Why do you want to leave your current trade? Sounds like your on a well paid job.
How about reducing your hours and working part time and setting your work life balance right? Yes, you will take a wage cut but you will probably earn more money than owning a bike shop and work less hours.
Use your spare time to work in a bike shop, or flip bikes, repair and sell them etc and then in 2022 when things might get back to normal think about setting up a bike shop.
However, if you ignore us all, I wish you the best of luck. Please keep us posted how you get on.
Working on your own bikes is NOTHING like working on customer bikes. I had plenty of assistant mechanics who thought they were great because they’d worked on their own bikes or their mates bikes but bring them into a workshop and it’s very different.
Second what @boriselbrus (and a couple of others) have said.
We had a number of mostly teenagers employed over the years - most on the back of them being keen on bikes, handy MTB racers, etc - and most thought they were good mechanics as "they fixed their own bikes plus those of a mate/brother".
Ask them to build a £300 Rockhopper or fix the brakes on a shopping bike and they'd be unable. One guy (who's very rich Dad bought him all the top end gear for his racing) was genuinely shocked to discover that we didn't spend our days working on XTR-equipped dream bikes, in fact he was such a snob that he refused to work on "the cheap shit". He lasted 2 days.
One would almost think there is a bit of real journalism to be done here, follow the fate of a few hardy souls who take on the job of bike shop owner.
Look into why the model is broken for many.
Look at who succeeds and what is the magic combination for them
Despite being negative I would add that if you really want to do it then do it. You need to have a clear and honest business plan first though.
In Binner's home town someone who was an experienced mechanic tried but eventually sold up, the new owner seems to have a different model and deeper pockets at startup and is still going (again not seen the books). You need to talk to people like these before starting up, those who have left, those who are still going.
I wish you every success whichever way you go.
If you are quick, you could take on an apprentice using government money (not sure if available in Wales)
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme
OP, a few thoughts on this and bike retail in general. I've worked in the industry for some time inc bike shops though none of it was retail premises management.
They say the workshop should be the most profitable part of your shop - easier said than done but look up Jay Townley's talks from Madison's IceBike shows as a starter if you've not heard of him, he's covered this among other bike retail topics.
Reading the comments about fixing cheap bikes above - simple answer may be, don't? Not every garage works on every car. Work out a policy that refuses without offending and it may even help people see the value in a new, half-decent bike. There are £6-8k e-bikes all over the trails and a good number of people with a lot of time and money so if your offering is good you may be able to set your prices higher per hr by taking on the right work and specialising. Bikes aren't getting any simpler. Work for e-commuters and e-mtbers, not sure what the market is like where you are but anywhere hilly will have more e-bikes as the years go by.
Can you set up a collection and delivery service for bike repair? Charge for the convenience. Costs a retailer about £30 to deliver a built and boxed bike (not inc assembly labour) - many people value their time more than that.
If you can't/won't justify working on £99 BSOs, maybe the only bike you do sell is a sound £299-399 commuter? Don't sell a wide range of bikes, just a couple of models with a promise of fair service life, maybe with a service pack offer. Aim to convert some repair refusals into new customers. Ridgeback if you can get them. Evans did really well from the Pinnacle Lithiums. A £999-£1200 e-bike equivalent would be a winner. Sell them while you judge the interest in other bikes rather than invest in a load of stock up front?
Bikes and PAC stock - I'd be wary of this. Clothing in particular with seasonality, sizing etc. So hard to compete with big online retailers and cash tied up in stock. I know how much clearance goes on in big retailers, how hard it is to predict demand and how much support a big company gets from their suppliers. Not sure how a small IBD could have the same leverage.
It may work to go the other way, not stock anything but service items and be pro-active with prices for fitting the parts people buy online or processing a warranty claim.
Community and people - if you have space to make a hang-out bike wash and there's trails nearby then making it a part of the riding culture should pay you back.
