[rideronthestorm]

Hi, I was just wondering how much does your local bike store cost to put a bike together. I know that most if not all bike stores put it together for free if you buy the frame and parts from them. I got a quote of $60 an hour to put a bike together and they said it would take about 4 hours. I was wondering if that was a bit steep even if bought a $3500 frame from them.

R

 

[scooter916]

We charge $180 to build from the frame up (including chasing facing BB, facing Head tube, and cutting steerer tube) thats our pro build,

we build boxed bikes for our basic tune up price of $65.

if you buy a frame and all your parts through us we will usually work with you on a better price, if you bring in your frame with a box full of parts form the Bay, or mail oreder than we charge more

we don't build for free since we normally work out a better deal on parts if your building your dream bike through us, we do have to pay our mechanic to build it and to do a good job and pay attention to all the details it takes a few hours (3-6hrs depending on complexity of the build)

hope this helps

 

[eatdrinkride]

Wow. Where I live there are many bike shops and if the msrp on a high end bike is $2900 then that is the most you could expect to pay for it. In fact when buying a expensive bike at full msrp I'd expect a few perks thrown in like a saddle I prefer, proper length stem maybe some goodies like a pair of gloves or something, not that that's a given but.......I'd walk out on a lbs in my area who wanted to charge to put together an expensive bike. To me that's like agreeing to buy a car and then the dealership asks for money to put it together (not a good analogy I suppose.) Small markets or big chain bike shops may have a different opinion on this.

 

[G_Blanco]

We need more details......did you buy the parts there also? If not $3500 is still a lot of money and I am willing to bet they made a lot of $$ off you already. Did they offer you a tune up package or anything else like that?

 

[TLL]

I know of a couple of shops that will do a high end build gratis if you buy frame and all parts (including wheels) from them, but we are talking $4K to $5K builds.

Most around here charge a minimum of $150 for a custom.

 

[themanmonkey]

$60/hr is standard shop rate these days. The last shop I managed did a ton of custom builds 4-5 a week and if you bought everything from us it was free, but if you brought everything in in a box you got the shop hourly rate. Buy 50% of the stuff from us and you got a discount on the labor. Custom builds prices also fluctuate a bit with the relationship with the shop sometimes too.

 

[tomsmoto]

how on earth is it taking a "pro" 4-6 hours to assemble a bicycle? i can toss together a bike in under an hour, and rebuild and retension a wheel in another hour. 3 hours tops for a ground up build, with a full retension of both wheels. theres not that many parts on a bike..

 

[Ken in KC]

Really!

how on earth is it taking a "pro" 4-6 hours to assemble a bicycle? i can toss together a bike in under an hour, and rebuild and retension a wheel in another hour. 3 hours tops for a ground up build, with a full retension of both wheels. theres not that many parts on a bike..

If I'm spending $4,000 on my dream bike, I want the mechanic to put it together as fast as possible! Facing the headtube and BB shell? No Way! Setting up and bleeding the brakes properly? Balderdash! Getting cables stretched and tuned perfectly? Forget it!

Would you really quibble over an extra hour or two on a custom build and expect the shop to build it as fast as possible? Or would you want to buy a 6er of really good beer and a decent dinner for the mechanic, agree to pay the shop rate and ask him to put the bike together after the shop closes and hang out with him while you both put your dream bike together?

 

[CougarTrek]

My shop charges $200 for the pro build (as above that is all inclusive ie: frame prep, clean parts if they are used, etc)

With purchase of the frame ($2000 Yeti) from them and hauling in craigslist and internet shop finds for parts they charged me $90.

"build-from-box" type builds I've been charged ~$60 each time.

 

[tomsmoto]

thats not as fast as possible.. have you ever chased and faced something? its not a huge task. theres just not many parts on a bicycle. if an amateur can do it in 3 hours, whats the pro doing to take twice as long?

thats 240 bucks for a bike assembly. the other guy quoted up to 360. if they wanted 200, hey thats fair. they're bs'ing you telling you its 6 hours though.

 

[rufusdesign]

thats not as fast as possible.. have you ever chased and faced something? its not a huge task. theres just not many parts on a bicycle. if an amateur can do it in 3 hours, whats the pro doing to take twice as long?

thats 240 bucks for a bike assembly. the other guy quoted up to 360. if they wanted 200, hey thats fair. they're bs'ing you telling you its 6 hours though.

It is giving the mechanic a few extra hours just in case a problem arises. They aren't going to tell you 3 hours knowing that there may be a few snags. It is the extra little wiggle room so that when you do come back to pick up your bike it is waiting for you nicely built and ready.
I tell most of my customers that turnaround time for decals is one week. It usually takes a day or two and I let the customer know that and when they are ready but it gives me extra time in case I have a problem or need to order more supplies.
That is a more than reasonable fee and time.
If you do not like the time and prices then sit down and learn how to build a bike yourself, you will get a little more enjoyment out of it.
I have built all of my bike from road bikes to full on DH race bikes for years now. It helps me when I am in the pits and I have a problem and the feeling that you get when you stand back and look at your new bike fully built by yourself.

