Just had my pants pulled down? Needed a new bottom bracket. I'd stripped the crank off, but my BB tool didn't quite fit the existing BB so rather than faff I took it in to my LBS. "Hope please" and left. Picked it up today, £140.
I'm off to fill my face with mince pies now in consolation.
RRP is £90 so you paid £50 to get it fitted which probably requires removing old old, cleaning up and refacing the shell, then fitting new one. Maybe an hours labour? Seems a little steep but not crazy.
Oh they did a much better job than me, and the existing BB was rubbish. Just that it came out at a tenth of what the bike cost new. Suspect I'm out of touch with pricing, and have degenerated into grumpy old man territory.
Who takes an hour to remove a BB and put a new one in?!
Probably a minimum charge of an hour.
Last BB I bought from a shop was also Hope. I'd removed the cranks and asked them to remove BB and fit new one which they supplied, £90 all in.
Was this for a press fit or threaded BB.
If press fit, doesn't seem too drastic for the work done. If threaded then I'd have just bought the £10 tool that fits and done it myself.
Threaded. I was expecting around £90 to £100. It would not have taken an hour - ten minutes at most. My tool did not quite fit, hence why I took it in.
Ah well, done now, move on. Hopefully the bike will now move out of the regret purchase and on to being one I like - the drive side of the existing BB was seized, hence most likely why it was a bit of a pig to ride since new.
And really I am lucky to have a decent LBS in town. The nearest other reasonable one is ten miles away.
£50 for fitting a threaded bb especially when you bought it for them seems a bit hefty. And that's presuming they charge full rrp for the bb.
Although if you had a car garage fit a £90 part you’d probably pay £140; everyone seems to value trained bike mechanics a lot less
There's a reason why I pay €16.50 for a Shimano one, rather than €90+ for a Hope one. They might not last quite as long, but Hope would need to last at least a decade, and in this day and age of bin and replace, the only BB that's going to last more than a decade is a ye olde worlde loose ball BB, where the only consumable is grease every few years.
Wonder what the total tab would have been for the OP, if a Shimano or similar had been fitted? My experience of the LBS round here would have been 2x the price of the component, so maybe 30 all in.
The RRP on the press fit one is £105 and the threaded is £90. maybe they got them mixed up? Still, I'd only want to pay 1/2hr labour for the job.
£114 I could understand, could you have been accidently overcharged? Might be worth giving them a call. The ceramic ones were more expensive..... I've gone back to shimano
If threaded then sounds like you've been overcharged.
No accident - did question it. Normally do these things myself, with cheap Shimano units that I repack. The LBS does do a good job, fair play, and the work lasts. Always has been a price premium for their work, just that today it seemed a tad OTT for a basic job. Live and learn.
Ripped off IMO. Threaded tool is 15 quid, threaded BB is about 20 for a decent one. Takes 15 minutes to replace. You've been done there.
All threaded BB’s are £20? Even if you ask for a hope one?
Cool.
threaded BB is about 20 for a decent one
Not for a Hope one, which is what the OP specified.
So you didn't ask how much the bb is or how much they would charge for fitting?
Here lies the problem. Lesson learned.
10 - 15 mins? Aye, plus the time taken to book the work in and deal with it afterwards. No harm in having a minimum 1 hr charge for these jobs.
Quite probably. Most likely unit pricing for a bike brought in whole, not stripped. Standard of the work is always good though.
Is it a chain or independent?
There's a concept store not too far from me. I once went in and it was very fancy, some very nice expensive stuff and 6 staff sat there doing nothing. They had a minimum charge.
So you didn’t ask how much the bb is or how much they would charge for fitting?
It's funny that, we are often embarrassed to ask the priceh which is insane. It's taken me a long time to get over that but now I always do and get very insistant if I see the question getting avoided. I wonder if it is a British thing or if all nationalities are like that
OK, looking at the replies the price was a bit toppy but not totally unreasonable for Hope. The quality of the work is always good - I'd have to drive miles to find an equal. That alone is worth the extra I paid, as I'd have to drive over to drop off, then collect a week later - call it 40 miles and 3 hours, plus parking. It's probably better just to take a bike in as is rather than strip down.
I'll put this one to bed then.
As a few folk have said above, I've often found it worthwhile to ask for a breakdown of the costs - even when I've found the price reasonable. I can't remember a time when a shop has been shirty about this, and the one time I'd been overcharged it was an honest mistake that was rectified.
andytherocketeer
...and in this day and age of bin and replace, the only BB that’s going to last more than a decade is a ye olde worlde loose ball BB, where the only consumable is grease every few years...
