hello, im new to cycling and learning about bikes. how they function, whats needed to upkeep them, and how often. i like to learn things. i am looking around at shops to know which ones are worth their price. i have a shop with their tune ups menu and would like your opinions on it, price wise vs service done.
also if their price is fair or cheap for other stuff: they said $40 for housing/cables and gear adjustment, labor included. since thats what im looking to get donez. to me that seems REALLY cheap. but im new so im not sure if it is.
the attached images are of the same shop. they seem to be super cool. they answered my questions so ofc i feel good about them.
the reason i "question" pricing is because ive had shops who are actually dead on scammy. im not trying to just be an "a-hole". they literally do not know what theyre doing. example: one guy saying i can throw any width onto my 26" rims as long as theyre 26", just so he can sell me a tire. which i know thats not true. there needs to be a clearance, and also appropriate width for specific rim sizes. he then hesitated to state the price to another customer as he looked at us to check if we were listening. and even the customer was like "that much?! its never been that much!" he was charging me $20 per wheel to adjust spokes and kept pushing me to let him do it, i can do it at home. he also was trying to push me to get more work done but he seemed to be up charging us. $30 to just tighten the bolts on a derailleur/"adjust it". seems cheap but based off of his work i wasn't comfortable. i also saw other shops charge about $200 to LITERALLY JUST INSPECT AND "CLEAN" THE BIKE… please note i am aware people need money but i dont want to get scammed because "i dont know much".
also some guy told me he "can see why people dont wanna do business with me" because i asked such questions.
so please be kind. im just learning. correct me if im wrong, just be kind. im tired of wanting to learn and having the door slammed on my face plus being insulted in the process.
by sir_maccc
4 Comments
feel free to let me know other costs for things (parts and labor): such as flushing brakes, tires and tube changes, what tune ups consist of, etc. the more the merrier
My guess that’s pretty fair. I just paid $35 for shimano hydraulic hose I have to install myself. 🙂
can’t comment on how much “worth it” these service cost are because i do pretty much all my work from drivetrain to more complex wheel build & suspension servicing.
but a lot of repair/adjustments on a bike can be done easily given how plentiful AND accessible the information for bike repair is, it really is worth it teaching yourself especially simple stuff like drivetrain and brake adjustment.
otherwise here’s some resources to start with:
https://www.parktool.com/en-us/blog/repair-help
https://si.shimano.com/en/
https://www.sram.com/en/service.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/repairs.html
https://m.youtube.com/parktool
there’s no other hobby/sport/mode of transportation that i know of that has so much comprehensive maintenance information available at your finger tips than cycling in general; wether that’s from the manufacturer, internet forum, blog, or youtube videos… so take advantage of it.
Is that list of the tune ups something a shop has in there store or on there website? If so, they spelled customer incorrectly.