Well being an out of work ex mechanic, id be quite happy to find another workshop role, but the chances of even matching my last salary are slim at best!

Don’t get me started on this…after 35 years in the motor trade I thought I had seen it all…until I retrained and entered the cycle trade…I worked in 3 shops and turned down a 4th…poverty level wages(Evans pay less than 15 k),unrealistic expectations (I met them all at the time but they were not sustainable) and dysfunctional and blinkered management,both in chains and LBS’s.
My advice?..stay out of it and just enjoy your riding
I drive a delivery van around London now..and earn far more than a Cytech 2 mechanic was apparently worth to the local bike trade.

To be fair, it’s not just the cycle trade’s fault – it’s not like most LBS owners are raking it in either. It’s that being a cycle mechanic is devalued by the public because “it’s only a bike”.

Another part of the problem is bikes are too cheap. Not the ones most people here ride, but the ones most bike shops have to repair – the cheap supermarket bikes. When someone can buy a whole new bike for £100, then repairing it has to be cheap to be worth doing. Then the shop can’t charge more for repairing expensive bikes, so the labour costs are driven by the cheap end of the market.

After a year of pushing for it I’ve moved from £5/h to £7/h, which is pretty good given that I’m under 21 (hence £5.13 minimum wage) and working part time. I work in a family owned shop, but a pretty successful once with several shops dotted around. Hopefully, I should be going to uni next year so I won’t be staying forever.

I hear you but do you begrudge the man or woman on a low or average wage being able to stretch their wage to a half decent bike or parts?

I am that man. I can afford a few nice bikes because I’m sensible with my money

Do you think the labour charges are cheap?

Yes.

I drive a delivery van around London now..and earn far more than a Cytech 2 mechanic was apparently worth to the local bike trade.

If money is all you need then well done.

I can fully understand why mechanics wages are the level they are, doesn’t mean it’s right and probably explains why all the decent mechanics round me have stopped working for shops and set their own one man and a van/garage/small unit businesses up just mechanicing and selling small parts/consumables

Which is great for the likes of me that does most stuff myself but occasionally needs their expertise as their overheads and therefore prices are a little bit lower than the big shops they used to work for

without the internet how did you know if you were getting a bad deal

By seeing Ribble, Geoffrey Butler’s, etc ads full of cheap kit in Cycling Weakly.

Well, this thread is a good counterpoint to so many others on STW which give the impression I’m earning 10X less than everyone else…

Yeah I wonder how many of those on this thread saying “that’s an appalling wage” or “I couldn’t live on that” are also those who think CRC is the greatest thing ever

Eh?
A good workshop should pay for itself surely? Why would buying stuff elsewhere affect a bike mechs wages?

Perhaps I’ve been living in a cave for too long, but those salaries seem very low!

Started Jan 99, on roughly 15k, got made redundant a couple of months ago on about 21k.
2 shops, 16 years experience, Cytech level 3, can do everything from fix a puncture, service a suspension fork to building wheels and stripping and rebuilding a Sturmey Archer hub.
Looking for a new job and looks like, if I decide to keep at it, that’ll be back to where I was in 99 money wise!
Not sure I want to, can earn more working at Lidl, for less hours and less bullshit and no skills.
Might be time to reclaim my hobby as a hobby not a job!

If you were living in a cave,you’d have a lot of company from all the mechanics who can only afford tom live there too.
Evans advertising for full time mechanic…£14,900 a year.Sales bod £13,900.

Some excellent points made by Ben and Scotroutes amongst others.

I drive a delivery van around London now..and earn far more than a Cytech 2 mechanic was apparently worth to the local bike trade.

Do you not see that it’s not how much the mechanic is worth to the trade per se (I’d guarantee you that more or less any LBS owner values a good mechanic very highly indeed) but how much they can afford to pay, based on how much the public are willing to pay for their services?

Eh?
A good workshop should pay for itself surely? Why would buying stuff elsewhere affect a bike mechs wages?

Absolutely – and they do. Labour charges, plus margin on parts fitted, is the way they do this. If that margin is eroded – either by people buying online, and bringing their own parts in, by having to lower prices so that people don’t feel you’re “ripping them off” – then it gets harder – and either mechanic’s wages go down, or labour charges have to go up.

