Fascinating thread

I really take my hat of to nurses & teachers who work silly hours with incredible responsibility for very little pay

The stark differences in wages between the private and public sector is crazy

The country is lucky that there are people who have such a caring passion for work that they’ll enter such careers knowing that the wages will be low

Regarding bike mechanics – is £20k a good wage? I used to be a car mechanic and would expect to be on £30K to £35K by now

That job required 4 years training during an apprenticeship, which probably makes the £20K seem fair

As someone mentioned above – if you want to get into the trade & make money, then you need to be a specialist.

Be a suspension specialist or the best wheel builder in your county – if you’ve got a great skill which is better than other peoples, then you’ll get paid accordingly

No, but it was an example based on the fact people were saying “ambulance crew have to go and look at bits of person splattered around, and thus deserve more money than bike mechanics”.

Comparing professions in that way is utter tosh. Is it? You are the only one using emotive language.

It was actually a comparison between the level of skill and responsibility of the two jobs and the similar remuneration each enjoys. 🙄

To be a “qualified” cycle mechanic doesn’t take 4 years training….

I’d love to be able to get away with that. I usually ask £6 and absorb the extra on the difficult ones that are rusted in place and have to be got out with the angle grinder.

come to London, I was quoted £45 to fit a headset and BB. Even when I suggested that the frame was stripped, prepped and ready and that they wouldn’t have to fit any parts afterwards they wouldn’t budge.

Be a suspension specialist or the best wheel builder in your county – if you’ve got a great skill which is better than other peoples, then you’ll get paid accordingly

+1 especially if you take pride in your work (a rarity these days it seems) and acquire a reputation as such

BY a car for £15 000 you will pay £50 an hour++++ to have it serviced – but your £3000 bike you baulk at £2o an hour

Are you suggesting there is any parity between the complex mechanics of a modern car and a push bike?

Woody – wasn’t doubting you, I had just not researched it and have no first-hand experience in that area to draw on so my ‘if its true’ comment was just me showing my ignorance of the situation, not casting doubt on it.

And thanks for providing the link for us! I do like it when people back up a claim with the evidence 🙂

As a few people have alluded to previously; the wages paid to a mechanic in a bike shop is directly related to what you are prepared to pay for his labour. And i disagree with the points above about the job carying a lot of responsibility.

Personally, i think 20k is a very good wage for tinkering with bikes all day. That said, you’d struggle to make a decent living on that much – especially when you have family commitments to pay for.

Any any comaprison to the wages of professional sports people is irrelevant.

Regarding bike mechanics – is £20k a good wage? I used to be a car mechanic and would expect to be on £30K to £35K by now

You might expect it, I doubt you’d find many people willing to pay that much though!

£16-20k isn’t a great salary, but it does seem to line up with the skillset I’d expect someone to have for working at that level. It’s more of an enthusiasts job and thus historically I suspect companies don’t have any issue recruiting at low level salaries. As suggested, a star performer would probably earn more. I wouldn’t see it as an unskilled job either, to be a good mechanic you would need a decent level of knowledge and experience.

It was actually a comparison between the level of skill and responsibility of the two jobs and the similar remuneration each enjoys

Was it? What is the level of skill required to be an Emergency Care Support Worker, compared to a fully Cytech qualified mechanic?

The NHS job description for the role is this:

to use advanced driving skills under blue light and normal traffic conditions to respond to emergency and routine calls as required.

To support a qualified practitioner in the provision of high quality and effective clinical and personal care and the transportation of patients

From here.

Now to me, that seems reasonable, in the grand scheme of things (insofar as all NHS employees are woefully underpaid).

That’s a band 3 job, so 16,110 to 19,077. A similar range to a fully qualified mechanic.

the rear hub only fits in ONE direction

Well that’s wrong for a start!

To be a “qualified” cycle mechanic doesn’t take 4 years training….

True, I’d say it takes longer. It’s not the 1960’s any more where all bikes were pretty similar (and we still need to know the old school stuff too). I’ve been wrenching on and off since 1990 and I’m still learning plenty of stuff.

Regarding modern cars, I’ve no doubt that car mechanics are really skilled, but how much stuff actually gets fixed? If a shock blows, a new one is bolted on. If a bike shock blows, it gets rebuilt.

A bicycle ‘mechanic’ won’t rebuild a shock, that’ll get sent off to a specialist.

And you could argue the exception to the rule of rear hubs is flip/flop ones…. the other 99% go on one way….

Any half decent shop will rebuild the front shocks (i.e. suspension fork…) which is more than your local garage will. Hell, many garages won’t even remove the sump plug to drain the oil properly these days. They’ll just suck the oil out of the top, leave all the carp in the bottom of the sump and charge you top dollar for the service!

njee20 – wronger than the wrongest thing from wrongsville. there is no comparison at all.

there is no comparison at all.

