Cost to replace a spoke

experimenter

Jeez I got a spoke replaced in the back wheel of road bike today..

Cost me €10!!! I thought that was a bit rich...

Went to one bike shop in Carlow who are suppose to service bikes and he said we don't do spoke replacement!!

Then the other shop I dropped in the rear wheel (no tyre) this morning and was suuppose to collect this evening but when I went to collect it, he forgot, then he could find the right size spoke!! I had to wait 20minutes..

I worked in a well know bike shop for four years but don't have the tools for jobs like that but for what's a 5 minute job I thought €10 was a bit much..

Or am I wrong??

AstraMonti

10euro is fine. You don't always buy the time they spent, you buy the knowledge that is required to do it.

dubmess

Did they have to replace a nipple too? In that case they would have had to remove tyre, tube and rim tape to get at it. Did it require the cassette coming off? The wheel would also have required some truing afterwards.

I don't see how you can call €10 a rip off for any of that.

Unregistered.

dubmess wrote: »

In that case they would have had to remove tyre, tube and rim tape to get at it. Did it require the cassette coming off?

Hardly a mammoth task.



P.S: OP said there was no tire.

experimenter

Fair enough, maybe I am on a rant because if I had the right tools I could do it myself in a few minutes.

I had tyre and tube off, all he had to do was remove block and a very quick tune...

Ah well..

dubmess

Unregistered. wrote: »

dubmess wrote: »

In that case they would have had to remove tyre, tube and rim tape to get at it. Did it require the cassette coming off?

Hardly a mammoth task.



P.S: OP said there was no tire.

Does it have to be a mammoth task to warrant payment for skilled labour? Even the fact that they did it on the spot is laudable.

Holyboy

experimenter wrote: »

Jeez I got a spoke replaced in the back wheel of road bike today..

Cost me €10!!! I thought that was a bit rich...

Went to one bike shop in Carlow who are suppose to service bikes and he said we don't do spoke replacement!!

Then the other shop I dropped in the rear wheel (no tyre) this morning and was suuppose to collect this evening but when I went to collect it, he forgot, then he could find the right size spoke!! I had to wait 20minutes..

I worked in a well know bike shop for four years but don't have the tools for jobs like that but for what's a 5 minute job I thought €10 was a bit much..

Or am I wrong??[/QUOTE

Well I don't know the quality of the work of the shop you went to but it sounds bloody cheap to me and if you think you can remove cassette, fit new spoke, true wheel, check tension of spokes, de-stress said spokes and true again then re-fit cassette all in five minutes you should open your own bike shop, you'll make a bloody fortune working at that speed or on the other hand have no customers at all as you can't fit a new spoke properly in less than twenty minutes!!

C3PO

experimenter wrote: »

Jeez I got a spoke replaced in the back wheel of road bike today..

Cost me €10!!! I thought that was a bit rich...

I worked in a well know bike shop for four years but don't have the tools for jobs like that but for what's a 5 minute job I thought €10 was a bit much..

Or am I wrong??

How much did you expect to pay? Including the spoke I would expect to pay about €20 I suppose! I really wouldn't expect anyone to get up off their arse for less! What specialist tools are required to change a spoke?

pgd-pgd

€10 sounds fair to me. I do all my own repairs , wheel building etc...but have had to go to some Bike Shops for quick emergency repairs and they had a minimum charge of €15 for repairs.

Redjeep!

I was charged €10 by my LBS to change two spokes recently.

experimenter

Holyboy wrote: »

?[/QUOTE

Well I don't know the quality of the work of the shop you went to but it sounds bloody cheap to me and if you think you can remove cassette, fit new spoke, true wheel, check tension of spokes, de-stress said spokes and true again then re-fit cassette all in five minutes you should open your own bike shop, you'll make a bloody fortune working at that speed or on the other hand have no customers at all as you can't fit a new spoke properly in less than twenty minutes!!

At jeez it's not rocket science to replace a spoke and tune a wheel..

experimenter

RPL1 wrote: »

How much did you expect to pay? Including the spoke I would expect to pay about €20 I suppose! I really wouldn't expect anyone to get up off their arse for less! What specialist tools are required to change a spoke?

Well how am I suppose to get the block off???