I still believe bike shops will be one of the last forms of independent retail. The internet can't replace the whole supply and service chain for bikes. But the trad form of bikes and parts retail that can be done online is very hard to keep alive if the business isn't based on something that the internet can't do - service and people, help and expertise etc.
Best tip I can think of - Read Seth Godin's 'This is Marketing' and understand what he means by smallest viable market. If you can crack that part of it to begin with you'll do ok.
I'd also be looking for a gap in the market. My opinion is you should forget cytech, it's easy to work on new shiny rust free bikes but the reality is a lot different.
Instead train in repairing ebikes. How to fix motors out of warranty, how to re cell batteries etc. Become a specialist in this. People will post you their broken bits for you to fix. As we move to the new "right to repair" era, this will be a great place to be if you are good at it. With your mechanics back ground you should have some transferable skills. (if this is what you want to do? But I suspect you probably just want to sell shiny new bikes)
I have a friend who works in a large posh bike shop. He says people come in looking for a new bike, look at a £4000 orange, then look at a cube next to it that has all the same gear on plus a motor and battery for half the price and walk out with an ebike.
Most of the people I know buy specialized ebikes for the warranty and peace of mind but then sell them after 3 years and buy another one with a warranty. They have too much money and not enough time to have a bike that doesn't work. Also when an ebike breaks down 20 miles from home its a lot harder to deal with. These 2nd hand bikes are bought but where do they go when they break? Would you spend £800 on a new motor or £500 on a new battery (if they are even available) if the bike cost you £1200 2nd hand?
As an observer, this thread has a lot of very good advice. I never thought about opening a bike shop and certainly wouldn't now however!
As an observer, this thread has a lot of very good advice. I never thought about opening a bike shop and certainly wouldn’t now however!
My local one has survived for years. Sole trader, mostly doing repairs on all sorts and he's built himself a good loyal following.
He sponsors the local cycling club so he does get a lot of people from that in there buying (quality) bikes, parts and kit and having repairs done but he also seems to cover pretty much every other type of customer. It's not unusual for there to be an £8000 road bike hanging next to a £99 "full sus" in the work shop.
I've never yet seen a repair that he can't manage either. However I also know that he works incredibly hard at it and he doesn't get much time off. If the shop is closed, he's not earning.
To address some of the suggestions...
Only working on high end bikes? No, I thought I'd do that but it doesn't work. You get a family come in with two nice bikes and two BSO's. Are you going to tell them they have to take the crap bikes somewhere else? So you do their bikes, then their mate comes in with a BSO. "You did my mates bike which is the same as mine, why won't you do mine?" Plus where do you draw the line? An "as new" Carrera or a beaten up, rusty Rockhopper? A five year old Ridgeback or a ten year old Boardman?
Coffee shop? No. You need food hygiene certs and the place will be full of people who want to chat about bikes all day so you can't work but they'll only spend £3 on a coffee whilst charging their phones and using your wifi.
Shop rides? Great, but who is leading them? Do they have qualifications and liability insurance? People will turn up 10 minutes early and say their gears don't work so you fix them for free to get them on the ride. The regulars become your "friends" so want everything done at mates rates and want you to teach them how to maintain their bikes so they don't need you anymore.
Doing repairs only? Currently no parts supply unless you buy fake stuff on AliExpress which you are covering the warranty for. Plus you get no work at all from November to February. Last winter we took less than £150 a month in repair labour for four months.
Not bothering with Cytech? Well that's fair, Cytech is rubbish but you have to have something or you can't get liability insurance.
Specialising in e-bikes and re-celling batteries etc? Actually this really could work. Learn everything about e-bikes and get handy with a soldering iron. Make yourself the TF Tuned of the e-bike world. Offer exemplary service and fix things that no-one else can. Operate out of a cheap industrial unit, fit after market (legal) Bafung kits to peoples own bikes and make small back up range extender batteries etc. If I had to go back to making money from bikes that's what I would do. High value, low volume work that even most bike shops can't do.
