… cos I’ve just been charged £180 for this 😯

Seems a little steep.

Bearings (for Giant Anthem) were £68

Labour was quoted at £25 per hour when I handed the bike in.

Bleed on brake was quoted as £10 when I put the bike in.

So that means its taken them 4hours to replace the pivot bearings in a Giant Anthem, which I’d already removed the chainset and chain from.

Can that be right?

😯

How many bearings are involved?

10 bearings in total.

8 bearings iirc. Or what he said^ Given a healthy amount of time for disassembly, reassembly and headscratching, that’s still about 15 minutes to press each bearing out. 😯

Were any of the bearings falling apart? Even so, you’d have thought a bike shop would have a blind bearing puller for such eventualities.

Sounds fair then.

depends on the frame, don’t know about the anthem but my spicy took about 4 hours to do as I found them tricky, did a mates enduro in about 1 hour though with him. Does seem a bit high as they should have the right kit to do it and not need to improvise as they go along.

Bearings online were about £30 for my trance. Took me a couple of hours to change the bearings sitting infront of the telly in the evenings.

Seems a bit steep to me, a pivot bearing change on my FS and a re-threaded brake mount on my dad’s CX bike was £165 i think.

Sounds like a lot of time for a professional bike mechanic. Did you not ask them how long it normally takes before giving the go ahead?

Well I paid the same to have mine done on my Trance. Two of them where really hard to get out where the linkage meets the seat tube

Pretty sure they said a couple of hours for labour.

I trusted them.

The thing is, you try to ‘do the right thing’ and support your LBS and then get taken for a ride by them.

Should’ve just done it myself at home, but then I thought I was ‘doing the right thing’.

Jeeeezus. Bastards.

I did just talk to the guy on the phone and he did mention something about one of them being really difficult (possibly near the seat tube). Apparently it was £80 labour for the bearings, cos the brake bleed (one brake) just mysteriously leapt up to £30 from the £10 initial quote.

Bearings were not too bad really, only just starting to go.

Only got charged £1 for fluid though, so that’s a bonus! 😕

Pivot bearings can be a **** . When i worked in a large chain who charge for the job not by the hour . I had a blur which was 4 years ol on original bearings – one if the mechs had said frame beyod repair as tey were solid and not moving with the puller / official bearing removal kit ,because the guys a good customer my boss tasked me with removing them – spent a fair bit o time drifting what i could out with heat – then dremmeling the shite out the rest . Shop took the hit but customer was over the moon – easy to see why i took 15 mins per bearing if bike was in a sorry state!

My lbs charged me £30 or £40 to replace my Anthem bearings last year – I sourced the bearings myself.

😯
glad I do my own
Single pivot FSers for the skint rider then!

Just seen above, £30 to bleed a brake !

” Apparently it was £80 labour for the bearings, cos the brake bleed (one brake) just mysteriously leapt up to £30 from the £10 initial quote”

“Labour was quoted at £25 per hour when I handed the bike in”

So over an hour to bleed a single brake? That sounds like a very thorough job was done.

Ouch! I thought the Giant bearing tool was a bit steep at £90 but that makes it seem a bargain.

I’ve changed my bearings on my Trance before using sockets, a hammer and some threaded bar, and even the first time it didn’t take more than 2 hours once the frame was stripped down.

I now have the Advanced SL so decided to buy the tool rather than risking the carbon frame with a DIY effort. The price of the tool and bearings will still be cheaper than your LBS, even if I only change them the once!

If hes been working on your bike for the best part of a morning its probably about right, but £30 just to bleed a brake is a bit stiff. I did my Elixirs the other night & it took probably 10-15mins in total. Natural thing is to assume because its only a bike it will be cheap, but these shops have overheads & wages to pay, like anyone else. My car is being serviced today & thats an oil change & a few checks, but will set me back £80. My employer charges my time on a project at £100/hr for instance.

said frame beyod repair as tey were solid and not moving with the puller / official bearing removal kit

So you pay a mint for official tool and still end up drifting them out, glad I’ve never bought an official tool. Bit of an eye opener this thread.

I usually hand out hefty bills after changing pivot bearings, don’t like to but some can be a PITA.
Did a Cove Hustler earlier in the week, took over an hour just to get the pivot near the BB shell sorted, had to borrow a hydraulic press from a local garage to get them out in the end.
Think the labour was £70 in total, pretty fair for nearly 3 hours work.
Trouble is we only get bearing swaps in when the are knackered/rusted into the frame.

D0NK – Member

said frame beyod repair as tey were solid and not moving with the puller / official bearing removal kit

So you pay a mint for official tool and still end up drifting them out, glad I’ve never bought an official tool. Bit of an eye opener this thread.

But if you have the tool you’ll not leave them 4 years before changing them!

the brake bleed (one brake) just mysteriously leapt up to £30 from the £10 initial quote.

No chance I’d be paying that. Find a new LBS.
Mine does it for £15/pair.

But if you have the tool you’ll not leave them 4 years before changing them!

I’ll change em when they get rough/develop play, if the originals last for four years….?

does seem a tad steep too, but, it can be a huge pain in the arse, I did it on my now deceased reign once it it took me forever. Did the shop have the Maestro bearing removal tools? the cost of these tools (which can only be bought as a set and are outrageously expensive) could also be a contributing factor

D0NK – Member

I’ll change em when they get rough/develop play, if the originals last for four years….?

In which case I suspect the tool will do the job perfectly? Trailrat’s example was probably way beyond the rough/develop play point I’d imagine?

Like ziggy said:

ziggy – Member
Trouble is we only get bearing swaps in when the are knackered/rusted into the frame.

I just paid £50 to have a crankset changed on my road bike! I know it was a lot of money but I don’t have the tools for that particular bike and I am terrified of braking a £2500 frame so I am prepared to pay.
Somehow, if they do a good job and you have chosen to pay their hourly rate, then I guess it’s OK, you get to decide if you’ll do it again next time

Not sure about the bearings but £30 to bleed one brake is ridiculous.

30 is high for a brake – 15 more like

Hmmm… yes, I guess I’ll just have to take it on the chin, but I’m not going anywhere near that dodgy place again. I’ve just moved here and am trying out local bike shops one by one, but this one in particular is in the middle of bloody nowhere, the ‘manager’ appeared to be stoned when I dropped the bike of and the multitude of teenage staff didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing.

Should’ve just walked back out the door again, but I’d driven out there and booked the bike in beforehand, so what can you do?

😕

Jeeeez! One hundred and eighty quid!

Takes me 20mins to knock my Patriot / 222 bearings out, and put new ones in. Thank f-ck for simple single pivots!

Aye he brought it in because the rocker pivots had colapsed – **** his rocker too

Had an intense in the fro downhill one – he was near 600 quid to get his bike going again – he needed linkage at the bb and new drop outs ( the big billet only come as pairs ones )

Folk just dinnae look aftertheir shit – thats why i like ol marzocchis , rigid , hardtails ss and hub gears – i can be lazy !

email them a link to this thread!

Hmmm… yes, I guess I’ll just have to take it on the chin, but I’m not going anywhere near that dodgy place again. I’ve just moved here and am trying out local bike shops one by one, but this one in particular is in the middle of bloody nowhere, the ‘manager’ appeared to be stoned when I dropped the bike of and the multitude of teenage staff didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing.

Not in ‘Preston’ was it? 😛

Ohhh… there are actually MORE bike shops that fit this worrying description 😯

I live in west Wales. There aren’t many Giant dealers in the middle of nowhere, even out this way 😉

£180 is very expensive. It pays to do everything you can yourself, even if it means buying tools.