not for you techy minded folk, but lots of people still take their bikes to shops for repairs, moreso in the last year, and talking to people it is nigh on impossible to get anything done without a month waits.

so £10 per hour + parts for a mobile bike mechanic.



thoughts please.

Haven’t been to a shop in ages but your cost per hour sounds too low.
I worked in a shop part time at uni - 30years ago - and I’m pretty sure workshop labour was £15/hr then

That is seriously cheap at £10/hour

I'd expect more like £50/hour (obviously that will then pay towards rent/van/electricity/tax/insurance/buying tools etc)

Most bike mechanics in the trade will get a little bit more than minimal wage but the shop will charge more for the above reasons.

Edit - last shop I worked in offered a basic service for £42, this involved making sure the bike was safe/gear check/cable brake check and would take a mechanic about an hour to do - some took less and some not-so-looked-after bikes took longer, plus parts on top

Way too cheap I'd say. Even at £25 will you cover basic costs?

I would say that's a decent rate to charge Ton if you're doing it from an 'I really enjoy this' POV. I used to set my prices according to the Edinburgh Cycle Cooperative (so I wouldn't overcharge as I take alot longer repariring things/building wheels than most people) if thats of any help

Training.
Travel.
Liability insurance.

All have to be covered before you start making money. Then assume you've another 20% of your time just dealing with customers that isn't recorded against the hourly rate.

Possibly a more appropriate way to do it would be to charge a call-out rate and then whatever needs doing per job on top...

That's way too cheap Ton, double it and you will still be competitive. You also need to factor in that a high proportion of bikes will arrive covered in sh@ and unless you have a full and current toolkit, jobs will take longer than you anticipate/quote for.

it was just a thought of something to do a couple of days a week if i call it a day at my full time job.

as a serial bike builder for the last 20 or so years, i feel confident enough to tackle most things bike wise.
suspension problems may be a black area tho.

price wise £10 was just a thought as i have no idea what bike shops charge for labour.

i have a full park tool kit and stand, and a mobile jet wash.

When I do 'mobile cycle training' (well cycle rider training then although sometimes it'd be easier to teach the bike ) because I partly do it for fun/interaction/etc I tend to gloss over my time either side of their lesson, which isn't very businesslike . If they're ten miles away it'll take me say 45 mins each way on my bike but it's hard saying 'you need to pay me for that time too' but if you don't your 'rate' is suddenly halved! Add in packing stuff, bike prep, unpacking etc. Ie. beware of unpaid time..

Lot of people just want punctures fixed - 15 mins? £2.50 in your pocket at £10/hr? Hmm! Unless you can sell some extra jobs at same time? As someone else said - minimum callout charge?

Bikes are moving on though - could you fix an ebike or DI2 gears? A fixed price per job would be better than hourly rate - what if it took 3 hours to set up tubeless tyres or something?

Get qualified and suss out the market- can a bike shop use you for it’s overflow jobs? Local clubs etc - can they use you?

I’ve been thinking about this as a next step also, not convinced yet I could make a go of it. But it’s well worth thinking it through

if its for a hobby that makes money and they bring the bikes to you then fair enough otherwise its very very cheap for viable business- I would also want ot know my insurance covered the bikes for theft whilst at mine and I doubt that is cheap [factoring in if they drop off they know where you live and where the bike is but i may be just getting paranoid now]
I would consider £25 an hour cheap [ not that i ever use them]

Liability insurance is next to nothing, I just got quoted 350 p/a upto 10million van insurance is totally different, my quote was 1850 but that’s insuring tools upto 10000 , bike tooling doesn’t come anywhere near that even if you have a full set of park ,the other thing to look at Tony is when things go wrong and they do with anything with moving parts you have to put them right at your own expense, it’s been quoted that I’m one of the best in the country( not by me but by customers who’ve insisted it’s only me who repairs their kit) at the lifting gear I repair but I can only charge out at £35 p/h and that’s on £90000 worth of equipment. Look at the market rates build your name up and then you can charge a reasonable rate, don’t start too low as people will think your a fly by night bodger