In reality though I'd have to be desperate to go back to a bike shop. I now work in facilities management - a great variety of compliance, contractor contracts and repairs so I still get to use tools. Last week though I got a call mid afternoon to say that one of the public toilets in a library had poo on the floor. Yes, an adult human had poo'd on the floor in a public toilet. Even my Labrador knows not to do that. So I spent half an hour clearing up poo and disinfecting the floor. And that was still a better day than most of my days in a bike shop.
Yes, an adult human had poo’d on the floor in a public toilet.
Just out of curiosity... did they wipe their bum? and if so was the loo roll on the floor or in the bowl?
Outside of stock so many of the issues seem like they could be solved with:
Be slightly better x charge more. Also let people come in with there own gear from chain reaction if they want. Just charge a corkage.
7/10 bike shops can’t bleed / adjust a set of hydro brakes well.
9/10 can’t service suspension forks or dropper seat posts.
X/10 charge stupid money for setting up tubeless.
If family have 2x £5k bikes + 2x BSO’s for kids they probably won’t be too bothered paying £50+ ph labour. Charge flat fee corkage based on product type e.g Pads £2 a set, chain-set £15 kind of thing.
All other advice sounds good. I’m not in industry so take with a pinch of salt. Just observing who is doing well with a one month wait on service.
Only working on high end bikes? No, I thought I’d do that but it doesn’t work. You get a family come in with two nice bikes and two BSO’s. Are you going to tell them they have to take the crap bikes somewhere else? So you do their bikes, then their mate comes in with a BSO. “You did my mates bike which is the same as mine, why won’t you do mine?” Plus where do you draw the line? An “as new” Carrera or a beaten up, rusty Rockhopper? A five year old Ridgeback or a ten year old Boardman?
All I was getting at is that there's no obligation to provide a service that doesn't make you money. Start with a policy, position yourself and explain what+why, etc. Being able to say no, etc - which would suggest there's enough business around for you to be able to choose.
I know a chap who ran a shop well that way, not saying it works in every area or for everyone though. It might be a misjudgement of your market or it might be sound business sense but it's up to the business owner to decide, if there is a choice.
And that was still a better day than most of my days in a bike shop.
Sort of lol...! Guessing you don't miss it.
This is an absolutely brilliant thread of knowledge and information. Stw at it's very best
X/10 charge stupid money for setting up tubeless.
go on then, how much for setting a wheel up tubeless, so thats taping, seating the tyre, supplying valves and sealant? a job 8/10 diy customers seem to have no concept of how to do properly ime.
as for only servicing high end bikes. We do a simple 2 minute bike check if the BSO rolls up, it's easy to let the customer know then that the cost of repair will be 5 x the original cost of the bike. usually because they have ridden it into the ground. The amount of times i've explained that yes their 8 speed chain does wear after 8 years of constant use and that it also wears other components. and ask if they actually store it in the sea?
Is this the first thread in forum history where everyone agrees?
and ask if they actually store it in the sea?
: )
https://www.instagram.com/mtbmechanicalsympathy/?hl=en - a great IG account along those lines
#yourbikehatesyou is also a source of many a gem
Read the Retrobike thread. Jon seems to have his head screwed on; he knew what he was getting into and had experience and contacts. Look at the pictures of the shop; just how much capital has he sunk into stock? Read, and inwardly digest, the part where he took no wages for the first 12 months but was often/usually working 16 hour days. Look at how he used his contacts to get the build contract for a bespoke frame builder and then look at the quality of his work; while he won't be chucking them together in a couple of hours, he certainly won't be dragging his heels. Look at his location; near a largeish city with properly scoped out competition, not in the middle of bum**** nowhere.
If you can do what he did, it might be a success. If not, it will certainly be a failure.
Finally, think long and hard about why you are considering this; if it's because you love bikes, biking and bikers be warned that if it doesn't work out it may ruin your love of the sport. Ask me how I know...
Is this the first thread in forum history where everyone agrees?
