[Closed] Put my bike in for a service - just had the dreaded phone call....

Fork service in house £80ish is fair, is sent away +£20 P&P + removing, cleaning and fitting forks ~ 10er.

the lbs may do it in house. j

I'd say they've got it spot on. But a little cheeky replacing slx stuff with xt.

Er, I don't think they have.

Says SLX in the OP.

However new fangled 10 spd chains appear to be quite a lot more money,

Agreed. That's why I'm sticking with 9sp for the foreseeable future.

2 hours for a brake bleed?? WTF?

I'd be interested to know how many of these were actually causing issues prior to putting the bike in. I'd certainly want a breakdown of the costings in parts and labour before pushing the button on that lot.

Having said that, last time I went to pick up the bike from LBS after a £30 service I found that work, probably justified, had been done without phoning first (on a much smaller scale than this but still...).

Fork service in house £80ish is fair, is sent away +£20 P&P + removing, cleaning and fitting forks ~ 10er.
the lbs may do it in house. j

They may do, yes.
But I'd wager that they won't be resizing the bushes like LoCo or TFT do, so it'll be no more than a DIY lube service you can do at home.

[i]2 hours for a brake bleed?? WTF?[/i]

1 hour for the front
1 hour for the rear

Don't tell me you can do it quicker than that!

Not really. If you get pulled, or god forbid, hit someone and they're a bit dodgy you'll be in serious grief.

They're not worn out, just worn, 4mm on the inside edge and a bit less worn on the outside. So arround half way through their lifespan. If I swapped now they'd actualy be better as they'd (pesumably) wear evenly and reach the limit accross the whole tread in another ~15,000miles time.

Any good reason not to?

2 hours for a brake bleed?? WTF?

You question it, but in reality brakes typically don't come in simply needing a "bleed", most of the time it isn't a bleed they require. Normally due to horrible conditions/poor maintenance/riding permanently in sand, the pistons/seals are ****ed. Then you proceed to either fanny about freeing the pistons and soemwhat cleaning the seals or doing a rebuild.

If it was simply a bleed, i'd say you'd be doing really well if you did it by stopwatch, taking brakes off, prepping gear, bleeding and reattaching to bike in under 50 minutes for the pair.

I'm assuming worst case.

Fork service is simply an oil change - takes me under half and hour and a few quid in oil

Plus cassette and chainrings and chain plus brake bleed and pads

IU do believe that LBSs need to charge a decent amount for labour but that price is around £200 over the score IMO.

somone above put 2 hrs to bleed brakes? ten minutes for me to do it.

Edit - crossed posts. why remove them to bleed?

In that case, no, knock yourself out!

TandemJeremy - Member

Fork service is simply an oil change - takes me under half and hour and a few quid in oil

[img] [/img]?

DezB - Member

2 hours for a brake bleed?? WTF?

1 hour for the front
1 hour for the rear

Don't tell me you can do it quicker than that!

Yup - 5 mins an end on hopes. maybe 10 if being awkward

There seems to be a lot of assumptions in this thread. In fact almost every post since the first is completely made up. No one actually knows what the OP has asked for, or what service the bike got. So pricing it is no more possible than intergalactic space travel.

What's interesting, is the attitudes towards people making an honest living. Yes, you can get this stuff cheaper. But you will pay in your own time and knowledge. And you will pay when there is no LBS to go to next time you need your bike fixed. You're paying for an experienced and skilled worker to maintain your bike to the highest possible standards, and if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, and learn the skills to do so, and possibly break it in doiing so, then you can't really quibble over a few quid.

We should be supporting our bike shops.

2 hours for a brake bleed?? WTF?

1 hour for the front
1 hour for the rear

Don't tell me you can do it quicker than that!

😯

A Blind monkey with no tools could do it quicker than that!

Being very thorough, and careful, absolute tops of 15 minutes per end. But as the LBS will have a bike stand and all tools to hand, it should take more like 5 minutes per end.

Rusty - no need to replace seals unless they are leaking. then its a repair not a service.

why remove them to bleed?

If you're in a shop, you want to be careful, you want to remove as many possible mistakes such as syringe blowing off nipple and drenching rotor/pads/bike in brake fluid as possible.

DeBz - I have done quicker than that, and I'm a cack handed keyboard warrior. I take Dean's point though.

[i]5 mins an end on hopes[/i]

I'd love to see the youtube video of this from starting with the bike on the floor and the tools all neatly put away to finishing with it all in the start state and everythign cleaned up.

