Thirty dollar turpitude. 5/5/2008
How would you price a skill? How much of a value would you place for the services of the person who unclogs your drain, or cuts your hair, or rewires a short circuit? How much would you pay the man who fixes your bike?
I’ve not kept up with mechanic’s rates in various countries, but I know my various overseas readers will enlighten me soon enough. Over here, mechanics are cheap, comparatively. Labour rates tend to be calculated as a percentage of the parts cost, as opposed to an hour rate, which is the norm in other countries where I’ve ridden. Some mechanics are really expensive, even locally, but they justify their cost based on their shop set-up, diagnostic and engineering skills, and so on. Others, especially those who work for the official dealer or distributor, have their rates dictated by the bean counters in HQ.
So, I ask the question again, what would you pay?
I am asking this because of something that cropped up over the weekend, and made some waves in a local bike forum I occassionally drop in on. A young rider, who joined the forum some time last year, and proceeded to annoy everyone by asking questions like “Am I too short to get my knee down?”, “How do I use my tyres to the limit?” and “How do I leave black lines when I’m cornering?”, posted a comment about a bike shop where many, many canyon strafers send their bikes for repairs and service.
He brought a bike in, an FZR1000, complaining of a noise coming from the dash which, in his words, sounded like “crickets flirting”. This needed the upper fairing taken off, and clocks disassembled. And this evening I confirmed with the mechanic that he had to do this twice, after checking the first time, and finding the sound wasn’t entirely gone, to his satisfaction. The fix? A shot of spray grease into the innards of the speedometer, to stop the gears from chattering, and a little tightening of the retainer bushings on the various shafts.
The price for this work? RM30, which is about US$10.
And this kid had the temerity to say that this was expensive, and asked for a discount. To add insult to injury, after the discount was given, he then had the cheek to say that he didn’t have any money on him, and could he come back later? The shop owner almost blew a gasket at this, and said he could feel free to call someone to bring him the money.