sultanofsuede

i'm in the process of having a bike built and always looking for a few ways to shave off some money here and there. i'm going through a local shop on the buy, but noticed that he's charging me full price on the wheels that i've selected. meanwhile, i've seen the same wheels online for almost half the price.

is there any reason i shouldn't buy the wheels on my own and put them on the bike when i pick it up?

Iride01 

That's a question best asked of the shop. The markup on components is probably the only thing that is making it worth the shops time to build and give you any implied warranty for their services. If you start cutting out their means of making money, then you might as well do everything yourself. Bikes shops seldom get any better deal on components than you can, so they need that mark up to justify their time spent researching, ordering, shipping expense and other stuff that adds up to way more expense for them than simply putting the parts together.

If you are going to let them build the bike, then let them get the stuff and be happy.

Without the wheels, they can't do the final adjustments of the derailleurs. You may also cut out one of the most significant chunk of their gross revenue.

Kedosto

First off, are you SURE they're the exact same wheels? Hubs? Spokes? Nipples?
Second, are you comparing an off the shelf, machine built wheelset to a hand built and tuned wheelset?

Don't over look the details, and remember, you usually get what you pay for.


-Kedosto

Maelochs

This, exactly.

Kind of surprised you didn't do the research and ask the questions Beforehand.

chicagogal

I think that you can tell the shop that you aren't prepared to spend that much on wheels and that you would like to supply your own wheels for the build. Ask them how much they would charge to build the bike up with a wheel set that you supply.

I don't like to do much of my own wrenching and thus have fostered pretty close relationships with LBSs. I sometimes supply my own components and I sometimes let the shop source them. When I ask the shop to source components, they are pretty upfront about the dealer cost versus what they will charge me. I don't mind occasionally paying a bit more help out a local shop. If the shop goes under, then I'd have to start servicing my own bike, so I have a vested interest in their success!

Shuffleman

Dean V

If they are charging you the full hourly rate for the build time there is no reason you can't pick and choose whatever components you want to supply.
If they are doing you some kind of deal for the labour cost you should discuss with them.

sultanofsuede

All good/fair input. I do try to support my local shop, but when it comes to keeping a large spend in my budget, I just thought I'd give the wheels a shot. I'll just talk to them and let them know what I'm seeing. The cost difference is large enough that if I need to pay their full price, I might just not buy a bike this year at all.

Darth Lefty 

Maelochs

Are they building the wheels.or just installing them? Just tell them to forget the wheels ... installing a wheel .... not too tough .....

sultanofsuede

just buying some stock wheels. not going with custom hubs/spokes. i talked to them and they said to just drop them off when they start putting the bike together. gives me a guilty feeling, but dayyyyaaamm!! i get to pocket about $1100, and it keeps me on budget.

Marcus_Ti

The thing to understand about the bike part business... Is that the internet sale cost you see is typically as little if not less than what your LBS is paying just to get the part....not even shipping or overhead etc, just the supplier cost. This is par for the course, and completely normal. Nothing nefarious going on--your LBS is just trying to keep the lights on.

Depending on how tight you are with your LBS and how chill they are...they might tell you upfront to buy online and they'll build from parts-in-a-box to save you money as they don't make much off parts supply but labor. My last build was Di2, my LBS welcomed me getting the parts online--in part to save me money, in part because they weren't going to make much anyway off the parts, in part to free themselves a bit of liability/responsibility if parts didn't go together as neatly as theorized...as Di2 doesn't have any market here and they'd never sell the parts to someone else if I backed out.

noodle soup

Sy Reene

$1100 savings just on the wheels? What wheelset anyway?

mstateglfr 

$1100 is almost half the price? So you were going to buy $2000 wheels for the bike?
Totally cool, not judging as its your money and all, but you also mention you are always looking for ways to shave off $ here and there. Im guessing there are a lot more areas you could shave off $ if your wheels were going to cost $2k.
Did you price anything out beforehand? A shop will charge you a flat rate to just build up a frame if you bring all the components.

Psimet2001 

This.

I can list off the number of shop owners I can think of that would lose their mind at only charging $100 for the build. If it's just a collection of components and a frame - I'd agree with them. If the shop was only charging you $100 for a build then I'm guessing that you're either super friends, They suck at business or knowing the value of their time, or you were already buying the majority of parts through them and not fighting with them on spec or price.

When we started doing service to the public I was confronted with assembling a boxed bike. "how much to put it together?" - in my head I'm thinking, "This is simple, I just have to unpack it and put everything in its place and then check all the adjustments and send it out the door."..... "$40" - "SOLD!" I didn't learn my lesson until I started having clients tall me that I was WAY less expensive than other shops. Come to find out that I am still on the low end of the price spectrum even charging $70-$80 and that's for a boxed bike.

I know one shop owner who swears it will cost him $50 in labor hours just to physically remove the bike from the box, cut off all the packaging material, and then to deal with the box and trash.

Full on "nice" bike assembly from a frame is $200 from me and that's if I know you or you are on my team. I will spend 3-4 hours cleaning, prepping, installing and adjusting every aspect of that bike not to mention all of the incidentals that no one ever really provides in a build.

sultanofsuede

yes - the regular price that is published (and that the shop wants to charge) is about $2100. i'm ok just going ahead and paying full list price on all other things. i've made some decisions on a few items that have helped me save a few bucks here and there. but yes, i believe i can score these wheels for almost half the price, and at the end of the day, my wife is much happier with the overall spend on the bike. i thought about buying all the parts on my own, but i do like having a good relationship with the shop and just don't feel right cutting them out of some of the profit. i think we'll have to just meet in the middle on the wheel set though.