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Checked our workshop costs for bb fitting, £25. That's cranks off, bb out, chase threads and face if necessary, refit bb and done.
face if necessary
Once in a blue moon.
So a £20 fine for being a numpty and not having a decent BB tool at home? Harsh, but I can live with it. I probably only visit a bike shop for work every 18 months or so in any case. To be fair, when I do I'm glad to have a decent, if slightly expensive, local one to support.
You really need to try treks bb90 bottom bracket if you really want some unreliability/ cost, absolute nightmare, I just gave up riding it in any muddy or wet conditions
Could it be fit BB £25, chase/face BB £25?
I charge a higher fee for some jobs than hourly rate, eg facing a BB shell, reaming a head tube etc.
It still seems steep to me if you bought the BB from them at retail, but they may have a price list and just stick to it.
Even a 2 minute job should be subject to a minimum service charge. You need to talk to the customer, book the bike in, assess the job, order parts, do the job, write up the job/invoice the customer, contact the customer, take payment, talk to the customer.
Its a free market, a business can charge what they want, customers can use (or not) whatever business they want.
Communication with the customer is key, identify the customers needs, provide an accurate estimate and discuss possible extra costs that may occur (eg facing).
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.
**** sakes, you all wonder why local shops are going out of business.
Some people have no concept of actually how much it costs to run a business, and heaven forbid how very dare they make a profit from their customers.
See the many "ripped off by trades" threads for details.
Cost of bb plus fitting?
surely fitting cost needs to take into account so many things
cost of tool
cost of mechanics quals
cost of rent
cost of lighting
National Insurance
pension contributions?
public liability insurance
rent or mortgage
and so on and so forth
Another shop that needs to work on its customer communication skills, from the looks of it.
No doubt it will go out of business soon because 'people don't understand the costs'.
probably only visit a bike shop for work every 18 months or so in any case. To be fair, when I do I’m glad to have a decent, if slightly expensive, local one to support.
I wouldn’t say once every 18 months was particularly great support, tbh. My LBS has just closed (it’s won awards for how good it was, there was a thread about it closing). Loads of folk gutted it was closing, loads of those rarely used it, but always expected ‘mates rates’ cos they were always on the shop rides...
At Bike Revive in Sheffield We'd charge £20 for the BB to be fitted. Currently working on a square taper that is requiring a lot of work but quoted £20 for removal and fitting of new one so thats what the customer is being charged.
Conversely I work from a workshop at home so overheads are minimal.
Anyone heard of VAT?
The government take £8.33 of that £50 for doing sweet fa.
and corporation tax if Ltd co at 20%
all of a sudden £50 is not actually much to charge in the grand scheme of things. Since starting a business it has been a real eye opener when working with small/local companies. Margins are tiny. Little bike shops/repair services won't compete o price but we can compete on quality of work and attention to detail.
surely fitting cost needs to take into account so many things
Yes, but it isn't the only thing that generates revenue to cover everything you list: sales do, too—even though we all know margins are super tight in the post-Amazon/Wiggle world. I think it's possible to understand that turning a profit as a bike shop is tremendously difficult, whilst also being of the opinion, as a consumer, that £50 seems quite high for a threaded BB swap without even having to deal with the cranks. Given that you'd think that most punters would be buying £20 Shimano BBs, not £90 Hopes, it'd be understandable if many of them went elsewhere to look for a lower fitting charge.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting anyone's getting fleeced in the grand scheme of things. Just that if this is what labour charges genuinely have to be like then I'm very glad that I've bought all the tools to do whatever I need to 😉
Yes, but it isn’t the only thing that generates revenue to cover everything you list: sales do, too.
Retail in bricks and mortar shops is as good as dead, unless you are a Santa Cruz/Yeti et al dealer. My LBS would get folk coming in with arms full of parts, asking them to be fitted (having not bothered to ask of the shop could get close to price matching) then grumbling at the cost of fitting, complaining that because of the cost of fitting, he’s not saved much buying online.
Ask for a written quote for any repair before handing your item over?
Here are the keys to my car - go ahead and replace the engine.
3 days later:
What do you mean £2500?
I think what you paid is at the upper end of reasonable. It’s usually around £40 an hour for labour isn’t it? If your place is a boutique shop in an out of the way area then they can charge what people are willing to pay I guess?
Picked up my bike today after a BB replacement. They told me up front that it would be an hour’s labour and I’d still be charged that even if I bought the BB off them.
Thought about a Hope but the old SLX BB lasted 6 years. I doubt a Hope will last 24 years or feel 4 times better. Also, £39 for removing and fitting new BB, new inner and outer for gears, and straightening a bent mech hanger.
BB cost me £23. Part of that work included the 5-10 minutes they took to have a look at the BB that was seized. I’d happily pay that again. In fact, I’m happy to keep giving them
business if it means they’ll stay open. My last LBS went under at the beginning of this year. If there aren’t any within a 30 minute drive of me then I might as well give up having an MTB altogether. There just isn’t enough time to do the time intensive tasks anymore. I need a bike for the school run and to keep myself sane. The LBS helps with that so I happily pay the money.
