Workshop

Every price we charge, printed before you ask

Labour only unless it says otherwise. Parts are on top and we tell you the figure before we fit them. Any make, any age, bought here or anywhere else.

Book the bench

Services

The three levels, side by side

Most bicycles need the middle one once a year. Ridden daily through a winter, twice.

What is included	Adjustment00	Standard service00	Strip and rebuildFrom 00
Price	00	00	From 00
In the shop	Same day, often while you wait	Two working days	Five to ten working days
Gears and brakes	Whichever one is misbehaving	All of them, set up from scratch	Removed, cleaned, refitted, set up
Bearings	Checked by hand, not opened	Checked and adjusted, hubs and headset	All opened, regreased or replaced
Wheels	Spun, not trued	Trued and tensioned in the frame	Off the bicycle, trued and retensioned
Drivetrain	Chain measured	Cleaned, measured, relubricated	Degreased off the frame, chain renewed
Cables and housing	Adjusted, not replaced	Adjusted; replacement quoted	All replaced as standard
Written report	Spoken, not written	Yes, with what can wait	Yes, itemised, with the old parts
	Bring it in	Book a service	Ask for a date

Prices are labour. Cables, chains, blocks, pads, bearings and fluid are extra and are quoted before anything is fitted. If we open something and find a bigger job inside, the bicycle goes down and you get a telephone call, never a larger invoice.

Single jobs

The full price list

Labour for one job on its own. Anything on this list done during a service costs less, because the bicycle is already apart.

Puncture repair
00
Tube replaced, tyre read from the inside, rim tape checked, wheel refitted and the brake reset. We keep whatever caused it and show you.
- Tube extra
- While you wait
- Second tube in the same tyre, half price
Gear set-up, one end
00
Indexing, limits, hanger checked for straightness. If the hanger is bent the price is the same and the hanger is extra.
- Front or rear
- Both ends together, 00
Brake set-up, one wheel
00
Pads aligned, cable tension set, lever reach adjusted. Rim or mechanical disc.
- Pads or blocks extra
Hydraulic brake bleed, one lever
00
Fluid replaced, lever bled, bite point set where you want it. Sold per lever because one is usually fine.
- Fluid included
- Both levers, 00
Cable and housing, one run
00
Inner and outer replaced, ends sealed, routed properly rather than pulled through. Internally routed frames are the same price and take longer.
- Cable and housing included
Chain and cassette fitted
00
Measured first. A chain caught before it stretches saves the cassette, which is most of the cost, so ask us to measure it at any time for nothing.
- Parts extra
- Measurement free, any time
Bottom bracket replaced
From 00
Threaded shells at the lower price. Press-fit shells cost more because they take longer and sometimes need facing.
- Threaded, 00
- Press-fit, from 00
- Bracket extra
Headset serviced or replaced
From 00
Bearings out, races inspected, regreased or renewed. The cheapest job on this list that prevents the most expensive one.
- Service, 00
- Replacement, from 00
Wheel trued in the stand
00
Lateral and radial, tension evened out across the wheel. If more than three spokes are loose it wants retensioning instead, which we will say.
- Per wheel
- Retension, 00
Spoke replaced
00
Cut to length here and the wheel retrued around it. Cassette removal included, which most places charge for separately.
- First spoke 00, each after 00
- Spoke included
Wheel built by hand
From 00
Laced, tensioned, stress-relieved, dished, ridden round the block and checked again. About two hours a wheel and you get the tension readings on paper.
- Per wheel, labour only
- Hub, rim, spokes extra
- Your own hub welcome
- One free retrue at six weeks
Tubeless conversion or reseal
00
Tape, valves, sealant and a proper seating. Per wheel. We will tell you if your rim is not worth converting.
- Sealant and tape included
- Tyres extra
Hub gear service
From 00
Internally geared hubs opened, cleaned, regreased and reshimmed. Not every shop will; we will, on any hub we can still get parts for.
- Three to ten working days
- Parts extra
Electric bicycle diagnostic
00
Motor, battery health, wiring and sensors read and explained in plain words. Deducted from the repair if you have the work done here.
- Refunded against the repair
- Mid-drive systems only
Boxing for travel
00
Packed properly into a box with the bar, pedals and derailleur protected, and a printed sheet on how to put it back together at the other end.
- Box extra
- Rebuild on return, 00
Look at it on the stand
No charge
No appointment, no obligation, no limit on how often. We will tell you what it needs, what it does not, and whether any of it is urgent.
- Any make
- Bought anywhere

Two standing rules. Nothing over 00 is done without a telephone call first, whatever you agreed when you dropped it off. And if a job takes us less time than we quoted, the invoice is smaller than the quote; it is never larger.

Turnaround

How long you will be without it

The book runs about three days ahead. These are the times we actually hit, not the ones we would like to.

Same day: Punctures and adjustmentsIn before eleven, out by closing. Usually much sooner.
2 days: Standard serviceIn on a Tuesday, back on the Thursday. Longer if a part has to come.
2 hours: A wheel on the benchPer wheel, built from scratch. Booked in, not queued behind services.
5-10 days: Strip and rebuildIt sits apart on a shelf between stages, so we are honest about the calendar.

Plain advice

When a repair is not worth doing

We turn work away every week, and we would rather do it at the counter than after you have paid for it. None of what follows is a rule. It is how we think about it when the bicycle is in front of us.

The arithmetic we do out loud

A repair is worth doing when the money buys you years. It stops being worth doing when the money buys you months, or when it buys you a bicycle you still do not want to ride. So we put the figures next to each other before anything comes apart.

Job                          Labour   Parts    What it buys
Chain, caught in time            00      00    A cassette you do not replace
Chain, caught too late           00      00    Chain and cassette together
Hub bearings regreased           00       0    Two or three winters
Hub replaced                     00      00    The life of the wheel
Rear wheel rebuilt on old hub    00      00    Only as long as the hub lasts
New rear wheel                    0      00    Everything new, often less money

That last pair is the one people argue with, and it is the one we are most often right about.

Four times we will tell you to stop

The repair costs more than half of a replacement that is better. A 00 fork on a bicycle worth 00 is money spent to keep something you were already thinking of changing.
The frame is the problem. A cracked weld, a dented down tube, a seized seatpost that will not come out with heat and patience, a bent rear triangle. Everything bolted to a bad frame is worth more than the frame is.
The parts are gone. Some hubs, some ten-year-old electric systems and a good deal of early hydraulic equipment simply cannot be bought any more. We will not fit a bodge and call it a repair.
Rust has gone past the surface. Orange on the chainstays is nothing. Flaking from inside the tube, or a chainring that leaves brown on your thumb, means the bicycle has been wet inside for years and everything on it is near the end at once.

Four times it is worth much more than it looks

A good steel frame with a tired everything else. Frames do not wear out. A strip and rebuild on a frame that fits you properly is the cheapest new bicycle anybody will ever offer you.
Hub bearings that have started to feel rough. Caught now, it is a service. Caught in six months, the races are pitted and it is a hub.
A hand-built wheel with a broken spoke. That is a job of minutes, not a reason to buy a wheel. Factory wheels with proprietary spokes are the opposite and we will say so.
Anything that stops you riding it. A seat that is too high, a brake lever you cannot reach, a bar at the wrong angle. Half an hour of fitting outperforms every part on this page.

What we do when we say no

We put it on the stand, tell you what is wrong, write down the figures and charge nothing for the conversation. If it is worth selling for parts we will say what it is worth. If the answer is a different bicycle, we will say that too, and if the one you need is not on our floor we will tell you where to go and buy it.

The bench