I hope they told you the price before they started work!? If not I would ask for your bike back, and go elsewhere.

Golly, I'm a bit late in this.. Do you ride in wet sand? Do you ever clean/lube?

"smirks"

its an outrage i tell thee - the usual suspects talking shit tbh

sometimes people just dont realise things are a problem due to them creeping up slowely.

my mates bike was utterly shagged although he didnt realise this - sounding similar to the above - even at rose bikes i ended up spending 200 quid to get it back to GWO that i was happy to head into the hills with him on.

FOC labour mind you.

So add a third at least to that for LBS prices.

A Blind monkey with no tools could do it quicker than that!

Being very thorough, and careful, absolute tops of 15 minutes per end. But as the LBS will have a bike stand and all tools to hand, it should take more like 5 minutes per end.

Well I'm glad I'm not taking a bike to you for a [i]thorough[/i] service 🙄

Butcher - I agree with you there - but the price quoted is still way over the top

this is my LBS - fixed price servicing and not stinting themselves . I think this is a fair price for a service. so a full service from them plus a fork strip and rebuild is a £140 labour charge.

http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/Bike%252520Repairs/

Add to this the cost of a cassette, chain, chainrings and jockey wheels and pads. you get a total cost in the £250 - 300 region

Whos the shop Derek ? Just so I know to avoid them... wouldnt be a well known one in Whitefield would it ?

Ah excellent, love it when all the armchair mechanics come on.

If you need "a complete new drivetrain" I'm guessing the bike wasn't in the cleanest state ever when it went in? Possibly a few seized bolts? Mud encrusted brakes?

Clean all that off first to avoid bits going in the reservoir, undo a seized bolt or two and you're very quickly onto a lot more than "5 mins per end".

Until we see a breakdown of that expense and the exact work required, I don't think anyone is qualified to say it's excessive or not.

Derek. Bring it round to ours tomorrow. It'll be a doddle. Theres nowt can't be fixed with the simple deployment of a bigger hammer

Remember: If in doubt, give it a clout! 😀

[i]I don't think anyone is qualified to say it's excessive or not.[/i]

QUALIFIED!? Of course we're QUALIFIED! This is the Internet! 😆

Rusty - no need to replace seals unless they are leaking. then its a repair not a service.

TJ its really not, service of this kind should bare minimum include dust seal and foam rings and I would say oil seals too. If they're leaking you're waaayyy too late.

You don't leave it to change pads until the putting back plate to disc, or tyres until they go right through to the tube...

What's interesting, is the attitudes towards people making an honest living. Yes, you can get this stuff cheaper. But you will pay in your own time and knowledge. And you will pay when there is no LBS to go to next time you need your bike fixed. You're paying for an experienced and skilled worker to maintain your bike to the highest possible standards, and if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, and learn the skills to do so, and possibly break it in doiing so, then you can't really quibble over a few quid.

Honest????
This sounds like a rip off to me.

Experienced and skilled????
Sometimes maybe, but 'rushed and underpaid' could also be just as true. I've seen some right howlers of mistakes, bodges and corners cut by LBSs. I've had to correct them for other people

A few quid????
Now you really are taking the piss!

It's impossible to say without looking at the bike, but the number of times I've seen a bike come into the workshop just for "one little thing" and it actually needs a serious amount of work.

Did you ask for them to sort everything, or to just get it running again?

Honest????
This sounds like a rip off to me.

Experienced and skilled????
Sometimes maybe, but 'rushed and underpaid' could also be just as true. I've seen some right howlers of mistakes, bodges and corners cut by LBSs. I've had to correct them for other people

A few quid????
Now you really are taking the piss!

I'm sure there are some bad shops, and some bad jobs being done. I always go by the policy of if you want it doing right, then do it yourself.

But there are no facts in this thread. People are calling out to name and shame a shop who may well have undercharged for all anyone knows. You can't say it's a rip off if you don't know what work has been carried out.

That's wrong, man. Proper witch hunt stuff.

It's impossible to say without looking at the bike, but the number of times I've seen a bike come into the workshop just for "one little thing" and it actually needs a serious amount of work.

Ah.... so you've met me a few times then 😀

You don't leave it to change pads until the putting back plate to disc, or tyres until they go right through to the tube...

But there are no facts in this thread. People are calling out to name and shame a shop who may well have undercharged for all anyone knows. You can't say it's a rip off if you don't know what work has been carried out.

