Topic: Lets compose a list of hours a shop charges for

[checkflag]

In other words, Mechanics have books that dictate what they should charge per hour on a particular job.
For instance.. you go there with something needing fixing and they will say.. "thats 2 hours, or thats 1 hour, etc etc.
So even if its simple and takes 1/2 hour you still pay for 1, but on the flip side, if they run into problems and take 4
hours on something they quoted you 2 hours for.. u still only pay for 2 hours.

What I would like to see posted in this thread is the time billed on particular jobs. IE.. rebuild forks,
rebuild carbs, tune up.. valve adjustment, valve job, etc etc.

Just the job and the hours. prices vary and are not important here.

This thread could be a great reference for people here in dealing with mechanics, and knowing about what something
would cost before going in.

[XxDarkEuphoriaxX]

the shops around me charge $60/hour no matter what is done as far as I know.

[Johnny5]

All this is, is incentive to learn to fix these old girls ourselves. They are old and will break and wear out sooner or later.

[Geeto67]

honda published those books years ago for their dealers and if you look around at book sellers at big swapmeets sometimes you can come up with one. These hour computations are based on new bikes and tech who are familar with this particular brand of motorcycle.

However, I will say this - if you walk into a shop that works on old bikes and try to tell them that the bike will only take 2 hours to fix when they quote you 3 hours I am pretty sure they will tell you to go screw. I can't think of a single mechanic who likes getting told his business. On top of that these are old bikes and frankly most have been dug into 100 times before that shop touches the bike - a rusted bolt here - a missing washer there - these things add up and frankly why shouldn't a shop get paid for their time undoing years of other people's service? Plus a mechanic at a general motorcycle shop works on a variety of bikes and would not be as fast as someone who worked on this one particular bike day in and day out.

Economically speaking it doesn't pay to have your old bike fixed by a shop period. Over the long run in 2 years of ownership you will likely pay more than your bike is worth to just maintain it. If you really want to save money, learn to fix it yourself or buy a new bike, haggling with a shop is not going to get you where you want to be (that isn't to say that there isn't some room for negotiation but you start haggling upfront about the hours quoted and you might just get the door slammed behind you on the way out).

[Beans]

Their is a shop near me charges $50 an hour one hour min plus parts.  I've talked to him and he told me he would charge me $70 an hour if I got the parts myself.  To me that's not a bad deal.  If I find it cheaper then what he can get it for sometimes it will save me money but in most cases won't.  And the cool thing is he only works on vintage bikes. He won't work on anything newer then 85.  He does prety buch anything from tune ups to oil changes to full restorations. 

But isn't the whole point of having these old bikes is to work on them ourself and ride the piss out of them?   To me I'd rather fix something myself and learn about the bike then pay someone and not know anything.   That's also why I love this forum I've leanred so much here its stupid to take the bike to a shop to get fixed.

[Bob Wessner]

The copy of a 1971 parts manual that I have lists various maint. items with and accompanying F.R.T (Flat Rate Table). It gives one specific example where the F.R.T is 4.0 (4 hours) times the labor rate of $2.00/hour. 

[Duke McDukiedook]

Ha! 2 bucks!! 

[checkflag]

i was just curious. like if you get something done, wouldnt you want to agree upon a price up front rather than feel like getting overcharged at the back end. That way, if something comes up during a repair that would cost more, they would need to mention it to you.

I didnt mean go into a shop and dictate how many hours i am willing to pay, that would be ridiculous. but, everything
is negotiable.

[articblue]

Putting tires on rims that are off the bike ~30-40 plus balancing...saves the trouble of setting this up and doing it yourself.
Gutting the hubs on the 75 cb 750 ~30, ie, pushing the bearings out, getting the front axial nut off ect.

Saving me the headache of beating the crud out of the axial nut since it had the old-school method of a nail punch on the rim to make sure it didn't run out, PRICELESS. And a good laugh when I pointed it out to the mechanic.
'Dang this is old'

Other things like syncing the carbs, probably better to get a sync tool or make a monometer setup since this can cost a fair bit of change since there can be lots of little things that add up to syncing the carbs hard...crusty old vacuum tubes, intake rubbers, sticky floats, sticky and gummy jets.
So this adds up to a lot of time tracking down issues, $$$.

