I’ve just been truly done over by my local bike shop. It’s very big and flash. They specialise in specialised. Anywho i digress, I’ve just allegedly had my gear hanger straightened and gears fine tuned (they weren’t that bad I just hate any kind of mis alighnment) I was charged TWENTY FIVE QUID .
The one thing I can’t sus out is gears……

How much did you expect to pay?

Sounds fair enough price.

about right, TBH I’d straighten that myself and indexing is 2 min job. Maybe learn how to then save your money.

So about 30 mins work?

What do you do and how much do you charge / get paid? Skilled labour doesn’t come cheap especially when you’ve got to pay rent, hold stock etc

How long would it have taken you to do it – and a new mech hanger is normally about 15-20 quid. Straightening one to make it work is an art so you’ve done ok for the price I reckon

Btw – park tools website has a whole section on gears.

From experience if you’ve bent your mech hanger you’re probably never going to get rid of the misalignment until you get a new hanger and then maybe bought a new mech as well

What do you mean “not that bad”?

Yes about right,
bit of trying to sort gears out by cable tension etc, (unless hanger really bent) bit of trouble shotting
check and straighten hanger
redo limit screws and index gears

2 min, wow we have a super mechanic! 🙄

Well I gotta disagree . Halfords . Yes halfords did the same many months back fo £6.50 not that bad ad in only a couple gears weren’t shifting perfectly .

Many months back?

[Waits for the OP to tell us they also changed the cables]

Also,

What do you do and how much do you charge / get paid? Skilled labour doesn’t come cheap especially when you’ve got to pay rent, hold stock etc

gear hanger straightened

This be seems key – the (really anally retentive) mechanic at my LBS would get his mech-hanger-alignment tool out to check a brand new hanger as he reckons they’re generally not straight enough. I had no idea such a thing existed 🙂

Sounds like an ok price to me for something you can’t do

Seems about right for a simple job off the stuff-people-should-really-be-able-to-do-themselves menu 🙂

Don’t want to come across like I’m criticising you or owt – but £6.50 sounds really cheap especially for Halfords

Tbh – it sounds like the last time it was just a case of retensioning the cable and maybe oiling it. This time it’s a bigger piece of work particularly if you’ve bent the mech hanger. Takes a fair bit of time to get it working right.

In fact – it actually sounds like they have a mechanic who knows what he’s doing and charges accordingly instead of just plucking figures from the air. £30 for 2 visits is actually not a bad price for Halfords. I know it probably seems expensive compared to last time but it probably was significantly more work

Monkeyfudger no, was about 5 months. Only had adjustment. Guessing your female as your so presumptuous.

Where in the country. Down south seems reasonable, bit steep up north.

Ask for a price before you take the bike in, if it is too high find somewhere else?

My gear hanger may have been checked but in no way was it bent. The gears were shifting fine all but a couple which took a few seconds to cross. 8 replace as soon as something needs it.

“My gear hanger may have been checked but in no way was it bent. The gears were shifting fine all but a couple which took a few seconds to cross. 8 replace as soon as something needs it.”

See we have two side of every story. We have someone who admits they dont know gears saying it was in no way bent -and we have someone whos trained to work with gears saying it was

I know who ill believe without seeing it with my own eyes prior to repair.

Anyway i’d have charged you 18 quid for that -7 years ago.

Cost me £10 at the Bedgebury trail bike shop the other day – took him 5 mins. I thought it was reasonable as it was the middle of nowhere, I was feeling lazy and my bike felt awesome afterwards. If you don’t like prices there are quite a few YouTube tutorials and it’s not too hard – would have taken me 4 x as long and delayed others on the ride though.

I’d have to drive 25 mins to nearest Halfords. I use my LBS, but only for the stuff I can’t fix. I’m a regular so he often provides extra and or discount without asking. If your drop in then I guess it costs more.

Guessing your female as your so presumptuous.

Lolz!

Only a few gears not working is generally a classic symptom of a bent mech hanger.

Pretty sure my LBS would’ve charged me nowt.

This is the tool

And you need someone trained to use it. If the hanger is too twisted, it will need replacing

A good aftermarket hanger from a company like Wheels Manufacturing (CNC machined from quality aluminium, rather than the soft, cast b*llocks provided by OE suppliers) will cost £19.99 and will actually be straight out of the packet – and less flexible = better shifting under load

Whereas many OE hangers are twisted from new, and will then require use of Park tool and trained mechanic

My higher and lower gears worked fine . Only a couple mid range wouldn’t go in properly. I tried barrel adjustment etc . If it was a bent hanger it would have been the gears at either end of the rear sprocket . Not just a couple mid range. Common sense.

your last post makes no sense.as stated before mid range is where twisted hangers manifest them selves mostly …..

unfortunantly common sense is not common to most 😀

Learn to do it yourself. You pay the price a shop would charge you to do it when you purchase the necessary tool but after that you’ve got the tool and skill for life.