Tonyandthewhale

It's not rocket science but you still need to charge money in exchange for goods and services if you want to run a business.

How much would have been a fair price?

easygoing39

experimenter wrote: »

Well how am I suppose to get the block off???

Well you claim to have worked in a bike shop,and now your asking advice on how to remove a block??? I smell a rat a least,BS at most!!

Lumen

Take rate of minimum wage, triple it, pro-rata. That's reasonable.

So a tenner should get you about 20 minutes or so.

Any business charging less than this on average aross all services is likely to fail, unless it has extremely low overheads.

cantalach

I think €10 is a perfectly reasonable charge for replacing a spoke.

experimenter

easygoing39 wrote: »

Well you claim to have worked in a bike shop,and now your asking advice on how to remove a block??? I smell a rat a least,BS at most!!

If you read the original posts, I don't have the tools to remove the block..I know how to remove it.

experimenter

Ok it's seems that €10 is what everyone would expect to pay....

Rant Over.. :rolleyes:

connie_c

part of my job is repairing things, I was once told this story in relation to charging for my work.

Picaso was commisioned to sketch a wealthy man, Picaso did the drawing as the man waited. Picaso handed the man the drawing and said that will be (insert large sum). The man says thats a ridiculous price, it only took you 10 minutes. Picaso replied "no it didnt, it took me my whole life".

experimenter

connie_c wrote: »

part of my job is repairing things, I was once told this story in relation to charging for my work.

Picaso was commisioned to sketch a wealthy man, Picaso did the drawing as the man waited. Picaso handed the man the drawing and said that will be (insert large sum). The man says thats a ridiculous price, it only took you 10 minutes. Picaso replied "no it didnt, it took me my whole life".

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

experimenter

connie_c wrote: »

part of my job is repairing things, I was once told this story in relation to charging for my work.

Picaso was commisioned to sketch a wealthy man, Picaso did the drawing as the man waited. Picaso handed the man the drawing and said that will be (insert large sum). The man says thats a ridiculous price, it only took you 10 minutes. Picaso replied "no it didnt, it took me my whole life".

victorcarrera

I broke a rear drive side spoke a few weeks back while on holiday in Clare and was expecting to have to leave the wheel in the shop and pay 15-20 euro.
I was surprised first when the mechanic said he would do it there and then.
He did it in no more that 7 minutes including truing the wheel and only wanted to charge me 5 euro so I gave him 10 as it would have been a 50 Km round trip to return and collect it again.
Tierneys (I think) Outdoor Pursuits in Ennis.

FISMA

experimenter wrote: »

Jeez I got a spoke replaced in the back wheel of road bike today..
Cost me €10!!! I thought that was a bit rich...

Experimenter,
There's a lot of liability involved in that €10 spoke.

Suppose you are going downhill and something goes wrong: rim cracks, another spoke breaks, you fall and end up injured or dead. Guess who gets sued?

Even if it wasn't the same spoke, I can imagine the lawyer asking the mechanic if they are a professional, how come the missed all of the other problems?...

Next time, buy a spoke yourself and put it on, it's pretty easy and you can use your fork/brakes as a truing stand.

reilig

4 spokes replaced and wheel trued on my road bike today for EUR15. Can't fault the price

Niall_G

victorcarrera wrote: »

I broke a rear drive side spoke a few weeks back while on holiday in Clare and was expecting to have to leave the wheel in the shop and pay 15-20 euro.
I was surprised first when the mechanic said he would do it there and then.
He did it in no more that 7 minutes including truing the wheel and only wanted to charge me 5 euro so I gave him 10 as it would have been a 50 Km round trip to return and collect it again.
Tierneys (I think) Outdoor Pursuits in Ennis.

Very obliging shop. I bought a spare tube recently and he spent 10 minutes showing me how to change, repair etc (yes, I am new to this!) - no charge and believe me the profit margin on the tube wouldn't have covered his time either.

Rallymad

Im dropping my bike in tommorow with a broken spoke ill be delighted if im only charged 10 euro:D

Hail 2 Da Thief

I'm collecting a wheel tomorrow which needed two spokes replaced & I'd be pleasently surprised if it only cost me €10. I'm thinking €15-€20.