This is Why Bike Mechanics are Always Grumpy...
It's mostly because we get paid bullshit.
Seriously, do you have any idea how annoying it is to get bitched at about the cost of a tune up when you don't make shit?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Charlie Short 2.9 on
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I'm going to jump on this and say "no," being a bike mechanic is NOT a hobby. Being able to fix up a bike and being experienced are two separate things. Just because I can do work on most of my bikes does not make me a bike mechanic. For all my heavy-lifting (so to speak) repairs, I take my bike to a shop where I trust the mechanic.
We don't pay repair people enough. Plain and simple. The craft of repairing things is far under-appreciated.
It's not a hobby. It's not.
Reboot Oxnard said:I understand the desire but the fact remains that you don't have a career, you're blessed to have a hobby that actually pays you. Yeah, I know, you've invested a lot of time (and some money) into developing the not-inconsiderable knowledge and skills that the work requires but the fact remains that you don't work, you play. And you get paid. By me. Arghgh!
You have a job for which the supply of workers greatly exceeds the demand for their services. We got rid of indentured servitude a long time ago, should you ever decide that you made a poor occupational choice, you can quit. Before you do, however, would you please let me know so that I can be at the head of the line to score your gig. ;}
notoriousDUG said:I don't want to work in IT, I want to work on bikes but would like to be paid decently for doing it.
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Permalink Reply by Haddon on
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Most bike mechanics are wildly cool, I was very surprised at the slides given, well - how expensive some of the bills are at a bike shop.
It's not uncommon for a new spoke to be $20 ($25?). I once was told changing a stem would be ~$40 - I went home watched a youtube video and did it my self in 20 minutes. There are a range of bike fixes that are crazy expensive considering how easy they really are to do. Someone told me changing a crank would be $80 (not including the crank). When people go into bike shops and get eye-popping bills I don't think that anyone knows that the mechanic is getting the raw end of the deal.
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Permalink Reply by EssFresh on
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+1, not a hobby. Plus I am oldschool in the fact that I like to go in and speak with someone with expereince. My favorite mechanics are always very forthcoming with hellpful information and back up their suggestions with a deeper knowledge than I can gleen from google/forums.
Charlie Short 11.5 said:I'm going to jump on this and say "no," being a bike mechanic is NOT a hobby. Being able to fix up a bike and being experienced are two separate things. Just because I can do work on most of my bikes does not make me a bike mechanic. For all my heavy-lifting (so to speak) repairs, I take my bike to a shop where I trust the mechanic.
We don't pay repair people enough. Plain and simple. The craft of repairing things is far under-appreciated.
It's not a hobby. It's not.
Reboot Oxnard said:I understand the desire but the fact remains that you don't have a career, you're blessed to have a hobby that actually pays you. Yeah, I know, you've invested a lot of time (and some money) into developing the not-inconsiderable knowledge and skills that the work requires but the fact remains that you don't work, you play. And you get paid. By me. Arghgh!
You have a job for which the supply of workers greatly exceeds the demand for their services. We got rid of indentured servitude a long time ago, should you ever decide that you made a poor occupational choice, you can quit. Before you do, however, would you please let me know so that I can be at the head of the line to score your gig. ;}
notoriousDUG said:I don't want to work in IT, I want to work on bikes but would like to be paid decently for doing it.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on
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Thank you.
I do work, what I do is not all fun and anybody who has had to fish internally routed cables can vouch for that.
Charlie Short 11.5 said:I'm going to jump on this and say "no," being a bike mechanic is NOT a hobby. Being able to fix up a bike and being experienced are two separate things. Just because I can do work on most of my bikes does not make me a bike mechanic. For all my heavy-lifting (so to speak) repairs, I take my bike to a shop where I trust the mechanic.
We don't pay repair people enough. Plain and simple. The craft of repairing things is far under-appreciated.
It's not a hobby. It's not.
Reboot Oxnard said:I understand the desire but the fact remains that you don't have a career, you're blessed to have a hobby that actually pays you. Yeah, I know, you've invested a lot of time (and some money) into developing the not-inconsiderable knowledge and skills that the work requires but the fact remains that you don't work, you play. And you get paid. By me. Arghgh!
You have a job for which the supply of workers greatly exceeds the demand for their services. We got rid of indentured servitude a long time ago, should you ever decide that you made a poor occupational choice, you can quit. Before you do, however, would you please let me know so that I can be at the head of the line to score your gig. ;}
notoriousDUG said:I don't want to work in IT, I want to work on bikes but would like to be paid decently for doing it.
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Well lets look at those labor charges and see if they really are that expensive...
Well, actually that is hard to do because you have only given a tiny part of the info one would need to price out any of those repairs accurately.
So, spoke replace for $20-25 huh? Well that is pretty much in line for pricing on a front spoke replacement and I would expect a rear to be anywhere from $30-$35.
