Wheelbuilding - how cheap is too cheap?

[beardedwarbler]

Morning all,

I need to get some wheels rebuilt, I have the rims and hubs but decided to leave the lacing up to a pro.

Have quotes ranging from £70 to >£300, from some searching the former is really what I might have expected > 10 years ago, and for a rim brake build, rather than a disc brake build, which I imagine is slightly trickier to do right. The cheapest builder is also the most local however, which would be nice as it means I can skip courier fees.

Is it a case of "if it works it works", or am I going to get issues down the line that a more expensive builder would avoid? I can give the name of the cheapest builder if necessary.

Cheers

 

[fossyant]

If it works, it works. They aren't hard to do just take a little time, but a pro will build quickly. I'd go local as you aren't posting parts.

 

[Cycleops]

Guess I'm lucky, I give my local guy here about £3.50 (1) and he's very good.
£300 has got to be a joke, isn't it?

 

[All uphill]

£300 is not a bad rate of pay for a couple of hours work!

 

[Drago]

I typically charge about 200 an hour for playing with the band. £300 for a few hours work for a skilled artisan really is good value.

 

[Ajax Bay]

If you've seen and admired a wheelset the local person has built, then going local seems sensible.
£80 is around what I'd expect my LBS (who built one for me a while ago and I go in to use their trueing stand when I've got mine as good as) to charge, plus the cost of spokes/nipples/rim tape of course.

 

[wafter]

Other than having rebuilt a couple myself I have zero experience here, however to justify the low-end quote; a couple of hours at £35/hr for skilled but niche manual labour sounds reasonable..?

Took me forever to do mine; but then of course I don't know what I'm doing

 

[OldShep]

I've built 3 wheels in the last 15 yrs takes me a couple of hours. I’d expect someone, with all the right equipment, doing it all the time to do a good job in a lot less time than me.
£70 seems reasonable.
£300 I cant see how it’s value.

 

[Drago]

Show me another trained, skilled artisan, or indeed any other professional in their own field, that charges much under 150 and hour for their time. I can see nomreason by a skilled wheel builders time is worth any less.

I wouldn't participate in a race to the bottom for something like that although, in fairness, a good friend of mine is a wheelbuilder (he owns a Giant dealership) and does mine for me for free on an as and when basis. I always see he hpgets well watered and fed for his efforts, but he doesn't actually charge me.

 

[berty bassett]

Show me another trained, skilled artisan, or indeed any other professional in their own field, that charges much under 150 and hour for their time. I can see nomreason by a skilled wheel builders time is worth any less.

I wouldn't participate in a race to the bottom for something like that although, in fairness, a good friend of mine is a wheelbuilder (he owns a Giant dealership) and does mine for me for free on an as and when basis. I always see he hpgets well watered and fed for his efforts, but he doesn't actually charge me.

Are you talking pounds sterling or rupees ? £150 an hr x 8 =£1,200 a day
And you think that is value for money ?
What colour is the sky on your planet ?
Is not a building worker of any kind , skilled ? If you said I want 6k a week to work I doubt very much you would get many people bite your hand off !

 

[berty bassett]

I typically charge about 200 an hour for playing with the band. £300 for a few hours work for a skilled artisan really is good value.

What’s your real name ? Bono ?

 

[Drago]

I wish. We don't have roadies or groupies.

 

[Drago]

Are you talking pounds sterling or rupees ? £150 an hr x 8 =£1,200 a day
And you think that is value for money ?
What colour is the sky on your planet ?
Is not a building worker of any kind , skilled ? If you said I want 6k a week to work I doubt very much you would get many people bite your hand off !

What do you think is the going rate for a skilled or highly qualified person?

Unskilled warehouse spodes are doing £20+ and hour round here, nearer £30 at places like Coca Cola. A skilled or highly qualified person is unlikely to work for less than seferal multiples of that.

As aforementioned, I charge £200 an hour as a mukti-instrumentalist musician. The only time I play for less is an annual gig for charity at a nearby village. That'd be 2 grand a day for session work or at the west end on show, a "day" being probably 5 or 6 hours if I wanted an actual job. I'm good but I'm nothing special, and I'm age-in-grade, yet still command the numbers.

Don't judge the rest of the world by wage slave rates, because once you move outside of the 9 to 5 clock-punching circles the world is a very, very different place.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Many LBS are ridiculously cheap for some of the prices they charge. Not sure how they stay in business. Build my own wheels, and thus can’t say what the going rate is. It might be worth looking at SPA or SJS to see how much they charge for a wheel build.

 

[All uphill]

There's a big difference between doing something like wheelbuilding as a hobby or to help friends out and doing it professionally.

I would build a wheelset for a neighbour for £70, but if I needed storage, marketing, insurance, deal with non-payers, guarantee claims, disputes etc I can easily see costs piling up.