I’m interested in what people have actually paid to a LBS for the labour (not parts) to build a bike?

p.s. yes I should be able to do it myself!

JE James told me they would charge me £40 to strip my frame ready for sending off to ATB. i would assume that includes the cost of building it back up again. so in theory it should only cost 20 – 30 quid. but i suspect it would be a lot more

Depends. I work in a shop and if you buy all the bits from us including frame and forks then we’ll build it free, chuck in cables and pedals for free as well. Just buy a frame and forks then we’ll probably charge £50 for swapping the bits over and building your new bike (this could also be free though depending on frame and froks bought). Buy all the bits elsewhere and come to us asking for it to be all put together then cost will be £80-100 depending on whats involved. Stripping and rebuilding for warranty claims usually £30.

The ever excellent Mike Cooksons in that there Whitefield built my bike for nowt when I bought a frame from them.

Should add build is including bleed on disc brakes.
So £120 sounds a little bit pricey then…?

3 hrs work? @ £40 an hour?

So £120 sounds a little bit pricey then…?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends if it’s a complete build from brand new parts that you haven’t bought there then not really – facing BB/disc mounts etc, cutting steerer tube, fitting headset, cutting hoses to length and bleeding – you’re looking at 3-4hrs and the use of specialist tools and an experienced/trained mechanic to do the job right and get it all set up perfectly.*
If you’ve bought all the parts there or if it’s a build up using existing bits that are already cut to size etc then it should be a bit cheaper – £60-100 ish depending on the shop and the particular job.

* Doubtless there’ll be someone comes along to tell of how they built up their bike from scratch in 30 mins while simultaneously cooking tea for 3 screaming kids and also watching Eastenders…

I got mine built up for free when I bought the frame off them..

They took all the bits off my old frame and swapped it over.

Mind, when i got my new forks- my mate fitted them for me..

£120 is upper end just for labour on its own.

I would aim to go for £30 an hour.

Generally though it would be a priced job – this way there is no reason for the mech to delay and if there is a pain in the arse job to do makes sure the mech gets it done quick so time is not wasted.

I would look to bill about £85 plus any cables/ends/outer as necessary in my shop.

“Generally though it would be a priced job”

…that was my mistake for not asking….job has been done and it was actually more than £120..lesson learnt

TandemJeremy – Member

3 hrs work? @ £40 an hour?

3 Hours blimey I must be the fastest bike builder in the world I built my partners bike up from a box of bits in 2 hours and that included bleeding the brakes, setting up the gears and fitting pannier racks.

Edinburgh co-op catalogue on my sofa says £84 with 20% components

£30 an hour for a bike mechanic 😯

I don’t pay that for a motor mechanic.

Free for the last 4 bikes i have had built, plus they do nice things for me on my other bikes for free. I dont always buy all the bits from the lbs either but always the frame and forks, wheels and brakes which generally comes to more the 3 grand anyway.

I had a look at Ed Co-Op – that’s if you buy frame and parts from them.

4 hours apparently !?

took me a couple of hours to build up my bike from nothing, its really not that hard especially when you have the right tools lying around, its mostly just screwing a bunch of stuff together.

I’d say 3 or even 4 hours to dismantle a bike is overly generous. 45 minutes tops.

I’d say 3 or even 4 hours to dismantle a bike is overly generous. 45 minutes tops.

Not talking about taking it to bits though, talking about a build from scratch/brand new parts so 3-4hrs is what I’d expect to do the job properly.

less than an hour to strip and 3 hours to rebuild from brand new parts, I know cos I’ve just done it including facing and bleeding. 2 hours to build each wheel and there you have it. At least you know the job has been done correctly, including torque settings which lbs’s never seem to bother about!

funnily enough an Edinburgh bike Co-op catalogue fell through my letterbox this morning, while reading it I couldn’t believe they get away with charging nearly £30 for a 5min service (brake and gears adjust & inflate tyres)

4hours? unless they built your wheels from scratch it can’t take a half-decent shop mechanic more than an hour to build a bike.

£120 is taking the piss!!

No wheel build (and no greasing of hubs).
Just to cheer myself up found that it cost £25 an end i.e. £50 for a brake bleed at Evans (how much!) so it makes it sounds [almost] acceptable

I don’t think we’re talking about building a bike from a box here, I think we’re talking a complete new build, from scratch. If you’re talking about fitting a bike together direct from the manufacturer then yes, you CAN do it quickly, assuming you don’t give a toss about checking the rest of the work is done properly.

From scratch then I’d say 3 – 4 hours is about right. Longer if you’re building the wheels (and doing it properly). Over £120 seems steep but if all you did was get them to build it and didn’t buy any bits from them then that’s fair enough in my opinion.