That's wrong, man. Proper witch hunt stuff.

+1 and what I basically said earlier. I've seen it countless times - bike brought in an owner says "can you just..." before adding "oh and while you're at it, if you could just..."

Before you know it, you're at complete strip and rebuild time. Evans charge £90 for that and that's before they've even charged for any new parts.

the most dreaded words in a bike shop are " im an engineer" usually code for ive royally ****ed it up and it needs complete replacement now

followed by

i just adjusted it slightly - really why are all the bolts rounded and mullered then ?

followed by

It "just" needs XYZ - meaning serious amount of work.

and finally

"i usually do all my work my self but it just needs XYZ" and you find out that yes they have been doing it their selves - completely wrongly.

im willing to bet ive seen more DIY howlers by havagoheros than you`ve seen bodges by bike shops - unless you have a notoriously shit local shop - although i did get a howler in from another local shop who put mineral in a customers Hope brake que Swollen seals !

unklehomered - Member

Rusty - no need to replace seals unless they are leaking. then its a repair not a service.

TJ its really not, service of this kind should bare minimum include dust seal and foam rings and I would say oil seals too. If they're leaking you're waaayyy too late.

why? do you change brake seals befoer they fail?

tehre simply is no need to replace a seal that is not leaking. why would you? You clean and lube the fork. thats all thats needed. No other similar application do you change seals if they are not leaking

[i]"In excess of £450"[/i]

Then you will need some.

[img] [/img]

and a.

[img] [/img]

Sorry dude.
You're being ripped.

You're paying for an experienced and skilled worker to maintain your bike to the highest possible standards,

You seem to be confusing a bike mechanic in an LBS with a NASA assembly line. No offense intended to bike mechanics but it's a bike, it consists of a pile of interchangeable and easily replaceable parts, mostly held on by an allen bolt or two.

5 mins an end on hopes

I'd love to see the youtube video of this from starting with the bike on the floor and the tools all neatly put away to finishing with it all in the start state and everythign cleaned up.

I did mine last thursday between getting home from work, and going for a ride. Took half an hour, including getting naked, putting the washing machine on, finding all the cycling kit that should have been in my backpack but wasn't, filling a waterbottle, putting biking kit on and pedaling up the street.

Wheels off,
Tyre levers in to space out pads
Reservoir caps off
top up fluid
ring spanner on nipple
pipe on nipple
squeeze lever/open/close nipple/release lever
repeat several times at each end.
top up resevoirs,
seals back on
caps back on
wheels back on.

"No other similar application do you change seals if they are not leaking "

good workshop practice especially if its listed in the service schedule. - preventative maintainance.

i can name a few applications where its standard practice to remove and replace seals after EVERY use regardless of condition.

TandemJeremy - Member

unklehomered - Member

Rusty - no need to replace seals unless they are leaking. then its a repair not a service.

TJ its really not, service of this kind should bare minimum include dust seal and foam rings and I would say oil seals too. If they're leaking you're waaayyy too late.

why? do you change brake seals befoer they fail?

tehre simply is no need to replace a seal that is not leaking. why would you? You clean and lube the fork. thats all thats needed. No other similar application do you change seals if they are not leaking

[i]i can name a few applications where its standard practice to remove and replace seals after EVERY use regardless of condition. [/i]

Space shuttle underbelly fuel tank ?.

[img] [/img]

£450 for a service!!!!!

why? do you change brake seals before they fail?

So far yup. Only on oros, shimano less likely to need it.
Old oro seals weren't leaking but they were degrading, making pad retraction an issue and letting crap into the caliper. Like a fork seal which is nearing death will let crap into the lowers. Even a good seal may still let some crap into the lowers... dust seals also get get crap stuck in them which will slowly begin to damage the stanchions usually around the sag line, where its back forth probably 10s of thousands of times in a ride...

Your forks though, your decision, but if a bike shop said they were servicing my forks and just change the oil i would be pretty darn narked.

a bit less hi-tech than that solo.

possibly one of the more rough and ready industries tbh who adopt the we need a bigger hammer thought process !

It's often lack of preventative maintenance that causes the real problems - people who, instead of replacing a chain when it gets worn, ride it until the cassette, chainrings and jockey wheels are knackered as well - stuff like that. People who, instead of replacing (rim) brake pads occasionally, ride until the steel pad holder cuts a hole in the rim. Stuff like that.

People often say "while you're at it, do anything else that needs doing" - I try to ascertain if they really mean that before they leave 😉