Broken Spoke

[hubgearfreak]

no i won't. £15 for a ten minute job is a rip off. that is the answer.

that's fine. your refusal to research the figures means that your knowledge of the finances of being a shopkeeper is based on your beliefs, entirely without any facts.

much like an evangelical american's refusal to even look at the evidence of evolution. well done.

 

[hubgearfreak]

and where did replacing a spoke need a qualified bike mechanic? Fixing bikes is like playing with meccano. it is not 'skilled' in any shape or form. the only thing that abike mechanic might training in is fixing suspension or fixing hydraulici disc brakes.
building wheels is a doddle

and that's an insult to a skilled bunch of decent people

 

[MessenJah]

Building wheels is a doddle, yes. But building a good wheel...

 

[Mr Pig]

I asked for an ally cable cap a few years ago, and was asked for 1pound.

That is taking the piss! Whenever I've asked for them they've just dropped half a dozen in my hand for free.

I recently needed an AHEAD set spacer to fit a new stem to my son's bike, just an aluminium ring. I asked in Halfords and they wanted about £5 for one. Rejecting the offer I went across the road to JJB Sports and the guy in the cycling department just opened his bits box and said "help yourself".

 

[Steve Austin]

that's fine. your refusal to research the figures means that your knowledge of the finances of being a shopkeeper is based on your beliefs, entirely without any facts.

much like an evangelical american's refusal to even look at the evidence of evolution. well done.

so my refusal to enter into a discussion about market forces, economics, the bike industry, the price of oil, cost of living means i am unqualified to discuss the merits of 5 minutes of labour costing £15?
You sir have just one the prize for the most amusing dismissal of a statement i have ever heard. I refer you to Occams razor
Do you really think its a realistic price for 5 minutes work?

If so, said bike mechanic should bring in £7200 per 40 hour week?

Do you know anyone who brings in that sort of money for the job they do?
thats over £300,000 per year a bike mechanic can charge for his work....
your assessment that £15 to replace a spoke looks a little daft imo

 

[andrew_s]

I asked for an ally cable cap a few years ago, and was asked for 1pound.

That is taking the piss! Whenever I've asked for them they've just dropped half a dozen in my hand for free.

That's the difference between being recognized as a regular customer and being spotted as the sort of person who goes into a bike shop to inspect gear or try on clothing, and then ordering off the interweb

 

[Steve Austin]

its not really Andrew S. its the desperate measures of a bike shop owner trying to wring every last penny from his customers. that particular shop went bust soon after. Not because i refuse to pay rip-off prices, but because they charge rip-off prices.

 

[dantheman]

so, the 6 squids i payed was cheap then....

my lbs always seems busy with this kinda stuff, guess thats why, and even though its busy, after knowing its my only transport, he did it that day (i did phone and ask, and as he requested, only took the wheel in)

how much do LBS' roughly charge just for a spoke???- 50p at mine, and good advice whenever needed..

 

[hubgearfreak]

sorry, double posted

 

[hubgearfreak]

5 minutes of labour costing £15?
You sir have just one the prize for the most amusing dismissal of a statement i have ever heard.

dismissals>?> here's one.

no i won't. £15 for a ten minute job is a rip off. that is the answer.

so is it 5 or is it 10? to replace a spoke the wheel needs to come off, and the tyre and the tube, maybe the cogs. then the spoke replaced and the wheel re-tensioned. cogs, tyre & tube back on, wheel back in and then inflated. i'd say 10 mins is pushing it and 5 impossible

If so, said bike mechanic should bring in £7200 per 40 hour week? thats over £300,000 per year a bike mechanic can charge for his work....

you're either too stubborn or too stupid to acknowledge that there are overheads involved in running a shop.
there's rent. there's rates, there's electricity, there's water. there's insurance and there's the fact that the staff aren't fully utilised all 40 hours that they're there. some of the time they'll be showing tossers goods who then go home and order them online. some of the time they'll need to drink tea. or visit the toilet. i reckon that replacing a spoke could take up to half an hour, and £15 isn't too bad at all. that the shop had one in stock of the right size means that they have a fair bit of capital tied up in stock too, but that doesn't count either does it in your (toddler group) knowledge of shopkeeping

 

[Bodhbh]

much like an evangelical american's refusal to even look at the evidence of evolution. well done.

A monkey and a creationist walk into a bar. Barman sez "Where'd you get him from?" Monkey replys "America, there's loads of em."

Bit steep, but when it costs 40quid for 10mins at the dentist.

 

[Steve Austin]

why the snide insults hubearfreak? are they adding to the discussion? Or is it just your way to try to undermine anything i say.

Replacing a spoke does not need removing of the wheel. UNLESS its the drive side rear.
You do not need to remove tyre, tube, rimtape to replace a spoke. its perfectly reasonable to use the same nipple and just replace the broken spoke.

replacing a spoke will take any competant person about 5 minutes, and i don't want to pay £15 for that privelege. You can, everyone else can. i won't be.

 

[dodgy]

A reasonable time to replace a spoke and retrue the wheel is closer to half an hour, particularly if it's on the drive side of a rear wheel. Spokes often cost a lot more than 25p, too.

I reckon £15 is reasonable, and if anyone disagrees, then do it yourself. After all, any monkey could do it...

Dave.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Replacing a spoke does not need removing of the wheel. UNLESS its the drive side rear.
You do not need to remove tyre, tube, rimtape to replace a spoke. its perfectly reasonable to use the same nipple and just replace the broken spoke.

I think this is the nub of the problem: I was thinking about a competent person doing a proper job. If I broke a spoke (which has never happened in 45 years), I would want someone to find out why and when I left, I would want to know the problem had been sorted and not just fixed for a while.

The difference was beautifully illustrated last night in "The Man who Cycled the World". He broke a spoke and fixed it with a simple replacement (which took him an hour) but it broke again a couple of days later (and then another?). Finally a decent bike mechanic in Poland (who removed the wheel, tyre, inner, etc) took quite a while to 'replace the spoke' properly, and after that he had no more problems in the next 1500 miles.

Which solution was worth £15 and which was worth £5?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Find any tradesman who will charge less than one hours labour for a job, no matter how short it takes to do and you will be lucky.

I would happily replace a spoke myself, but if I needed a shop to do it I wouldn't think £15 was too steep.