Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Topic started by: Torslanda on 20 May, 2008, 10:38:09 pm
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So. I find myself in the job market. AGAIN FFS!
I need to get back in harness quickly but there's no harm in some idle speculation.
What would you think of a mobile cycle repair service?
J
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Someone on C+/ACF tried it in Edinburgh I recall. Went bust after about 6 months. :-\
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I've used a mobile bike repair service intermittently for the last 15 years or so.
It is a great blessing to the car-free gal.
I should imagine you need to be near a centre of population and be prepred to spend quite a bit publicising your service.
Where do you live?
Do you have a van?
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Works for Francis Thurmer in the Bucks area, but he also has a static shop and a specialist line in hard to find components.
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Do you mean like this? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxfzm9dfqBw)
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I used one when I worked in Stevenage, it was useful as the only bike shop of any use (in fact the only bike shop full stop) there was a long way from work. If you have the know how and there is a lack of shops in your area then go for it.
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There's one in
Barad-Dur Swindon, but I think it's an offshoot of Mitchells Cycles.
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There's a guy in the village doing this as a sideline to his day job. I've bought some bits (and borrowed a chainwhip) from him recently, but he's had very little custom :'(
N
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By mobile do you mean being called out to people needing help AA/RAC style? Or setting up stand somewhere at regular intervals? In Oxford OCW are paid by the university to run a "Bike Doctor" clinic at various locations around the uni. The university pays for labour, you just pay for any parts.
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Someone on C+/ACF tried it in Edinburgh I recall. Went bust after about 6 months. :-\
Yebbut he was a frickin' idiot who would probably have managed to go bust selling water in the desert. ::-)
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Works for Francis Thurmer in the Bucks area, but he also has a static shop and a specialist line in hard to find components.
Hard-to-find. (http://www.cyclesplus.co.uk/)
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This was the guy I used in Stevenage:
Bicycle SOS{/url] (http://www.bicycle-sos.co.uk/)
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Yebbut he was a frickin' idiot who would probably have managed to go bust selling water in the desert.
I made the following points to him and got a load of abuse back....
1) People don't want to pay for bike repairs, they don't value them. After all, you can get a new one for £100 from Halfords. People with a decent bike can probably do the basic repairs themselves.
2) What do you reckon you could charge for fixing a puncture? After riding to the site, fixing it and riding home again...you're probably looking at 1+ hours. Minimum wage is nearly £6 an hour....you might get that, I think a tenner would be tough to get.
3) Most of the time you'll be doing nothing - big void periods.
4) Unless you hook into offices, then you'll be doing most of the work in the evenings and weekends. Offices might be a flyer - find the local BUG person and offer your services to the office bike park. If you can get 2 or 3 jobs in the same location, the economics starts to add up.
5) Insurance and overheads will be annoyingly expensive.
6) You've got no upsell. If you do a brilliant job, then the best you can hope for is repeat business. If you're attached to a bike shop then it is useful as a way to persuade the punter to buy accessories or bikes off them.
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I think Rae's got some very good points. Unless you hook up with some local offices or clubs, you're never going to get it off the ground.
A very large pharmaceuticals firm near here has a BUG that would make most commuters green with envy. Apparently, they have a mobile repair guy show up every week who offers heavily subsidized bike maintenance. That's the sort of gig you're going to need, but maybe with schools, universities or other places with lots of regular commuters.
When it comes to repairing anything, bikes included, most people want a bargain. You need to avoid being a repair man and instead, be a maintainer and an improver of bicycles. This is what people will pay for.
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I wonder if there's an opening for a "fixie conversion" service. As well as charging the fashion-afflicted to sort out all their irritating chainline problems, you can make a neat sideline from flogging all the old mechs and stuff on the Bay ;D
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There used to be a business around here somewhere which did PCs and bikes (bytes and bikes?)- the guy would come around and fix your computer, your bike, or both. No idea if he's still in business, just posting as an example- you might be able to combine it with something else.
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Like I said, idle speculation . . .
The real problem is cashflow, speaking of which if I can't bank a wage for the end of June I might well be in the clartes.
Does anyone know of a bikeshop position around the Manchester area? 'Cos I really don't want to go back into the car parts game unless I really have to.
luv'n'stuff
J
PS What's it like to work at B*keH*t?
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Works for Francis Thurmer in the Bucks area, but he also has a static shop and a specialist line in hard to find components.
Hard-to-find. (http://www.cyclesplus.co.uk/)
Francis is long-established and spends some days in London and some in Reading AFAIK.
He also attends events such as Mildenhall.
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Can I be your first customer, torslanda - I've buggered up me gears :-[
I think there may be one in my area, though, I sometimes see their van on my way into work (East Yorkshire).
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There's a company in Oxford who do mobile repairs - Back on Trax (http://www.backontrax.co.uk/).
They've been around for at least 4 years and the website gets bigger everytime I look (though that's not very often). What was said above about service days/office BUGs seems to apply to them. They also sell bikes & parts.
