some people just can't get over the fact that an LBS won't be able to compete on price.
Oh, and Man clearly likes to stir the hotpot he created up quite a bit with a BIG wooden spoon every so often, only coming back to the thread to directly abuse one or two people or generally disagree with some things being said...
In other words, Classic STW! 🙄
I thought Gordon too as soon as I saw him. Google confirms the veracity of your assertion allyharp. I should go to bed now.
Soon Mrs Starship will be along to tell us he's alright but we should all plug our bars.
its Gordon 🙂
May I?
Seems okay to me.
Forget Action De, Rose, CRC and the likes. As the bike is with a real shop selling at RRP.
Am I right in thinking that labour charges apply when the work is under way?
Prior to that there's the inspection by an employee of the shop. And the bike is taking up valuable retail space in the meantime.
My own take on it is to buy the tools as and when needed, based on the assumption I'll be needing them again in the future
Out of interest do the likes of Action.De, Rose and CRC actually service the bikes they sell. Surely they just don't dump that job on the very shops they seem intent to destroy.
Surely they just don't dump that job on the very shops they seem intent to destroy.
Surely it took someone with balls to invest his money and/or remortage their house to set up and build the business. When it gets/got to a certain size they'd need to reinvest again for new systems/improved storage etc.
Lets not forget just because its a web-portal they don't employ staff to answer emails, goods in, pick, pack, put away, stock-count, deal with returns, faulty with manufacturers, accounts, water/utility/Business taxes...
Just because they don't have a shop window doesn't mean they aren't incurring costs. Some of them even have a sales floor for customers in the business. So in essence no difference. They are just more successful.
Not every LBS is a poverty business either. Some make it work.....
Not every LBS is a poverty business either. Some make it work..
Indeed, I know this very well.
Yup, its Gordon - He got all impatient on the turn table because he was being all self important and went before it was ready and slid off down the embankment... where children laughed at him.
Ohmygodistillrememberthatafterlike25yrs...
The two children on the left, looks a bit 'Brokeback Moutain' 😯
Gordon's ALIVE????
Man takes abused bike into bike shop, gives them blank cheque to fix it.Man gets phonecall telling him how much it is to fix.
Man goes on Singletrack Forum to ask if he's paying too much.
Man omits lots of details, leaving scope for lots of people with half baked ideas to argue with each other.
That pretty much sums it up for me.
Why do businesses always get clattered for trying to run at a profit?
I had to do some 'running repairs' after a lap of Sherwood recently. In the car park with my tool box out and the crank off ... 3 people asked me if I could fix their bikes!! "Sorry, but no - It's my only day off, I bothered to come prepared & I want to ride"
Some people have the knowledge, skills and time to do it themselves - others have to pay LBS. If you're not happy, shop around or learn but don't bleat.
As for the five minute brake bleed .... please!! If you want a good job, it can take longer than that to make sure the callipers are centralised properly. (You'll NEVER get a 100% bleed without removing them). I'd be terrified to ride some of the poster's bikes quickly. 🙄
There is a fair price for these things and in my opinion a lot of overcharging goes on in the bike industry.
Some of the workshop charging looks more like the motor trade. The techs are often paid a pittance.
As a beginner I took my bike into my lbs to sort out shifting problems. Was a simple issue - rear gear cable change. Guess how much they charged? £80 because the technician struggled with routing the internal cable.
Six months later, I attempted to do it myself. Very little experience, no technical ability - it took me less than 30 minutes.
I've now bought the tools and do most things myself.
Some of the workshop charging looks more like the motor trade. The techs are often paid a pittance.
Which techs? Many car mechanics are paid a pittance as well. And fixing bikes is at least as hard as fixing cars - in fact often harder, fixing a bike quite often requires some real thought, with cars it's often "remove duff part, bolt on new part".
And fixing bikes is at least as hard as fixing cars - in fact often harder, fixing a bike quite often requires some real thought, with cars it's often "remove duff part, bolt on new part".
I beg to differ, name one comparable car job that's harder on a bike?
To put it into perspective, I could have my Midgets gearbox rebuilt by the MGOC for half the price the OP paid for his drivetrain to be replaced! And looking at the fixed price repairs list in most bike shops, it's actualy cheeper to have a car tyre repaired at quick fit than it is a bike tire at Evans!
There aren't directly comparable jobs, that's my point. By that logic, aircraft mechanics should be paid a lot more, and ship engineers should be millionaires.
And fixing bikes is at least as hard as fixing cars - in fact often harder
There aren't directly comparable jobs
OK, ignoring the 'comparable' bit even, which job on a bike is harder than any job on a car?
i tried hard to think of this and every job on a bike is easier
the only thing is that some brake pads are really easy and not at all fiddly on a car but it would still be more "hassle" to do on a car. No tmuch in that tbh.
Bearing change on a frame about the same say? both perhpas needing blind bearing puller etc
[i]which job on a bike is harder than any job on a car?[/i]
fitting a sunroof?
its all mechanics -- you can either do it or you cant ime.
train a donkey itll be a fast donkey but you cannot make it into a race horse.
you can train anyone to be a part fitter but to properly fix something requires a mindset rather than a skill imo.
another part of the issue is - how many cycle mechanic apprenticeships do you see. too many shops are employing bums on seats and making bike builders and part fitters rather than mechanics.
Wheel building can be a challenge!
Still not that hard though!
Seriously?
And fixing bikes is at least as hard as fixing cars - in fact often harder, fixing a bike quite often requires some real thought, with cars it's often "remove duff part, bolt on new part".
Would love to hear what car mechanics would have to say on this!!!
There is a fair price for [s]these[/s] most things and in my opinion a lot of overcharging goes on in [s]the bike industry[/s] general.
There, that's better.
Would love to hear what car mechanics would have to say on this!!!
I was half teasing - though I fix my car and it's almost always been easier than some bike repair jobs. With a car, you can usually just set about it with a hammer - with a bike, you need a bit of finesse.
Teasing again 🙂
Really, what I object to is the idea that bikes are easier to repair than cars - smaller yes, and requiring different skills, but not any easier.