17 fucking quid!?

so i get back to london to visit my mum/friends from NZ. I have a Specialized rockhopper still in the garage which i want to sell but my mum insists on keeping for bike rides with her partner. she's about to go out in the morning so i ask her where she s going and she says 'oh i'm taking your bike in again, the tire's gone flat'. turns out she took my bike to the bike shop beacuse it had a flat tire and charged her £17! so this particular morning two days after getting it back it went flat again so she was about to take it back in! aahhhhh!

so two things you re probably thinking... why the fuck can't she put a new tube in herself?! especially for someone who rides to work everyday it's pretty ridiculous. ricockulous. well i plan to teach her in a firm manner.

the other thing: 17 quid! what a bunch of cunts they are in Even's cycles in Kingston upon thames. you'd think for such an extortionate sum of money they might have even bothered to check the rim and tire for glass.

anyway i went in today and demanded a free tube and let my displeasure be known.

sorry, just had to vent spleen...

Last time I was in the Chiswick one the assistant told me I had the wrong tyres on my Roubaix and that I should be riding 700x25c because that's what the Pro's ride on the Paris Roubaix. I told him that I wasn't a pro. He said that he knew that. Customer service is proper good!

12.50 + price of tube is pretty standard really. also she could have got another puncture!!

Evan's cycles in Kingston upon thames.

yeah i'd watch that one... dodgy!!!! ;)

yeah right load of cunts!

its simon peggs local i think

12.50 + price of tube is pretty standard really. also she could have got another puncture!!

yeah, for a brompton or anything with a hub gear/coaster brake/drum brake. £7 labour + price of tube for a standard flat at most shops.

yeah, for a brompton or anything with a hub gear/coaster brake/drum brake. £7 labour + price of tube for a standard flat at most shops.

it was a front wheel (quick release) and it was brought home in an ahem... car.

i m sure it's what they re told to charge, but it doesnt man i have to like it. lets shake up the bike shop establishment man. power to those who can't build a wheel! i ll probably just skulk back to new zealand though

it was a front wheel (quick release) and it was brought home in an ahem... car.

i m sure it's what they re told to charge, but it doesnt man i have to like it. lets shake up the bike shop establishment man. power to those who can't build a wheel! i ll probably just skulk back to new zealand though

I think you really should take up your grievance with the person who agreed to pay the price in the first place - yo momma. Prices will stay this high as long as there are people foolish enough to pay them :)

How much would change a puncture for if you had to cover the cost of a shop?

I'd want a tenner plus tube.

I was tool and tubeless once on got a puncture
the first shop i went past offered to change the tube for 10+tube.
I wasn't allowed to use their tools...

I walked the 3 miles home in protest.

now convert the £17 into $NZ to get yourself really pissed off! $60ish to change a tube haha

Do bike shops not rely on child labour anymore to fix easy stuff?

Round by me, £17 is pretty much the value of the bike everyone is riding.
THe price of a fully marked up tube, i.e roughly £4 + something for the schoolboy mechanic (£3ish) has always been the way independent bike shops that I know of, run. And it seems to work pretty well.

Whenever I see people with stuff wrong with their bikes, I cant help but offer to fix it.

bikes are just so simple and undaunting to fix, paying for labour just seems scandalous to me.

If youve got the appropriate parts & tools everything is so incredibly straight foward.

I tend to fix all my bikes without spending any money at all though, recycling etc. A bit more tricky!

yeah i'd watch that one... dodgy!!!! ;)

one of the bloke in Evans have a London Langster, obviously they're dodgy.

one of the blokes in Kingston Evans has a souped up Charge Plug, massively dodgy.

nice! i'd like to see that.

souped up Charge Plug

4 words that dont look right

How much would change a puncture for if you had to cover the cost of a shop?

I'd want a tenner plus tube.

I have no idea what the going rate for the service is, but I do know that it almost universally seen by bike shops as an opportunity charge what they like. I mean, if you can't be bothered to buy a couple of tyre levers with the tube, and do it yourself, you might as well as give yourself a label marked 'I don't care what it costs'.

we charge 12.99 including tube

4 words that dont look right

Time for lunch.....

I have no idea what the going rate for the service is, but I do know that it almost universally seen by bike shops as an opportunity charge what they like. I mean, if you can't be bothered to buy a couple of tyre levers with the tube, and do it yourself, you might as well as give yourself a label marked 'I don't care what it costs'.

Word.

It's much like car garages charging £50 to fill up the windscreen wash bottle during a service. If your too dumb or too lazy to sort it yourself you'll get stung for it.

or get furious to do it for you for free... hes quick!

I disagree, filling up the windscreen washer bottle only requires the knowledge of where to put the water. Fixing a puncture is entirely different.

Whilst I'd be shocked to find anyone that uses this forum willing to pay £17 for a puncture others might.

I was charging £5 plus tube last winter in Devon. Lots of people who came in didn't have the knowledge required to mend a puncture, like everything it is easy to do when you know how to do it. If you don't you find a specialist who knows what they are doing & this is what you are paying for.

I was always stunned when I worked with people who never mended punctures and replaced the pierced tube with a new one be default..a costly habit. I think one rider on our fleet managed 25 repairs to a tube before it gave up completely.

Yep opening the bonet/ levering the tyre off and opening the resevoir/ replacing the tube are worlds apart.

If you drive a car you should know how to change wheel, fill up with fuel and fill up with windscreen cleaner.

If you ride a bike you should know how to fix a puncture use a pump.*

*amazingly about 40% of my customers dont.

when i did my weeks 'work experience' at the lbs back at school.. .all i did all day was fix punctures and make tea..... we charged £7 plus tube i think

@ furious tiles: yeeeahh...I'm mostly in agreement there but there are exceptions like arthritic single mothers with pannier'd kids and, just as there's something a bit lame about an electrician charging an OAP twenty quid for a change of lightbulb, there's something lame about charging seventeen quid to change a ruddy inner tube. I mean SEVENTEEN FUCKING QUI.. Oh hold on, that's how this started..

Out of interest, anyone in the business put a figure on average bike-shop tyre changes per day? Is it four or forty? I mean how much of the take does it really consitute?

Labour for ten tyre changes per day would be an impressive £130 at this rate.. let's say the guy's slowish and takes six minutes per tyre..jeez that's 130 quid an hour!!!! That's more than most ice-cream men make!!