[Closed] How much?!

There's got to be some sort of minimum charge or it gets silly
£10 is about where I'd put it

Supply and demand, innit?

could always do it himself. it's not exactly hard

Not unreasonable in a city centre - bit steep in the north though. I surprised no new tube - this should be standard bike shop practice.

shortcut - Member
Not unreasonable in a city centre - bit steep in the north though. I surprised no new tube - this should be standard bike shop practice.

Agree

There's got to be some sort of minimum charge or it gets silly
£10 is about where I'd put it

+1

It's an annoying little job when they could be doing other things. They can't do all the little things for nothing, especially for walk ins, so there needs to be a minimum. If the bloke doesn't want to pay it he's free to get a puncture kit or a tube for less and do it himself.

I don't agree with the new tube bit - the customer asked for a puncture to be fixed, not for supply and fit of a new tube.

Seen other threads bemoaning the modern bike shop mechanic for being all about fitting new parts rather than fixing things. I'm rather glad that a perfectly good tube with a patched tiny hole (presumably) is still giving good service rather than sitting in the waste bin.

edlong - Member
rather than sitting in the waste bin.

It could be given back to the customer - it's his/hers after all.

It could be given back to the customer - it's his/hers after all.

I would say he's under charging

With a bit of advice on how to fix/use/recycle, they may do.

It's not for anyone else to presume.

I always fit a new tube - because it's more hassle when a patch doesn't quite work (which can happen). I charge at least £10, depending on the bike.

What does bug me a bit is people who expect stuff for free. If you want your tyres pumped up or a spare bolt or something, at least make the effort to give me some money afterwards, don't just wander out.

djglover - Member
I would say he's under charging

I had one fixed on my car's wheel a few months since for £8.

"How much to fix a puncture mate?"

I surprised no new tube - this should be standard bike shop practice.

The bloke didn't ask for a new tube.

I think £10 is fair enough. If you want to jump the workshop queue, then you should be prepared to pay for it.
If they charged £10 just for the use of a pump (customer had replaced or repaired the tube themselves) then I would consider that to be a rip off.

Had a race on sunday and picked up a glass puncture while practicing on the saturday (cycle bit of a tri event), went to the place I was staying and tidied up then thought I'd better get a spare tube just in case.

I'm only slightly familiar with the city and missed the lbs so I carried on into town to a shop I knew the location of which had closed so I had to go further into town to get a new tube and got a puncture just near the place.

As originally I was just popping down the road to get a tube I had no tools so I had to get it repaired and I bought 2 new tubes.

28 euro for 2x specalized tubes and the repair.

I'll be avoiding there in the future.

I would consider that a stupid/lazy tax

I charge at least £10, [b]depending on the bike[/b].

I do hope that's something to do with wheel size or possibly difficulty of extracting wheel (my wife's dutch bike is a right pita) not that you charge more to punters with shiny nice bikes rather than old rat bikes on the premise that they look like they may be good for it.

£10 sounds OK but should come with a compulsory demonstration on how to do it yourself in the future.

boxfish - Member

"How much to fix a puncture mate?"

I surprised no new tube - this should be standard bike shop practice.

The bloke didn't ask for a new tube.

Someone walks in to a bike shop asking if they sell 29ers...The bike shop does not but they sell 26ers, 650b and everything else bar 29ers.

Should the bike shop try to inform him on the availibility of other options or send him away... 🙂

Are you even for real? What do you really expect them to charge? They are running a business. What would a mechanic charge you to fix something simple on your car? What batfink said, hit's the nail on the head.

I do hope that's something to do with wheel size...

Cost is mostly down to the PITA factor - it's only really things with chaincases and fiddly stuff that I charge more for. That, and people who annoy me 🙂

Some people have no idea how running a business might work eh? Probably workshy public sector types. 🙂

I'd have offered to do it for a fiver, using the bike shops pump.
Wonder what the bike shop would do... haggle or sling me out!

I often (once every couple of months anyway) borrow a bike shop's pump without buying anything but because they have the pump I am far more likely to go back when I do need something.

Anyone who walks in to a bike shop and asks to get a puncture fixed is asking for it. £10 is understandable.

They are running a business. What would a mechanic charge you to fix something simple on your car?

What, like a Puncture ?

