SurferRosa

For some reason, this reminds me of an Easy Rider quote.

"You gotta hold it in your lungs lonnnger, George."


Anyhoo ... I use a tool in the hand to screw it on, which I find easier than without the tool.

jiangshi

$45 to overhaul a hub may be high for a front, low for a rear. $90/pair seems fair.

I have spare Park cone wrenches and some freewheel tools, as well as a spare dishing tool. Pm if you want to own them.

jethin

I guess a tool in the hand is worth a screw and a push.

dedhed

A couple small zip ties on the stays. rotated as needed close to the rim.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6t5g46

martl

I know, i think i see where you're coming from, and i'm with you to a certain extent. My mom wanted a simple fix to the lighting on her bike and the lbs charged 80€ because they had manufactured a custom clamp from a piece of aluminum (1hr work) - for a bike that was worth just about that. Thats one of the problems, when the craftsman's hourly rate is higher than the value of the item he's working on...

There is a guy in my home town of Munich who offered *affordable* bike fixes, using salvaged parts. Get your brakes adjusted and the lights fixed for 20.- €. Started as a hole in the wall mini-shop, now expanded and seems to be very successful. There definitely is a market for that kinsd of thing.

martl

another version of the story involves a retired computer expert for mainframe systems. My hopes of actually becoming one of those lucky fellas went down the drain, sadly... backed the wrong horse

