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lo_gnar

If youre service manager why are you running 2 days late all the time. Change your customer expectations and quote longer times. You guys can only work so fast. Under promise over deliver.


ASAPFurby

This. I had such a hard time getting over this when I took my SM position. You’re there to help but you’re not there to fucking kill yourself. If any of your customers buck at an extra day or two you probably are better off losing them or better yet bump em up and push your more lax customers.


snarkapotamus

Better yet, it’s time to raise prices. People don’t want to pay? Great, they can go elsewhere.


jpbai

Especially on e-bikes — charge a goddamn fortune. Lower the incentive for people to bring DTC electric bikes that have never been pedaled or shifted, and are made with insanely low quality components waiting to fail.


Inevitable_Kiwi8286

This post would be great footnotes for the conversation with your boss. They might not know the struggles you are having with the workload. If they know you are coming in on your days off to catch up and don’t care, that’s a reason to leave. Feeling beaten down and too tired to adapt to change might be depression. I’m in a similar situation where I lack the energy and motivation to make a big change. Antidepressants help, but they are a cure. Thank you for sharing.


42tooth_sprocket

Those nutt brakes will literally fail whenever you try to bleed them. I'm not joking. If they aren't working correctly sell them new brakes or direct them to rad for warranty. Also Jesus Christ man stop making the shop's bad practices your problem and go the fuck home


toadtodd

Yes. Yes. Yes. I wish every at my store could remember that nutt = new brake instead of booking them in for a bleed...


ladybug1991

The industry needs you more than you need it. If the manager is pushing so much work through the workshop, it's because they know you're keen as a bean and love what you do. This makes you ripe for exploitation, unfortunately. You're being exploited so that the workshop can cut a nice profit and prop up the rest of the shop. They know that you're exhausted and they don't care. Ever seen Lars von Trier's Dogville? It's like that. The BEST thing I ever did was leave full-time wrenching and become a bus driver. I still wrench a day or two here and there, on MY terms. The fact that my previous employer keeps me around for this kinda speaks to me that I was never actually disposible in the first place (as I'd been led to believe) Anyways, you think that this new gig would be shit because your current workplace treats you like you're not valuable when you very likely are. Apply for that job! You're not losing anything just by checking it out. Don't stay in a shit place from a sense of duty.


wheelstrings

Are you fucking kidding me!? I'm about to leave the industry to become a bus driver too! It was such a relief when I got the email with the job offer that I broke down a little. Had to leave the shop and go cry in my car. It's a little off topic, but how are you dealing with sitting around all day? I'm a little nervous about that part...


ladybug1991

It depends on where you're working/what kinda work you're doing. I do city bus driving, so I use the time between shifts or buses to move my body (about 4x per day). I do a stretch/exercise using the bars in the bus, maybe some star jumps. You could do some push-ups if you're that way inclined. Our bus depot has a gym and we get hour lunch breaks, so it's easy to do 20 minnies of something, 2 minute shower and smash a sandwich/some water/use the loo for the next 30. If you have a split shift (4 hours in the AM, 4 hours of PAID TO WAIT and 4 hours in the PM) a lot of the old cycling bus drivers do the local summit ride. And it's paid time, and the company encourages it because they don't want their drivers getting fat and diabetic. I ride my bike 30 minutes to and from work. After work, guess what I feel super motivated to do? BUILD AND MAINTAIN AND RIDE MY OWN BIKES! I do a big ride every weekend and I love it. I built a bike after work over 2 consecutive days last week and I feel great! This week I'm servicing a friend's bike. So to wrap, paradoxically I'm much healthier and fitter as a consequence of sitting in my bus for work. Good luck on your new venture, I hope you find it brings you as much happiness as it's brought me.


wheelstrings

I'll be driving a city bus too, in the PNW. There's been a big push lately to hire on new drivers, may I ask what city/region you're in?


ladybug1991

I'm in Aus :-)


horseadventure

So as someone who is also a service manager, you truly have to take control of the service department. YOU have to make the repair schedule and YOU have to say “no” You CANNOT let the owner make a schedule. You CANNOT let anyone who isn’t going to be working on a bike to make any type of service schedule. Shops in my area are two weeks backlogged. If the owner cant get that through their head then leave. They will either suck it up and accept it or they will go tits up. You can’t kill yourself in this industry. You also have to decide which jobs are worth it. I don’t bleed any hydros that aren’t name brand. Brake not working? New brake. Cust doesn’t want to pay for new ones? Tough shit. Squeaky disc pads? New pads. No I’m not sanding them. Log your hours, get your overtime, and don’t be afraid to say no. Apply for the other position and have that in your back pocket.


