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I'd rather build bikes to spec if possible as it's all new and clean.
You don't have to repair low end bikes, why not try and market yourself to high end bike owners?
If I were you I'd prob try to start business whilst still a teacher (unless you have loads of savings)
I own a couple of expensive bikes and am competent with spanners. But I happily pay my LBS to do the basic stuff like fitting a BB or a Headset etc.
Im cash rich and time poor, so Im probably your perfect customer. I imagine a lot of riders are just like me.
Pick the type of customer you want and target yourself to them. I would pay for someone to turn up to my workplace in the morning, fix my bike during the day, leaving me to ride after work. Perfect.
Price is not somthing I bother about, its quality of workmanship, advice and service I want.
Start advertising your services based on price and you soon race to the bottom. Advertise your services based on quality/service/time/convinience and you find customers like me.
As part of our work cycle scheme, we have just this. A local company who collect bikes from out site, take them off to their workshop and repair them. They prioritise return by 4:30 pm for commuters who need to ride home.
At our main office they have a small shop and full workshop.
I’m sure other companies keen to promote cycling would welcome such infrastructure if offered the opportunity. Similar arrangements exist for mobile car valets who seem to be on site almost daily.
Bikehshops can charge a fortune for just a clean and regrease. So go for it.
Pick the type of customer you want and target yourself to them. I would pay for someone to turn up to my workplace in the morning
Local mobile mechanic pitches up at the train station couple of times a week for the London commuters. Little gazebo for quick repairs and then takes the rest away before dropping them off in the evening.
You don't have to repair POS bikes for people! You can politely refuse, explain why repairing is not an economical option, and if they insist explain the costs carefully and take a deposit!
I run a print shop and gets asked for all sorts of rubbish to be printed and I turn a lot of uneconomical work away. You won't get a bad rep if you deal with people properly.
Wedding anniversary today and my present is a journal to plan my biking business - looks like the go ahead I need from my wonderful wife 👰🏻
I've got some pretty high end bikes, and do most of my own repair and maintenance work on them. However, I shy away from the suspension and hydraulics. I can bleed brakes, but I'm not great at it, and I tend to just run my suspension to the death, then buy new.
If someone local was willing to pick my bike up, do a basic service and tuning of my suspension, brakes and dropper post....ooooh, he'd have a customer for life.
I reckon I'd be interested in the sort of service you're talking about setting up. I might be a wee bit out of your area (Stirlingshire), to make it worthwhile for you to have me as a customer, but you have my support!
C.
Taking a broken bike ( even if it is just a puncture) to a bikeshop must be hard without a car, so a pickup or at home service would work well for many people. People with busy jobs and cars can only take their bike to a shop on a saturday and pick up on a saturday too, where's people want a bike fixed quickly so they do not miss out on weekend leisure or daily commuting rides.
It may still pay to also have a place to do more serious work away from someones home too. This is what my old car electrician home visiting guy used to do.
Oxfam pay a mechanic to come to their head office and service the staff bikes, most ride in. See if any companies with similar ethics in your area would like to offer the staff a subsidised deal. You could reduce the rate as you get to do a few bikes at once.
Do you live somewhere you can offer support vehicle service? A three day ride between nice pubs, you take their bags and fix any problems.
I’d also be looking at doing supply teacher work, you can use it to fill in the gaps financially till business picks up.
As for BSO work, I’d limit it to new cables, chain, tyres and tubes, work out what spare nuts and bolts you need to when the seized ones round off. Charge extra if it’s dirty.
Become an expert in shock and fork work, I’d assume anyone who does this is awesome at everything else.
If you want to know how difficult it is to make a living repairing bikes try getting in touch with Damian who ran DJ Cycles in Ramsbottom. He used to complain to me that fixing other people's shitty old biles was depressing enough without customers buying stuff off the web cheaper than he could buy it then expecting him to fit it.
Thinking of the cash rich time poor market.
The bag shuttle idea is a good one as is filling in with supply teaching
There are a couple of people in Cambridge that do something similar, running round the science and business parks fixing/servicing bikes at the various companies. That sort of thing might work, but in Cambridge, the number of decent bikes compared to the shit bikes is very low. Most of the work was, as far as I can tell, replacing shit parts on a 20 quid second hand bike.
Wedding anniversary today and my present is a journal to plan my biking business – looks like the go ahead I need from my wonderful wife 👰🏻
This forum needs a 'like' button.
There are a couple of mobile guys round here. I'm not sure how they work out for actual on the spot repairs -- the guy I know better is more of a bike workshop but with no retail premises as such - selling point is he'll collect and deliver the bikes. That's a big plus here as reliable bike shops are thin on the ground in this town.
