Is £160 a

[smokeysmoo]

Lol

Good grief, the guys a complete tool. Go back and ask him, 1) how he expects you to ride on the bars the way he fitted them, and 2) ask him for his 24 hour call out freephone number for when you get a puncture, your going to need the fourth emergency service at the side of the road with those valves.

Stand up for yourself, get back there and tell him straight you feel cheated. If he won't budge inform him of your online presence and number of visiters to your blog, if that doesn't switch him on and get you some money back and the bike sorted properly, he's an even bigger tool than I currently think he is!

 

[Zoiders]

In general though, how long is a piece of string? Last time I rebuilt my bike (after it was resprayed), that included replacing the wheel bearings and freewheel, new chain, pressing in the headset cups, new set of cables, etc. It took me a full day, so at £30/ hour, £160 wouldn't be so unreasonable.

But building a bike with all new parts is certainly quicker and easier, I would say 3 hours tops.

£30 an hour?

What world do you live in it?

Is it like Norway where you pay £6 a pint?

Getting a job as a bike mechanic does not pay out 30k to 40k a year, it's a complete myth put about by those that think that working on bikes for a living has become a delightful yet profitable hobby for graduates down on their luck, you will be lucky to make half that, I heard the same bollocks put about when the IT bubble burst and they all thought they would become plumbers.

£30 an hour...what a giggle.

 

[blockend]

It's part of a tendency to charge for anything that takes times to sort. Most bikes arrive in good order and take longer to remove the packaging than to make roadworthy. The bloke's entitled to make a decent living from his trade but a hundred and sixty nicker is a lot of man hours for someone who could strip a bike down and put it back together again in his sleep. It's not as though there are loose ball bearings to fit on a classic restoration.

Unless you have specified an unusual position, from the job he did on the bars it looks like he farmed it out to the Saturday lad.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

But building a bike with all new parts is certainly quicker and easier, I would say 3 hours tops.

Took me a lot longer than that and that's not including all the time spent swearing

 

[gb155]

It's part of a tendency to charge for anything that takes times to sort. Most bikes arrive in good order and take longer to remove the packaging than to make roadworthy. The bloke's entitled to make a decent living from his trade but a hundred and sixty nicker is a lot of man hours for someone who could strip a bike down and put it back together again in his sleep. It's not as though there are loose ball bearings to fit on a classic restoration.

Unless you have specified an unusual position, from the job he did on the bars it looks like he farmed it out to the Saturday lad.

He doesn't employ anyone else - otherwise I'd understand but the work was all his own

 

[blockend]

He doesn't employ anyone else - otherwise I'd understand but the work was all his own

Then I'd a ) politely ask where he got his numbers from and whether there had been any 'mistake', b ) ask why the faults you listed weren't addressed c ) resolve never to darken his door again and d ) put it down to experience and buy a set of bike tools.

Like so many trades the margins aren't in the flogging but the fixing. I had changing two door locks on my to-do list so long my wife made an 'executive decision' to get a lock bloke in last month. His bill was £230. That's two x £35 locks, a bit of chiselling and £160's worth of labour for the hour or so he was here. I learnt option e ) when your missus threatens to get a pro in, listen up or pay through the nose.