Oxford does have a huge population of cyclists, mostly students but with a reasonable proportion of working-commuters and well-off people who just cycle.
Dave
PS I don't recommend the service - they replaced canti brake levers with V-brake levers on a friends bike (4 years ago...)
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I considered a similar scheme during my three year "rest" between jobs. Even went on a "starting a new business" course at the local Business Link organisation. Glad I did, too. Armed with my new knowledge I did all the research, even drafted a business plan. Rae's right. It might be ok for a second pin-money job but I decided that it's a non-starter as a main job for all the reasons rae states. I quickly learned why plumbers charge £55 an hour - simple economics. People might stump up that kind of cash to get a dripping tap fixed, but no-one's going to pay that kind of money to get their punctures fixed.
Having said that, I do some bike repairs for friends and neighbours in exchange for money and it makes me a bit of beer money but that's all.
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I would like a fixie-conversion service.
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Bicycle repair may well make you happy, but it will never make you rich.
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There's one based in Worcester at J.D. Cycles, Worcester, Bicycle Repairs & Servicing, Mobile Bike Shop Worcester (http://www.johnthebike.co.uk)
Also has static workshop and sells most spares from his home.
good friendly service and customers usually get a cup of tea at no extra charge
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There is this one too, mobile bicycle servicing and repairs (http://www.cycledelik.co.uk). They had flyers around central London but are based in St. Albans.
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Bicycle repair may well make you happy, but it will never make you rich.
Seconded
I was offered, and turned down a job with a well known frame builder and shop (no - not Mercian or Longstaffs)
Not enough groats in it to live on/pay the rent/have a social life etc
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Like I said, idle speculation . . .
The real problem is cashflow, speaking of which if I can't bank a wage for the end of June I might well be in the clartes.
Does anyone know of a bikeshop position around the Manchester area? 'Cos I really don't want to go back into the car parts game unless I really have to.
luv'n'stuff
J
PS What's it like to work at B*keH*t?
Check BikeBiz (http://www.bikebiz.com/jobs) - currently vacancies in Wigan & Burnley
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Richard, one of the members of our local cycling group, has recently quit his job, obtained cycle mechanic qualifications, and bought a van from which to run his Mobile Cycle Repair business.
The business name of his new venture is.........Dick van Bike ;D
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Like.
Apropos of nothing in particular, on my commute there is a very short stretch of the River Lea which I navigate.
I've noticed that there is someone offering 'Floating bike servicing' from one of the barges moored there.
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York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.
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There is now a mobile bike washing service in London. They rotate around fixed locations but will also come to you if you have at least four bikes to wash.
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There is now a mobile bike washing service in London. They rotate around fixed locations but will also come to you if you have at least four bikes to wash.
Is that a fancy term for 'weather'? ;D
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York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.
Ice cream or spanners.
It's a difficult choice.
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There has been mobile bike repair folk round here
One in Dairsie and one somewhere near Abernethy; there was also one in St Andrews but he decided he was doing well enough that he decided to open a shop.
Most of the bike shops round here will come to you to collect/return the bike needing work done if you ask them (and they'll charge you).
The nature of this area is that there's lots of smallish towns and villages dotted around so more likely suitable for making it work than in an area where it's easy enough to just wheel your bike to a shop.
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I've used Mike at http://www.cycletechbeds.co.uk/ for several years. Works well for me either doing repairs at my house or collection and drop off. I have happily recommended him locally to friends
I think he has a pitch at one of the local railway stations, maybe St Albans or Bedford, for 1 or 2 days a week. It means he picks up work there and can take other bikes he has collected and work on them there.
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York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.
We get them in .nl.
Like.
Apropos of nothing in particular, on my commute there is a very short stretch of the River Lea which I navigate.
I've noticed that there is someone offering 'Floating bike servicing' from one of the barges moored there.
Last time I checked, there's a guy offering a similar service on the river Vecht, just along from the red light house boat district in Utrecht...
There's a few guys offering mobile bike repair in Amsterdam, they ride round on bakfiets units, I think they are mostly fixing punctures and the like.
There are also some subscription services like swapfiets, that basically when you get a flat, they bring you a new wheel. Haven't really investigated them yet.
I seem to have become a bit of a mobile bike repair service for my friends, they know I have a rather extensive toolkit on my bike anyway, so I'll often get asked to fettle something on a friends bike.
J
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Bloody hell! This thread is almost as old as the forum itself.
Just to top & tail it, I didn't go the mobile route . . .
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Works for Francis Thurmer in the Bucks area, but he also has a static shop and a specialist line in hard to find components.
Hard-to-find. (http://www.cyclesplus.co.uk/)
Mr Thurmer appears still to be around. https://francisthurmer.co.uk/1/
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I met the Edinburgh guy. Another issue he had was trying to get trade prices from companies without having premises to prove he was in the trade. He was trying to set up a Dawes dealership and a weird spares vending machine in the city centre as well as the travelling repair service. He showed me a trade price-list though. Lots of stuff could be got for less than half retail price. Frames were especially cheap. I met him years later. He was involved in setting up a mental-health charity.