MBW repairs

what's our repair pricing philosophy?

** just wanna bump these two notes to the top of the page so you don't drive all the way here and be disappointed... **

1. note about e-bike repair: sorry, we don't work on e-bikes or bikes with any style of motor unless we originally built and sold it. this includes simple adjustments and changing flat tires I'm afraid. more than likely, one of the other 20 other shops in the area will be able to help you out however so call around. now back to our regularly scheduled program about our pricing structure and repair services...

2. note about our Advanced Project Fee: folks often seek us out for our experience working on and building up alt-drivetrained bike and tandems. we love that we're known for and are able to make our living building machines which are a little left of center. however, there are certain styles of modern alt-bikes / and alt-drivetrains which are more specialized than others and take us longer to work on than any labor rate chart could explain. our pricing below is based on the time it takes to work on 'traditional' bikes (you know em when you see em if you what we mean), so when we need to tap into our hard fought knowledge for more advanced projects, drawn on specialized tooling and/or assume higher risks to work on these more exotic machines, we need to charge you at a higher rate per hour than what our standard work requires. so for any bike that falls in that category plan on us charging an Advanced Project Fee of $125 PLUS the cost of the time to do the project itself at our normal hourly rate. examples of advanced and exotic machines that we charge this extra Advanced Project Fee on include machines with Pinion, Rohloff, Di2, eTAP and AXS drivetrains as well as any tandem or trike project (when we accept those projects as we don't always). if you have a style of bike that might fall under this category that needs work, get in touch for us to give you a quote in advance so you can shop around to help you decide where you would like your work done. we'd love a chance to work on your project if you decide to pick us to do it.

now back to the regularly scheduled program...

our labor pricing philosophy: we try to keep our pricing fair for both you and ourselves. simply put, our prices are based on the amount of time it takes to perform whatever task you request at a rate that will allow us to continue to do the work we love.

for example, if our experience tells us a specific repair usually takes 10 mins to perform on a bike like yours, we'll offer to do the work for a price based on 10 mins of our time at our normal shop rate. our current hourly rate is $125 for basic services - an amount which allows us to offer a no-pressure, no-attitude and no-up-selling experience while working on your bike in front of you to a standard that we can take pride in. so in this example, we'll advise you in advance that a 10 min repair will cost about $20 with some numbers after the decimal point and since life is complicated enough, we often round the dollars column down to the nearest Abraham Lincoln or Alexander Hamilton whichever is closest. in practice, you can probably expect us to quote you $20 for a 10 minute job. if it takes us longer to do the work then we initially estimated, then we'll chat with you to come to a reasonable price for both of us. we have a minimum charge of $10 to do anything that requires us to touch your bike as even the simplest jobs require us to stop other customers' projects and turn our attention to yours. basically, we aim to charge for our time and experience in a way that is fair for everybody. hopefully, it works for you too. just give a shout to discuss your project and we'll try to ballpark it for you before you take the time and energy to hump your bike to us in the back of your car.

top tip: while we'd love to be the only place you ever bring your bike to for all your bikey needs, we know that some of the more traditional higher-volume shops in our area strategically charge substantially less for some specialty services than our lower-volume, highly-personalized way of doing things allows, so please feel free to dip in and out of what we offer as your needs (and budget) sees fit. if you dig the way we work and what we bring to the table compared to the bigger regional shops, we'd love to help you out. we promise we won't ever hold it against if you decide to have your custom wheels built, hydraulic brakes bled, tubeless tires swapped over, or alternative drive trained bikes tuned elsewhere. for specifics, see the sections below titled "we're in this for the long haul" and "repair services you can get done substantially cheaper elsewhere".

in the next section, we've listed the prices for our most commonly requested services and if you don't see what you're looking for, drop us an email and we'll let you know how much you should be setting aside to solve your issue.

give us a shot. we promise we'll do our best to keep you from sinking money into a bike that isn't worth bringing back to life. we take real pride in the fact that our customers trust us to make sure they don't do anything silly with their money.

average pricing examples

a smattering of our greatest hits from our a la carte service menu (parts not included of course)

the abbreviated list above should give you an idea of how we work as a shop. for more specific pricing for your ailing bike or for a full quote for your more complicated project, get in touch.

to sum up: if you ask us to spend time reviewing or working on your bike we'll charge you for our efforts, but we won't charge you for services you don't need and you won't end up paying us for any one-size-fits all service packages.

we're in this for the long haul

these are a few of the services that other shops will do for you substantially cheaper than we are comfortable with

to sleep better at night, we like to point out to folks that many of the other 20 (yup, there's actually 20) traditional and big box bike shops in Southern Maine offer certain services substantially less than we do and often at less than their cost to provide those services. we're bike mechanics who've never taken a business or marketing class (we'll at least I [Jason] haven't and I'm the one who sets the prices), so perhaps we're crazy for not wanting to offer to do something for less than it costs us to do it. yet that's exactly what happens in the shops that decided to charge the prices listed below. fortunately, in this crazy world, all crazy business practices are still welcomed equally, so more power to them if it works for them.