 

[Ken in KC]

You're correct...

thats not as fast as possible.. have you ever chased and faced something? its not a huge task. theres just not many parts on a bicycle. if an amateur can do it in 3 hours, whats the pro doing to take twice as long?

thats 240 bucks for a bike assembly. the other guy quoted up to 360. if they wanted 200, hey thats fair. they're bs'ing you telling you its 6 hours though.

You should always over promise and under deliver....

 

[rideronthestorm]

The frame is a Titus X Exo, I've already acquired all the parts for it none from the bike shop. It's not a large store but it is a boutique and since I don't go there much it's not a place where I could be considered a regular. I've put many a bike together but this will be special and I can't decide on whether to build it myself and have the satisfaction knowing it was all me or should I be cautious and have the LBS build it.

 

[themanmonkey]

thats not as fast as possible.. have you ever chased and faced something? its not a huge task. theres just not many parts on a bicycle. if an amateur can do it in 3 hours, whats the pro doing to take twice as long?

I know I'm not the one this is meant for, but I'll answer the question anyway. Just so you know I've been a pro wrench for over 20 years and have kept in-depth notes at various times just to figure out shop rates and scheduling. A full build from bare frame and pile of parts can take anywhere from 2.5 hours to 6 hours depending. The short time is for a road bike with pre-build wheels, the long time is for a FS MTB with hand-built wheels and custom sus tuning. Everything else falls somewhere in between.

Prepping a frame which includes milling the hadtube, chasing and facing the BB, and lubing all bolts and pivots and installing a HS and BB is itself about an hour. It may not be a "huge task" but to do it correctly still takes time. Like many things you can just hack it through or you can take your time to do right. It's not that it can't be done quicker, but there are many other things that happen beyond running a set of taps through the shell.
'Fast, cheap, good. . . pick two.'

 

[mrm1]

how on earth is it taking a "pro" 4-6 hours to assemble a bicycle? i can toss together a bike in under an hour, and rebuild and retension a wheel in another hour. 3 hours tops for a ground up build, with a full retension of both wheels. theres not that many parts on a bike..

Are you referring to a "Box-Bike" or build up from the Frame? I think the OP is pricing out a build up from the Frame specing each part to his liking.

 

[Lord Humongous]

Time's up

I have to say that Tomsmoto has a point to a certain degree. For a complete out of box build where I strip the bike down to a frame and headset cups and then reassemble with appropriate grease and threadlock compound, de - stress, tension and true the wheels, grease the hubs and lube the freehub, seat the cables and housing, adjust the shifting, and adjust the brakes it takes me around 90 minutes unless there is something grossly wrong with a part of the bike.

To compare that to a complete assembly from separate parts that include assembled wheels and bled brakes, it isn't unreasonable to suggest an extra 15-30 minutes to chase and face the frame, press the headset and cut cables. This gives me an estimate of around 105-120 minutes to assemble a bike from scratch. (Some might suggest that there is no disassembly involved in the complete build so I should cut some time from that estimate to compensate, but I find the gross volume of packaging takes its toll on the time clock in a similar fashion.)

If the build involves unbled brakes there is another 30-60 minutes to run lines and bleed the brakes. If there are wheels to assemble from spokes, hubs and rims there is another 60 minutes per wheel. If it is a full suspension frame that I am unfamiliar with I will spend an extra 15-30 minutes with the shock off testing cable routing for the rear derailleur to minimize ghost shifting. If something is not functioning properly and it has been supplied by my shop then I won't charge for any extra time I spend but, if the customer has purchased it elsewhere I will contact them to let them know it is not working and give them the option of paying me to fix it or returning it to the point of purchase. This may not end up increasing the billed time, but it can dramatically impact the delivery time. These factors can quickly increase a two hour build to five hours.

As a general rule the shops that I have worked at have provided a tentative 3 hour build estimate unless there are wheels to build in which case the estimate would be 5 hours. This gives some time to test ride the bike, double check critical fasteners with a torque wrench, and also provides an opportunity to say, "your bike went together beautifully so we only have to charge you for two hours" instead of saying "Your bike was horrible, it took an extra two hours to build."

 

[Thor29]

The frame is a Titus X Exo, I've already acquired all the parts for it none from the bike shop. It's not a large store but it is a boutique and since I don't go there much it's not a place where I could be considered a regular. I've put many a bike together but this will be special and I can't decide on whether to build it myself and have the satisfaction knowing it was all me or should I be cautious and have the LBS build it.

In that case, they are quoting a totally fair price. 4 hours at $60 per hour is extremely reasonable. I wouldn't expect any bike shop to quote less than that unless you are buying the parts through them.

 

[JmZ]

I was quoted the full tune-up/rebuild price at the local shop - $250.

But since it's a bit slow this winter so they're running a $125 full tune-up/rebuild. Thinking of taking them up on that later this winter.

JmZ

 

[jeffgothro]

What I'm wondering is...your building a 3.5k bike, you obviously got some serious bucks to spend, why are you worried about a couple more hundred bucks for the build?

 

[CupOfJava]

Where do you live? I'll do yours for $100

Man, bike frames now a days don't need all that prep.. that's a bunch of hooey.

It takes 1 hour to put the bike together if you're not building the wheels. If it were me I'd want an itemization of the work they plan to do.