does this sound about right?

[Kiwiavenger]

i phoned up my LBS for quote on greasing two wheel hubs, replacing the brake and gear cables (includes removing and refiting bartape) and replacing the bottom bracket. all in for £80 inclusive of parts.

the cables are £40 supplied and fitted, £10 per wheel and £20 for the BB the fitting of it is included in the cable swap. I would get the parts and do it myself however im very time poor lately with a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 month old so someone else can do it!!

 

[Cubist]

Yes, it sounds about right. For £40 I'd be expecting high quality cables, but fair do's, especially as the price includes labour for some of the other jobs (bar tape, BB etc)
What you're getting there is actually more or less a full service (except for the headset) and it takes time to get it all right. Once it's all done the LBS will have to index your gears, set the brakes back up.

I would estimate a home mechanic would get the jobs done in a couple of hours at a cost of about £30. BUT..... do you have a chainwhip, lockring tool, cone spanners, decent workstand, cable cutters, degreaser?

I don't reckon that's a bad price at all.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

Yes, it sounds about right. For £40 I'd be expecting high quality cables, but fair do's, especially as the price includes labour for some of the other jobs (bar tape, BB etc)
What you're getting there is actually more or less a full service (except for the headset) and it takes time to get it all right. Once it's all done the LBS will have to index your gears, set the brakes back up.

I would estimate a home mechanic would get the jobs done in a couple of hours at a cost of about £30. BUT..... do you have a chainwhip, lockring tool, cone spanners, decent workstand, cable cutters, degreaser?

I don't reckon that's a bad price at all.

chainwhip, lockring tool, cone spanners (cheap soft, one use ones!), decent workstand - yes to these but no crank arm remover, bb tool, thinish grease (i have CV boot grease but think its too viscous) plus ive never done bar tape and cant seem to get my indexing right (its fun!) but im tackling more jobs at home now i have internet again!!!

 

[Cubist]

You're most of the way there then!
Indexing can be a pain, but I tend to use the "start from scratch" method, and can generally get a rear mech up and ticking in a few minutes. You can do the B screw adjust, and the limit screws by eye, take up most of the slack in the new cable by hand before clamping, but work with the barrel adjuster a few turns out so you can add slack as well as tension (I was nearly defeated y a mate's Dynasis 10 spd the other day!). After that it's about subtlety and gradual increments.

As for BB removal, well, being a MTBer I;'m a huge fan of outboard BBs, so HT2 FTW.

 

[gwhite]

You're most of the way there then!
Indexing can be a pain, but I tend to use the "start from scratch" method, and can generally get a rear mech up and ticking in a few minutes. You can do the B screw adjust, and the limit screws by eye, take up most of the slack in the new cable by hand before clamping, but work with the barrel adjuster a few turns out so you can add slack as well as tension (I was nearly defeated y a mate's Dynasis 10 spd the other day!). After that it's about subtlety and gradual increments.

As for BB removal, well, being a MTBer I;'m a huge fan of outboard BBs, so HT2 FTW.

Now that does puzzle me, as outboard BBs, are ideally placed to suffer from the muck and wet in off-road riding and as a result have a more limited life span. Easier to replace perhaps but this is marginal.

 

[Cubist]

Now that does puzzle me, as outboard BBs, are ideally placed to suffer from the muck and wet in off-road riding and as a result have a more limited life span. Easier to replace perhaps but this is marginal.

Agreed, to an extent. The ones I have on both bikes at the moment have replaceable bearings, which means they can be simply knocked out and replaced, but then the bearings can be regreased and sit behind a top hat shield anyway. A lot of outboard bearings are killed by pressure washers rather than riding based ingress anyway. As an MTBer you tend to treat the bearings as consumables and include attention to them in routine maintenance. What's more, the primary cause of ext BB death is excessive lateral load form hamfisted preload tightening.

And they look good, and are a faffer's dream.