Bike electrician

[LLT]

Hey everyone,

Due to the previous owner of my bike trying to install a immobilizer and failing, my headlights have been turning off at random intervals and my kill switch is a little dodgy. By dodgy i mean when the bike is running if i reach down into the fairings and move the wires a little the rev's will drop and the bike will almost die.

So knowing nothing about bike electrics i took my ninja to this bike electrician in Osborne park. Told him about the previous owner and after a day he called me back and said its all fixed and it will cost $250. He commented how he spent 2 hours working on the bike and replaced a plug (under/near the seat) and reconnected the kill switch wire properly.

I was just wondering if $250 seems a bit excessive since i basically told him where to look for the problem? I could be wrong since i have never been to a motorbike electrician before but i just wanted some opinions.

[mantic]

Hey everyone,

Due to the previous owner of my bike trying to install a immobilizer and failing, my headlights have been turning off at random intervals and my kill switch is a little dodgy. By dodgy i mean when the bike is running if i reach down into the fairings and move the wires a little the rev's will drop and the bike will almost die.

So knowing nothing about bike electrics i took my ninja to this bike electrician in Osborne park. Told him about the previous owner and after a day he called me back and said its all fixed and it will cost $250. He commented how he spent 2 hours working on the bike and replaced a plug (under/near the seat) and reconnected the kill switch wire properly.

I was just wondering if $250 seems a bit excessive since i basically told him where to look for the problem? I could be wrong since i have never been to a motorbike electrician before but i just wanted some opinions.

$125 an hour, seems fair.

[Captain Starfish]

If it's the guy I think you mean, I'm not a fan. But in this case...

You couldn't do it. You paid someone else. He took a couple of hours (time racks up quickly). He charged you for it.

You didn't basically tell him where to look for it, you identified a couple of things which may have been relevant (or not). It would have taken time to identify which connector, and time to trace it up to the kill switch. Didn't tell him about that, did you...

It's fair. Pay it.

[filbert]

have to agree, if it's outside your skillset then it's going to cost you, anywhere from $60 to $150 an hour is reasonable.

keeping in mind most that would charge $60 an hour tend to get the job done more slowly where the more expensive tradesman wouldn't get repeat business if he wasn't good at his job, so it may end up costing you the same whether it's 2 hours at $150 job done nothing to worry about or 5 hours at $60 because he was fiddling around trying to work out what to do and you had to take it back 3 times.

as long as the problem is fixed i wouldn't lose any sleep over shelling out $250, pretty good value really since you didn't have to buy a manual or any specialist tools or break anything else in the process of trying to fix it yourself.

[truewheel]

I do the books for an auto-sparky, and this charge seems to be in the fair-high range. You may have saved 50 bucks somewhere else but your bike is now running sweetly.

Bike & car electrics is one of those trades where lots of unsmart folks think they can DIY it. Which usually means a mess for the qualified tradie to clean up - and sometimes lots of head scratching as they try to work out just what the DIY did. A much tougher fix than broken/replace. If you get an auto-sparky that doesn't know his shit it can turn into the dreaded intermittent issue. Ie take it back again. And again...

...if I had a $ for every time I heard this auto-sparky curse DIYers...

[Halo_2]

keeping in mind most that would charge $60 an hour tend to get the job done more slowly where the more expensive tradesman wouldn't get repeat business if he wasn't good at his job

Not true, im sure we all know places that charge and arm and a leg or people talk up places rep only to get a shit half assed job. The cheaper guy may have little overheads, trying to build his business/need work. At the end of the day you have to inspect the work

[filbert]

not entirely untrue either

cheap

good

quick

pick two just a general rule, there will always be exceptions, especially with franchised chains.

[Blu3y_666]

i used to work in the auto electrical trade and we charged a lil higher than most but we also used to repair of alot of others fuck up due to our quality work and quick turn around.

you do something long enough you can do it well and quick.... i still wasnt the quickest person even after 3 years on my own but you always learning as you go most of the time when trying to improve skills and finding ways to work more iffencent!

[LLT]

Thanks for the responses guys, its good to know that it was an ok price