Bikes are pretty low maintenance, the repairs are usually fairly simple, and the parts are cheap. It's hard to make margins on a low price low volume service. If a bike is really damaged it usually makes more sense to just replace it wholesale.

If e-bikes take off they could help. There are a lot more moving parts to break and especially electrical issues to track down. Electrical issues are real moneymakers in diagnostic fees on cars.

I think you might underestimate the higher end bike market.

Parts are often higher priced than what lots of people pay for complete bikes (e.g. a set of disc brakes 400$, a MTB fork 1000$, a groupset 1000$, a wheelset 800$, a dropper post 300$, etc). And the associated repairs like a brake bleed, a shock service or a wheel rebuild might take time and will have a high cost too.

You don't have to look into ebikes. On Mountainbikes that are used as intended parts break often enough to keep mechanics busy.

Ebikes might however indeed bring the higher priced bikes to a higher amount of people.

High end bikes are a tiny sliver of an already small market.

And also, while a groupset might indeed cost $1000, what sort of circumstances might require one to replace the entire groupset?

(We're talking repairs rather than upgrades.)

A chain for a high end group (like a XX1 Eagle) is 80$. A replacement cassette - that you will need after 2-3 chains is 300-500$.

And if you are into mountainbiking - there is also a fair amount of chance you might break something like a derailleur and spend a few hundred to fix that.

Riding 50k km on dust/gravel roads, and the frame and wheels will still be good but chain and groupset will be significantly worn.

Chain is indeed a wear item. It costs tens of dollars to replace.

$1000 groupsets simply don't deteriorate in the manner you describe. Source: I rode many thousands of kilometers on my gravel/adventure bike, including a 1000km ride around Kenya (very dusty, rocky roads where there are roads). The only two groupset components I needed to replace on this 2016 bike so far were the derailleur hanger and a jockey wheel. The former got bent due to carelessness on my part and could have been straightened, but I chose to replace it for structural reasons. The bearing in the latter got a little sticky and so I replaced the jockey wheel.

Each of the two parts cost the equivalent of US$15 here in the UK.

I think this is a very long way from replacing the entire $1000 groupset, which was what the post I was replying to suggested.

I believe the new 11s/12s with their higher chain angles tend to wear faster. They actually recommend changing it with the chain.

I think we're talking about different things.

I am talking about the groupset (the shifters, brake levers, brake calipers, derailleurs, crankset, bottom bracket, chain and cassette).

There are indeed some wear items (chain; cassette, especially if the chain isn't replaced when worn; brake pads; brake rotors) but, apart from those, a looked-after quality groupset can last decades.

> Bikes are pretty low maintenance, the repairs are usually fairly simple

Most forks and rear shocks require full service yearly or more frequently (typically every 100 to 200 hours). It is not that simple and requires experience and tools. Tubeless tires are messy. Bleeding breaks is another thing I would rather not do at home. And frankly, I can never setup my derailleur as well as my mechanic.

> the parts are cheap

Shocks, forks, transmission components, performance wheels are easily in the iPhone category and beyond.

Clothing, protection, accessories, smaller components like handlebar stems or seatposts are still usually in the three digit range.

You would be surprised to know how much consumables like chains and tires can cost per year.

> low volume service

I might be living in a place where both MTB and road cycling are very popular, but bike mechanics have so much work that they redirect clients to each other.

> If a bike is really damaged it usually makes more sense to just replace it wholesale

Full suspension bikes can easily have a $2K frame and $2K worth of components. Unless it was hit by a freight train, the bike is almost never completely destroyed by a crash. So it makes sense to replace what's broken. If the frame is solid, everything else is replaceable.

As long as bikes are ridden hard, there is always work for mechanics, and it can be pretty expensive.

An acquaintance of mine tried to do the cafe/sales/repair thing [1]; he went more high end on all three, selling fancy drinks, pricey Dutch cargo bikes, etc. It didn't work out. I think they lasted ~3 years, though it was clear by the end that the writing was on the wall.

[1]: https://twitter.com/berlinbikecafe

I'm not exactly sure why Berlin Bike Cafe didn't really work out in the end. I do think KW is very well served by existing bike shops, and while Graham focused on a market segment that isn't well-represented by incumbents, it meant that he needed time for it to grow as well. London Bike Cafe seems to be chugging along quite nicely on a similar model, so it doesn't seem like it was an entirely hopeless endeavour on the face of it.

> he went more high end on all three

Maybe that was the problem there?

Possibly, but it was also not a large storefront, and it's been replaced by a boutique donut shop. It's down the street from a creperie, a wine bar, and some other bistro thing. There used to be a health food store on this block.

Basically just saying that some combination of floor space, rent and other fixed costs, etc etc led to pursuing a higher-end business model and it didn't work out. There may be lots of reasons for that, but one of the principles here is that you need to be able to bike to your bike store— it's not fulfilling its purpose if it's in a power center plaza that you need to drive to.

Yeah high-end cafe seems like a tough sell. A cheap cafe to go to during group rides sounds great for having people learn about your high end service shop.

I feel like high end bike service in general is a tough sell unless you have a huge local club-ride community of people whose time is extremely valuable.

I know someone who operated a Velofix van for a few years, and I used it a few times, but the minimum cost was basically $100+. For that much coin, I would just walk my bike home or take it on the bus. Particularly if it was something like a flat tire where I know I can fix it myself at home for a few dollars.

Berlin is the wrong place for that. Even in tech salaries are often in the EUR45k range gross, and with mandatory medical insurance at EUR400/m, rent at probably EUR800/m and still taxes it doesn't leave much for expensive bicycles.

Cheap bicycles plus good mid-priced service is where it's at. Of course, that's hard, dirty, skilled work.

Note that this is Berlin as in the pre-WWII name of Kitchener, Canada, not the Berlin in Germany.

Ah, I saw a similar setup in Berlin, Germany at a location which has now been replaced by Rose Bikes, and the cafe seems to be gone.