Sir_Name 

Zip-ties on the seat stays may be the ticket. Use them as a feeler gauge to the rim, rotate about the SS axis as needed. Painters tape to protect the paint, perhaps. Granted, I haven’t used this method and only read about it on the internets, but it sounds sufficient. Not sure in practice, but worth a shot for the small adjustment you described.

~~~

Edit: Ah, I see I replied after reading the first page w/o noticing the second and third...already covered.

squirtdad

I would disagree...buy good tools. they last and work better. as as simple example the difference between the chain tool in one of the 50 buck or so kits and a park is night and day. I used the cheap one for years and cursed my self for doing so when I got a park.

doesn't have to be park, but get good quality

merziac

+1 Exactly this

Good tools will up your game, poor ones will cause you more trouble when you are already ill equipped.

The Golden Boy 

But yet- still missing the 10mm socket and 5mm Allen wrench..

madpogue 

There are some tools you keep two of (even if one is from Horrible Fright).....

merziac

Or so you don't have to walk back to the tool box or workbench depending on which one you're already at.

seypat

What is up with the idea that the less something costs or is valued at, the less the labor should be to repair it?

Now let's look at the other side. For every repair that takes five minutes, there is one that takes an hour and 20 minutes that they charge for only an hour. You also have plenty of the repairs where you spend 1/2 - 1 hour working up the repair estimate. You call up the customer, give the estimate and they don't want it repaired. You're out the labor of working up the estimate. There's also the, "I looked online and that is a $5 part. Why are you charging me $25?"
"Well, you think it's free shipping to get it here? Shipping was $16.45."

seypat

As for tools, that is one thing that the labor charge is paying for. One of the best examples is replacing a front CV joint/axle. It's an easy job...................if you have a cv axle puller. If you don't, don't even attempt it until you get the tool, period.

Bikerider007

Agree to disagree. I break bikes down to every last piece and have no probs.

Kilroy1988 

Because of the amount of expertise and the cost of the necessary equipment/facilities to make the repair possible. Do you think that a bicycle mechanic is as qualified to earn $X per hour as a Ferrari technician?

iab

And after 3 pages, your clearly absolute lack of experience is still showing. Take a minute and actually think about it.

Did you ever think that sometimes it can be an absolute ***** to remove a freewheel? Have you ever done a search here? Threads about soaking freewheels in Kroil for weeks? Stripped notches? Are bike mechanics psychic and just know everything about a job before it starts? They should believe you, Mr. I Have Done Hardly Any Bike Wrenching, that the job will be easy?

2 weeks wait at this point in the season seems about right for a good shop. In May, early June, expect to wait 3-4 weeks. Why? Because people are stupid and get tune ups when the weather is nice instead of January when the wait is a day, maybe two.

So Mr. Craftsman, you are slammed with work, do you offer discounts? Do you allow people to jump the line? All of your jobs go smooth? Do regale us with tales of a perfect 60 hour week. (Hint, no such thing)

iab

Here's me, changing the fuel pump on this car. I got paid $12/hour. Do Ferrari mechanics come with gold chains?

gt402 by iabisdb, on Flickr

gt40 by iabisdb, on Flickr

Kilroy1988 

Yeah, actually, the last time I took one into this shop they stripped the notches on my '70s Campy freewheel and broke their tool in the process, and called it even when they handed it back to me still stuck to the Record hub.

The rest of your commentary makes little sense to me, because it has nothing to do with what I said. Changing the fuel pump on a vintage GT40 back in the day has little in common with working as a technician in a Ferrari dealership today.

I have no delusions, but if you think you're worth as much as the fellow working in the Ferrari dealership and can get the job done, then more power to you!

-Gregory

Kilroy1988 

I would never be a craftsman full-time because even the best of them that I know (and I know many) often seem to live through states of flux and times of insecurity. I work 60 hours a week during peak season as a quality control manager for industrial agriculture. And no, of course all of my projects don't go smoothly, but I have very little overhead and would never compare my work to a brick-and-mortar shop.

I was only pointing out that I'm not some incompetent who can't learn how to use tools. I have some confidence in my capabilities. I don't think that's a bad thing.

-Gregory

BFisher

The best takeaway here is that you shouldn't have been "confounded" by both the price and timeframe for the service. Nothing wrong with learning that. No argument about the value of labor necessary.

It's not like bike shops are high profit businesses.

Some pay the price happily. Some gasp and then invest in tools, which can often be purchased from the same shop. Or not.

Whatever you decide to do is a choice, and it's great to have options available.

All is good.

Kilroy1988 

My father has been an agricultural mechanic for most of his life. I work in an stone fruit packing facility with extremely experienced technicians who can fix all of the heavy duty industrial equipment that these plants are equipped with to pack hundreds of millions of dollars of produce each year. And they're required to make massive repairs right in the middle of a shift while hundreds of employees wait to get back to work.

These men make about $20-30 per hour average in this region (the San Joaquin Valley).

I think I have every right to make an argument about the value of labor in a case like this. Sure, a bicycle shop has plenty of overhead compared to an industrial mechanic, but they also have two or three technicians working on different orders at the same time, accumulating to perhaps two hundred dollars or more per hour. To tinker on bicycles! I do think it's bull, honestly.

More power to them, of course, but I've decided to do it myself instead.

-Gregory

BFisher

But it solves nothing and your bike is still broken.

Good luck with your repairs.

Happy riding.

noglider 

You are a good craftsman, as your flickr stream shows. Do you charge for your skill? If so, you would know that your rates sometimes seem strange to your clients. Pricing your labor can be tricky, and there will always be clients who think your figuring is off. And you'll know you're right, especially if you keep getting business.

Kilroy1988 

I really don't mean to come off as being offensive here, and in fact a lot of the responses have echoed some or most of my sentiments. I understand I'm treading on sacred ground given the forum where the discussion is taking place, and mean no slight to bicycle mechanics in general.

@noglider I do such work as a hobby and with whimsy. I have some clients who I low ball my quotes for in order to make something I would actually like to make, and sometimes I ask much more because I'm not particularly in the mood to make what's being asked for. Above all, I need to be having fun while doing the work and I have never expected to make a living wage at such things. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the tenacity or patience for it. So whatever comments I could make about the prices of my handiwork (which can sometimes reach into four figures but might still break down to less than minimum wage) would not be applicable to the labor arguments presented here.

I much prefer to be a hard-working employee with a reliable source of income.

@BFisher If I'd known what I'd be charged (definitely should have called first) then I'm pretty sure I would have ordered the tools straight away and had them in hand well before the two weeks went by. Perhaps my bicycle wouldn't be broken so long after all... In this particular case I'm still gathering components anyway and won't be riding for months, so it's a moot point!

-Gregory