I think it would be a shame if those on a low income were priced out of the sport. An entry-level second-hand bike can be picked up for relatively little and is more than good enough to enjoy riding. I think the issues we’re predominantly seeing in the trade are more to do with people thinking they should get XT for SLX money – or Deore money – rather than those who can barely afford to partake.

not quite the same question, but someone might be able to offer an explanation, which may partly explain the problem of wages.

I can buy a Schwalbe Rocket Ron from Bike24 for 37Euro and a stated RRP of 55euro, where as ChainReaction want £45 against an RRP of £50 for the same tyre.

those are fairly substantial differences, Somewhere there is an explanation and i am guessing LBS pricing isn’t really it.

I used to get 50 quid a day as a part time LBS mechanic in the late 80’s. Just to subsidise student loan and generally poor wages for what i was doing for a full time job.

Don’t think the boss was too worried if it was too low or too high, as it was mostly used to buy bike bits………

Working as a team mechanic cuts out the middle man, you just get given free gear (as long as you are roughly the same size as one of the team riders….)

those are fairly substantial differences, Somewhere there is an explanation and i am guessing LBS pricing isn’t really it.

Different trade prices, loss leaders, direct, OEM etc. lots of reasons out there, the small guy gets lumbered with the 1 supplier and not much bargaining power but has to be the face of the brand.

It sounds like working as a CyTech mechanic is a bit like working as a service technician in a Ferrari garage….

“Can you please upgrade my crankset from ’15 XTR to ’16 XTR….”

“Can you please upgrade my crankset from ’15 XTR to this ’16 XTR….I got from the Internet because you lot are a rip off, how much? It’s only a 2 min job, have some jaffa cakes you don’t look like you have eaten in a while“

Fify

I worked in a bike shop after uni for a couple of years to fund snowboarding and bike trips to the Alps.

I earnt naff all and far too much of my earnings ended up back in the shop! Whilst I quite enjoyed it, it did seem like the owners didn’t care or listen to what the staff said. The main gripe was that they were so far detached from modern bikes and the local riding scene that our stock was not in line with what the market wanted! They made this worse by fixing orders to one day a week….no wonder customer went to Wiggle / CRC etc.

I’m guessing the wages aren’t massively better than they were when I was at a shop these days given pressure from online etc.

not quite the same question, but someone might be able to offer an explanation, which may partly explain the problem of wages.

I can buy a Schwalbe Rocket Ron from Bike24 for 37Euro and a stated RRP of 55euro, where as ChainReaction want £45 against an RRP of £50 for the same tyre.

those are fairly substantial differences, Somewhere there is an explanation and i am guessing LBS pricing isn’t really it.

Suppliers are able to give different discounts based on volume – the shop I worked in used to buy a lot of inner tubes from Specialized and paid peanuts for them. The mark up was massive.

The likes of Madison had different trade prices depending on volume / level of trade etc but even so as far as I know, the XTR BB’s being jobbed out by Bike Discount etc are less than trade over here. The sale of OE stuff direct has reduced prices big time but cutting out distrubutors who handle stock, need to make a profit etc.

In the case Conti and Schwable tyres, I’ve just assumed that they’re cheaper in Germany due to being German companies.

Halfords paid me £16,000 pa when I worked there 15 years ago!, moved to a lbs and got a lot less.

not quite the same question, but someone might be able to offer an explanation, which may partly explain the problem of wages.

I can buy a Schwalbe Rocket Ron from Bike24 for 37Euro and a stated RRP of 55euro, where as ChainReaction want £45 against an RRP of £50 for the same tyre.

those are fairly substantial differences, Somewhere there is an explanation and i am guessing LBS pricing isn’t really it.

Prices (both trade & RRP) were set when the exchange rate was circa 1.1 euros to the £…

Exchange rate is now 1.42 to the £ and nobody has done anything about it!

The UK bike trade is getting a raw deal right now because of the weak Euro and lots of cheap imports. 2 years ago it was much easier for a LBS to be competitive on price.

Genuine question…

If buying through official channels is so cost prohibitive, what’s to stop a an independent bike shop just basing its business model on sourcing everything from bike24 / acycles / bike.discount et al ?

Would/could these continental shops be allowed to supply direct to a UK business ?

No, you would then burn your bridges with your distribution who handles warranty etc. I know of one major player who is looking to streamline distribution and more strictly enforce cross border stuff. Better for both the shops and the customer.

