Is £30 to put 2 sides of bicycle brakes a rip off?

[Fuutarou]

Hello everyone, my Viking VX750's front and back brakes does not stop my bicycle when I press the front and back brakes for 1 - 2 months.
1 week ago, I brought it to Cycle King shop and the staff told me the price for the front and back brake are £26. I just called my local bicycle shop this morning for a quote to put cables for my front and back brake. He told me 1 cable is £5.99. If he does it, it's £30 and if he gives the cable to me and I do it, it's £12. I want to bring my bicycle to Cycle King to do it since they charge £26 but my few problems are I have to leave the bicycle at their shop and can collect it 2 days after. If I leave it in the shop, I can't travel back to my house and travel to Cycle King on the due day to collect it. The local bicycle shop is just 23 minutes walk from my house to the shop and vice versa. So I can leave the bicycle there and collect it any day later easily. But I don't want to pay for the price if it's a rip off(Although I would consider paying £2 or £3 extra if I can easily leave it at a shop, get the brake cables repaired and collect it) and the owner told me he needs to see the bicycle, the price may be more than £30. I appreciate if anyone can give me advice for my bicycle problem.

 

[fossyant]

Seems reasonable. Cable price is OK, labour OK.

 

[DCLane]

Seems a fair price. Why not get some cables and learn yourself? That'd cost £5-10.

 

[Fuutarou]

Is £26 at Cycle King considered reasonable, cable price OK and Labour OK too? I am dubious of my local bicycle shop as I see one bad review on the shop which says "£6 for a mountain bike brake cable(and he still owes them £1.10 cause he only had £4.90 in his pocket!). It was his first time he bought something there and he guess that's also the last one too. Halfords sells the same item for £1.79, he would have expected to pay roughly double in an independent shop not more than triple. NOT RECOMMENDED.".

 

[Fuutarou]

I consider that choice too but I don't know how to do it myself, I am not good at cycling handiwork myself, I don't have much time to learn, make mistakes, solve mistakes and complete everything because I am very busy everyday and I am afraid if I learn and do it myself by watching Youtube DIY bicycle videos, I might make do some things wrong. It's a different story if I have a friend or someone who is smart with bicycles and can and has time to personally teach me to put bicycle brake cables 1-1.

 

[bikingdad90]

Are you saying you need new cables or new brake blocks or new brake calipers or a combination of them all? It’s a bit hard to say is £26/£30 ok without knowing what you want doing?
I

 

[fossyant]

You could do it yourself a little cheaper. Googling the bike it's got v brakes. You ideally need to change the inner and outer, but you'll need cable cutters. It depends whether the shop replace both.

Don't forget, he needs to earn a living wage, so say £12-£15 an hour. Add on overheads for his tools, heat/light, holding stock etc, then labour will be £25 an hour or more.

If you do it yourself you will need cutters and they aren't cheap for a good pair - say £15. Inners and outers will cost you another £12 minimum, then you have your time, googling how to do it, checking pads are aligned.

It won't be initially cheaper to do yourself, due to tools, but if you want to learn, go for it. Your pads may also be shot, so possibly expect a cost for that too.

 

[Fuutarou]

Are you saying you need new cables or new brake blocks or new brake calipers or a combination of them all? It’s a bit hard to say is £26/£30 ok without knowing what you want doing?
I

I need new cables for my front and back bicycle brakes.

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

Seems reasonable if the guy is doing the work. He has to earn a living and pay his overheads.
Cable price seems OK. If you don't want to pay the guy for his time and effort then do it yourself. You may have to buy some tools and you may mess up one set of cables.
Nobody works for free. Lots of folk have the idea that bike maintenance is cheap, and by that they mean free. It isn't like that in the real world.

 

[figbat]

I'd say, if I interpreted it correctly, it all sounds reasonable. The bike shop has to survive by making more money than they spend. They therefore charge you more for parts than they bought them for. They also have to pay their staff, pay for their premises and ongoing costs of business - this is what you are paying for when you pay for their services.

However, my choice (and the choice of many here) would be to buy the parts from the LBS and do it yourself. Plenty of help is available on YouTube and from here and by learning how it all goes together you may be able to help yourself one day when there is no LBS nearby.

 

[Fuutarou]

You could do it yourself a little cheaper. Googling the bike it's got v brakes. You ideally need to change the inner and outer, but you'll need cable cutters. It depends whether the shop replace both.

Don't forget, he needs to earn a living wage, so say £12-£15 an hour. Add on overheads for his tools, heat/light, holding stock etc, then labour will be £25 an hour or more.

If you do it yourself you will need cutters and they aren't cheap for a good pair - say £15. Inners and outers will cost you another £12 minimum, then you have your time, googling how to do it, checking pads are aligned.

It won't be initially cheaper to do yourself, due to tools, but if you want to learn, go for it. Your pads may also be shot, so possibly expect a cost for that too.

Yeah the owner asked me if I want to change inner or outer and I did not know what he was talking about at that time so I just answered "I am not sure". So normally bicycle shops charge people £24 - £30 to put cables on a bicycle front and back brake and this is a normal price range?

Inner and outer brake cables? Brake pads? How are they shot?(I am an intermeditte in bicycles)

 

[fossyant]

LBS is Local Bike shop, for the original poster.

 

[Chris S]

Is £26 at Cycle King considered reasonable, cable price OK and Labour OK too? I am dubious of my local bicycle shop as I see one bad review on the shop which says "£6 for a mountain bike brake cable(and he still owes them £1.10 cause he only had £4.90 in his pocket!). It was his first time he bought something there and he guess that's also the last one too. Halfords sells the same item for £1.79, he would have expected to pay roughly double in an independent shop not more than triple. NOT RECOMMENDED.".

Halfords charge £7.50 for a brake cable.
https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bi...-universal-brake-cable-front/rear-239566.html
WTF is he on about?

 

[fossyant]

Yeah the owner asked me if I want to change inner or outer and I did not know what he was talking about at that time so I just answered "I am not sure". So normally bicycle shops charge people £24 - £30 to put cables on a bicycle front and back brake and this is a normal price range?

Inner and outer brake cables? Brake pads? How are they shot?(I am an intermeditte in bicycles)

Brake pads being shot means worn out ?

Why doesn't your bike stop ? - do the brakes pull OK to the rim. Are the pads level with the rim ? Do the brake levers pull smoothly, or are they stiff.

Have you also tried giving the rims (of the wheel) and the pads a good scrub with washing up liquid in soapy water ?

 

[Fuutarou]

I'd say, if I interpreted it correctly, it all sounds reasonable. The bike shop has to survive by making more money than they spend. They therefore charge you more for parts than they bought them for. They also have to pay their staff, pay for their premises and ongoing costs of business - this is what you are paying for when you pay for their services.

However, my choice (and the choice of many here) would be to buy the parts from the LBS and do it yourself. Plenty of help is available on YouTube and from here and by learning how it all goes together you may be able to help yourself one day when there is no LBS nearby

Good, helpful and polite reply. Thank you. Considering buying all the parts and tools I need for a first time DIY bicycle beginner, how much would that cost and how much time would be require to learn and complete putting new cables for a mountain bicycle brakes?