Help with my bike repair

Lots of replies, skim read on lunch, but sorry if I've missed anyway!

It's a fairly reputable independent shop in Bristol. I've also emailed another two companies, one a friend used and one I had my bike fit at, the former has come back with a similar quote if it all needs doing. Slightly cheaper on labour but not by much.

And yes I've upgraded/replaced parts throughout the years. Wheels were brand new last year, chain ring and cassette about 2 years old, chain about 1.5 (last winter), tyres and brake pads as and when needed etc.

Labour wise I'm ok but not confident enough to do a shifter. Derailleur is bent apparently but I haven't really noticed any skipping or problems shifting. No idea of anywhere in Bristol that hires a mechanic etc, the other guys that came back with a quote are out in the sticks and just two guys who mainly run a mountain bike hire place and their labour is £40/hour too.
 
If you're straight up replacing a shifter then there's nothing really difficult about it. Just take the tape off, cut the cables, mark the position of the current one, take it off, put the new one on, cable it up and then rewrap the tape.
 
I quite like the excitement of taking things to bits and trying to put them back together :D

Most things on a bike you can't really break unless you're an idiot. If you're hitting something hard enough to have to worry about breaking it you're probably doing something wrong. If it's just a case of screwing and unscrewing things it's pretty simple. Some things require fancier tools, like a headset or certain types of BB, so I can see why people would take something like that to an LBS, because how often are you pressing a headset or whatever. For most jobs, though, £50 of tools will do almost anything. If you're tempted to bodge something by hitting it then the question you have to ask yourself is whether you'd rather pay £25 for the right tool for the job (headset press, crown race fitter, whatever) or £400 when you bend the frame.
 
Yeah I wouldn't even want to try, tweaking the derailleur is a pain enough. I have a whole house worth of DIY to do as well so it would be one thing I'd happily pay someone else to do.
 
FrenchTart said:
I don't have issues with shops charging more for parts but the list in the op is ridiculous and looks very much like a shop hoping to take a non-savvy customer for a ride.

I have respect for lots of LBS staff but calling out ones on taking the **** isn't something that I would ever refrain from.
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Fair enough, I agree.

My next bike is a Giant defy, supplied an 8 speed chain and I've told him it will slip as the chain/cassette and beyond worn. He says he will fit the cassette he has at home.

Will strip and grease the BB threads before completely replacing it too.
 
Russinating said:
Lots of replies, skim read on lunch, but sorry if I've missed anyway!

It's a fairly reputable independent shop in Bristol. I've also emailed another two companies, one a friend used and one I had my bike fit at, the former has come back with a similar quote if it all needs doing. Slightly cheaper on labour but not by much.

And yes I've upgraded/replaced parts throughout the years. Wheels were brand new last year, chain ring and cassette about 2 years old, chain about 1.5 (last winter), tyres and brake pads as and when needed etc.

Labour wise I'm ok but not confident enough to do a shifter. Derailleur is bent apparently but I haven't really noticed any skipping or problems shifting. No idea of anywhere in Bristol that hires a mechanic etc, the other guys that came back with a quote are out in the sticks and just two guys who mainly run a mountain bike hire place and their labour is £40/hour too.
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I don't think the charge for labour is that unreasonable if they really have do to all that stuff.

Depending on how well you keep things clean and how badly damaged things got before you replaced your chain/cassette previously it's quite possible that everything is as worn as they say (well, almost, replacement cranks is still rather urine-extracting). Replacing the cable inners and outers is definitely something that should be done more regularly than every 4 years too and is one of the more reasonably priced things on the list. Personally I'd ask them why they feel they need to replace the cranks and if they can spec cheaper 10 speed components for the cassette, chain, etc. Newer SRAM Apex as an alternative shifter might be a good one too - assuming it's compatible.

Jonny ///M said:
Fair enough, I agree.

My next bike is a Giant defy, supplied an 8 speed chain and I've told him it will slip as the chain/cassette and beyond worn. He says he will fit the cassette he has at home.

Will strip and grease the BB threads before completely replacing it too.
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I do think it's a shame as things like this can give other staff at the LBS and/or all LBS's in general a bad name.

One that I used to deal with a lot had 3 or 4 decent guys there and 2 that sadly weren't. As I knew which ones to deal with I generally came out okay from it but someone new that happened to get one of the less good guys wouldn't have been so lucky.
 
adjusting gears it a piece of pie, essentially it all hinges on sufficient cable tension and setting the limit screws. much easier than fitting certain tubeless tyres :D
 
FrenchTart said:
I don't think the charge for labour is that unreasonable if they really have do to all that stuff.
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I agree.
There's easily 4-5 hours work there, even for an experienced mechanic. That means £20-£25 per hour. Seems fair to me.
Other than the cassette+chain, the price of the parts seems reasonable to me as well.

The question would be whether you actually need all of those parts or not.
It might be the sort of thing that you'd fix if it was your own bike (bending a derailleur cage or hanger back into shape, etc) but a shop cant do that.
 
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