My first inclination was to agree with you, but then I thought about it and now I'm not so sure.
I worked in a bike shop that was part of a chain for over 10 years and did pretty much every role.
I think it’s important to remember some people do make it work. Some shops in the right location with the right stock are doing alright. I don’t imagine the owners are going to be paying cash for a new Bentley anytime soon but they can have a fun job that pays ok if you are not too bothered about making lots of money.
If you want to make a comfortable living financially I’m sure there is easier routes.
go on then, how much for setting a wheel up tubeless, so thats taping, seating the tyre, supplying valves and sealant? a job 8/10 diy customers seem to have no concept of how to do properly ime.
You forgot, remove gorilla tape then spend 30 minutes removing the gum sticky stuff that's left behind.
I was chatting to a rep last week. She earned over £60k a year and gets a company car. Lots of driving and listening to pod casts and meeting people. Still gets bike discount and doesn't end up hating bikes. That seems like the smart choice to me if you want to work in the bike industry.
Be slightly better x charge more.
X/10 charge stupid money for setting up tubeless
So which is it? Charging more or stop charging stupid money?
Yes, an adult human had poo’d on the floor in a public toilet.
Just out of curiosity… did they wipe their bum? and if so was the loo roll on the floor or in the bowl?
I have no idea! And the question never occurred to me until now.
All I was getting at is that there’s no obligation to provide a service that doesn’t make you money. Start with a policy, position yourself and explain what+why, etc. Being able to say no, etc – which would suggest there’s enough business around for you to be able to choose.
Yes, you can have that approach. I used to quote some jobs at silly money to either discourage the customer or if they went for it, the pain was offset somewhat. I do know of several cases where it's backfired though. One customer brought a horrible old tourer in for a full service which we did and the customer was happy. He then brought in his S-Works Tarmac as he trusted us to do a good job. He said another shop had turned down the tourer so missed out on the S-Works. He turned into a very good regular customer.
Sort of lol…! Guessing you don’t miss it.
No. Not for a second. Actually there is less poo in this job than there was fixing bikes. So many come in covered in dogsh1t.
Coffee shop? No. You need food hygiene certs and the place will be full of people who want to chat about bikes all day so you can’t work but they’ll only spend £3 on a coffee whilst charging their phones and using your wifi.
On the other hand, the markup on coffee is immense - my dad worked in the bakery trade for his entire working life and reckoned the most expensive part of a takeaway coffee is the cup.
In theory if you do bike repair + coffee there could be a viable model there, assuming the coffee is decent and there isn’t a good independent coffee shop locally already.
Will there be a fat boys discount?? 😀
In theory if you do bike repair + coffee there could be a viable model there, assuming the coffee is decent and there isn’t a good independent coffee shop locally already.
A mate did a "bike-themed" coffee shop for a while, using it as a hub to build a bike touring / guiding business from and he ran a few events as well - audax / basic Sportive type stuff. Once you're set up for that (after the initial costs of signage etc) that's actually not a bad income stream.
Don't expect to run a shop on top of it though, you need staff dedicated to the cafe part and staff dedicated to the bike/workshop part; you can't be having the mechanic coming to front of house every 5 minutes to make coffee.
In theory if you do bike repair + coffee there could be a viable model there, assuming the coffee is decent and there isn’t a good independent coffee shop locally already.
The Yorkshire cycling hub is in the middle of nowhere. You get there by single lanes with passing places. Everytime I've been the cafe is really busy. Mrs D likes going here just to eat. I expect they've spent a lot of money but it's a great set up. Perhaps in the right place a cycling cafe can work well.
http://www.yorkshirecyclehub.co.uk/
Location is everything, though, isn’t it?
This is a bit like the thread where someone asked about setting up a bike business and what they should sell, and got answers that weren’t quite what they were looking for, such as ‘decent commuting clothing’
The OP has gone very quiet, wondering what his thoughts are now?
