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Yeah I know you didn't, but it's still true.
And yeah it depends on which end of the market we're looking at. Lynx brought up the cheaper SRAM brakes so I guess he's not against them. In which case the same result is having brakes that work.
Sure if you've got Dura Ace or XTR, 60 quid for a service is good value compared to replacing but if you've already got £44 SRAM brakes and you take them in for maintenance to find that you can replace them for cheaper than you can have them serviced, something's gone wrong.Everyone, I would hope, would rather service and repair than replace but not everyone can ignore the costs of doing so.
Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads. Maybe it's the bike shop model that's not working properly.
I'd also buy the tools and do it myself.
PhilDAS-
you take them in for maintenance to find that you can replace them for cheaper than you can have them serviced
That's not strictly true, because you're not accounting for the time to remove old brakes and fit new ones.
Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads.
Let's not have another 200 pages on whether "£15 to change a BB" is right. The extent to which you get to decide whether they know their business is you pay up or walk away.
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Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads. Maybe it's the bike shop model that's not working properly.
No, I doubt the mechanic is getting £60 an hour but whether you are paying the mech's wage or for the rent on the premises where the work is being done, the insurance that'll pay you out if anything goes wrong, for the consumables like barbs and olives and mineral oil, for initial outlay for the tools and the wear and tear on them as they are used (minimal on a job like this maybe but more of a factor for things like chasing and facing and every tool has a finite service life) the result is the same, it's a cost for the service rendered.
Our choices to perform the work ourselves circumvent most of these costs.
gbj_tester
M_V
I didn’t say it was*.
However, “same result” might be pushing it if we are comparing a decent set of Shimano brakes (I’m not actually sure what brakes @lynx has but mineral oil could be Shimano) and some £44 Srams.
I’d also argue that, for some people, ‘buy new brakes, throw old ones in bin’ isn’t the same result as ‘fix old brakes’ regardless of how the brakes perform.
I would say that it’s not the mechanic’s responsibility to work for a pittance just because new brakes can be bought for cheaper and it behooves us all to recognise that training and experience are both costly and valuable. Being dismissive of someone charging what they’ve evaluated their time, knowledge, experience etc to be worth just isn’t a good look imo.
*My personal choice would be to learn to do it myself and spend the £60 (or even just the £44 or less) on some tooling which would do nothing to support the mechanic.