Their prices are usually at/around uk trade prices.
I have seen stuff bought cheap off crc to sell at full retail (and have certainly directed customers towards better deals before now) but it was usually crap no one wanted anyhow and just the lbs owner being greedy and getting over excited at the thought of getting something cheap.I think most of it is still there.
Otherwise availability and warranty backup.Also not pissing off your rep is usually good practice.
That said the much lauded ‘Shineybikes’ used to do this a lot and then try and bring their warranty returns to us to sort out (as a lot of suppliers would’nt give them an account).

There was a warranty related thread on here last week where someone had a problem with some Shimano bought from Merlin and couldn’t fathom why it was having to be sent back to Belgium.

Can’t be bothered with the copy and paste on my phone but I was offered a job at Halfords about 2 years ago (I’ve got a mortgage OK..?!) and as a Cytech 2 mechanic with a bit of experience I was offered minimum wage plus 51p/hr for my qualification. I turned it down when I was offered £18,500 plus up to £4K bonus* 25 miles further away.
They’ll never get decent staff at that wage.

*Yes I did hit it. 🙂

Another issue to consider is that while the workshop will be rammed during the summer. When it’s 10deg and raining, dark. cold, wet and miserable the workshop will have very few jobs (only the keen are riding, and the keen are much more likely to do there own spannering). Do you keep paying your staff over the winter when the amount of work doesn’t justify their costs, paying a mechanic £10 per hour during the summer is possible, as long as you can pay them nothing over the winter when you don’t need them. I’d rather give my staff an all year round job, albeit on wages which are lower than they deserve but all the shop can afford.

Another issue to consider is that while the workshop will be rammed during the summer. When it’s 10deg and raining, dark. cold, wet and miserable the workshop will have very few jobs (only the keen are riding, and the keen are much more likely to do there own spannering). Do you keep paying your staff over the winter when the amount of work doesn’t justify their costs, paying a mechanic £10 per hour during the summer is possible, as long as you can pay them nothing over the winter when you don’t need them. I’d rather give my staff an all year round job, albeit on wages which are lower than they deserve but all the shop can afford.

I remember the workshop in the shop I worked in being rammed all year round. The mechanics were also busy building / checking bikes as they were sold.

Yep. Very much depends on location and customers. A city-centre shop with lots of commuters can see a bit of traffic as things wear out or need serviced over the winter and Christmas purchases can mean a few bike builds. Quite a few companies start their C2W schemes in January too.

Jan/feb is the time of re-organising the workshop.Sorting the store room shelving/decorating the shop and generally trying to look busy without actually doing too much actual work.
I’d like to continue working on bikes as it’s something I am actually good at and I don’t detest it like every other job I’ve had.I’d even come to terms with the financial limitations it puts on my life at 40+.
But unless I move away it’s not going to happen.
And I like living where I live.Hmmm

Evening. I’m not talking about stepping upto XT from SLX. I run SLX brakes, cranks etc on my ONLY mountain bike. I’m talking about enabling people to afford even the basics and enjoying it.

How many people would get to the point of giving up hobby riding as a complete drivetrain would just be too much, that one step where you need to focus on other areas I.e bills. How many shopworkers without the discount and living carefully would give up?

Peterpoddy, not sure about your mortgage but my mortgage repayments are lower than norm but if I earnt just above min wage I’d struggle to afford a hobby. Any hobby.

Small children cost £££. So does Gas, electricity and a normal mortgage.

Forget a mortgage though, renting costs money unless you are in a council or shared/housing association or ex-council house mortgage.

So how do shop AND internet shop staff afford to get by?

Someone’s making money.

Peace.

So how do shop AND internet shop staff afford to get by?

Someone’s making money.

And it’s not the shop owners, I can tell you that. We earn less than ANY of our staff at the moment (which is fine, it’s our choice to try to build a business, and I don’t regret it at all). I don’t think we’re unusual in this respect. When you work out the hourly rate, we don’t get even vaguely close to minimum wage – but then we’re doing something we (mostly) enjoy a great deal so it beats working for a living.

Seriously, hora, if you think it’s that easy and there’s loads of money to be made, why don’t you open a shop?

Maybe assuming SLX is entry-level is a problem.

Maybe assuming SLX is entry-level is a problem.