Well for example, I had a nail in my tyre on the van.
I took it to the garage where they took the van into a very large, and no doubt quite expensive workshop, put the van on a huge expensive ramp, removed the wheel, removed the tyre from the wheel with a big expensive machine, removed the nail from the tyre and plugged the puncture.
Then they refitted the tyre to the wheel again.
Balanced the wheel on another big expensive machine, and refitted the wheel to the van.

And they charged me £10 for that.

That does kind of make the bike shop guy with his little tyre levers and patch seem a bit steep to me.

at the end of the day nobody forced the guy to hand over his cash. He had the choice of either walking away or buying repair kit or new tube and a pump. He should know how to repair a puncture anyway. It's the most basic bike maintenence skill any cyclist should have.

My LBS doesn't fix punctures - they only offer a replacement tube.

What happens 5mins down the road when you're 'puncture fix' starts to leak?

[quote=nealglover]
That does kind of make the bike shop guy with his little tyre levers and patch seem a bit steep to me.
Set yourself up as a bike mechanic. You should easily make a good living by undercutting everyone else.

[quote=brakes ]I often (once every couple of months anyway) borrow a bike shop's pump without buying anything but because they have the pump I am far more likely to go back when I do need something.
TBC in Edinburgh keep a pump outside so that anyone passing can use it FOC.

that's more than it costs to do a car tyre - I payed £8 last time for my car and I thought THAT was expensive!

TBH, if a person is stupid enough to pay £10 for a tube repair then so be it!

Wasn't going to post (along the lines of the consensus here) then remembered that my bike is in the LBS for a service. Better not risk bad karma!

I admit to paying to have a puncture fixed once, it was on my commuter that has Marathon Plus tyres,they are an absolute nightmare to get on and off. To save my fingers and lots of swearing I paid the LBS to do it. I think it was £15 with a new tube.

Luckily this is the only puncture I have had in several years with those tyres.

They are not cheap, they quoted over £100 for supply and fit of 105 chain and cassette. Surely if they charge full RRP for parts it would make sense to fit for free? Especially for such a simple job.

xiphon - Member
What happens 5mins down the road when you're 'puncture fix' starts to leak?

Well he only used Topeak patches. His mate (5 mins down the road) does the same job with Park Tools patches for £12 and the job lasts much longer * Cyclist learns two valuable lessons. LBS staff have a few drinks and a laugh. Everyone's a winner!!!

(* purely anecdotal and not based on any facts other than my recent experience :wink:)

why should a bike puncture be cheaper to fix than a car tyre? I expect the garages are making much more profit than the bike shop and treat it like a loss leader. Anyway, plenty of bike shops are charging the same hourly rate as some car mechanics/garages...

Set yourself up as a bike mechanic. You should easily make a good living by undercutting everyone else.

You've made some sort weird leap there haven't you ?

Don't remember saying that bike shops charge too much, or that they make loads of money, or that I could do it different or better.

Simply that charging more to repair a puncture on a push bike, than everyone else charges to repair one on a Car/Van does seem a bit strange.

that's more than it costs to do a car tyre - I payed £8 last time for my car and I thought THAT was expensive!

If you [b]genuinely [/b]thought £8 to repair a puncture on a car was expensive, how much do you think would be reasonable ?

It's always interesting the theory that the bigger a vehicle the more it should cost to repair.

It's always interesting the theory that the bigger a vehicle the more it should cost to repair.

I feel sorry for 29er owners then. 😆

Sorry i couldn't resist.

On a serious note. Bike shops will charge whatever people are willing to pay. To a complete novice £10 for a puncture repair probably wont seem high at all.

It's always interesting the theory that the bigger a vehicle the more it should cost to repair

no its the stuff you have to use.

puncture kit £1 from pound shop includes tyre levers and seven patches.

or for car van ect, you need car lift or jack, a tyre removing mechine, or one of them long bars and , a LOT of effort and lots of other basic tools,

i still think a tener is fair enough, if a new tube is put in, weather you ask for a new tube or not, its a tenner fiver for tube and a pound a min to fit it

It's always interesting the theory that the bigger a vehicle the more it should cost to repair.

Not such a strange thing to presume. If you read what I wrote, it seems obvious that it should cost more to repair a puncture on a car than on a bike ?

