[Closed] Mobile Bike Mechanics

I personally use one - Chris of b-spoked in London. Absolutely fantastic service. He will pick my bike up at work or at home and does an impeccable job - which always includes a full clean and WD40 (or something) all over the frame. He even preps and bags all replaced components to sell on ebay or such.

He is also happy to source me parts or I order off CRC et al and get them delivered straight to him.

With this kind of service, I will probably not use a bike shop again - so yes I would say there is a demand! And his life style is great so I'd say a great career option.

Yep.. I use one in Bristol and he's really good. He's also a keen mountain biker.

He doesn't just do commuter/hybrids either. I get him to do loads on my enduro (fork seals/service/ rear shock service). has loads of spares in stock and he's doing really good trade at the moment

Thats quite a positive response so far, are you aware if either of the guys mentioned are Cytech qualified,or just years of actual experience.

New bike sales are down but repairs are up at my shop.
Going mobile would probably be popular with customers but to earn a living you'll have to expect them to pay for the privelidge so I hope you're based in an affluent area. Your vehicle costs will be significant and so will the 'dead time' you spend driving to and from customers. How's the traffic in your target area?

Try calling your local plumbers and ask them what their call out charges are. Would your customers be willing to pay a similar price for getting their bikes fixed?

I use Andy at Purple Bike Shed in the Hants/Berks/Surrey area and he's brilliant too. So much more convenient than trying to get to local shop between 9am and 5:30pm, also allows you to source your own parts and the repairs are always good and a reasonable rate. He's Cytech qualified but in fairness, as long as they have some sort of professional insurance, I'm not that fussed if they have a qualification or not - as long as they are good.

I think it will take time to build up a customer base large enough to have consistent work, but you could supplement that in the meantime with something else.

My guess is the time poor/cash rich would pay for a good mobile mechanic, but that it would be too expensive for many, though I suppose there'd be way less rent to pay vs costs of transport/collection.

The guy i use (Greg cycle Therapist: http://www.cycletherapist.co.uk)

is pretty good price wise: http://www.cycletherapist.co.uk/service-options/

Also no callout charge. He's cytech qualified and worked as a mechanic in a bike shop in bristol for years.

+ It's good to chat while he's working

I was thinking more about a mobile workshop, think medium sized transporter. Rather than collecting and dropping off the bikes i work on, I could turn up wherever, do the required work and then not have to transport the bikes anywhere. Although having a fixed workshop with countless storage would be the better idea, would hate to turn up somewhere and be missing out on that vital tool left back at base.

I've also toyed with the idea as being sat behind a desk all day really has got to me this year. In all fairness i dont want to leave a reasonably well paid job to be sitting in traffic for half a day and earning much less. Even though job satisfaction would be clearly much higher.

As far as the qualification is concerned, I used to work in a shop where I was not qualified and there was a quy with 20 years experience and bits of paper saying he can do this and that. I was far quicker and produced batter work than him. And to say I was quicker is something 😉

Just proves that anyone can be qualified but only a few can be any good.

produced batter work than him.

On the job satisfaction front, just a point to consider on this (my 2p worth only, I'm sure others who are/have been bike mechanics will have more vaild views). In my experience of bike tinkering, on my own bikes and a fair bit on friends'/family/colleagues' etc, working on poorly built and maintained, cheap bikes is incredibly infuriating - there's not much satisfaction in it. Depends what your likely market will be I guess.

Doh!! 😉

Adding to what Crisped said, Working on quality kit (£700+ bikes and associated kit) is far easier and fun. Ive looked into running my own bike building service with higher end products but decided I'd probably lose money. Still gonna do it if I win the lottery 🙂

I reckon a combination of transporter style mobile workshop + base would work well. Find out the work (therefore tools needed) before pick up, then go to person's place to get their steed and tinker away. There's bound to be certain repeatedly common jobs for a bike mechanic (brakes/gears/cables) and the more awkward things done back at HQ.

I'm surprised no-one's complained about the mobile mechanic vs the LBS, there's usually an aggressive loyalty towards them!

Setting up long term links with customers would prove useful too, one offs will be hard to keep a living from I imagine.

I used to work as a mechanic. The above is true, expensive kit is much nicer to work on. Type 11 components are a nightmare. You can spend more in labour than the bike is worth sometimes.

As for generating work, find large companies in the area with a cycle to work scheme and some sort of staff travel coordinator and see if you can work something out with them. There's a guy comes to our place who is paid for the day by the employer and people get their bikes fixed for just the cost of parts.

I'm surprised no-one's complained about the mobile mechanic vs the LBS

I probably wouldn't use one, as I'm a bit of a home mechanic - except forks, would probably send them off for servicing. However, from experience I found getting my bike into LBS's to be a real pain. Was quoted a 2 week wait at my regular LBS to get some new headset cups pressed in - which is a 10 minute job.

Needless to say I didn't want to wait that long, so bought the tools to do it myself.

Geographical I live on the border of Manchester,Cheshire and Derbyshire,so the demographic includes some very poor areas as well as quite affluent places such as Alderley Edge,Didsbury,hale.

I used to work in a bike shop in Oz and stood in for the main mechanic quite often so have done PDI's as well as service work in store.
Personally I think getting some Cytech qualification would be useful to use on marketing besides the actual knowledge of being professionally recognised.

The idea regarding getting involved with a company running the cycle to work scheme seems viable and good for getting a regular income,maybe a regular service plan for employees.

Working on quality kit (£700+ bikes and associated kit) is far easier and fun.

I spend a lot of my time working on sub £300 bikes that have been thoroughly used and abused and get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I'm making a huge difference to peoples riding experiences.

I think its the future. With parts going online but lots of people without the time and or skills.

Is it possible to do dip the toe in the water. Start with the tools you've got and your current car on say Saturdays and see how it goes. Or ask if you can go part time for 3 months.

I think buying parts and selling them would be a viable add on service. You could ebay what you took off for a fixed fee or %. Same with buying bits

Think the problem you're going to encounter is with parts & spares.

Increasingly, you're seeing suppliers refuse to supply businesses without "bricks and mortar" retail premises - since for most manufacturers/suppliers the bread and butter of sales is through these retail outlets, so its very much in their interest to support them and ensure they retain a good relationship.

For a supplier, opening accounts for mobile mechanics, which takes custom away from retail stores, is somewhat biting the hand that feeds them!

[i]I spend a lot of my time working on sub £300 bikes that have been thoroughly used and abused and get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I'm making a huge difference to peoples riding experiences. [/i]

Thats very true. but as many have said, the cheaper the bike the more difficult to set up. Once it used and abused its gets easier though. I suppose a bedding in period helps a heap.