Motorcycle Side Work - Scared a guy away

I have customers that every time I show up always ask for me to do it on the side. I explain that I would be happy to do it for $125 an hour. They complain that's what my company charges. I laugh and tell them why should I lose my job over a few bucks from them. Everything goes thru the company. People ask me all the time to work on bikes on the side for them. I tell them it's $88 an hour and they shit . They think I should do it for less. My time off is valuable to me I figure I should get double my normal wage to do it. Cheap people are just plain cheap .

 

Very true.

The liability you take on for $25 tire change is huge. I sold my tire machine in about 2003 and never changed a tire for a customer again. Lost some initial business because of it, but it helped keep the cheapskates away. It also seems that the customer thinks that $25 means that anything that goes wrong after that is your fault and now you should help him fix it.

 

Don't you just love customers like that.

 

Anyone here know what the warranty labor time in hours it pays to replace a frame on the OPs? This is just for my curiosity, my shop charges 1.5 times what warranty (the manufacturer) would pay. I.E. if warranty pays 10 hours, we would charge 15 hours fo4 the job customer pay. We also give a price break on parts and labor for anything more than 10 years old pretty much the exact opposite of what most places do.

 

Lol I do

 

Autodata says 8 hours. Every shop I know does 1.5 times rate (as you said) except for warranty. So that job is 12 hours.

 

Cool thanks, we have some aftermarket labor guides that insurance companies and other places like to use but they're never accurate enough and a lot of times they are wrong, either high or low, so we almost have no choice but to do time and a half of warranty.
A great example is a generator on a Cayenne warranty only pays four hours. So we would charge 6 Alldata says 12.9 hours WTF!?!?

 

A dealership that sp Snores me many moons ago had the same thing. He had one mechanic that was the Midwest guru on older gold wings. They always had 4-5 in line waited my to be worked on. Just from hanging around guys would complain about the bill. He would tell them you are welcome to work on it yourself. After they would leave, they would always come back.

 

Or the guy that bought the tire online and stops and expects you to stop what ever you're doing and change it right now while he waits and of coarse thinks you charge too much to do it.

 

I don't work on other people's bikes. For pay or for free. I have helped some cheap asses in my close circle out over the years but that's about as far as it goes with me.

I own my own tire machine, had it for years, rarely use it for my own purposes. People are cheap asses and will try to use your stuff at a free rate if you allow it! I don't like mounting tires for others. It's not being mean spirited, most shops locally charge quite a bit to do it even with wheels are off a bike. I tell everyone the wheel weights are not free for me, I buy them straight from No Mar as I do my other materials needed to change tires.

They still try to come in the back door cheap as possible with all sorts of lame ass stories and ideas. Seems every time I have tried to help some out it always bites me in the ass some how down the road. I just love the asshat I helped who leaves his old tire(s) at my shop like they'll disappear in some magical way. No I haul those to the landfill with MY other gazillion old race tires and if I'm over the 10 limit a month I get charged $2.50 a tire over.

Want a free ride use your thumb.

 

Maybe you need to help set both of your expectations. I could easily see folks not even realizing that you had a charge to dispose of the tires.

 

Oh they know the old tires won't go anywhere without a fee. Just like they know wheel weights are not free.

People don't care and are totally fine with someone else picking up the tab.

 

Chicago Cycle?

 

Unrelated field which allows me to enjoy motorcycles until I start doing side work. My background is in Electrical Engineering and Project Management. But over the years I've learned my way around a motorcycle quite well because of close friends, family and racing.

They all want something for nothing which is probably the reason why they come to me. I usually end up a big sucker.

I think I scared the guy away. I tried calling, texting and emailing with no response after I sent him the word document. Maybe he realized how big of a project the bike could potentially be to actually get it road worthy. Which is a good thing. He may have really thought that 500 bucks was going to get the thing back on the road. I was also nervous about the reasoning behind the frame swap. If the bike is actually his and title was lost it's less than 500 bucks to go through the process to get the lost title from the state of Illinois so there is something fishy going on.

 

I am guessing Midlothian Honda on 147th and Pulaski.

 

I won't advertise my services but I'll work on people's bikes who I know or someone I at least have a mutual acquaintance with. Basically just word of mouth. Doesn't provide a ton of business which is fine because I don't want a ton. A few hundred bucks here and there is good enough. But I lay out all the ground rules in advance...
1. Don't tell me how to do my job.
2. It's gonna cost $45/hour plus parts.
3. If I say it needs a certain part, it's getting it, no ifs, ands, or buts. This is for your safety and to cover my ass. Your bike will not leave here in an unsafe condition regardless of how it arrived or if the issue I found was even something you asked me to look at. If it's broke, it gets fixed. Bottom line.
4. If you do not trust me not to overcharge you or not to fit unnecessary parts, then I shouldn't be working your bike anyway.

Amazing how well this has worked and surprisingly hasn't scared anyone off. That being said, I'm sure it helps having some of sort of either personal or mutual connection beforehand. And it's a bit easier being so blunt up front when I don't actually care all that much if I get the job or not. If I do, great. If not, oh well. It's nice to make the extra money but with bike stuff, only on my own terms

 

Eff everyone else's bike. I have one lift and 7 bikes.

 

Job is finished. Frame is swapped. Rebuilt the carbs completely, new coolant, brake bleed, new chain, new tires, oil, filter and bath. I lost track of hours... But the bike turned out good and runs good.

 

Cleaner than most...

 

Had to split the carb rack because 1 o-ring was bad in a fuel T. Replaced all o-rings anyway. The little springs are a bitch to get back in the linkage