why are the local bike shops closing down?

[GrasB]

shop A probably doesn't have an account with the distributor, and shop B is clearly not charging enough.

Garage A charges £35/hour, discounts their parts a fair bit compared to the RRP & give you pattern part option if that's too much. You can generally get a car booked in to be looked at the same week
Garage B charges £50-65/hour, you pay full RRP for your parts & will only fit OEM replacement parts or premium replacement items (such as Mintex fast road brake pads). They tend to have a waiting list in the 2-5 week range.

Both have similar facilities & the same number of fitters. So why does garage B get that much more business?

 

[dellzeqq]

a neat question, and begs another - if a garage can charge £50 an hour why do bike shops charge £12 an hour?

 

[Archie_tect]

Which one charges £12/hour Dell?

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

a neat question, and begs another - if a garage can charge £50 an hour why do bike shops charge £12 an hour?

Because a car is a complicated thing so when told the cost the owner will get a sinking feeling in the stomach but say "oh well, it's got to be done" but a bike seems (to many people) to be uncomplicated so the same person will look at a cycle shop labour rate and say "it's only a bloody bike".

That is my theory anyway.

 

[GrasB]

I guess it comes down to how much the market can stand to pay for the services. Which actually comes back to my initial question. The reason why garage B can charge more & gets more custom is because there level of service is second to none. Garage A is just another garage & so without a steller reputation they have to price them selve into the market. Garage B's customers are willing to pay more than garage A's customers.

 

[ASC1951]

Well there's always Spa Cycles. They have a shop, a website:
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/
..... And if you want idiosyncratic ways they can do that for you as well.

They certainly can. A couple of months ago I went in to Spa to buy a 48/38/28 chainset for th'Alps and the bloke behind the counter talked me out the £110 TA chainset I wanted in favour of one they were selling for £98. Fair enough, I suppose, although I wasn't too keen on being talked to like a numptie for wanting it in the first place. The next person in was fondling a Brooks Ti Swift for £160-odd and the same bloke told him he should be perfectly happy with the plastic saddles they fitted as standard. He left with his wallet still in his pocket.

There is idiosyncratic, and there is bloody-minded rudeness. I'm glad I wasn't employing him.

 

[User482]

shop A probably doesn't have an account with the distributor, and shop B is clearly not charging enough. And, to be honest, Steve, suspension fork servicing is a rubbish job. I've seen my brother do it, and he knows full well when he starts that he's on to a loser - which is why he's reluctant to sell bikes with suspension forks.

Fox fork seals are a standard service item on a brand that must have 50% of the market. Shop B clearly has an enormous waiting list, but they're charging £70 for a job that would take a trained mechanic less than an hour. Allowing £20 for parts, that's over £50/ hour.

It's interesting that the internet challenges the LBS in another way - I've checked a youtube video which shows me how to service the forks myself, so that's what I'm going to do.

 

[Archie_tect]

Cue plasterboard repairs to User482's kitchen ceiling, and a trip to casualty.

 

[dellzeqq]

Fox fork seals are a standard service item on a brand that must have 50% of the market. Shop B clearly has an enormous waiting list, but they're charging £70 for a job that would take a trained mechanic less than an hour. Allowing £20 for parts, that's over £50/ hour.

It's interesting that the internet challenges the LBS in another way - I've checked a youtube video which shows me how to service the forks myself, so that's what I'm going to do.

I'm impressed. And I'm going to bring this to the attention of my bro who probably charges less than half that

 

[User482]

I'm impressed. And I'm going to bring this to the attention of my bro who probably charges less than half that

They're not even particularly expensive - your bro should look at the servicing charges on the websites for Mojo, TF Tuned and Loco.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's interesting that the internet challenges the LBS in another way - I've checked a youtube video which shows me how to service the forks myself, so that's what I'm going to do.

^This

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Cue plasterboard repairs to User482's kitchen ceiling, and a trip to casualty.

There's a lot to be said for air forks.

 

[Archie_tect]

 

[asterix]

They certainly can. A couple of months ago I went in to Spa to buy a 48/38/28 chainset for th'Alps and the bloke behind the counter talked me out the £110 TA chainset I wanted in favour of one they were selling for £98. Fair enough, I suppose, although I wasn't too keen on being talked to like a numptie for wanting it in the first place. The next person in was fondling a Brooks Ti Swift for £160-odd and the same bloke told him he should be perfectly happy with the plastic saddles they fitted as standard. He left with his wallet still in his pocket.

There is idiosyncratic, and there is bloody-minded rudeness. I'm glad I wasn't employing him.

I do hope the £98 had TA rings. Their touring range is excellent value provided you get the TA rings which are harder and longer lasting. I bought one from them last year and they allowed me to choose custom rings over the standard set, no extra charge. Also got a free diary.

Since they now do their own range of leather saddles, why they would recommend a plastic one is beyond me! Having bought a Swift Ti saddle myself, I think they were probably right, they are too flippin' narrow for normal people. Fortunately I sold it for a profit on another forum and went back to a B17.

 

[Smokin Joe]

a neat question, and begs another - if a garage can charge £50 an hour why do bike shops charge £12 an hour?

To the great unwashed, bikes are toys and they expect toy shop prices. A mate who once had a bike shop showed me a complete shed a customer brought in to be serviced before a London-Brighton ride with the instruction not to go above £20. It would have needed ten times that spent on it before I'd ride it round the block.