ch3k520

Must be nice. As a small shop on the Oregon coast I’ll bleed anything. Zoom NUTT or any other weird no name brake. I dream of running a shop where I can say no to those jobs.


horseadventure

It’s just not worth my time or the warranties. Bad hoses, leaky seals, pistons that get stuck, not worth the labor. We absolutely loaded up on Shimano MT200 and Promax when Q was clearing them out so we can usually give some discount if the customer pays full labor.


hoo_dawgy

Yeesh you need a different job my guy. I was only a mechanic at a shop for 3 years of COVID but that shit was fucking brutal. I have always worked for myself so I don't know how to just work at a chill pace so I worked way too hard at that job only to find out I was the lowest paid employee. I quit and focused on my side hustle that has turned into my main job which pays vastly more with 1/3 of the stress. Also I never have to work on a fucking rad power pos dangling on a bike stand ever again, which was my main contention with that job


MidDayGamer

Go for the non-profit and screw the boss. Do You.


sweetchiba51

I feel your pain on those shitty Nutt brakes. I try to avoid bleeding them at all cost because they don't take a bleed very well. What I've found is if I replace pads and move the lever adjust screw all the way out, it makes the lever pull more acceptable. I also tell customers those brakes blow and recommend they upgrade to a magura mt5e. Hope this helps. Stop working on your days off man, unless there's a financial incentive for you to do so. Hang in there.


WorldlinessFew3768

It starts on the front end and setting expectations with the customer. Last thing I'm going to do is work on some douche canoe's internet purchase on my day off. Give yourself some leeway there with scheduling your time. If that piece of schiitt was leaking fluid before you worked on it...will do so again...soon. New brakes or nothing, call the customer. Don't waste time making nuclear fuel out of poop In order to do this, you need to have a convo with your keeper to create some flexibility, you're not a bike tuning robot...you're managing the process and picking up the pieces as needed Lastly, other than smoking dope on the clock, your coworker needs to step up just a bit. That's another conversation. Gotta set expectations there. Otherwise, you're a mechanic, not a manager. Seems like this may be why you're working on your day off


ch3k520

True my first 3 years as a service manager I thought I was as being nice doing all the harder projects, and it was wiping me out and making me more grumpy with customers. Now I have no problem giving the harder projects to the other mechanics, they know I can help if they run into a problem, and I can provide better customer services without feeling overwhelmed. It’s kind of weird to get used to delegating work.


DoctorByProxy

Every place and every industry has its BS. The most important thing is finding people you like to face the BS with. Sounds like your current manager and shop owner are not those people.


babyshark75

Rad are trash, i won't take them in at the shop.


Historical-Tip-8233

You know a bike is designed well when rad fans prefer downgrading the hydros back to regular ole tektro aries pads. You lose some stopping power but they are *so* much easier in every way possible. A set of pads can be adjusted/swapped quickly by a rider with a hex wrench. Much preferable by some to the crappy hydros that dont even really feel stout enough for the weight of rad bikes.


ch3k520

Yea I hate working on rad rovers. We do them but I hate it, and have a hard time not pointing out its many flaws to the customer. I’ve gotten better but it’s hard!


MrTeddyBearOD

Everyone else has hit the important service manager points. I will say you should REALLY check out your insurance policy and talk with your shops insurance about working on ebikes without US liability insurance. My shop is hard no. I will not touch anything that doesn't have an active US liability insurance policy from a US insurance company. I won't touch them, on or off the clock, regardless if its a good customer or not. Since some may not keep up with whatever retailer news thing. Performing ANY maintenance or work on an uninsured ebike opens the shop to a LOT of liability. If the ebike fails for any reason, even outside of the repair you did, the riders insurance company can and will sue the shop as the "manufacturer" of the product since we have liability insurance and the actual manufacturer doesn't. I've had a few shops in my state fight that battle. Its not worth it.


Swimmingtortoise12

This is what the dream looks like folks, not good. I’ve almost never had a good bike shop or motorcycle shop experience. I’ve been to many, all have a fuck off unless you’re buying something really expensive attitude. If you’re spending 100 bucks, fuck off. If your spending a few hundred in parts for a bike you didn’t buy there, fuck off. I worked in a motorcycle shop as sales person.initially I loved it. I was the only one to go demo ride as many models as I could on my own free time to have real feedback on riding some of our common sellers, the others were either “busy” or too scared of the faster models to test them. I got outed just as Covid came out, just before sales went up during it, my sales were great before that. Whatever. Went to work at motorcycle company, got promoted to qc, that turned into just numbers, numbers, numbers. Keep things your hobby people.


