Evans Service

[lemmy]

Just got my Kalkhoff Tasman back from Evans after a service. In the past (63 years of cycling) I've always done all the maintenance myself. This time I took it to Evans and paid out the best part of 60 quid for my spring service.

The result? It feels like new, smooth, brakes taut...boy am I happy

Will I do it myself next time? I don't know now. Maybe I'm just getting old and idle. Does having the work done by a shop make me a bad person

If not, why do I feel lazy and guilty?

 

[banbury frank]

Halford

Hi

You should off taken it to Halfords

He He Joke

Frank

 

[stevebills]

Just got my Kalkhoff Tasman back from Evans after a service. In the past (63 years of cycling) I've always done all the maintenance myself. This time I took it to Evans and paid out the best part of 60 quid for my spring service.

The result? It feels like new, smooth, brakes taut...boy am I happy

Will I do it myself next time? I don't know now. Maybe I'm just getting old and idle. Does having the work done by a shop make me a bad person

If not, why do I feel lazy and guilty?

Bloody hell u bone idle sod!!

Lemmy

 

[donnoirf]

You sound over the moon with the service although it sounds a bit pricey.
Maybe you could do the Evans service every other year and DIY in between

Donna

 

[lemmy]

Bloody hell u bone idle sod!!

Thank you Steve, that makes me feel much better. I am going for a short walk. I may be some time

 

[flecc]

That price was reasonable for a good job, Evans are not a charity and a good technician who does a thorough professional job deserves decent pay.

I think it a sensible decision Lemmy and can't see any cause to feel guilty. That's what cycle shops exist for and always have. I remember when large numbers of people got cycle shops to repair punctures even, and I've repaired countless numbers of them daily for customers when a youngster in the trade.
.

 

[rog_london]

You sound over the moon with the service although it sounds a bit pricey.
Maybe you could do the Evans service every other year and DIY in between

Donna

Pricey? Hardly. Your average service company is likely to have an overhead rate of £40-£70 per hour, and a cycle retailer would be no exception.

The overhead rate is what a service business needs to charge to cover its costs plus a reasonable element of profit. This would of course include the wages of the mechanic, but also the cost of the infrastructure - the shop initial fit-out and decor, rent and maintenance, light and heating, cleaning, tools, staff and (possibly) customer facilities, as well as head office backup, warehousing, accounting, management...... Some of those costs would be offset by new bike sales, admittedly, but running a high-street bike shop isn't a cheap deal. You don't find Evans' premises in a corrugated iron shed under a railway arch.

If they've done a good job - and I've heard praise of Evans' standard of customer service before - I'd say that was fair enough.

Rog.

 

[Blew it]

Put it this way, what else could you get for your sixty quid?

A tank full of petrol!
A ten mile trip on First Great Western!
Four litre bottles of whisky!
200 fags!

Sixty pounds sounds very reasonable to me, and surely the value is in your satisfaction with the result. And you shouldn't feel guilty for having your bike serviced by skilled mechanics. In doing so, you provided gainful employment for somebody.