I think he does "ok".
I’m not fussed about making tons of cash. All I want is enough to live and spend time with my wife, kids, and friends instead of feeling ill with stress or filling in paperwork to improve others careers. I need to sort out how much cash I need to live first and work back from there. Also need to take into account tax and pension etc
Reading the comments about the POS turning up, just dont get a shop on a high street, find yourself a unit/work space hidden away and dont advertise outside. Look to get customers calling - messaging to book work in and you'll be fine. I use someone who does this for my suspension, never seen a POS in there, only nice middle and high end road and mtb bikes.
I think also getting trained in servicing Fox and Rockshox suspension would be a good skill, I use a local guy who does it in the same amount of time as TF etc but I am more comfortable dropping my stuff of to him then posting it via RM and the ballache that involves!
Doing supply as stop gap, and being flexible (especially collection / delivery) you could make a reasoanble living in an urban area.
The thing is, working on knackered bikes is still working on bikes and an enjoyable challenge. Whether you, as someone who is good at home mechanics on a fancy mountain bike, will know what to do when faced with a loose bearing bottom bracket or rod pull brakes and still enjoy it is another matter but I always did. Heck, even, the bike with 4 chainrings made me laugh, and I got to angle grind the crank of it.
You'll need a lot of tools you've never seen or heard of, bear that in mind.
456-50b
If you want to drop me a PM with tel number I be happy to have a chat with you about what you thinking etc. hopefully be able to pass on some good advice/things to think about.
As in the trade etc.
I try not to be all doom and gloom! lol
I have pm’d you - thanks
Some thoughts/opinions;
If you are doing it to have more free time with your kids I would seriously consider working for somebody else. Its really easy as a self employed one man band for work to take over your life, also setting up a new business will take a lot of time/effort.
However I know some self employed bike mechanics that make it work for them, they control their work hours around their kids etc, collect and drop off allows them to dictate their "opening" hours, rather than just 9-5.
It is what you make of it.
Unless you are going for volume I would stay away from the bottom end of the market. I prefer to do good work for people who are willing to pay for it.
It will be a steep learning curve going from DIY to full time bike repair, you need to learn to fix everything that comes through the door (and when to say no), not just your own bikes. It will take time to get up to speed as some stuff is just experience. The first time you do a new job its going to be slow if you are careful, start repeating stuff and you can make and beat hourly rate.
The range of tooling is massive compared to DIY as you are fixing so many different bikes/standards/years/brands etc, also they need to be decent quality, not just good enough for a couple of jobs.
Suspension service is good, and often brings other business, but its something else to learn, and expensive to tool up for everything.
I would sit down with a pencil and paper, work out your required income, expenses, a realistic work day/admin time/drive time and see where you end up. Make sure you budget for holiday, pension, sick pay, tax etc, realistic continuous investment. Be realistic about how much time each bike will take; talk to customer, take notes, assess bike, price components/availability, talk to customer, carry out work, invoice, take payment.
Expenses off the top of my head (i will have missed some);
Monthly
Rent
electricity
insurance
van running costs
van insurance
internet/phone
accountancy fees
computer software
card machine fees
bank fees
postage fees
email
website
tool maintenance/updates
advertising
consumables, grease, oil, gloves, paper towels etc
Initial
Tools
Van
workshop setup
training
stock
logo design
web design
gazebo
signwriting
computer
printer
till
Some distributors want bricks and mortar premises, some dont care.
Personally I would say know your value, and dont work for free/goodwill. Yes you can raise your profile, but you also devalue your service, and can attract the wrong kind of customers.
There are some articles online looking at the bike repair franchise models, might be worth a skim, some of the numbers are very off or optimistic though, I think they budget £2000 for tools, which is fine if you want to do basic repairs, but as soon as you want to do more involved high end stuff you can easily spend 10x that.
Turning your hobby into work can be the best thing ever, it can also ruin a hobby.
You can do it and make money, but its hard work. Some people do it as a lifestyle. I would go in eyes wide open.
Anyway, enough rambling thoughts from me. Everybody will give you opinions/advice (including people that have never run a business), I would listen to everybody and make up your own mind.
The mobile option sounds great. Go for it and good luck.
What I think would work is a competent mechanic who works from his shed/garage at home. So no /low overheads. You drop your bike off he looks at it, says it needs X parts, you order them from wiggle/CRC and drop them off or get them delivered straight to him.
He has no cash flow problems of having to stock lots of stuff. The customer is happy as they are getting internet priced parts, and the mechanic charges a decent labour rate, seems like a win win?
Or a bad idea? I don't see it being massive business but I reckon there would be enough to keep a competent mechanic going full time with mid to top end bikes?