Well for example, I had a nail in my tyre on the van.
I took it to the garage where they took the van into a very large, and no doubt quite expensive workshop, put the van on a huge expensive ramp, removed the wheel, removed the tyre from the wheel with a big expensive machine, removed the nail from the tyre and plugged the puncture.
Then they refitted the tyre to the wheel again.
Balanced the wheel on another big expensive machine, and refitted the wheel to the van.

And they charged me £10 for that.

That does kind of make the bike shop guy with his little tyre levers and patch seem a bit steep to me.

How would you think it was normal for a bike puncture to cost more to repair, considering it can be done pretty much anywhere, by pretty much anyone, with "tools" that cost well under a fiver.

You won't get much change out of £3000.00 if you wanted to buy a Tyre Changer/Wheel Balancer/Compressor and all the other stuff you need so you change your own car tyres at home.

hmmm..
I can understand the minimum charge idea..

but £10..!!?

surely we're still at a £5 price point on that sort of thing or has inflation escalated at a scale to match that of a small latin american dictatorship?

£10 is still a very lot of cash out here in the real world

£10 is still [/s]a very lot[/s] not a lot of cash out here in the real world

 

£10 is still a very lot of cash out here in the real world

I assume the shop had lights on, maybe some heating. They paid their staff and had all the tools on hand to do this. There was a patch involved - ok cheap but needs paying for. Time that could have been spent doing another job. Tools that were used.

10quid sounds reasonable as minimum these days.

The guy in question could have bought a tube and probably borrowed a pump for less but that's his issue.

who cares? if you dont want to pay the price carry tubes with you. or a kit or even them nasty gas sticky things to get you home, in fact do one of them anyway besides the fact that its pointless paying, bike shops are not on every corner are thay?

watsontony -
gibberish

🙄

minimum wage, mortgage, coupla kids.. a tenner still means something in reality
IMO

we're not all living with mum and dad/IT managers/cowboy builders

I assume the shop had lights on, maybe some heating. They paid their staff and had all the tools on hand to do this. There was a patch involved - ok cheap but needs paying for.

Yup.

All the Same things that the garage I used to fix my van tyre have to pay for.

Plus the garage had the few thousands of pounds worth of equipment needed repair a car tyre too.
And a huge workshop (compared to the corner of a bike shop)

YAAAWWWNN.
tightwads vs realists, who cares?

not I one jot.. 😀

especially as it's no longer 2am

[i]I surprised no new tube - this should be standard bike shop practice.[/i]

+1 for my old LBS, seems the right thing to do.

And for those who think it should be less/nowt - do you work for nothing, or just have no idea of what it costs to run a business?

Sounds fair to me. Basically, LBS charges 10€ but changes the tube. However, they have now started to apply a higher rate for internet bikes.

Plus it can be a real PITA if it's an asda bike with bolt on skewers and a rear mech guard.

And for those who think it should be less/nowt - do you work for nothing, or just have no idea of what it costs to run a business?

LOL.. £10 for 10 minutes work..?

ossum job

Plus the garage had the few thousands of pounds worth of equipment needed repair a car tyre too.
And a huge workshop (compared to the corner of a bike shop)

I've got thousands of pounds worth of equipment too - not to change a tyre specifically, but it still needs paying for. Bike shop equipment is also less used - a car tyre machine that's used 20 times a day will pay for itself far faster than an expensive cutting tool that's only used once every 6 months.

The car place's workshop is larger, but it's not usually on a high street with expensive rent and rates.

LOL.. £10 for 10 minutes work..?

That £10 includes:

VAT, PAYE Tax, Business costs (marketing, sick pay, holiday pay, etc), and many many other things.

You'd be lucky to get £1 out of that for yourself.

£10 seems like a reasonable price.

Too many people fail to realise that although the LBS may be run by like-minded friendly people, they are not there to be your mate, they're there to make money.

Every service related business will have a minimum price and TBH its very rarely related to how complex the job is. Its the point below which its not worth doing the job.

look fellas, pointing out that 10 x 6 = 60 and making up vastly exaggerated running costs out of thin air is all well and good..

I'm aware of the overheads.. my wife and I run a small family business ourselves..

I think a tenspot for a ten minute job is a bit steep that's all.. just my opinion like..

