just out of curiosity how much have any of you guys been charged to bleed a set of hydro brakes (bike was in getting other stuff done) at your lbs.

Had mine done at my lbs that i have a good relationship with but not happy when bill was presented.

Your opinions/costs as a comparison please?

Fitting and a bleed for front and rear 15£.

between 10 – 15 an end was what id charge(but left trade last year ) depending on the make and model.

They are Hayes hfx 9's .

Charged £30 in total (though they did try and true a rotor that was a tad warped).

So it seems i wasn't overcharged then?

They are Hayes hfx 9's .

no amount of money could cover the suffering involved with those – think yourself lucky!

a shop quoted me £25 front and rear to shorten hoses and bleed,
came back to pick bike up and he said they got the estimate wrong
and that it was in fact £25 per end so £50 in total,
I disputed it and he let it go pretty easily,
£30 is about right I'd say

sometimes some brakes can be a right pain,

LBS' have to make a living etc.. But I bled a HFX 9 on one of our hire bikes the other night and it took me under ten minutes including getting all the gear out to do it. But fair enough, if you can't or won't do it yourself you're gonna pay..

£30 sounds about right to me.

could do it myself but got no kit and the bike was in getting some other stuff done so i thought just get it done…..though i just assumed it was a 10 min job each end so guessed it would be around £10-£15 total for brakes, i will ask next time before saying "yeah just give it a bleed ". Live and learn. Happy but surprised .

don't you reckon £30 for maybe a 20 minutes – 1/2 hour's work is ok, you wouldn't get many tradesmen for that rate.

were £16 each end….if youve ever tried to bleed avids you'd understand the price…hopes are a doddle! 😆 thats new fluid though!

Sounds a little steep if you're a regular and you were having other stuff done at the same time.

Well in comparison to them supplying and fitting a bottom bracket plus adjusting/tune up of my gears last year came to £38, it surprised me that the brakes cost £30 thats all.

Even that sounds steep to me. For 40£ I had a full bike built from parts.

Depends what they have done, if you think about it, it is possible to bleed a HFX in around 10 mins, inc getting everything ready and packing away. But lets take the fact that HFX'9s are now an old brake, most likely to be over 2 years old as that's when they got replaced by the Stroker.

So this makes a 'quick bleed' into pad removal, caliper clean and inspect, lever clean and inspect, pump the caliper pistons out halfway, clean them, reset, pump again, clean again, reset. Check all the fixings, bleed, be amazed that a brake containing 50% water and 10% mud can still work at all, bleed through again to remove last traces of said gunk, refit pads, check rotors are straight, chances are they won't be so get out the truing fork and spend 5 mins an end trying to sort out the results of repeated shed stacking/car packing, pump up the brake, and align it.

Not all of this needs doing all the time, but often does. £20-£25 an end, with the time taken, is pretty much bang on. After all, if you took your car to a garage saying "my brakes are all squishy" and you found out that rather than checking your braking system and finding out WHY it let air in/oil out, and just bled it through and sent you on your way, there would be daily mail style outrage at these pirates!

you can't put a price on safety 😉

£7 an end inc fitting a new caliper (which i didn't buy from them).

to be fair, they don't seem to know what their own pricing policy was… another time i got a brake bled and bought a new gear cable and was asked how much I wanted to pay ❗

gonna learn how to do it myself though now 8)

pigyn +1

pigyn +1

what? some spanner monkey wants to ear his keep by overcharging for a simple brake bleed? I'd be very tempted to tell him where to shove his DOT fluid…… but, tbf I do all my own work. I say, buy a good tech manual and learn what you need, saves loads over silly LBS rates

You haven't said what fault you have that requires the brakes to be bled.

HFX9s are a doddle to bleed. I'd understand somebody paying to bleed any avids however. I avoid LBS mechanics if possible, ask a friend/bike club mate for help. Best thing is that you can learn from them over a few beers and then next time, you have a better understanding of what to do (including checking for faults in the brake system)… providing you don't have too many beers of course!

Sorry but Avids are simple to bleed. If you're finding it complex you're doing it wrong.

It's also going to vary in price depending on location and other things as well. A one / two man outfit working out of a shed is going to be cheaper than a nice big, clean, well stocked shop with plenty of staff

ask a friend/bike club mate for help.

Hugh, do what the man says……………….

I’m always amused at people whining about Bike shop spannering prices, indignant at the price of having someone do your dirty work for you but you’ll still probably not bother learning how to do it for yourself will you?

They charge what they charge, it’s not so much the job, as the overheads; Labour, tools, consumables, training, rent, Leccy…. It all adds up, factor these into a 15-20 minute job and the price makes more sense…

Still think businesses should cut their throats just for your business? Fine learn to do your own spanner work then…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH…….

i can do the job, done my avids with a mate before. the bike was in getting some gear cables/outers fitted and fettled (i seem to be dumb when gears are concerned), the lbs checked my bike over and suggested i could do with my brakes bleeding as the pistons didn't seem to be returning properly and the levers were very firm. So i said yup go ahead as i dont currently have a bleed kit for hayes and i can't b arsed right now as i'm busy.

The only thing that surprised me was the price compared to some other jobs i,ve had done. They have done a great job with them as well. My point is not that they were a rip off etc etc just thought the price was a bit of a shock and wanted your opinions on them.

Not sure where all you righteous boys popped up from giving it….do it yourself…..blimey!!

£15 an end at Evans

£30 Sounds about right

£15 for
1 avid juicy 7
hayes stroker ryde
and a pair of hayes sole brakes

preeeety cheap