their pricing on these services may make it look like we've intentionally set out fleece people, but in our defense, we simply need to be able to charge for the actual time it takes to do a job right at a rate which allows us to take pride in our work. so shop around and get these services done from places that do things differently than we do with our blessing. we promise not to hold it against you - honest.

hydro brake bleedings (one brake): MBW spends 45 mins avg cumulative time (including prep, cleanup of surfaces and test ride) / MBW price $90 / other shops $50, $35, $25, $20

hydro brake bleedings (two brake): MBW spends 65 mins avg cumulative time (including prep, cleanup of surfaces and test ride) / MBW price $130 / other shops $100, $70, $50, $40

advanced adjustments and services (eg adjustments / work on Pinion, Rohloff, Di2, eTAP, AXS drivetrains, some tandem and trike work etc): we charge an additional $125 minimum - regardless of time taken for our expertise with these systems on bikes we did not original build or sell. ask in advance for quote as other shops may not charge you extra for this higher level nerdery if they even perform these services, but we will.

wheel builds: [not including tubeless tire set up afterwards] MBW spends 90 mins avg cumulative time including: spoke size calculation, part ordering, tire mounting, cassette install, rotor install, brake adjustment, test rides and re-tension / MBW price $150 (spokes extra) per wheel using store bought spokes, $200 (spokes extra) per wheel with spokes hand cut and rolled at MBW, $300 (spokes extra) per wheel with Rohloff Speedhub using Rohloff's required special spokes hand cut at MBW / some other shops $50 per wheel no matter what type.

tubeless fat bike wheel tubeless tape install and tire mount: MBW spends 45 mins cumulative on avg for full process which includes install, multiple test rides and re-inflations per attempt and that's if everything goes perfectly - it often doesn't / MBW price $125 / some other shops $25

tubeless fat bike wheel studded to non-studded tire swap: MBW spends 30 mins cumulative on avg for full process which includes install, multiple test rides and re-inflations per attempt and that's if everything goes perfectly - it often doesn't / MBW price $60 / other shops $20, $15, $8, $8

[other shop prices last updated May 2020]

*** CANCELED FOR FORSEEABLE FUTURE DUE TO COVID :( ***

MBW's DIY repair option

your choice: we'll fix your bike or you can work on it yourself.

when you work on your own bike in our shop you'll enjoy having the right tools, equipment, and replacement parts on hand as well as knowing that someone is nearby in case you get in over your head. sure sounds better than working on your bike on your kitchen floor again doesn't it? while we charge for this service, we think you'll agree that when you love working on your bike, having this opportunity is priceless.

one of the main reasons we started this business was because we personally wanted a well-stocked, professionally-equipped place to work on our own bikes and after years of wrenching in shops that had "no-customers-in-the-workshop" policies, we decided it was time someone gave our fellow riders a break and let them in on the fun. offering this type of access is expensive for us, so we charge those who wish to take us up on our offer.

if you haven't worked on your own bike in our shop before, the first time you come in we'll ask you to pay us for a co-operative lesson on whatever project you want to do so that we can make sure that you don't do anything that would make your bike unsafe. this initial lesson will be priced at 2x's the rate if you simply paid us to fix it for you. assuming that our initial co-operative project goes well and we're comfortable that you'll stop to ask us if you have any questions before you tackle something you aren't 100% certain how to fix safely, then you'll be able to work solo on future projects for about 1/2 the normal rate we'd charge to fix it for you. so find a small project you'd like to work with us on and get in touch to schedule the initial co-operative lesson. we're a small shop physically and our showroom is almost always busy, so we ask that you get in touch to schedule your project in advance of showing up with your bike to ensure we have a free workstand for you when you come in. keep in mind you get the pleasure of paying for your benchtime even if your attempt at self-repair didn't come to fruition and if you find yourself needing our advice half way through your own diy project, we'll need to charge you for the additional pro-level help you'll receive.

lastly, we understand there's lots of folks (young and old) who can't afford the prices we need to charge to be able to let folks work on their own bikes here at MBW which is why we wholeheartedly endorse the following awesome local bike centric non-profits who can provide similar experiences for free or at very little cost. check out: The Portland Gear Hub in Portland, Apex Youth Connection (kids only) in Biddeford and Nasson Community Bike Center in Sanford. all good folks.

of course, in those instances where you lack the time or inclination to work on your own bike, we'll happily do it for you, but you probably already knew that.

golly gee, I just read all that and I still have a broken bike

if you've made it down this far on the page, you probably have a good feeling for how we aim to run our business. if any of that strikes a chord with the way you want to be treated, get in touch or better yet, swing by with your bike.