If you think bike shops are expensive then for your sake I pray to the Gods that you never have to deal with a solicitor!
Well the Hope has lasted all of two months before seizing. Hate, hate, hate.
Something far wrong there. Hope BBs aren't so fundamentally flawed that they should fail in a couple of months. Did the shop refit the cranks too?
I'm with Colin here - even the crap that are Raceface and SRAM GXP last longer than two months. I've Hope BBs on three bikes and lifetime is in years, in one case six years. That's with dealing with pretty yuck conditions and fairly frequent dunkings.
Maintenance is a biannual removal and subsequent cleaning of threads on BB cups and BB shell. Never done the supposedly essential removal of the bearing cover and regrease.
They seem to lack grease and have seized. I would take them apart, but seeing as I did not fit them, back to the bike shop Monday. Cycling can be such a pain sometimes, I don't know why I bother.
How do you clean your bike?
Sounds like too much pre load or there's some crap in there that needs cleaning out
Did the shop refit the cranks too?
SRAM GX. There is no preload.
Have had Hope on pretty much all of my bikes. My 1995 Clockwork has been on the same BB for 20 years now. All good, as are my other bikes. Even the fatbike is fine, and that sees some hideous conditions.
This one just feels dry. I do not use a power wash.
Normally do all my own building and servicing, and my bikes last. Took this one in to the LBS, paid a price, and now it has died a miserable death within 2 months. There's a lesson in there somewhere.....
Have hope on both my bikes, usual maintenance of removing and cleaning after every few rides and they've lasted a long time, they are sealed bearings so if they've seized something serious has happened, they're 2RS bearings, so have rubber seals both sides, might be worth prying off the seals and checking the state of the inner bearing.
I'm sure a decent bike shop will look after you.
Hopes customer service is top class too.
Oh yeah, annoying thing about the hope BB is the weird sizing, hope yet again coming up with their own standards, i have the cranks on both bikes and they're a pain as well, the bearings is about the only thing i don't mumble too much with hope about.
Square taper.
Spot on.
I realy like hope stuff, but when it comes to standard bbs, a £15 shimano jobbie is surely better value.
Hambini videos are very interesting, if a bit sweary, on the topic of BBs. He has a whole vid devoted to sram gx.
usual maintenance of removing and cleaning after every few rides a
Why would you do that? Mine last for years without needing any "maintenance" .
We've had a very wet winter - riding a bike without guards means water gets down the seat tube and stays there - riding a bike with immersed bearings will kill them in no time.
Can't really see why you would have a 'old man rant' over it. I dont see that you have had your pants pulled down really, other than voluntarily opting to pick up big bubba's soap in the shower by choosing a Hope BB. If it was a straight forward trouble free fitting then you have probably been overcharged but not massively, but maybe it was difficult for some reason or another and the charge is about right.
Muddyground do you mean gxp, if so that's the problem, I'm assuming so because dub system has preload, I'd swap to shimano, hope bb needs adapter for gxp, maybe thats what's gone wrong.
usual maintenance of removing and cleaning after every few rides........
Really ? removing cranks and stripping BB is not something i'd want to do more than once every 18mths
not sure that many would consider that usual but still , if youre happy and wotnot.
riding a bike without guards means water gets down the seat tube and stays there
All my bikes have a little hole in the bottom of the bb shell to let that water out. MrsP had a lapierre that didn't have one and that killed a couple of press fit bbs before I drilled a 3mm hole, next bb lasted ages.
I ran a hope few years back the bearings failed after few months :(. Insult to injury I had a hard time getting crank off as the bearings had got good grip on hollow tech axle 🙁 . Due to metal on metal no plastic top cap as Shimano.
Back with Shimano no issues since.
I've had a play. Looks like I left a small plastic spacer on the drive side crank of the SRAM that should not have been there for Hope. Operator error..... Sorry Hope!
I remove the cranks, clean the BB and area and relube where required, no stripping of the BB as stated before, they're rubber sealed bearings, but i would rather clean and relube every couple of months than leave it a year and then find something's seized, it's a steel frame with aluminium BB shells and water is getting down the downtube due to the internal routing, i've dealt with seized BB cups in the past and don't want to mess about with that stuff again, also never had a BB fail on me so must be doing something right!
I’ve had a play. Looks like I left a small plastic spacer on the drive side crank of the SRAM that should not have been there for Hope. Operator error….. Sorry Hope!
What did the shop that fitted it do about the spacer? Has removing it sorted the problem, or is the BB borked?
Not sure how to write in small letters - I put the crank back on, and did not notice the existing SRAM plastic dust cap on the drive side. Obv now redundant. The cranks do spin a bit better, d'oh. If the BB needs new bearings, then that's on me, not Hope or the shop.
I love a good old man rant! They are the best, especially when they are wrong. There no fun when they have a good point.
Fair play for admitting it and not just letting the thread die.
We've all been there in some shape or form!
I ended up on hope for a gxp xx chain set. The cheap bbs lasted weeks (in one case one ride!)and I ended up with the hope one that it is now 4 years old. I was so impressed that I now have them on all my bikes and not only do they last, they are user serviceable and not just a disposable item.