Make up your margins elsewhere where you're not likely to cause offence and put customers off..
£10 might seem reasonable to a fairly affluent group of dedicated cycling enthusiasts, with disposable income for a stable of machinery to suit weather and mood..
I just imagine that average joe bloggs on a BSO might be less easily persuaded to part with a tenth of the cost of their bike to get a five minute job done.. yet another disenfranchised ex-cyclist with a rusting useless supermarket special in the shed..

maybe I'm just spouting piffle though and the bankers of little england have got you all sewn up like kippers..

My mates shop offers "magic" patches for 1 pound, a new tube for 5 or will fit it for 10... If a customer cannot find a price range to suit them from that they are probably just a timewaster looking for a freebie...

(N.B. This is in London so prices reflect accordingly)

For a start, £10 for a 10-minute job doesn't equate to £60 per hour - there's all the time inbetween talking to customers, stuff like that, which doesn't pay.

But, fundamentally, why should a shop charge less? They might attract a few more customers, but not many people are going to shop around for a puncture repair, and they'll only attract the kind of POS BSOs which are much more hassle to repair.

ok.. so they need the money, it's a business blah blah blah
but they shouldn't have to fix POS BSO's..!!?

you make me laugh sunshine.. 😆

I shall withdraw from this nonsense by saying that at the current rate of inflation it will still be quite some time before I charge those sort of rates..

I go back to my earlier point and the concept of "Teach a man to fish..."

One of the early frustrations of mtb for me was the frequency and cost of repairs esp in relation to road biking. But you soon learn a lesson from this and become (slowly in my case) more proficient at DIY repairs and understanding bike mechanics. Changing a puncture is not only easy (removing nobby niks aside!), but also an important skill (sic) to have on the trails. If a £ tag is just on the cusp of "reasonability", however defined, then it probably does a good job in encouraging people to such learn basic skills. And IMO that is probably not a bad thing!

Okay, one person in a workshop. Do they:

a: do three puncture repairs for £7.50 (say) in an hour, minus costs, making about £15.
b: do one full service, making about £50.

The only reason to charge less for repairs is if you're sitting around twiddling your thumbs. Puncture repairs might be quick to do, but they're also spur-of-the-moment, people often turn up and want them done there and then, meaning you have to drop what you're doing, find a spare workstand, etc.

This is a silly argument, though.

juan - Member

LOL.. £10 for 10 minutes work..?

Works out a 60£ an hour rate. Not that different from what any car/motorcycle mechanics charges you is it?

An incomparable comparison imo.

FWIW it's worth I think the shop has every right to charge what ever thy think the service is worth. TBH he had this particular customer "by the balls".

I do think they should replace with a tube though. With the time it'll save to patch the tube, they wouldn't be worse off this way. He could then give punter back his punctured tube and even sell him a patch kit 💡

Or, keep the old tube with a "I'll put this in the bin for you" line, patch it, and put it in the next bike that comes in for a repair 🙂

Funny last time I popped in yamaha dealer the rate for one hour of workshop was 54 €. I don't know why you'd expect a cycling workshop to be cheaper than a motorbiking workshop. Plus AFAIK, every hour started is due.

bencooper - Member
Or, keep the old tube with a "I'll put this in the bin for you" line, patch it, and put it in the next bike that comes in for a repair

An I thought I was tight
😆

To me £10 for fitting a new tube would seem fair
But just for fixxing one with a patch now that's a little over the top

Then again maybe my boss needs to put up our prices

From the LBS point of view, it would surely be less time to put in a new tube than to repair one. I'm therefore a bit surprised at how this one was handled.

From the LBS point of view, it would surely be less time to put in a new tube than to repair one. I'm therefore a bit surprised at how this one was handled.

The repair kit will repair several punctures so more profitable to use that than a new tube each time. unless they charge £10 plus the cost of the tube.

Aye - but think of labour cost.

So for £10 the guy gets the tyre fixed properly (something he may not know how to do) and gets to keep his hands and clothes clean and not get stressed finding the hole out in the street? Seems perfectly fair to me.

A car tyre would take about the same amount of time tbh.

As for the patch - good. Cycling is supposed to be environmentally friendly. Fixing the puncture takes more time but this is off-set by greater environmental responsibility. I would question any shop that did the opposite.

😀 quality, I do love it when a debate is sparked over a bleeding tenner! Good work my friends!