They quoted me 50 quids. I’ve already fitted the cranks, chain, and mechs, the brifters have been placed in the desired position – all they need to do is set up the brakes and gears with the cables I will provide.

Does the price they quoted seem a bit steep?

Whats their hourly rate?
Is it an internal cable route? Do they have to re tape your bars?

It’s a “learn to do it yourself” tax

As a combined idiot tax and buy-it-on-the-internet-but-still-need-lbs-support penalty that seems reasonable.

If it helps I fitted new cables to my road bike last week, it took less than an hour including new bar tape

They will prob get the YTS boy to do it, it’s not brain surgery

You can work it out from there if it’s a good price or not

I know it doesn’t answer the question but as stated above, I’d recommend that you learn how to do it yourself.

I combine the use of the park tool website – maintenance section

A maintenance book I bought years ago for fiver from Amazon

Asking questions on this forum

And countless videos on YouTube

I may not get the same precision as the LBS but I have learned to do the majority of jobs myself. The only thing I wont touch is wheel building.

its not far off tbh usual charges are around £20 brake setup £20 gearsetup plus mesuring and cutting cables also bar tape if needed so sounds alright altho will probably only take an hour to do
learn how to do it and save money it realy is not that hard.

That’s pretty good.I’d Take off all the the stuff you have ‘helpfully’ done and start from scratch anyway.
Same goes with people who lace/badly tension wheels and then want you to ‘just finish them off’ for the same price as a wheel true.

They will prob get the YTS boy to do it, it’s not brain surgery

That’s a bit harsh…he was only asking 🙄

Rorsasch hits the nail on the head, it’s very easy for a simple cable fit and adjust to be scuppered by bent hangers,out of true rims, mis-routed chains etc. As well as the quoted job,all your diy will also need checking to avoid an “LBS fixed my bike, and then the cranks fell off” scenario.

I type to slow what ^ they said. That’s just how it happens so often

You could get a solicitor to sign a letter for that!

Don’t take this the wrong way, but: you can install a bottom bracket and crank, including getting the torques right etc, but can’t fit brake and gear cables?

I’d start off assuming that the parts weren’t fitted, they were just attached to the frame so they wouldn’t get lost, and remove and refit everything. That way I’d be sure nothing had been missed.

So £50 sounds pretty cheap to me 😉

If it is quite simply just gears and brakes being set up with cables being installed then we would charge £30
but I reckon there are extras on top of that, ie mech hanger straighten, and as others have suggested checking all new bits installed.
so I would say £50 is probably right.

could you give it a go and see if you can get things working? always take it to the LBS if all fails 🙂

As a combined idiot tax and buy-it-on-the-internet-but-still-need-lbs-support penalty that seems reasonable.

Lol.

As a combined idiot tax and buy-it-on-the-internet-but-still-need-lbs-support penalty that seems reasonable.

So the guy’s an idiot for ‘giving it a go’ but wanting the LBS to finish the crucial parts he may not feel confident with?

Well, if the aim was saving money, then yes.

I’ve worked in 4 lbs, never seen any yts scheme used. Most in an lbs aren’t on much more than min wage anyway.

£50 seems fair to me – cheaper is possible but I’d want to cover myself for likely extra work. What makes you think you can fit all the parts correctly when you can’t set up gears and brakes?

If everything is fitted and needs setting up thaen it’s a gear service and a brake service (£20 each) or a level 1 service which is much the same thing at £39.99 in my workshop.

I’d say it’s take me about 1.5 hours to get brakes, mechs and shifters setup and working well.

Seems reasonable to me.

So the guy’s an idiot for ‘giving it a go’ but wanting the LBS to finish the crucial parts he may not feel confident with?

Idiot tax was a reference to the ability level needed to set up road bike brakes and gears. I was doing this from about 12 years old I think without things like you tube clips to refer to. As said above its not rocket science but I guess we are not all wired the same way.

I’m not a complete novice, I can manage most mechanical tasks, just seem
to have a mental block with indexing. Also first time using brifters, so would like them set up
properly first time round.

Thanks for all the useful comments.

I’d say it’s take me about 1.5 hours to get brakes, mechs and shifters setup and working well.

I won’t embarrass you by saying how quickly I can do it these days, but it’s all about practice practice practice. 🙂

STIs. Not brifters.

Think I may need help fitting Brifters. Nothing on them on Google or YouTube.

Pretty sure I could work it out from a pick though.

Think I may need help fitting Brifters. Nothing on them on Google or YouTube.

🙂

I’m imagining from the OP’s use of the term ‘brifter’ they are a more ‘senior’ gentleman? I haven’t heard it in years. Or do they still use it in the states?

PeterPoddy – Member

I won’t embarrass you by saying how quickly I can do it these days, but it’s all about practice practice practice.

In fairness, I’m pretty quick with MTB stuff, but cable discs and internal cable routing (especially on handlebars) always annoy me and slow me down.

I’d say it’s take me about 1.5 hours to get brakes, mechs and shifters setup and working well.

I won’t embarrass you by saying how quickly I can do it these days, but it’s all about practice practice practice.[/quote]

Swoon! Wow, you’re the greatest

I’m imagining from the OP’s use of the term ‘brifter’ they are a more ‘senior’ gentleman? I haven’t heard it in years. Or do they still use it in the states?

We still get people asking us to sort out their double clangers 🙂