Last two replies are gold - think you
I’m going to repeat what others have said a bit first. Getting a job in a shop first will help you a huge amount. Doing a good job is the aim but learning to do a good job quickly will help make money.
That and don’t be afraid to ask others , Every day I lean something new.
We have a mobile repair outfit come round at work every now and again.
We have like 10k people working in the building and a massive bike garage. Signs go up saying they will be in on x day and then they come in and do cleans, services and basic repairs while you wait. For something more complicated they sometimes take it away and drop it back.
I have zero interest in fixing my bike. I just want someone to do it for me, do a good job and I’m happy to pay.
I did take my old commuter to a bike shop that specialises in retro bikes... and I got the teeth suck re how much it might cost. I’m like, if it’s less than £150 just get it done and don’t call for approval - the mechanic said oh yes, much less than that, great, that’s makes things so much easier. So I think maybe they have lots of people quibbling over price of repairs for low value bikes in there!
I’ve got some pretty high end bikes, and do most of my own repair and maintenance work on them. However, I shy away from the suspension and hydraulics. I can bleed brakes, but I’m not great at it, and I tend to just run my suspension to the death, then buy new.
If someone local was willing to pick my bike up, do a basic service and tuning of my suspension, brakes and dropper post….ooooh, he’d have a customer for life.
I reckon I’d be interested in the sort of service you’re talking about setting up. I might be a wee bit out of your area (Stirlingshire), to make it worthwhile for you to have me as a customer, but you have my support!
C.
Just curious, how much more (or not) would you be willing/expect to pay for that compared to dropping your bike off at a bike shop?
+1 matthew mountain.
Just a thought but me and a mate were at CyB last weekend and he really needed some work on his dropper but they couldn’t do it at the shop. So depending on where you live targeting trail centres for on the spot emergency repairs or keeping a stock of spares that you can sell to riders at peak times might give you good returns.
some people have travelled a long way for a weekend only for the bike to die on them and witg the volume of people at some trail centres it could work on your favour to offer fast repairs there.
Mostly good bikes at these places too.
In a previous life I interviewed Martin Wilkins, the man behind the mobile mechanic business Cycle Tech UK ( https://www.cycletechuk.co.uk/ ) which at that time had 35 vans out and about around the country. He suggested start-up costs per operator would be around £10-20K. Food for thought.
Re: tools, the Park Tools Master Mechanic Tool Kit is £7k although there may be a lot of stuff in it you buy cheaper elsewhere and not suffer a loss of quality. https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Park-Tool-MK278-Master-Mechanic-Tool-Set_130058.htm?sku=513565&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google_shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-ufz697e4wIVx7HtCh18MQleEAQYASABEgI8N_D_BwE
I can see the tool bill being the thick end £10k even being conservative.
Also, don’t underestimate the value of a good repair stand. The Aldi/Lidl type stand is fine for occasional home maintenance but I wouldn’t want to be using it all day every day.
Also, if you do offer a service that is more of a skill, like wheel building or repair, make sure you’re good at it. Reputation will be the biggest source of income and being known for high quality work in what many consider a dark art will be vital.
Bigyan,
I would happily pay shop rates, if not more, for someone to come and pick my bike up, service the suspension and then drop it back off again. Like someone else said, the main reason I don't get my suspension serviced by a shop is the faff of losing my bike for a week? Two weeks? That time my rear suspension failed and required a warranty replacement? The bike shop, Singletrack Bikes in Dunfermline, had my bike for eight weeks through the middle of summer. It was only when I phoned Orange in desperation and was told they had plenty of spare shocks in stock and would happily send the shop a replacement, that the shop phoned to tell me that the replacement shock they had 'ordered' had suddenly arrived. I reckon the shop would have strung me along for weeks more otherwise.
I can only get to a bike shop at weekends, so wouldn't be able to pick it up again till the following weekend. Add to that, the fact that when a bike shop says 2-3 working days.. I'm sorry, but I have never experienced a bike shop that hasn't bullshitted me about the time required to get parts or do a job, nor have I ever found a shop where I haven't been treated like I should feel privileged to be there.
No, I'd definitely pay a premium for a mobile bike mechanic service from someone offering a professional and more personal service.
A friend used to do bike repairs for a living. He told me that a lot of his money came form the local universities.
Most of them have some sort of flea market once a week. He'd pitch up and do all the punctures and brake blocks for the students - as they'd just left home lots of them had no idea how to do any maintenance at all.
If it was a more serious repair he'd take it away then bring it back the next week - that was easier for the students than somehow transporting the bike to a bike shop.
If there are universities near you I'd have a think about targeting them.
