Is it OK to buy online and ask local bike shop to fit?

The coffee and cake if they
The coffee and cake if they have turned themselves into a cycling hub. Then the servicing. I have a bike shop in France there is no money in selling parts. In fact even with trade accounts its cheaper for me to buy from the internet companies than Shimano direct for example. I am happy to fit parts brought in and charge 50 euros an hour. If you buy a limited range of items from me for example a cassette I will fit free of charge so it would probably work out cheaper. I have a very healthy hire business as well but thats more based on my location

wicksy5508 wrote:

Does anyone commenting actually know (I include myself in this) what is the most profitable part of a bike shop ie servicing, supplying parts, selling bikes, or are we all just assuming?

 

perhaps some LBS owners would like to chime in on this, because it seems to me that £40per hour labour for one mechanic doesn’t a profit make when all other costs are factored in. (I run a security systems installation business so being profitable is obv very Important!)

If a bike shop offers bike

If a bike shop offers bike building and maintenance (as not all but many do) there would obviously be nothing wrong with bringing your own parts (unless it was some seriously jerky shop, the likes of which wouldn’t deserve your business in any form).
As others have said above there are probably more bike shops now than ever that are primarily, or in some cases wholly focused on the building/maintenance of bikes.
Another good point made above is that some of the shops may not even really be able to compete much with best online prices for the parts anyway. 
Chances are they will be delighted if you bring all the parts. Appreciative of your good organisation and your CUSTOM in buying their building services.

As for the two labour rates system mentioned above by PRSboy..well, maybe in the world of car audio (of which i know nothing about) you can afford to have such a policy but I for one would walk straight out of any bicycle shop which stated it offered bicycle building services and who asked me for higher rates if bringing my own parts. Plenty of other bike building shops who would be glad to have my business instead (and be more deserving of it).

My LBS is happy to do this, a

My LBS is happy to do this, a lot of shops make their money on servicing and repairs now.

My LBS does have a Shimano Price Match deal in place which has proved handy though. I’d much rather get them to price match and buy through my LBS, often they are better on the ‘manpower costs’ for any work done when I do this.. so it’s win win.

You could always ask them, be

You could always ask them, be nice about it, explain it to them.

My LBS, with whom I’d been building up a bit of a relationship with, wheelbuilding, I can do most spannering, but I needed 26 inch rim braked rims, the first couple ceramic, quest to find those, and NOS non disc XTR hubs.  Things that a bike shop cannot source, you can’t expect them to bid on Ebay after all.  Then I found 3 mavic xc717s, onto touring non disc XTs.  The mechanic even found me a new front wheel, already built on a german bike site.  It’s about trust, I suppose.

They have just built me my new bike, Surly, Rohloff, hope front hub and disks, chris king headset.  Took a while, some problems.  If Ison had it, they’d get it.  Some parts I bought.  Xtr bb, middleburn cranks, jones bar.  I JP Weigled the frame,  he built most of it, I did the finishing when I got it home.  I found the specific tyres I needed, he set them up tubeless and built the front wheel.  I think we were all pleased with the result, at least I very much hope so.  I have been making them cakes all summer.

I wouldn’t expect anyone but me to create a full length Nokon gear to a rohloff, bathing everything with ACF 50.  Hour and half of threading for each cable, and messy.  But I’m not going to fit a headset (not anymore) or make me a wheel, and I’ve always had various LBSs tension and true my wheels, no matter where I got them from.  Oddly enough the wheels made at this LBS have never needed trueing, and the first set of non ceramic 717s died before going out of true.  At some point I’m going to have to move, I will miss them.

I’ve never wanted anything done in a hurry, and I’ve never demanded a discount.  I also understand that the mechanics have a lot less to do in the winter months and so bike shops are more ammeanable to do work on stuff you’ve purchased somewhere else then, but at the same time I wouldn’t want to take the piss.  I think I have gravitated to LBSs that have understood my particular obsessions.

I think I didn’t explain

I think I didn’t explain myself properly,

corkage on the parts, plus the labour.

wicksy5508 wrote:

So you’d be happy with a bike shop charging corkage to fit the internet supplied parts? Because that actually seems like a pretty reasonable compromise.

Yes of course. This is exactly what the OP proposes to do and what you argued against:

cyclefaster wrote:

Is it OK to ask a shop about fitting parts I’ve sourced online and pay for the labour?

wicksy5508 wrote:

No its not ok.