I would like to thank everyone for their honest opinions, I had an idea that the responses would be along these lines but, nothing is easy, I currently work 60 hours a week in a pretty thankless job where most customers do not trust anything you say, and on top of this I have almost a 1 hour commute to and from work. Some of the thoughts I really appreciate and take on board.
Good luck op. Let us know how you get on
I've skimmed through this thread and might well have a proper read later, but comments around always working on knackered bikes stood out.
Historically it's been a race to the bottom with regards the pricing of repairs. Both in terms of $ per hour and properly assessing a bike. If someone comes in with a BSO, and you give a fair assessment of the bike and what it needs (properly a lot!), with good communication so the customer understands that bike will never perform great, if they say yes to the repair, then great! You get to do a profitable easy job and the customer gets what they agreed to. They are more likely to just buy another bike or try and fix it themselves but both of those situations are better than you fixing it at a loss.
Mechanics can also spend way too long trying to resurrect a cheap / old part......removing a front derailleur and trying to unseize it for an hour. If the customer wants to pay the labour to do that, great but otherwise tell them the potential labour charge to do that work, or replace the part.
Some people are actually really happy to spend significant money on an old bike for sentimental reasons. Don't assume that just because it's old that you should be doing a cheap job on it, or throwing away labour. I recently did a $500+ repair on an old Fisher CR7 which I bet most mechanics now would think is a POS, but it's a rad old bike and the customer had owned it since new and wanted it running really well. He came back in the shop a couple of weeks later to say how much he great the bike was riding now. Win / win.
But yeah, don't open a retail store now 😉
OP if this is your dream then make it happen. I walked out of a highly paid job to become an author. Never managed to make a proper career out of it but if I hadn’t made the leap I wouldn’t have the brilliant life I have now. Loads of good advice here…but if it’s nagging at you then crack on
Crack on I say all bike shop owners I know are minted !!! Driving posh cars have newest best bikes too 🙂
Lots of negativity on here, you could easily replace bike shop with teaching, office work, council staff - send done people exude negativity about their job regardless of what it is with similar gripes
A lot of people simply think that the grass is greener and they know better, if the op wants to do it, fair play to him. He's an adult that is aware that hard work is in front of him. Good luck OP
I love my job, granted I don't earn loads but quality of life, time with family, different stresses top trumps teaching, but each to their own.
OP Carpe Diem
I currently work 60 hours a week in a pretty thankless job where most customers do not trust anything you say, and on top of this I have almost a 1 hour commute to and from work.
I think I agree with the previous couple of posters, it's easy to make the bike shop career sound terrible, but then I hate my current career also so if I weren't dependent on the current salary, maybe I'd also consider the bike shop life, at least I could be miserable talking about things I loved and (sort of) actually knowing what I was doing 😁
Plus when I left Uni I spent 5 years working in Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative. I was never quite engaged or senior enough to understand quite how their business model worked, but we didn't sell any BSOs and I think our workshop pricing and waiting list was enough to put off a significant proportion of the BSO owners who came in (my memory is pretty hazy now but whilst we dealt with a lot of older bikes, they weren't typically BSOs).
We also ran classes which I got to teach which was a surprisingly positive/engaging part of the job, although not without its hiccups (one of the last wheelbuilding classes I taught involved every single one of the 6 'students' bringing in their own components, none of which were even remotely standard and some of which required spoke sizes calculated and provided by us. We stopped doing the 'bring your own' part after that and taught everyone on 32 spoke Deore hubs and Mavic rims 😎).
Their workshop now seems to resemble something from the matrix, all laptops for eBike servicing and D12 firmware updates etc 🙄
On the flip side to most people.
At least one of my two local bike shops are doing really well.
They are in a great location (Fort William) with a great mix of local club trade and tourists heading for Nevis Range/touring etc.
Their workshop is booked up 3-4 weeks in advance. Their prices are high.
Stock is good. They do running and swimming gear too.
They are all over e bikes like you wouldn’t believe.