Why so much?
Well if it is done properly there is a fair amount of work to be done. First the tire has to be removed (if you ever have somebody replace a spoke using the old nipple and without pulling the tire off stop them and take it to somebody who will do it right) along with the cassette or freewheel if it's a rear wheel (and some of those freewheels require the axle be removed take them off). After that you have to measure and install the new spoke. Check the spoke tension on the wheel and get the new spoke to about the proper tension, true and round the wheel and then check the spoke tension. All of that should take anywhere from 20-60 minutes depending on the condition of the wheel.
You are also paying for the knowledge a good mechanic has to check out your wheel and see if it is even worth putting a spoke in. If you have a wheel with uneven tension, a chewed up rim or cashed bearings I might recommend replacing it rather than sinking money into a wheel that is only going to be a problem down the line. Of course then I'll get a bad Yelp review for trying to upsell you...
Your $40 stem change? Well there are so many other variables there I can't even start to get you a good price guess on what is fair... Does it have drop or flat bars? Quill or threadless? Does it have a removable faceplate? Will it need to be re-cabled after? Will it need the bars re-taped after? For just changing a stem $40 seems high if it has a removable face and no cable work but if it's on a bike with road bars that you have to pull through a old style stem it's very reasonable and if cable length needed to be changed it is a hell of a deal.
Like the spoke you are also paying for the experience the mechanic has with that kind of job to know if you are going to need to adjust the cable length or not.
As for the crank swap, there is no where near enough info to know what the should cost. Is it a multi-speed bike? Does the new crank require a new bottom bracket? If so will the chain line change and does it need a different width bottom bracket? If it's a derailleur bikes are the chain rings different sizes requiring a fairly involved derailleur adjustment? If it's a crank swap on a single speed that is expensive but if your moving from a triple to a double or going to an external bottom bracket from a standard one it is pretty reasonable...
Is it that the bills are outrageous or is it that you may not understand what is going into the repairs?
Haddon said:Most bike mechanics are wildly cool, I was very surprised at the slides given, well - how expensive some of the bills are at a bike shop.
It's not uncommon for a new spoke to be $20 ($25?). I once was told changing a stem would be ~$40 - I went home watched a youtube video and did it my self in 20 minutes. There are a range of bike fixes that are crazy expensive considering how easy they really are to do. Someone told me changing a crank would be $80 (not including the crank). When people go into bike shops and get eye-popping bills I don't think that anyone knows that the mechanic is getting the raw end of the deal.
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+1. That's one of the few skills I've developed. I have a 90's Trek I've had for 10 years and avoided getting new housing for quite a while.
I was also going to say, that for every "fun" bike you put together, you're assembling 20 regular bikes. I was a guitar repairman for a quite a while and for every cool vintage guitar I fixed, I fixed 100 regular guitars.
notoriousDUG said:Thank you.
I do work, what I do is not all fun and anybody who has had to fish internally routed cables can vouch for that.
Charlie Short 11.5 said:I'm going to jump on this and say "no," being a bike mechanic is NOT a hobby. Being able to fix up a bike and being experienced are two separate things. Just because I can do work on most of my bikes does not make me a bike mechanic. For all my heavy-lifting (so to speak) repairs, I take my bike to a shop where I trust the mechanic.
We don't pay repair people enough. Plain and simple. The craft of repairing things is far under-appreciated.
It's not a hobby. It's not.
Reboot Oxnard said:I understand the desire but the fact remains that you don't have a career, you're blessed to have a hobby that actually pays you. Yeah, I know, you've invested a lot of time (and some money) into developing the not-inconsiderable knowledge and skills that the work requires but the fact remains that you don't work, you play. And you get paid. By me. Arghgh!
You have a job for which the supply of workers greatly exceeds the demand for their services. We got rid of indentured servitude a long time ago, should you ever decide that you made a poor occupational choice, you can quit. Before you do, however, would you please let me know so that I can be at the head of the line to score your gig. ;}
notoriousDUG said:I don't want to work in IT, I want to work on bikes but would like to be paid decently for doing it.
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I would estimate that for every really cool bike I work on I repair about 75 horrifying f'd to death flaming piles of ca-ca originally purchased at WalMart.
Charlie Short 11.5 said:+1. That's one of the few skills I've developed. I have a 90's Trek I've had for 10 years and avoided getting new housing for quite a while.
I was also going to say, that for every "fun" bike you put together, you're assembling 20 regular bikes. I was a guitar repairman for a quite a while and for every cool vintage guitar I fixed, I fixed 100 regular guitars.
notoriousDUG said:Thank you.
I do work, what I do is not all fun and anybody who has had to fish internally routed cables can vouch for that.