[mrbreeze]

I work in an auto repair shop and our rate is $110 an hour. I work flat rate for $38.50 an hour. All is fine & dandy if the work is there but if people don't come in as much (like the past year with the big economy bust), it makes for some pretty slim paychecks. Things are coming around now (summertime) and hopefully the winter won't slow us down too bad. As far as working on old stuff.....It is harder than you might think to come up with parts and there are almost always stuck fasteners, wrong parts installed by previous so called mechanics.
I have to agree with the others as far as doing my own wrenching on the older stuff.

[Hush]

My mechanic is old school and knows his way around a SOHC4 as good as any on here, he was a Honda apprentice and one of the few I'd trust my old girl to.
He charged me $130 for a carb sync two weeks back, I don't mind paying this as it's one job I won't do, he also found out I had not seated the carbs home after fitting new isolators and that was more my problem than the sync so that sort of knowledge is priceless and I learn something new everytime I go see him.
Hell he even gives (that's free folks ) me parts like "O" rings I couldn't get anywhere else in NZ!
I've told him he's not allowed to retire, he knows this and I'll hunt him down and cut his heart out if he even tries!

[Slayer]

I had a mechanic recently charge a flat rate for carb cleaning $130. Did not replace any parts.

[new2novas]

I work in an auto repair shop and our rate is $110 an hour. I work flat rate for $38.50 an hour. All is fine & dandy if the work is there but if people don't come in as much (like the past year with the big economy bust), it makes for some pretty slim paychecks. Things are coming around now (summertime) and hopefully the winter won't slow us down too bad. As far as working on old stuff.....It is harder than you might think to come up with parts and there are almost always stuck fasteners, wrong parts installed by previous so called mechanics.
I have to agree with the others as far as doing my own wrenching on the older stuff.

holy crap! can i get a job there ...i make signifiantly less than that (hourly)...but what you said about fasteners and so called mechanics is spot on and happens with just about every job we get in on the older stuff

FWIW, our shop rate is 82/hour

[stainy]

Those issues arise in every service related business's I work on computers for a living and its just a flat rate of $60 per hour.. with a minimum of $30 no matter if I fix it in 5 minutes or 30 minutes.... by the way when I got my first job minimum wage was $2.15 an hour

[Big Bob]

I've got old bikes.

I've got new bikes.

For those of you that are thinking "get a new bike, less stuff to maintain" I've got some bad news for you.

New bikes break too.

And sometimes it's stuff you can't fix yourself.

F*@king computers.....

[Geeto67]

i was just curious. like if you get something done, wouldnt you want to agree upon a price up front rather than feel like getting overcharged at the back end. That way, if something comes up during a repair that would cost more, they would need to mention it to you.

I didnt mean go into a shop and dictate how many hours i am willing to pay, that would be ridiculous. but, everything
is negotiable.

That is why you get an estimate - he tells you what he thinks it will cost. Almost all shops do this. However what is not included in the estimate is the time he has to spend drilling out and tapping a screw the previous owner stripped out, or a dislodging a rust bolt with a torch and and pry bar, or some other bodge that has been developing over the last 30 years. Some shops will call you and let you know, others will just hand you a bill at the end. If you think you are getting ripped off - try doing the work yourself, loosening rust and broke hardware and all, get to experience for yourself the wonders of dissimilar metal corrosion, or the 30 year hibernation of a drunk 1970's honda tech's sloppy work.

Every tech I know will gladly tell you how much a pain i the ass working on your bike was if you ask, so when it comes time to pay the bill and it costs more than the estimate ask him about the extra time. If he can't explain why it took longer I don't think I would go back to that shop.

nobody is saying shops are hard and fast non-negotiable, but I think you will find once you start to negotiate the hours to do a job you are going to meet some resistance. One thing I do instead is I go in and I say "x is what I have to spend to fix this bike, can we get it done for close to that?" or if it is a high bill I ask "can you throw in an oil change?" (this works great if your bike needs the oil out anyway for the repair).