bike valet anyone?

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

Salt isn't abrasive, it dissolves in the washing water so it won't be - well you could throw lumps of salt at your bike I suppose, that'd damage it - anyway the problem with salt is that it is corrosive, but even then as long as you adequately rinse it afterwards you can happily use washing up liquid for cleaning your bike*, if you don't let it remain on your bike after washing it can't do any harm.


*The thing is other cleaners are just better for the job, and not dear either.

oooo thats helpful mr squid, i never really was quite sure on the washing liquid front

Huh? I can do mine (full wash, rinse, dry, wax and downpipe) in about an hour if I go quick!

I guess that doesn't include removing the back wheel, but I think it's good enough!

Personally I think you will encounter 2 problems:

1) Size of market. Catering for just bikes severely narrows your market, you would need to cater for cars & vans, but specialise on bikes.

2) Percieved value. I would shudder at paying any more than £20 for a valet on my bike, that's at most, an hours work if you intend on making any money. People with £20k plus cars will have now problem paying £50 upwards for a valet, different on a £4k bike.

Admitidly, once you had got a couple of months experience under your belt I reckon you could get a decent wash and wasx on a bike in an hour. We all take a bit longer because we're not being paid for it and it's a bit of "therapy" on a Saturday afternoon.

If you are going to start a business doing it, target corporate customers on places such as high tech business parks. That's where you'll make your money, doing a number of vehicles all at the same venue as you have no travel time and can generally use their electricity and water.

Just my opinion...

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Originally Posted by Jelster

Personally I think you will encounter 2 problems:

1) Size of market. Catering for just bikes severely narrows your market, you would need to cater for cars & vans, but specialise on bikes.

2) Percieved value. I would shudder at paying any more than £20 for a valet on my bike, that's at most, an hours work if you intend on making any money. People with £20k plus cars will have now problem paying £50 upwards for a valet, different on a £4k bike.

Admitidly, once you had got a couple of months experience under your belt I reckon you could get a decent wash and wasx on a bike in an hour. We all take a bit longer because we're not being paid for it and it's a bit of "therapy" on a Saturday afternoon.

If you are going to start a business doing it, target corporate customers on places such as high tech business parks. That's where you'll make your money, doing a number of vehicles all at the same venue as you have no travel time and can generally use their electricity and water.

Just my opinion...

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Therapy? CHORE is more the word I'd use...

[fizzwheel]

I quite enjoy cleaning my bike, it gives me a chance to give it a thorough visual insepction and check over stuff like the chain, brake pads, tyres etc etc

I must admit I like to do the basic washes myself to give the bike a good look over.

But I would pay for valeting if:

- I was selling a bike

-for the annual full monty wash to remove all the oils, sprays and unguents that have been sprayed over the winter in inaccesible places.

cheers

ps Jelster seems to have a good view on this

Good to see you're looking to do something with this!

The idea of doing different levels of cleaning sounds like a good one. To me £20-30 sounds fair for a standard clean, and £40-50 to get it immaculate.

You would need to add cost of travel time/fuel/vehicle depreciation/etc to make a mobile business viable financially, but could always consider starting off at home on weekends?

Steve's mentioned a few target markets if you're going the whole hog, another thought would be people trying to sell their bike - one that looks good is going to leave a better impression and sell more easily/for more ££

Whatever the scale you decide to do this on, I'm guessing your main market is likely to be people with a bit of money and who value their (relatively limited) spare time enough to pay someone else to do chores for them. Just a case of figuring out what they want and how to reach them!


good luck!

I would agree a lot of the above

(a) Outside London the market is proably too small to make a full time living at it so doing cars as well might be sensible.

(b) Offer a range of services - Bronze, Silver, Gold with the cheapest no less than £15. I think there's a market for both the quick clean - the hour's worth and more advanced services. Some of us want our bikes not to rot, others want them spotless.

(c) Getting your pricing is right is crucial. I would work out what you want to take home an hour, how many hours you're prepared to work, make a realistic and comprehensive assessmnet of your costs (including tax, NI, pension as well as van drunning and depreciation, materials etc) and see what that means you should charge.

(d) Where are you going to do it? Presumably at customers' homes/premises? This will add to your costs in terms of travelling, depreciation

(e) Get advice from your local Chamber of Commerce, Regional Development Agency - ther are often subsidies (and normally free business advice) for new SMEs (Small and medium sized enterprises) starting up cos the government think that's where the future employment growth will be.

Good luck and hope it's a goer.

I hate washing my bike and that has to be one of the main reasons why I don't use it in poor weather. Its a quarter of the size of my car but takes five times as long.

I had wondered if there was anyone doing a cleaning service as I'd rather pay £50 than go out in the cold and do it myself. Of course I would expect a really good job for that, has to be someone that really knows bikes and won't squirt water where they shouldnt etc. Not too fussed about having it polished with the worlds finest wax, just a good proper clean in all the little gaps that I don't have time to do and all the required lubrication done. Getting the muck and filth out of the tricky places is my problem.

Obviously I'd only pay a tenner for the basic wash than I can do myself in half an hour with a sponge and a bucket of car shampoo.

I'd imagine many people would want a good thorough wash before selling the bike as the wash would pay for itself.

I give my SV a thorough doing over the other day with Turtlewax wash wax - it's lovely to use and leaves a good finish. I give it a rinse with water and then got my mate over with his Pure Water window cleaning kit to give it a spot free rinse - this way I did'nt have the chammy off afterwards. Kwakzzr it may be worth looking into a basic pure water setup - it does a brill job, sounds proffesional, will save you time, and you could itemise it as 'Spot free rinse', and charge accordingly