Charlie Short 11.5 said:I'm going to jump on this and say "no," being a bike mechanic is NOT a hobby. Being able to fix up a bike and being experienced are two separate things. Just because I can do work on most of my bikes does not make me a bike mechanic. For all my heavy-lifting (so to speak) repairs, I take my bike to a shop where I trust the mechanic.
We don't pay repair people enough. Plain and simple. The craft of repairing things is far under-appreciated.
It's not a hobby. It's not.
Reboot Oxnard said:I understand the desire but the fact remains that you don't have a career, you're blessed to have a hobby that actually pays you. Yeah, I know, you've invested a lot of time (and some money) into developing the not-inconsiderable knowledge and skills that the work requires but the fact remains that you don't work, you play. And you get paid. By me. Arghgh!
You have a job for which the supply of workers greatly exceeds the demand for their services. We got rid of indentured servitude a long time ago, should you ever decide that you made a poor occupational choice, you can quit. Before you do, however, would you please let me know so that I can be at the head of the line to score your gig. ;}
notoriousDUG said:I don't want to work in IT, I want to work on bikes but would like to be paid decently for doing it.
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I call that 'the all I knows' and they exist in every job where you work on anything.
All I know is the bike shifted fine until you fixed the front flat!
All I know is the basement light worked before you fixed the kitchen sink!
All I know is my tire wasn't flay before you changed the oil!
h' 1.0 said:And then you have to deal with the owner of the Wal-Mart bike when they come back two weeks later claiming that the screws fell out of their derailleur because of something you did when you changed their inner tube.
If that's not your idea of "play" there's something wrong with you.
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Permalink Reply by Davo on
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I'll admit that when I first started riding, I had a bit of sticker shock when it came to getting repairs done. After several years of being on a bike though it is not as bad to me. I look at it this way… It is still a hell of a lot cheaper than having any sort of automotive work done. I also try to do as much as I can on my own but have learned that a yearly or semi yearly qualified tune up costing $50 - $70 plus any parts that I may need is quite worth it. I would guess that most of the people that balk at the prices are riding bikes that cost about as much as the tune up but have no idea how to fix anything on them or why their bike six in general.
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+1
Davo said:I look at it this way… It is still a hell of a lot cheaper than having any sort of automotive work done.
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There has been a lot of talk about the demand for bike mechanic services. I want to comment a little bit on the supply as I think that's the real driver of the low wage situation.
I know that what I'm going to say will rub some people the wrong way. I want to say I don't mean any personal offense to anyone. These are just my opinions and I respect those who have other opinions. I personally think being a bike mechanic is an awesome job. From my experiences, bicycle mechanics are awesome people, and honestly I wish I could be one myself.
Bike mechanics have a skill set that is not particularly difficult to master. Aside from a set of speciality tools, there is little stopping the average teenager with no mechanical skills whatsoever from gaining the skills necessary to be a bike mechanic after a few weeks of training. The two major bicycle schools have complete professional-level programs that last one fortnight. Of course, being good and quick requires much practice but the knowledge is simply not deep enough to create any sort of serious barrier to new mechanics. The fact of the matter is bicycles (99%+ of them) are relatively simple machines. They are also something that many young (relatively low-earning) people are drawn to in large numbers. The combination of these circumstances creates a situation that guarantees bicycle mechanics earn minimum wage (or less).
The magic of the free market system (speaking economically, not politically) is it naturally rewards people for doing the work members of society need most and punishes those who do work members of society need least. Given the circumstances, a bicycle mechanic should not feel as though they are doing the world a favor with the work that they do. To the contrary, they should feel as though they are receiving a benefit from society by being able to do work that so many others would prefer to do even for minimum wage. The very fact that a bicycle mechanic can be employed during February in Chicago should be considered a tremendous fortune to that person as there are many others who desire that situation but are unable to have it.
There was talk earlier about grocery store workers earning more. Very few people dream of being grocery store workers or have a passion for loading soup cans onto aisle shelves. Those people are doing work that is not desirable and therefore deserve to earn (at least a little bit) more as a result.
I don't really agree with the idea that being a bicycle mechanic is an art form but I do agree that the it resembles the work characteristics of art. Artists however always have the opportunity to create something exceptionally new, unique, and/or powerful that might be rewarded greatly. Bicycle mechanics do not have this ability.
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@Doug specifically: I think it's time for you to move on. I know you say you love the work but the compensation is obviously wearing you out. It's not going to change. The vast majority of people don't hold on the way you're holding on. There are other places in the cycling industry to make better money and you should consider those. If you really want to keep wrenching, look for opportunities to share in profit (whether as an employee or owner). Perhaps there are opportunities in teaching or the design/branding of new parts you can explore. Maybe there is room for you in manufacturing, especially giving the rapidly declining advantage of Asian manufacturers recently. Regardless, working on a way to mix things up will be much more productive than sticking with the present situation. And it might help you sleep better at night. Just my 2 cents.
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