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heathrow86
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 86
Location: United Kingdom
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 Posted Sun Nov 8, 2009 7:31 pm |
Hi has anyone had there bike serviced at Evans, On Your Bike etc? Are they any good and what do you get for £80+? Thinking of doing it as I no longer have the time or tools to do it.
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Slow Downcp
Joined: 12 Jul 2004
Posts: 2468
Location: Walsall
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Posted Sun Nov 8, 2009 7:51 pm |
I wouldn't pay £80 for something I could do in two hours myself. I guess the £80 is labour only to adjust/replace cables, grease bearing and adjust gears and brakes - any parts needed (chain, cassette, brake blocks, cables) will be on top of that.
Carlsberg don't make cycle clothing, but if they did it would probably still not be as good as Assos |
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Bill D
Joined: 04 Jan 2009
Posts: 30
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Posted Sun Nov 8, 2009 9:12 pm |
I agree. I'd buy myself a maintenance manual and a multitool, do the work myself, save money and know it's done properly. If you can operate a spanner and a screwdriver you're there. 
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Scrumple
Joined: 14 Jul 2008
Posts: 266
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Posted Sun Nov 8, 2009 9:17 pm |
My LBS did my bike at the beginning of the year for £20 summat.
Granted, it didn't need much work - and was more a peace of mind checkover.
Most places wanted loads more as a standard charge. Keep trying places, and negotiate.
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Slow Downcp
Joined: 12 Jul 2004
Posts: 2468
Location: Walsall
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Geoff_SS
Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 1028
Location: Derbyshire UK
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hodsgod
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 200
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Posted Sun Nov 8, 2009 11:45 pm |
I'll do it for £10 
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Mothyman
Joined: 25 May 2009
Posts: 485
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Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:17 pm |
..i think I'll cycle over to Geoff SS when i need a service...he sounds handier than me..I have no mechanical skills at all but am planning to slowly improve my bike DIY on a cheaper bike off ebay - before letting loose on my Spech Roubaix Comp..
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frinkmakesyouthink
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Posts: 112
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Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:49 pm |
Yeah, practice is what you need. Like Geoff I've never liked paying someone to do something I can do myself, and I've always owned classic cars ('65 Morris Minor was my first car - it was already 40 years old when I got it when I was seventeen) so I've become pretty adept at fixing things (like new driveshafts overnight at the side of the road because I refused to pay £300 to get it towed away, entirely reasonable I think ).
If you want to learn how to service your bike, buy an old bike for £50, and a copy of the Haynes Bike Book, buy a few tools and take it apart and put it back together again. There might be a few differences between a £1200 carbon fibre racer and a crummy old ebay special but most of the theory is the same, and it's good practice too.
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night_porter
Joined: 08 Aug 2009
Posts: 15
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Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:59 pm |
What an outrage!
How can cycle mechanics and shops expect hardworking people to pay thousands of pounds on buying their bikes/parts and still want their wages to be paid when we let them work on our bikes?
I have never heard anything more ridiculous, the cheek of these people.
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ChrisInBicester
Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 931
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:22 am |
| night_porter wrote: | What an outrage!
How can cycle mechanics and shops expect hardworking people to pay thousands of pounds on buying their bikes/parts and still want their wages to be paid when we let them work on our bikes?
I have never heard anything more ridiculous, the cheek of these people. |
You have a point, which I fully agree with. Staff expect to be paid min wage at least and the overheads of running a business are sky high these days, but... If you pay Evans or anyone else this sort of money for basic jobs, you'd expect the work to be gold-plate standard. When I picked up my new bike from them last week I was stunned at the lack of care that had gone into setting it up - it gave all the appearance of having been whipped out of the box, a few cursory checks done and that was it. If they charge top dollar, they have to provide top service. In my experience (this and others), they don't.
Share your SC Stats. Who's done the most miles? |
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Pross
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 650
Location: South Wales
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:33 am |
I'm mechanically useless but still manage pretty much everything myself. I don't have STI gears yet so don't know what that will be like and I don't touch wheels, bottom brackets and (proper old fashioned) headsets as I don't have the tools. Spent just over an hour on Saturday replacing my whole drive train and the only problem I had was that my chainring bolts have seized after 10 years plus of neglect in the shed. There's not much in routine maintenance that's complicated but then the OP didn't say he couldn't do it himself just that he doesn't have the time or tools anymore.
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Slow Downcp
Joined: 12 Jul 2004
Posts: 2468
Location: Walsall
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:47 am |
| night_porter wrote: | What an outrage!
How can cycle mechanics and shops expect hardworking people to pay thousands of pounds on buying their bikes/parts and still want their wages to be paid when we let them work on our bikes?
I have never heard anything more ridiculous, the cheek of these people. |
I agree to a point - but £12.50 for swapping a tyre???
Carlsberg don't make cycle clothing, but if they did it would probably still not be as good as Assos |
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Top_Bhoy
Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 1254
Location: Australia
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Pross
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 650
Location: South Wales
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:23 am |
Presumably it's £25 per hour with a minimum half hour charge. Let's face it, anyone who can't be bothered to fit a bottle cage themselves deserves to be ripped off 
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Rich Hcp
Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 805
Location: United Kingdom
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Escargot
Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 294
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:05 am |
I agree to a point. Evans is expensive but in the same vein as taking your car to a main dealer. They have massive overheads so have to rip you off to some extent.
However, how much do you guys get paid an hour ? My LBS charges about £80 for a full service which is a full strip, lube and reassemble etc. I could easily do that myself but I couldn't do it in less than 2-3 hours, which would cost me more in my free time (and I'm mechanically minded).
For someone who isn't mechanical in any way, stripping down a rear mech, BB or headset and relubricating could take a fair amount of time so equates to the same thing. Ok bike mechanics ain't rocket science but even learning the stuff takes time.
There was an article on Watchdog where the idiot journo on the BikeRadar website was slamming £100 bikes because they were unsafe. The shocking thing was that a bunch of guys tried to assemble a range of bikes and some of them couldn't even tighten a pedal onto a crank  For these kinds of people, servicing is a no-brainer as you can imagine the kind of trouble they'd get into stripping down a BB
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Rich Hcp
Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 805
Location: United Kingdom
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Top_Bhoy
Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 1254
Location: Australia
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:53 pm |
I see no issue with people paying £80 for a service.....but by charging £12.50 for fitting bottle cages, on principle alone, I'd go elsewhere if I needed to use a shop service. This type of charge screams greed...
Do Evans (and other shops) give you the option of supplying your own parts or are you stuck with forking out for their high rrps?
Click here to view Top_Bhoys RC2: |
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Escargot
Joined: 04 May 2009
Posts: 294
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Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:44 pm |
Agree, that's pretty scandalous for two bolts.
But even more shocking is that people must be paying it otherwise they'd revamp their pricing 
Sadly though it's up there with main dealer car service charges. I've heard outrageous stories of BMW/Audi/Merc prices
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