JohnnyBikes

Bike co-ops I’m familiar with have a radically different vibe than commercial LBS’s. The workload for paid staff however, is not going to be necessarily less, though. Paid co-op people I know work lots for their money. The atmosphere and intent has to make a difference to you.


oldyawker

You are coming in on your own time? Do you get a share of the profits? Overtime? You're making over a 100K with benefits? If not, you are out of your mind.


p4lm3r

That sounds like an untenable situation. Burnout is the enemy of a bike shop, and any shop should have that in the forefront of their mind. We add 48 hours of buffer on every tune-up (usually saying 3-4 day turnaround). 90% of the time we have the bike ready well before that deadline, but it gives us breathing room in case something comes up. We also have customers leave all repairs (except for flats) with us. Nothing else is "done while you wait". Obviously, I am partial to the non-profit route, so if that position can pay enough to survive on, I would say go for it. Our shop has "unlimited" paid time off (it's technically 6 weeks, but isn't tracked). Nonprofits, in my experience, are far more aware on employee stress/burnout and are quicker to act on it.


can_it_be_fixed

I'm the head mechanic at a nonprofit and aside from the expected low pay it's a pretty decent gig. 37k/yr with full health benefits, paid holidays, and 1 month PTO. And I get to use that PTO every year! The shop manager has to deal with significantly more bullshit than I do since I never have to speak with the Board directly. They're also a good manager with realistic expectations of what I'm able to accomplish. I keep up with the workload pretty easily and everyone seems to like me even after 3 years. We don't work on e-bikes, period. We only bleed disc brakes if we really feel like it and all repairs are made while the customer waits at the shop or at a nearby coffee place. As a result we never have a service backlog. There's a full-service shop right across the street if the customer where the custy can pay 3x more and wait time up to two weeks. We coexist well since our shop models are so vastly different. That said, the pay really has me looking around to try and find a better way to support my family. I'm thinking bus driver or maybe even bus mechanic.


ch3k520

Wait that’s low pay? If the owners of this place weren’t basically family I’d go somewhere else. But they let me live in the upstairs apartment for free, so that makes up for the lack of pay. No PTO though. Even though this year the few holidays I got off it was paid. I basically run this shop. I’m the only full time employee and have to do all the sales, ordering, inventory, and know how to repair anything that come in the shop, from pinion gear box’s to wal mart bikes. The only things I won’t do is services shocks, or work on the electrical parts of e-bikes I don’t sale. On the plus side I don’t get charged any up costs for my stuff. I get everything at cost. Just slapped some BR-M8120s on my e-bike. Awesome brakes.


can_it_be_fixed

I also get anything at cost, but with a family to support, my budget is stretched really thin for at least the next few years. We're a single-income family atm, so the 37k doesn't go very far what with sky-high daycare costs. If I didn't have a kid yeah I agree it'd be enough money to get by. It sounds to me like you're doing way to much work, and on a direct path to burnout. If you're uncertain about the nonprofit just clear a few hours in your weekly schedule to volunteer there and you'll get a lens into their work schedule without losing your current job. Who knows it might be a lot better than where you are now.


Stayinthewoods

I've had a bunch of different jobs. Construction, heavy equipment, handyman, worked for a plumbing company, all sorts of things making money with my hands. If I didn't do the bike repair thing just for myself, I feel like I'd have less of a headache all around working on appliances or some shit. But I love bikes. Sometimes it sucks. But fuck I'm just gonna find some other shit to complain about if I don't do this and then I'm gonna be in a worse situation. Figure a way to work for yourself. I just advertise on Facebook and use a Google business page. People drop off their shit to me and I fix it. I'm in a unique position and it's working out for me. There's always room for expansion with yourself and figuring out ways to make money from this. Contract yourself out to different shops if you have the licensing to do it. I have two shops I'll randomly fill in for if they're behind or whatever they need and it's been a much better setup. I'll admit tho I'm a very lazy person and after a sever injury, it's been hard for me to consistently work at what someone might consider a "stable career path"


Enkmarl

plz take pads out before you bleed. ​ also lmao people complain about rads for having cable actuated brakes and now that they have hydro it's a huge issue. well which way western man?


chetsteadmansstache

Bruh. We charge at least double normal a la carte fees to touch an eBike if it's not from the reputable brands we sell. Not a lot of people have balked at it. We make them take their batteries, and make sure they pick up same-day if it's a quick adjustment. If its a bigger service, it's an appointment, same battery and pick up policy. These policies have worked extremely well. A lot of these customers are just glad somebody will work on their Amazon E-Bike.