They ‘organise’ some wild swims and do a few guided rides/e bike trials etc.
So - it can be done. Location is absolutely key as is good local and passing trade.
Good luck if you got for it.
Loving this thread and all contributions. There was a similar one about cafes a while ago, equally interesting, same theme.
I don't know if it's a post covid thing but everyone I know in a similar field to me, property, has sacked it off and retired. Ok they could, but they were hardly working hard before.
A cycle mechanic I know of used to be home based, now got a small workshop just doing repairs. Booked up but apparently he s really good.
"At the moment bikes aren’t discounted due to lack of stock but once that’s fixed the big boys will be selling bikes on line cheaper than you can buy them at trade." yeap I give it end of next year bikes be discounted again as over stocked and sells are down as most don't need new bike as theirs not that old, + 2nd hand market be full of hardly used bikes.
Anyway back on topic fo OP, agree a lot that been written already.
but a couple of things, If you do go down the "work in a bike shop, learn get contacts etc" and then leave to set up down the road/next village I think it pretty low thing to do, more so if the shop a small/one or two people own it.
Which brings me to, (as I think you might be looking at it wrong way) find a local small/one person owned bike shop that been around for a while, hopefully they busy, prob 2 busy for one person to keep on top things (orders/account/social media/website/sorting deals or offers/sorting bike rides etc)
Chat to them see if they want to sell or like a biz partner, split the work load and say if you been money into the shop, say money for stocking ebikes and other ways to bring more customers in (shop rides etc) as they might not had the money or taken the leap/risk so to speak.
Yeah be a lot of small details to sort out etc, but be less of a risk/cost to you, you get a invested interest in the shop, you got someone to learn from etc, they get extra help, investment in the shop, and if they do want to sell at a latter date, you should 1st in line if you like to buy it.
To those saying lots of negativity here and other carriers can be crap too, the warnings being given are about attempting to set up and run your own business. It's not like taking a job and deciding you don't like it, it's about making a major financial commitment. The comments being made by those who have experience in the business sound sensible to me.
About the repair shop idea, there is a chap close to me who does just that and offers complete strip down and rebuild servicing. He's not cheap but if social media is to be believed he's doing very well. Most of his business appears to be high end bikes (this is Cheshire so lots of folk with a fair bit of disposable) but he sorts out peoples BSOs too.
Anyway, 50 miles North of Swansea. It's not Llanddewi Brefi is it?
Not far off, just a handful of miles south.
I recently did a $500+ repair on an old Fisher CR7 which I bet most mechanics now would think is a POS, but it’s a rad old bike and the customer had owned it since new and wanted it running really well.
I’ve just spent £100 getting the Hybrid of Doom repaired after a significant mechanical (rear mech threw itself through the back wheel, bending the integral mech hanger in the process) but a) sentimental value and b) there are no new bikes out there. It’s an about 30yo Raleigh Pioneer.
On the other hand, I’ve been there when bike shops have quoted an arm and a leg to repair a BSO puncture on the basis that the time and effort to do that, then straighten the wheel etc etc is more than the job is worth.
To those saying lots of negativity here and other carriers can be crap too, the warnings being given are about attempting to set up and run your own business. It’s not like taking a job and deciding you don’t like it, it’s about making a major financial commitment.
This times a thousand. OP, your job sounds grim. I've been there too and it broke me. But making a significant financial commitment to do something you have no experience of has red flags all over it. It's like me saying "I'm good at DIY, I built a shed and laid a patio so I'll set up a building company".
If you were saying "should I leave my job to work in a bike shop" then absolutely, go for it.
But experienced, knowledgeable and well connected bike shop owners are going bankrupt at the moment. Shops which have been around for decades are closing and industry predictions for next year are not optimistic. We are looking at short supply of new bikes and parts along with a glut of 2nd hand bikes on the market.
If you must, please don't invest more than you can afford to lose and do everything you can to get some industry experience first.
And genuinely good luck.