I've found much the same.
Does anyone one make a sealed one with a grease nipple these days?
Unless the old bb was jammed in and they had an absolute battle to get it out. That could eat up time quite easily?
It would take me longer to get the bike to the shop and pick it up again than fitting it so a complete non-starter but then I have never paid a bike shop to do anything in the 47 years I have been into bikes. Bikes are so simple I just cannot get my head around paying someone to do stuff.
Probably a bit steep on labour, but entirely possible that they had to fight it out, clean out a kilo of caked on mud from inside, and run a tap through the threads to clear them (BB taps ain't cheap, and won't pay for themselves).
Bikes aren't complicated, I do it myself, but I appreciate some folk get very stressed with even getting a decorator in, like my BIL - he is absoutely useless. He can do golf as sticks don't need fixing.
If you've paid full retail for a threaded hope BB we'd have fitted it for free. 15 min job tops
Well to be honest buying a Hope Bb you've had your pants pulled down before even having the labour charged, they're a rip off when a 20 quid BB does the same thing
Who takes an hour to remove a BB and put a new one in?!
The old Powertorque BB took longer than an hour destroyed a Park puller and eventually required cutting off. Never again, Ultratorque all the way from now on.
£76.50 for hope bb at my local, free 48 hrs delivery, tenner for a tool, a few quid more for next day delivery. Could have saved you £50.
Some peoples LBS loyalty costs a fortune.
I've saved myself and my mates hundreds based on your LBS prices. Theres a reason they didn't give you a ballpark figure and if they struggled or had to face the shell they'd tell you, just to justify the price. I guess they saw you coming unfortunately. Online shopping wins everytime for me.
**** sakes, you all wonder why local shops are going out of business.
They have to pay staff and wages to do these 10 minute jobs, if it's so easy to do, do it your self. As a newly self employed person i always struggle with this type of thing. If i charged somebody for what might take me 15 mins but might take somebody without the knowhow an hour or 2, I'd be permanently skint. I'd say there is an minimum charge of an hour and it gets done. Dont like it do it your selfand take the risk.
Sorry to hear that OP. Let me make it worse. New XT M8000 cranks and BB £90. Litterally 15mn to install if you're shit like me. All it needs to last 3+ years of abuse is to back off the hand tightening of the pre load by a quarter of a turn.
90 quid for a bottom bracket. I think that's your main problem.
RicB
Subscriber
Although if you had a car garage fit a £90 part you’d probably pay £140; everyone seems to value trained bike mechanics a lot less
The huge difference in the running costs of a commercial garage compared to a bike workshop makes this a rather naive statement to say the least.
JP
The huge difference in the running costs of a commercial garage compared to a bike workshop makes this a rather naive statement
Be interested if that is necessarily the case. All the car mechanics around here are shabby industrial units, tucked away of busy streets, carry little if any stock and no money spent on customer facing kit. Local bike shops, big rates, big rents, carting bikes and stock and regularly getting stuff robbed. All whilst paying mechanic a wage, local small shop is at least owner and three employees, guy I used for spannering cars, was himself and one other guy.
Anyone else confused by stof41 post, is he for or against LBS's charging £50 to fit a bb, should a shop charge for time taken or a hypothetical "how long would it take an idiot to do this" time.
I can remove bb, thread chase and face then install new in well under an hour, I'd love to hear the shop justify £50, given they probably just removed old one, gave the shell a wipe, re greased and fit new.
If their service prices were up on the wall would anybody say umm very reasonable.
Agree with a minimum charge of an hour for big jobs but surely not fifty quid, but what if a kid just needs a new gear cable fitted.
muddyground
“Hope please”
So you walked into a bike shop 2 days after the general election and asked for Hope.
You were under charged mate!
As soon as i opened the thread i knew it would go this way..
Sure, it was a bit steep, but not insane by any stretch of the imagination.
I guess it depends on how much your time costs. In theory swapping a BB is an easy job, but we've all be lured into those sorts of repairs before finding all sorts of horrors lurking in wait. I guess part of what you're paying for is the knowledge that it will be done right without spending hours of your weekend gurning in the cold on your patio or unheated garage trying to wrestle recalcitrant parts into working.
So, if the labour charge is a fixed one hour rate of £40/50, what happens when someone takes their bike in for new canti / V brake pads??? A £60/70* bill!!! That would be insane...
* new pads @ £10 per set and no cables required
I'm sorry but if you are surprised by a bill then it's your own fault for not asking what the price will be, and for not being aware of the minimum price.
Tread cautiously next time
