Okay, I'm getting so damn fed up I can't find anywhere suitable to get my bike fixed and the aptly named Bike Fix won't do it for any less than £75 because I haven't got any haggling skills, weed or a fancy messenger tag, which is a joke.

So please would anyone or anyone who knows anyone who wants some brazing experience to get in touch so I can lend them my bike for them to fix.

It might be pretty cheap for a professional job, but being unemployed, about to start uni (and rent) and still hoping to keep up touring... I can't afford a professional job!

Besides, it won't take any longer than an hour, so it means that his going rate is little under £75 an hour.

i don't know what the damage on the frame is, but, being a frame builder, let me tell you this:

a. i have to rent space to fix and build frames in.
b. i have tools i need to buy so i can build and fix frames. today i was using a $70 carbide cutting end mill for a $40 job and it broke. do the math.
c. what's the cost of a new frame?
d. your repair person will (should!) repair it to a standard better than it was.
e. can you do it? if you think you can, get the tools and find out.
f. i have to use OA, braze, flux and perhaps a lug or a tube or two. none of those are free.

not trying to be a c***nut, but that's the way it is.

Arif, get f***ing real. Brazing is a difficult skill, which is why people spend years learning it, and requires the kind of tools you CAN'T buy at Woolworths. I don't know what is wrong with your frame, but £75 is a fair price for even a basic repair. If you care about the frame, you definitely do not want to let some muppet loose with a torch on it so he can get "some brazing experience".

Alternatively, ignore us all, and go to a car body shop and have it welded.

I've been condemned by Bill... I'll <b>never</b> make it as a courier now!

I know there are many reasons which add up. Bike fix (like any other bike repair place) aren't a charity and therefore of course I'm not expecting to turn up and some guy says, "erm... give me 20 quid, I'll seal it up for you now", rather than the actuality.

But needless to say it is a joke. There are many many <b>many</b> (infinately) more 'jokes' in the world and that's perhaps why bike fix feel compelled to be one of them, but that doesn't make it any less so.

... Maybe if I had a joke of a job, I'd be able to laugh this one off...

maybe if you had a job you wouldn't have time to winge but you'd have £s to pay for the things you want.

what is a joke about a shop asking for the going rate for a repair? do you assume that we're all getting some huge discount in there?

I say VISCOUNT. The minty ones. Yum.

Prefer the orange ones.Cheap in Iceland.(the supermarket)
Last time tho I got one extra.During packaging there must 've been a MISCOUNT.

don't feed the troll. unless it's a knukcle fukkin sandwich.

it wasn't a bullet and it wasn't his head

you're doing a fair bit better than most bicycle couriers

ever considered drug dealing?

and i'll ask again: what is a joke about a shop asking for the going rate for a repair?

Sleepy, 'the going rate' on most peoples dinner plates is meat. Does <b>that</b> (alone) make it right?

Mmmm, murder. Tasty, tasty murder.

The whole joke will only be revealed Arif when you finally buy a full length mirror