Bike Servicing Prices.

[cragster]

I am taking my bike for a basic service at Edinburgh cycles tomorrow. They have a 3 tier price system from £29 to about £50, the one I've gone for is the cheapest one which covers brakes and gears. I can sort out my brakes but the gears are a bit beyond me, so I figured its worth paying for that. Has anybody had their bike serviced at Edinburgh bikes? I think they are a decent bike shop but not sure about their servicing skills. Incidentally this was the cheapest price I was quoted by any bike service centre (Manchester), with one shop wanting £50 just for labour charges! Seems a lot of money to me but is this sort of price the norm?

 

[avsd]

My LBS, Dave Kanes in Belfast, charged me £20 for replacing a broken spoke, true wheel and check gear indexing. All done within 4 hours. I have used them for some 15 years and have always had great service.

 

[festival]

Seems a fair deal.
I assume the service is for adjusting rather than fixing, does it include assessment of bike, checking nuts and bolts, pumping up tyres, that sort of thing with parts and any other work extra?

I believe bikes shops generally under price in comparison to other industries, there are various reasons for this such as building good customer service and retaining customer loyalty.
I know of a bike shop who only charged £5 for a tube and to fit it. The thinking was it only cost a few pence for the tube at trade and the boss got the junior staff to do it. As the junior staff were there not doing much for part of the day he was still making a profit and therefore that customer would be loyal and return again and again.
Well that's great for the customer but when many of them wanted something expensive the came back alright for advise and then bought it on line.
Anyway sorry for going off on a tangent, even halfrauds charge more than £29 for gear & brake service.

 

[pepecat]

I recently got my MTB serviced and the bottom bracket / front chainrings / mech checked on the road bike (though I think they checked the gear cables too), and they charged £40 for both - as in altogether, not £40 each. I was preparing to pay more, so was quite impressed with that.

 

[Globalti]

I can't believe anybody would trust a bike shop to service their bike. Or more to the point, why would you ever allow your bike to reach the point where it needed a service? Owning and riding a bike is about constant checking, adjustment, replacement of parts in good time and keeping it in good nick, it would drive me crazy to have to ride a bike that was in anything less than perfect adjustment.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I think a good LBS is the prefect place to service your bike. You get a guarantee on the work for one thing. Also MTB'ing can lead to all sort of instant issues with a bike which are nothing to do with keeping it in good repair. eg I snapped a front axle a little while ago due to a nasty crash.

I can't believe anybody would trust a bike shop to service their bike. Or more to the point, why would you ever allow your bike to reach the point where it needed a service? Owning and riding a bike is about constant checking, adjustment, replacement of parts in good time and keeping it in good nick, it would drive me crazy to have to ride a bike that was in anything less than perfect adjustment.

 

[marinyork]

I am taking my bike for a basic service at Edinburgh cycles tomorrow. They have a 3 tier price system from £29 to about £50, the one I've gone for is the cheapest one which covers brakes and gears. I can sort out my brakes but the gears are a bit beyond me, so I figured its worth paying for that. Has anybody had their bike serviced at Edinburgh bikes? I think they are a decent bike shop but not sure about their servicing skills. Incidentally this was the cheapest price I was quoted by any bike service centre (Manchester), with one shop wanting £50 just for labour charges! Seems a lot of money to me but is this sort of price the norm?

Overpriced imho. If as some other people think that bike shops always get gear adjustments correct you're very, very wrong. As a very long standing member on here and the previous site used to remark, modern gearing is a bit elusive to get perfect all the time and it often seems to catch bike shops out. If you can do brakes already you're a better mechanic than me, it took me a couple of years of irritating fiddling to get used to them. I'd start reading up on gear adjustments.

 

[cragster]

I haven't really got time to do all my own maintenance, so I'm leaving it to the professionals. And they'll probably notice things that I wouldn't!

 

[cyberknight]

And if you have a busy life with kids, work etc etc then the big jobs are things you generally do not get time to do or if you have time you are trying to stop a sprog from doing more harm than good with over enthusiastic "help" and keeping them from losing bits/getting covered in oil .

I do most of my maintenance but some jobs it is easier for me to take it to the LBS when i get stumped as they are cheap,reliable and i can just use my other bike for a few days .

In general though i would not pay the LBS for a "service " that involves checking brakes, shifting , chain and cassette etc etc as they are 5 minute jobs that can easily be done when you have the tools.

this site helps a lot..

http://bicycletutor.com/

 

[Hilldodger]

£30 is average afound here for a service and is what we charge.


And we now what we're doing, too

 

[HLaB]

£50 they are having a joke that other shop, even at £29 quid it still seems like a lot to me. Brake and gear adjustments are simple and hardly any tools are needed; check out www.bicycletutor.com for some tips or get reading then it'll be only a couple of quid for the occasional new cable. Other than the cost, the big plus for me in maintenance is the convenience, you can have a cable replaced before tomorrows ride but with an lbs you need to shop around, maybe wait a few days until they are free and the bike is in the shop for a day or two!

 

[marinyork]

I haven't really got time to do all my own maintenance, so I'm leaving it to the professionals. And they'll probably notice things that I wouldn't!

That's fine if you haven't got the time, but I wouldn't fall into the trap of thinking LBSs necessarily are as competent as you think they are or because they are so called professionals they know what they are doing. It's a case of finding an LBS you are happy with.

 

[HLaB]

I haven't really got time to do all my own maintenance, so I'm leaving it to the professionals. And they'll probably notice things that I wouldn't!

For something as simple as twiddling gears you've got more time for that, than shopping around for a bikeshop, going to it to drop of the bike and going to it again.

 

[marinyork]

For something as simple as twiddling gears you've got more time for that, than shopping around for a bikeshop, going to it to drop of the bike and going to it again.

Gears are not simple to adjust well at all, they are a complete nightmare to get bang on perfect all of the time. It's a case of adjusting and hoping for the best. Which is why bike shops don't get it right either.

I'd take issue with your idea of changing cables too, I found it was very easy to do, however you need incredibly sharp and expensive specialist tools to cut the cables. It's certainly very valuable in terms of time and stress doing it yourself though.

 

[HLaB]

Gears are not simple to adjust well at all, they are a complete nightmare to get bang on perfect all of the time. It's a case of adjusting and hoping for the best. Which is why bike shops don't get it right either.

I'd take issue with your idea of changing cables too, I found it was very easy to do, however you need incredibly sharp and expensive specialist tools to cut the cables. It's certainly very valuable in terms of time and stress doing it yourself though.

Nah just get on with it, its not that hard once you've started and you should have more patience and pride in your own bike to do that fine tuning.

You don't need much for cables either, a pair of cable cutters and an allen key (spanner if you have an old bike), you don't need to buy the most expensive (just not the cheapest) and once bought it'll be cheaper, faster, more convenient and more satisfying in the long run.