Dropped in a wheel to LBS as I snapped a spoke and it has come out of true. Costing £16 so was just wondering if that was about right. I am not paying begrudgingly or complaining it was a rip off as it is local and that is how much they hcarge. Should I have a look around next time.

If it makes a difference it is on my road bike and they are pretty bog standard wheels not bladed spokes or anything.

£4 last time they charged me for it.

£11 last time I had it done

Free for my last one, admittedly he didn't need to true it much, & I bought a couple of sets of pads while I was there

£16 is pretty good I reckon. It's easily a half hour job when you factor in taking tyre and tube off, and cassette if it's on the drive side. Getting the spoke in and tightening is the quick part, retensioning can sometimes by done by the note it makes when you tap it in comparison to the others but this is no hard and fast rule. Truing is a dark art and if you've no experience of doing it then it's difficult to appreciate how long it can take to get a wheel true and round if it's been well out of sync. £2 for the spoke and nipple, £12.50 plus VAT for the labour @£25 p/h…sounds like a pretty good deal to me

£25 p/h for a bike mechanic? That's graduate salary!

£5 last time for me. I had taken the tyre and tube off though…

£25 per hour labour charge is about right, not salary for the mechanic, two VERY different things.
We charge £10 to true up & re tension + the spoke, assuming tyre, tube & if rear cassette are all still fitted. Unless it's a regular, or other items are being purchased at the same time.

£6ish the last couple of times for me which I thought was good value.

£25/hr is way beyond graduate salary. But lets face it, it's still a damn sight less than a car stealership would charge.

sounds about right, spokes have to be the most overpriced bike part ever, it's a joke when you considder that a BSO costs more than the spokes on a "proper bike's" wheel!

£15 quid to true the wheel – around a quid for each spoke.

Quite alot involved in it – tyre/tube/rim tape/freehub/cassette/…..

Dont forget – spokes come in a box of 72 or 100 !!! 🙄

That's spot on what I paid here in Dundee. Seems a bit, but I figure wheels are something you don't want to get wrong…

Yep spot on.

£25 p/h for a bike mechanic? That's graduate salary!

what the hell did you graduate in?
i did the wrong course!!

i would suggest, a quid for a spoke, a few quid for a spoke key (reusable so doesnt really count) and 10 mins in the shed?
:p

10£ per wheel for a wheel build not sure how much for truing 🙂

My LBS don't charge me to replace any spokes I break.
As long as they built the wheel for me in the first place.
I always remove the tyre/ casset / disc myself though.

Was on a 200k road bike ride in Italy a couple of years ago, riding along the side of Lake Iseo broke a spoke on my rear Kysyrium SSC, stood at the side of the road feeling sorry for myself and soaking from an earlier storm, guy in a people carrier stops and seeing my problem sticks me and the bike in the car and runs me to the LBS whilst phoning forward.Shop is a Pinarello dealer with nothing for sale under 4,000 Euros and a workshop that you could eat your dinner off . Despite much grubbing around in the spoke box they couldn't find the correct length spoke, so they do nothing more than take a wheel out of a Prince on display,remove the spoke rendering it unsalable, fix my wheel, true it and charge me 8 Euros, true spirit of cycling and probably only in Italy!!

@pistonbroke that's a great story 🙂

Can't imagine *any* bike shop here doing that

£16 at evans last year, £10 at lex's last week.

true spirit of cycling and probably only in Italy!!

Indeed. The Italians are like that, really, really nice people I've found. And they can cook a bit, too. 🙂

£25 per hour is most definitely NOT the mechanic's wages. The £25 has to cover:
Premises costs – rent, lighting, heating
Equipment costs – a workshop full of professional level tools is a considerable investment
Admin time – admittedly most cycle shops won't have their own human resources dept but any business that employs people will have paperwork to be done and no one really wants to do it for free.

Just the same as any business that provides a service….

I'm having my front wheel re-built at the moment, new spokes, new rim. Labour is 15 quid.

S.

Can't imagine *any* bike shop here doing that

I'd probably draw the line at spokes but I have canibalised new bikes for stuff like seatposts and mechs before. I did once lend a regular a set of Fox forks from a demo bike whilst his were being fixed under warranty. Thankfully his own forks were back on the bike when it was stolen a week later. That could have been a difficult situation to sort out.

easily a half hour job when you factor in taking tyre and tube off, and cassette if it's on the drive side.

No need to take tyre, tube off necessarily, adn if you did you'd have to remove the rim tape!

It's one of those jobs, you'd charge a few £ for someone you know, more to a stranger (£16 seems steep IMO though) and more again if it's more than just retightening the spoke in question.

No need to take tyre, tube off necessarily, adn if you did you'd have to remove the rim tape!

read the OP – how do you remove a broken spoke and install a new spoke without taking off the tyre, inner tube and rim tape? Oh, and the cassette if it's on the drive side?

Unscrew the broken bit out of the nipple, keep the nipple in place. Thread new spoke through and re-tension? It'd be fiddly but I'm sure you can do it.

Most spokes break at the bend don't they?