@beermonst3r44

the mid range gears can be effected by the hanger being twisted (relative to the fore/aft) rather than bent inwards or outwards (deflection)

I have a brand new cannondale that indexes fine, but the OE hanger is slightly twisted and this presents as noise in the middle of the gear range

£15 for gear adj at work and yes a twist will cause delay or some noise mid block
Bent in or out makes them index at one end or the other but not both

My higher and lower gears worked fine . Only a couple mid range wouldn’t go in properly. I tried barrel adjustment etc . If it was a bent hanger it would have been the gears at either end of the rear sprocket . Not just a couple mid range. Common sense.

Well if you you know so much** then surely you should be able to sort it yourself.

The price you’ve paid for that job is more than reasonable. Do you expect all jobs you have done by trained professionals to cost the price of some tea and biscuits?

**you clearly don’t btw

Good info esher shore as usual 🙂

Sounds fair enough if the hanger was slightly twisted (agree with Trail rat).

I think it’s fair to say you have to pay for a skill with either time or money, I don’t want to pay someone else so I do it myself.

If you take it to a specialized dealer you should have expected to pay a specialized price.

Seems about right for one of those places.

Guessing your female as your so presumptuous.

Finally, someone is prepared to adress the real issues here. For too long this forum has tip-toed around these points.

Jokes aside, this is what you need. Hope that helps.

I had a bent mech hanger years ago. Straightened it back by hand, by memory I think with an adjustable spanner – it’s worked fine ever since.

OP. from the symptoms you describe the mech hanger was bent. Breakdown the cost into time and tools needed to do the job.

Remove the mech, 9/10 times you need to remove the chain, alignment tool on to the mech hanger, align it, I’ve had to remove the wheel before now because the hanger was so out out true I needed to put a G clamp over the hanger and drop out to add some stability before getting the hanger somewhere close before fine tuning it with the alignment tool. Mech back on, set the B tension screw, set the low and high limit screws, chain back on, check the cable is clamped correctly, set cable tension.

Tools: Mech hanger alignment tool £50-60, Allen keys £15, cross head screwdriver £7.50, possible chain tool and quick link pliers, possible quick link to rejoin the chain.

£25 sounds perfectly reasonable.

* Every mech hanger I’ve ever fitted needed to be aligned with the hanger tool. Doesn’t matter how much it costs, it’s how it sits in your frame.

yup, my LBS will get the alignment tool out quite a bit (especially with me around..) and sometimes a integral hanger there is no option to get the threaded bolt out, and gently persuade it back to alignment.

Old axle is quite handy for that.

I would say – if they’re v experienced – then that’s not too bad a price to pay to be honest (as with t_r on that)..

Hit a big rock and twisted my mech,snapped my chain and bent the frame hanger on my old 456,everything was badly awry.Took it to the (really)old guy at my LBS.He straightened the mech cage and hanger, reset all the gears and also tuned the front mech as well.The gears have never ran so well!Did feel a bit sheepish when he only charged my a fiver 😳 Mind you he made me laugh when he said he didn’t understand why an expensive looking frame like mine didn’t have detachable hanger.

I think you’ll find OP, if you check the reciept, that the gear indexing was only a fiver. the other twenty quid was a charge for not pointing and laughing at you for being mechanically inept…

They’re doing this sort of thing now. Along with a “spouse reciept” so you don’t have to own up to being fleeced to the boss…

Everyone’s a winner…

It seems high to me, but then I would have just done it myself, so £10 would have a seemed expensive, I suppose once you think about overheads, sick pay etc. Maybe not too bad.

I can get my gears only so far but am always unable to get them absolutely ‘dialled in’ as I like them so always take to my lbs for the final tune which they generally do for free or for a couple of quid depending on how busy they are. I think the difference is I buy nearly everything from my lbs rather than crc or wiggle etc so they don’t mind doing the little jobs for me as and when I need them. It’s a relationship that seems to suit us both and overall I’d don’t think I end up spending any more by buying form my lbs.

A good relationship with a good lbs is hard to come by, lbs male owners can be a funny bunch sometimes. I usually find that if you’ve been slightly overcharged at one point you’ll find yourself undercharged or not charged at all for a small job in the future. Op £25 does seem a lot to you BUT you do now have a working bike, go ride it and enjoy.