Why are small bike bits so expensive?

[gbb]

This should become the 'CycleChat Thrift Thread'.

Not wanting to pay a mere £24.50 for a C-spanner (flimsy stamped metal spanner-shaped object). I took a drill and file to the never-used headset spanner from my Lidl took kit. 20 minutes, and a lot of sweating later - I had my own C-spanner

Surprising what you can turn out...
Cone spanners...just get a normal spanner and use a grinder with a sanding disc to reduce its thickness. I've brought very good quality spanners off the carboot for maybe 20p each, then reduced the thickness...infinately stronger than 99% of the dedicated stuff you'd buy.

Chain whip...length of mild steel bar, drilled in a couple of places to mount a used section of chain. Pretty it isnt, effective it definately is. Cost ?...virtually nothing

 

[661-Pete]

I'll tell you one that really narks me.

Cable end caps. You know, those things you crimp on the end of your cable to stop it fraying.

I just looked on Halfords, and, OK, they won't break the bank, 99p for a pack of 10. But why do you have to buy them separately? Why can't they throw one in when you buy a cable. After all, they know you're going to need one. Or are they hoping that people will forget to put one on, the cable will fray, and therefore they get to sell more cables???

Incidentally I have a dodge. I once 'salvaged' a bag of crimp-on spade tags from work, used in electrical wiring. Snip off the spade bit and you have a ready-made end cap.

 

[buggi]

It is, in my humble opinion, a license to print money.

I give you an example that left me almost apopleptic with rage!

I used to have a Nissan Primera Turbo back in the late 90's. One day, the starter motor went kaput, so I ordered another one. It cost about £20, no biggie, so I was happy to wait for it to arrive.

The starter motor on the Primera is underneath the engine block, so I spent ages getting the front of the car up on a set of ramps that my mate lent me, then I wiggled my way underneath the car with a socket set and a torch, only to find that the bolts holding the starter motor in had weird, asymmetrical heads on them.

I wiggled back out from under the car, and phoned the local Nissan dealer and explained the problem. They said, "Oh, yes, you need a special Nissan tool to take those bolts out. We have them here if you'd like to buy one". Then he dropped the bombshell ... "You can't buy the tools separately, you have to buy the whole kit, and it costs ...

...

...

£400!!!!!!!!!!!

It turns out that it was cheaper for me to book it in with the nissan place and have them do it, rather than buy the tool and do it myself, all for the sake of a few bolts that had been deliberately made to stop you from doing a cheap, quick DIY job.

I was absolutely f***ing livid ....

Same with the StreetKa. Replacing a bulb in the tail light should be easy peasy right? Wrong. After unscrewing the unit and not being able to remove it, i turned the instructions. I'd done everything it said so after an hour of faffing around i took it to Kwik Fit. They don't do them, because the unit is too hard to remove. Go to my dad's. After an hour of faffing around again, he just gets frustrated and yanks it off. Underneath is a clip (which broke when he pulled it).

The manual said nothing about the clip and the clip only served one purpose. To make you take the damn thing into the dealership where i'm sure, it doesn't take much to work out, that they probably have a special tool that they slip under the unit to push it to one side. And will charge the earth for their labour. It said nothing about the clip in the manual.

Changed the light bulb and replaced the unit doing it up with the screws that were detailed in the manual. Perfectly ok, for keeping it on. Clip not needed. yanked off the other side too and replaced that bulb as well.