My shop charges £120 for a complete strip, clean, service and rebuild of a bike, a bit less for a new build if parts are not purchased there and free if the parts are purchased there.

As for time…. 3-4 hours sounds fair to me if it’s a complete build from parts including binning all packaging, cutting hoses, bleeding brakes, cutting steerer, setting up gears, test riding and then re-setting gears, truing wheels (often necessary), facing frame and the form filling that bike shops have to do when doing a PDI or build

Just to cheer myself up found that it cost £25 an end i.e. £50 for a brake bleed at Evans (how much!) so it makes it sounds [almost] acceptable

That’s the thing, a “brake bleed” to most people is: top up fluid, squeeze lever, screw on reservoir, go ride.
A brake bleed to a bike shop is: pads out, a complete flush through using compressed air, extend and lube pistons, clean seals, refill with new fluid, refit pads and realign brakes then check it all over.

Bike shop mechanics (and the charges associated with it) is a completely different kettle of fish to what the average rider/home mechanic does. 20-30 mins is normal to build a boxed bike, to build a complete working bike from scratch with brand new boxed parts and set it all up (inc suspension) – that’s easily 3-4hrs.

thanks …I can live with it…I think they are taking the pish a bit…especially as no facing (frame previously faced)..and they had previously fitted fork and headset…so I’m not really sure how much they really had to do.
I’ve had a word with them but left it as it is. They risk losing my future custom and the other people I have sent their way in the past (although I’ll probably just be careful in getting jobs priced up-front)

Cripes, 4 hours sounds rediculous. I think it usually takes me a couple of hours tops to build up a bike, and thats in a cramped shed with no bike stand which makes gears and brakes a faff. I also dont have all of the correct tools to hand so I end up hammering in headset cups and cutting outer cables with a hacksaw etc.

We’re a road only shop and charge £50 for full a road bike build. So maybe stick on another £10 labour for faffing with an MTB build requiring disc brake bleeds/hose shortening etc and I’ say £60 total would be fair?

Oh, forgot – we allow 2hrs for a road build, so an MTB build with discs should take 2-2.5hrs IMO. And I’m a slacker 😉

IME as a wrench I remember building road bikes (including wheels) in 3 hours.

Striping a bike to the frame – 15 minutes?

Having worked in bike shops for a number of years (i would not be happy if the builder of my bike took less than 2 1/2 hours to build it up (not including wheel build) lets take a typical full suss:

face bb (properly) 15 mins to 30 mins (some frames are terrible!)

ream (or just check reaming) on seat tube so not to scratch new seat post 10 mins

Cut steerer of fork to length, fit crown race taper steerer tube and fit fangled 30 – 40 mins

face disc mounts front and rear (if your fitting kings to fox this’ll take ages) 20 – 40 mins

Set up and bleed brakes (45 mins minimum)just puttin discs on wheels properly takes 10 minutes!

actually put whole lot together, set up suspension for riders weight, dial in gears, re-adjust brakes is necessary etc….. oh i give up, anyway it takes a while if you want it done properly.

Also take into account cabling, putting on end crimps, paying an outagious fee to dispose of the huge amount of packaging that came with the parts.

The last time I got a shop to build a bike I took in a box of (very clean) bits and added to it: Frame, brakes, front mech, handlebar.

Build cost = £0.00 including reaming seat tube, shortening disc hoses, and facing rear disc mount.

“anyway it takes a while if you want it done properly.”

we have a winner .. the difference between a bike shaped object and something thats race worthy is about 2 hours …..

My LBS, Skyline built up my bike for me for free from the parts I specced and then ordered from them. It took 6 months or so! But it was a Nicolai. And then they discounted everything by 10%. Top service.

Do it yer bloody self, tis only way you will learn, its not like its difficult!

Otherwise pay £120 and stop complaining

lol davidtay, you think 4 hours is a joke. most shop mechanics would consider 2 hours outragious to build a bike in a shed.. by thwapping bits on with a hammer! 25 mins tops.

Get them to face your bb an ht and press the headset cups in and fit the bb (and pop the crown race on the fork if it’s not split)) then build it yourself.

with 2 people mechanicing, one at each end I have swapped all the components off one cove stiffee frame onto another one in 30minutes! this was a warranty effort and i was one of the two people doing the mechanic role. but i paid nothing.

Most of the shops i go to wouldn’t charge labour if i bought all the stuff from them and i would expect to get at least 10% off components, if not off the whole lot!

if i bought all the stuff in from elsewhere and just asked them to put it all together I would expect a bill of around £100 for labour with no special favours, especially if most of the kit was used and dirty!

Cycle Surgery (robbing chunts) used to charge over £100 and that was years ago. For that you dont get bleeds etc just build.

Thanks to their pricing and personal experience of inept build skills I learnt to build a bike myself.