Archived Bike building hours.

[EchoFoxtrot]

Just wondering...how many hours do yall have for your bike builders a week? Also if you know: how many bikes on average are shipped to you, built, or sold? This helps if you are part of flow team and notice a lot of bikes and how big your trucks are etc. but if anyone on any part of the team has any insight I would love to know. I want to suggest changes to my schedule but I dont want to sell my self short. I work my ass off building bikes and making sure they're ride-worthy and always end up with spare time at the end of my shift to help other team members out so I'm like..am I being over scheduled? Don't get me wrong I love the hours but should I mention it at all? I hate to be disingenuous.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

It depends on how well bikes sell at your store. My bike guy has 12 hours this week, 8 hours next week. The rack is full, this week. We know what will happen to next week hours.

 

[Kompa]

None, me and two other guys just rotate building them when we get free time

 

[Ringwraith917]

5 hrs/wk. Usually 4-5 bikes per week. Some weeks more, some less. I just let my ETL know when I'm done. My regional manager should be happy; every time they would visit, they would say how we need to have 0 bikes to build in the steel.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

5 hrs/wk. Usually 4-5 bikes per week. Some weeks more, some less. I just let my ETL know when I'm done. My regional manager should be happy; every time they would visit, they would say how we need to have 0 bikes to build in the steel.

Awesome. This makes me feel adequate then. I happened to be filling outs on the bike wall when we had a regional manager do a "walk" with our STL. The STL introduced me to him and the Regional/District? w/e he was said I did a great job on the bikes. I try to stay up to date with them and I even find myself removing ads that weren't taken down. Saves me a headache in the long run since selling a bike at a discount we advertise means another bike I need to build. I'd rather the bikes not sell too fast. haha

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

None, me and two other guys just rotate building them when we get free time

Wish I had that luxury but being the only one that can do it gives me some sort of security.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

It depends on how well bikes sell at your store. My bike guy has 12 hours this week, 8 hours next week. The rack is full, this week. We know what will happen to next week hours.

Your STL micro manages bike shifts? I can only imagine that working in a lower volume store but then again I am only 2 years in as an employee here.

 

[SFSFun]

We usually get two hours per week, sometimes four. We actually went a month in the spring with zero hours.

It works in the fall and winter, but right now the sales floor is about 75% full, there are no built bikes in the backroom, and the four BR steel locations for unbuilt bikes are completely full with 10-15 stacked on the ground.

 

[Circle9]

Every few weeks somebody looks at the pile of unbuilt bike boxes, goes "oh shit" and tells somebody who knows how to build a bike to build bikes for a few hours. Then a couple more weeks pass and the process repeats again.

Now taking care of the pile of defective and returned bikes? Yeah right.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

Every few weeks somebody looks at the pile of unbuilt bike boxes, goes "oh shit" and tells somebody who knows how to build a bike to build bikes for a few hours. Then a couple more weeks pass and the process repeats again.

Now taking care of the pile of defective and returned bikes? Yeah right.

My confidence boosts every new info I get from other stores. I defect about 6 bikes a month and sell around 10 on average...wish it wasn't so fucked but it sounds like I'm doing good and the hours are worth it. I get 12-16 hours a month to build bikes depending on how many we get off the truck and haven't had an empty spot on the salesfloor for more than 5 days ever. I keep being told I'm doing great but I was kind of self conscious about it. I know ASANTS but damn, maybe I should stop being paranoid.

 

[Circle9]

My confidence boosts every new info I get from other stores. I defect about 6 bikes a month and sell around 10 on average...wish it wasn't so fucked but it sounds like I'm doing good and the hours are worth it. I get 12-16 hours a month to build bikes depending on how many we get off the truck and haven't had an empty spot on the salesfloor for more than 5 days ever. I keep being told I'm doing great but I was kind of self conscious about it. I know ASANTS but damn, maybe I should stop being paranoid.

Sounds like you're kicking ass to me.

Last summer we had around 70 unbuilt bikes sitting around unlocated in a storage container. Someone would try to schedule a bike builder then somebody else would remove them from the schedule for weeks if not months. By the time people came to their senses, people weren't really shopping for bikes anymore.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

My STL and the flow TL both get on me and schedule more hours if we have more than 5 bikes in the steel. I think it's good management, knowing how much I can do and how fast. We had a bike builder that could put out 5 bikes in an hour before but that was due to him knowing how to build bikes previously. I am just now considering myself trained after half a year building 'em. I got training one day before he left the company. Sad I couldn't run things by him anymore. I have depended on youtube tutorials and google to fill in the gaps. Bike building at some stores seems a priority while others seems to be a "when we get to it" thing. Kinda weird that there is no policy for it but there is for almost any other position in the store.

 

[BackroomBear]

Damn my store must sell a lot. We've got maybe 40 in the bulk steel. I keep asking my ETL-LOG why they're not building bikes. Doesn't seem a priority with market and softlines E2E treading water at best

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

Damn my store must sell a lot. We've got maybe 40 in the bulk steel. I keep asking my ETL-LOG why they're not building bikes. Doesn't seem a priority with market and softlines E2E treading water at best

If your bike wall is full, it seems your ETL LOG and STL wont mind. That's the case for me at least. Oddly enough though, having that many bikes in the back is unfathomable to me so I cannot even give a good thought on that. Unless yall are super high volume. Our trucks are like 2000 average though, so I cant imagine we are that low volume to only have 5-10 in the steel ever in my time here. My store focused on softlines and market nearly two months ago, got them both brand new TLs and are now focusing back on truck, backroom, bike building and receiving. We all are being focused on hard now and I have got the least of the issues due to me being seemingly above what they expected. Actually there were very little changes to how we run truck, backroom or receiving either.

 

[BackroomBear]

I think most stores have racks in back to keep bikes built on. They're only building bikes when the wall is like 60% full. Why not build all of them? As far as I know bikes can't ever be swept back. But hey whatever I work 4 hrs a week now. Hard to be too concerned.

 

[EchoFoxtrot]

I think most stores have racks in back to keep bikes built on. They're only building bikes when the wall is like 60% full. Why not build all of them? As far as I know bikes can't ever be swept back. But hey whatever I work 4 hrs a week now. Hard to be too concerned.

We do but my STL loves it when he sees no backstock and only 4-5 bikes to be built. I get complimented every week when I come in to build them and knock them all out with time to audit the wall. I keep being told to not worry about bikes until christmas and early summer...I made it through early summers rush and now christmas bike gifts are the next worry. I handled it as a newbie last year- I have no worries now. I am just surprised how different some stores are. 70 in the steel would be a nightmare for my BRTL, STL, Flow TL and LOG TL...four tls running around with that on the back of their mind is scary. Hahaha

 

[anathema]

Not sure how many hours we get anymore as I don't do schedule, but it varies so widely. Anything more than 4 would be a surprise to me and we're B-volume. I take note of how many bikes to be built, keep the bike wall full, and ask a flow TM that knows how to build to stay an hour or two to clear out any unbuilt bikes. My goal is to always have all bikes built. Any more than 3 unbuilt and I keep someone to build them right away.

 

[Backroom81]

We get about 4 hours and sell an average of about 7 bikes every week. Our bike builder keeps the bike wall and the fixture for storing extra built bikes in the backroom (it holds about 30) full. Even then, we usually have an additional ~25 unbuilt bikes in the steel because corporate won't lets us sell through our leftover Christmas inventory without replenishing it. Apparently, we NEED to have 6 of a certain mountain bike or 10 of a certain youth bike on hand at all times.