There is you know, about 3 posts above yours. The comparison could be deemed valid if someone knew how much training was required to be an ECSW. Do you know?

Now mods please can we get TJ out of this thread and get back to pedantry… At least it was funny 😀 😀

If you think going to uni equals lot of cash you’re deluded. If you are lucky to get a position as a lecturer down here, it’s about 26k per annum. Peanuts, if you compare it to the level of education needed.
Plus I don’t think there is a “basic” salary for bike mechanics. Work in evans and work for a local Edinburgh bike shop and the salaries/jobs are going to be fairly different.
The problem is in the four years I have spend in the UK and number of bike shops I have visited only two of them actually were owned by someone working there.

Why do people think nurses get very little pay? My wife is a nurse, they are very well paid. Along with the maternity/sick/pension it’s a very good package.

RichPenny – Member
Regarding bike mechanics – is £20k a good wage? I used to be a car mechanic and would expect to be on £30K to £35K by now
You might expect it, I doubt you’d find many people willing to pay that much though!

Actually yes, i am still friends with plenty of people in the garage trade and if your a well qualified technician in a main dealership for a premium brand, working to targets, then they can expect take home £30k to £45K per annum

njee20 – wronger than the wrongest thing from wrongsville. there is no comparison at all.

[quote]The comparison could be deemed valid if someone knew how much training was required to be an ECSW. Do you know? [/quote]Well I actually do know and work with them on a daily basis.
The problem is that there is a fairly large gap between what ECSW’s are supposedly trained to do and the type of jobs they attend (and are pay banded accordingly) and what they actually do on a daily basis.

I would elaborate on that but this is not a thread about the NHS or ambulance service.

[pedant]

[pendant]

In future I will conduct my manner
[/pendant]

[pedant]

I actually laughed out loud. correcting with wrongness,

A new pilot at several UK airlines will start on around £20k sometimes a bit less. £20k to fix bikes seems okay in that context.

A bit off topic but…

I really take my hat of to nurses & teachers who work silly hours with incredible responsibility for very little pay

The stark differences in wages between the private and public sector is crazy

Really, is that a fact or something you’ve just come up with because you heard it in the pub…because its not what the office of national statistics says

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2065569/Average-public-sector-salary-3-800-year-time-average-private-sector.html

anyway..now I’ll sit back and watch the argument ensue 😉

Really, is that a fact or something you’ve just come up with because you heard it in the pub…because its not what the office of national statistics says

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2065569/Average-public-sector-salary-3-800-year-time-average-private-sector.html

I think you’ll find it’s a little more complicated than that…

[pedant]

[pendant]

In future I will conduct my manner
[/pendant]

[pedant]

I actually laughed out loud. correcting with wrongness,

Yep, you forgot your closing / in the final [pedant], golden balls.

I think you’ll find it’s a little more complicated than that…

Yes I am well aware of this…I work as a resourcing manager so its my job to know. I posted my article to show that sweeping comments like the one made by boltonjon aren’t accurate, and the second paragraph of your article further proves my point…

and of course to start an argument as I’m bored….;-)

as for bike mechanic costs…25 quid an hr to the LBS where I work. And I need to book it in a week in advance due to capacity. Someones doing ok out of it…although I suspect its not the mechanics…

TandemJerry
BY a car for £15 000 you will pay £50 an hour++++ to have it serviced – but your £3000 bike you baulk at £2o an hour

My Porsche costs less to service than does my Giant. Car needs a service every two years.

Your Porsche would probably need servicing more often if you drove it down Cavedale in the Peaks every weekend.

I’ve never in my entire life employed the services of a bike mechanic.

Man can build rockets to get folk to the moon, pretty sure I can manage a bicycle.

😆

My Porsche costs less to service than does my Giant. Car needs a service every two years.

Despite being a relatively high performance car your Porsche has been designed from the outset to meet consumer’s expectations in longevity.
Bikes could be made far more maintenance free than they are with shaft drive, hub gears and enclosed brakes but then how many of us would seriously consider dropping £2-3k on an XC bike that weighed 50 pounds?

If you read the owner’s manuals for most high end forks and shocks you’ll see that they stipulate service intervals of 50 hours riding. Would you consider that a worthwhile trade for losing half the weight of your car?

In terms of servicing requirements, the bikes most of us on here ride have more in common with F1 than any road-going car.

Sometimes – salary is not that important (I did say sometimes), there is a lot to be said for being happy in your work, lots of dosh does’nt always equal a happy life.
As long as your lifestyle is achievable from income recieved then it’s happy days 😀 I can manage quite well without a porsche. I could also manage wonderfully well on 20k a year (in my old persons home for senile mountain bikers)