What I think would work is a competent mechanic who works from his shed/garage at home. So no /low overheads. You drop your bike off he looks at it, says it needs X parts, you order them from wiggle/CRC and drop them off or get them delivered straight to him.
My LBS is sort of this orders parts unless you bring suitable stuff. It's not actually my local, there's one a five minute walk away, another a ten minute ride away, and my guy is a 20 minute drive away, but it's worth it. He works in his shed, orders parts as needed (apart from the constantly used consumables), and there's always a queue of bikes being serviced. The value add is that he'll do tasks that a lot of LBSs won't do, my last job was 'build these wheels, take this x-fusion fork from ebay, service it, travel adjust, oil change so it works better for kids'.
I can see the tool bill being the thick end £10k even being conservative.
Surely you could economise on that by targeting consumers better.
If you want to work on high end bikes then you you will need a Chris King specific bearing press at a bazillion dollars even though only one of your clients needs it.
If you are happy working on commuters then you could be ok with a couple of HT2 tools and a cartridge BB spline tool and get away with referring anyone with Campag ultra-torque to their LBS who will invested in the ridiculously priced tool for that particular solution looking for a problem. 80:20 rule, 80% of the jobs will use 20% of the tools (and further 64% uses 4%, 51% uses 1% etc). Alternatively specialize on one expensive component (fox forks, reverb droppers, replacing shimano brake pistons) which requires a small numbers of tools but there might be sufficient market locally to keep you busy.
£10k for tools?
If the OP has the skills to do this (and I don't doubt he does), presumably he'll have most of the stuff that Park tools kit covers already. I dread to think how much they factor in for that naff barstool.
That said, shock dynos, nitrogen charging equipment, Kestrel workstand - dunno how much all that runs to...?
Seriously thinking about doing this myself along the lines on collect-repair-return
I dread to think how much they factor in for that naff barstool.
£99.99 🙂
A decent Kestrel workstand cost me £700. Worth every penny.
I can’t imagine anyone buys the park big tool kit. Our kestrel stands at work must be 20 years old at least as well as there display stuff we have in the shop. It was top quality stuff but have not bought any since the change of owner
‘Dangerous’ roads see cyclist numbers decline
In reply to a couple of posts on page 1 of this thread.
I stand corrected in my spesh BG insoles.
Depressing, even moreso that the KSI stats have remained in proportion to the number of miles, so much for 'critical mass'.
Go a notch up on the business model.
Put together a service package price to ensure that bikes are safe and serviceable.
Approach companies that participate in the cycle to work scheme, ideally ones which have extensive bicycle parking facilities on site.
Sell it to the MD/HR as a way of ensuring their team are on time and don't have to worry about nipping out to the bike shop.
More of an employee perk than trying to vie for business with the usual tight arse public.
This may lead on to further PJ's to sort out employees weekend bikes etc.
Will lead to a few fixed locations to work from, will be interesting and pay consistently.
Offer options on the supply of materials, owner supplied or via you, or perhaps the company will offer a subsidy for their employees.
Will contribute to their Corporate Social Responsibility package and provide wellness for their employees.
I need to get in Dragons Den with this one.
Also, if you do offer a service that is more of a skill, like wheel building or repair, make sure you’re good at it. Reputation will be the biggest source of income and being known for high quality work in what many consider a dark art will be vital.
Wheelbuilding is a good example for this thread. I'll blow the illusion out straight away - wheel building is easy. A piece of cake. Even for the amateur, you can take a pile of bits and turn it into a wheel that is every bit as good as one you'd buy from a "proper" wheelbuilder. Likewise with truing and repairs.
..but (and there's always a but!), can you do it quickly enough for it to be economical? I can build as good a wheel as anyone, but it takes me at least 90-120 minutes to get it properly tensioned and trued to my (stupidly) exacting standards. In order to make money, you'd need to have this down to 1/4 of this or less, or you'd never be able to charge enough to cover your own costs.
And therein lies the problem with bike spannering. I'm willing to spend hours and hours working on my bikes, making sure that every detail is perfect. And, without wishing to sound excessively prideful, I can do a job that is better than a bike shop because I'm willing to spend hours on the job, something that no bike mechanic wishing to stay solvent would ever do. Most of the people that I ride with (cycle club types) do their own spannering for 99% of jobs. Why? Because they tend to be time rich, cash poor and with a literal garage full of bikes to maintain, which they would never be able to do if they had to pay someone to do each. In my case, just my son's race bikes (road, CX and MTB) are almost a full time job to keep in perfect order during the racing season - something I could never manage logistically (or, I guess, financially) if using a third party.
Not trying to put you off here, but just to encourage some realistic consideration on how you might turn a great idea into a viable business!