Posted by: tashi
To add to this: there’s a lot of work that’s fine to do for yourself or a friend, but if it’s a “this will probably work, let’s try it” kinda repair/work than it doesn’t make sense to charge good money and possibly trash your reputation by trying it.
For example I love old red brick for walkways but I’ll never install one for a customer again since they require far too much upkeep to stay in good condition and safe and the odds of the customer not understanding this are high.
Definitely. Actually, one of the things I loved about wrenching during the Covid parts shortage was the compact with customers to repair unserviceable things as best as possible to keep them riding.
It was fun to get paid to fix stuff - nowhere near ‘like new’ - and have folks stoked to pay for the time. When there was nothing available folks were much more understanding of ‘better than it was’ reputation wise. I always felt actually heard when explaining the potential outcomes.
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On the other side of it - MEATengines related - I enjoy rebuilding things like seized Guide brakes where folks choose to upgrade rather than pay for service (two master cylinder rebuilds and bleeds are well on the way to much better brakes) and then give them away.
I have a ‘Give The Gift Of Guides’ update coming in January as I need some help finding homes for brakes now.
Now that more and more budget bikes have drilling for dropper routing I might consider adding that too. At least for ones that are easy to sort, like Wintek cartridge posts.
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The red brick path triggers some nostalgia for me. My Grannie & Grandad had a red brick driveway. Every so often (I can’t recall how many years in between) they’d have the guy who put it in come back and pull up all the bricks, re-level the drive, and place them back down.
I don’t know how the cost of ownership compared to asphalt or aggregate but environmentally it must be significantly better.