Indeed. What sort of spend would you have to be looking at before complete bikes would be kitted out with SLX brakes? I reckon £1200 plus for a hardtail or easily £2000 plus for full-sus. Very much in the luxury sector, rather than the only-just-able-to-afford-the-hobby sector.

I’ve worked as a mechanic and workshop manager for a number of independent shops (Freeborn, Cyclopedia, Sigma Sport, Giant Docklands) and chain retailers (Evans Cycles, Cycle Surgery) in the South-East, specifically in Surrey and London.

I’ve seen the shops really struggle with attracting good workshop staff (and sales staff), and then struggle even harder to retain them. The constant staff churn does no business any favours. But people cannot afford to live on unsustainable incomes.

At chain retailers they will pay the minimum that they can get away with; however in a well managed and busy store you can take home an additional £100-200 a month in bonus, based on bike building and service performance.

At Evans there used to be a strict hierarchy of bike builders on minimum wage, mechanics on a little more and the workshop manager around £16-17K.

Bear in mind, this could be running the workshop in a store turning over £2-3 million PA with responsibility for 2-3 bike builders and 2 mechanics, shows you how little they want to pay!

Cycle Surgery was no better in terms of pay, and now they employ even supervisor roles on zero hour contracts.

Independents vary massively depending on their setup and turnover.

High end road retailers like Sigma pay above the norm because they need the best workshop staff, even in Winter we had huge amounts of high end work going through the workshop including many custom builds.

A good mechanic could earn 18-20K depending on experience. As workshop manager my salary could top out around £30K with performance bonus. However, 10-12 hour days were not uncommon.

In my current role I earn mid £20’s, my mechanic £16K. He can’t afford to live in London on this salary and is moving to Berlin in 3 weeks.

It won’t be easy to find a replacement as £16K in London is just not sustainable. The business cannot afford to pay more as sales are slack as more and more customers shop on-line.

I certainly do..I bought a pair of Shimano RS81 road bike wheels last week from Wiggle. It was £80 cheaper than buying them through our store by using the trade account with Madison.

Makes you wonder really?

something else I should add.

a good friend on mine is quite senior at a well known chain retailer, and responsible for bike fitting across the entire company

he recently commented that chain stores just don’t care about having good mechanics any more, they will get away with paying as little as possible to retain staff.

the new “thing” in stores is the bike fitter, which he said has surpassed the bicycle mechanic as the latest money spinner for cycle shops, and since good bike fitters are in short supply, wages are higher.

Now my friend is not an idiot by any means, and completely understands the value of good mechanics, but was commenting on the internal thinking in the company. You’d also be shocked by how many mechanics, although time served, have no formal mechanic qualifications.

Since Evans stopped putting workshop staff through Cytech a few years back, Cytech mechanics in London are becoming more of a rarity.

I’d strongly suggest mechanics get trained in bike fitting if possible, I certainly did and have 100+ bike fits to my name, which really helps amp up the wages when going for a new job and the employer finds out you can custom build bikes and then fit the customer to that bike

it adds a huge value to workshop staff during the quieter Winter months; however based on my experiences of having worked with and employed many mechanics over the years, not all mechanics are good “people-people” as many are excellent “thing-people” which explains their affinity for the spannering

the SLX were cheap. If they were full RRP I’d have bought Deore. They replaced first gen original Saints from circa 2005?

Wheelwise I’m on creaking Hope’s. Again if they had been full RRP I’d have bought secondhand. Everyone seems to think punters are made of big stacks of disposable cash. Stop the attractive APR% and then watch new high end bike sales dip..by how much?

Mostly I’ve always bought used frame and forks- that’s how I could afford the hobby, bills bills and more bills.

Please don’t blame the punter. Everyone tries to make their money go that bit further.

I don’t know but tell you what, my local bike shop charges (wait for it) £60 per hour for labour. WTF.

I don’t know but tell you what, my local bike shop charges (wait for it) £60 per hour for labour. WTF.

But it’s a price you would willing pay to a car mechanic to fix your car. Your bike is no different if you don’t know how.

In general bikes are not that difficult to repair, of course I’m talking about quality new bikes, but most people would run out of knowledge when it comes to older, obscure, standards, and what’s compatable with what, etc.

It’s then down to experience and knowledge, something Cytech can’t teach. How much does a workshop value that? Not a lot by the looks of the quoted salaries.