What is a good price to pay for a motorcycle mechanic for these repairs? - (my other question'll explain more)

Question

I was wondering what a fair price is to pay a motorcycle mechanic hourly for their work/time. Here in Cadillac - Michigan, one small bike shop that works on Hondas said he charged $60 per hour. (I have a 1981 Honda Twinstar CM200T - 200cc)

That seems like a lot of money to pay, since they could just take all day to do something like clean a single carb or do a tune up.

I need to get my shift lever (or tranny) worked on (I can only shift between neutral and 1st), and I also need some work done on my carb (I'm not sure...it might be the valves).

it's a single carb, V-twin bike. I cleaned the carb twice on it...the second time I noticed the main jet stuck in the bottom of the float bowl...which I cleaned up and put back in the proper place, even though the threads are a little corroded on it.

This didn't seem to make any difference. Didn't change the gaskets, they looked OK.

It's also burning too rich.

What would be a good price to pay for these things?

thanks

Answer 1

wow...that's a d**n good price!....I'm in Ca and they charge 80-90an hour here...i'm taking my bike in 2morrow and getting charged $89/hr just for diagnostics...hope my prob is covered by warranty.  I would invest in a maint manual and learn on your own if you have time. Buy carb rebuild kit, work in clean area with ventilation.   Maybe let him do a diagnostics check and let you know whats wrong and then you can fix it yourself...then you can always have him as a 2nd option if you can't fix it...that way you can save up some $ till you take it back.  It's always good to know how to fix your bike...carb or injected...never know.  I once payed $120 for a mech to check my 4wheeler for not starting..all it was, was a loose ignition wire....but had to pay labor.  good luck

Answer 2

That labor rate is very good and cleaning and adjusting carb is a long job.Yours is a in line twin not a vtwin. At most shops around here the rate for cleaning carbs is 200 per carb.

Answer 3

Every shop will usually give you an estimate before performing any work.

They estimate it by how long the job usually takes (they've performed it over and over on other machines) and multiply that by the shops labor rate.

Answer 4

lots of places charge 80 an hour. In atlanta the cheapest place I found was 65 bucks an hour, but I didnt look at a whole lot of places, just a couple. They claimed to be the cheapest (but I have no experience in this area). If they seem trustworthy to you, then ask them for an estimate

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Answer 5

Last time i needed work done on my bike i found a private shop. He charged $65 an hour, he billed on true hours. Not how many hours a computer told him it should take.

I felt that it was completely fair, and well worth the cost for the quality of work that he did. He has been working on bikes for 50+ years, i trust his work alot more then a 20 year old just starting out in the mechanics field.