Thank you in advance for your thoughts and opinions. Does this sound like a fairly quoted repair job?

I prefer not to answer any questions that will specifically identify the shop. With that in mind I will do my best to provide all relevant details and answer any questions posted.

The Bike:
Recently acquired 1972 DT 250 - completely original, nothing done yet , 5,760 miles, hadn't run for many many years when I got it. Ran like a beast right away when I filled it up. 

Work Done:
-replace two leaking/broken oil lines
-check oil pump (working fine)
-replace front and rear sprocket
-replace and tighten chain
-replace fuel filter and air filter
-replace 3 rear wheel bearings
-replace rear brake shoe
-replace spark plug and mend break in line going into plug
-Replace slightly leaking original petcock with ebay one, see it is leaking worse, put original back on with the new gasket (seemed to fix leak but diagnostic notes petcock filling the carb in off position but I haven't experienced any problems or seen drips from that)
-some screws and bolts noted as very stuck and time consuming to remove

Hours:
14 reported but kindly only billed 12. Halfway through the project as the time added up faster than I expected I asked to shoot for 10 hours of total work with a 12 max for this go around.

I can believe that this stuff is time consuming. Still, I was hopeful that a specialist vintage bike mechanic with 40 years experience could do more in this amount of time. I really appreciate your opinions. Thanks again.

-Bubs

I would find it fairly simple to complete your list within about 4 hours. I would budget 2 hours for the rear wheel associated items, 1 hour for the oil pump and lines, and 1 hour for the spark plug/petcock/filters items. Possibly you are being billed separately for removing and replacing the rear wheel on each task - sprocket change, brake shoe change, wheel bearing change? Or perhaps there were additional service items done that you haven't mentioned here, such as carburetor cleaning, ignition points and timing, fuel tank flushing and cleaning, etc?

There's a flat rate manual in the Tech Library. Shows what Yamaha used for billing hours for various tasks. Flat rate hour manuals are sometimes known to be generous on the time...

I agree with about 4 hours for the basic maintenance listed... even if you add a couple hours for stuck screws that would be six hours... but it's really hard to say for sure.

It sort of matters what the shop rate is as well... total price. If it was $100/hr or $1200 that would definitely be excessive in my opinion. If you were charged $10/hr or $120 that wouldn't be so bad.

Link to flat rate manual: yamaha-enduros.com/index.php/service-bul...anty-manual/download

Time sure does run away when things don't got to plan & be straight forward. What's his hourly rate like. With vintage 'anything' cars bikes etc its good if you can do the work yourself as often there's a hold up with rusted in bolts like axles & swinging arm etc. Good idea is to ask for an estimate of repairs, hoping it'll be close to the mark. At work, "when i worked lol" not talking vintage but still relevant, customer might bring in an older bike & say do this & that specifying jobs then top it of with "& fix anything else you see". Throws me right out of gear. I like things listed to tick off then i make a list of things found above & beyond that & let them say yay or nay depending on order of importance & giving an estimate of those jobs but always have in mind that unforseen things can still bite ya like rusted swing/arm bolt. Is your mechanic a retired person or an operating shop. Anyway--just my thoughts.

I agree, "vintage" bikes can be whole different animals from when they were new(er). Heck, just diagnosing what needs to be addressed can take an hour or more. Then, what's uncovered as you get into it. I did two 'down to the frame' rebuilds on CT70's earlier this year. One went rather easy and quick, the other took much longer. On the surface both looked relatively close, condition wise.

Bottom line is, I'd hate to venture a guess without knowing more details about the particular case.

Thanks everyone! The shop rate is $35 an hour. He is a retiree with a home shop. I liked the mechanic and he seemed competent but I can't shake the feeling that the hours are inflated. And of course nobody likes doing business that way. If it really takes that long I would bring him more work in the future. But as I feel now I don't think so. I want to learn to do more of this myself but I am working full time and have a one year old so for a while I need somebody to take some stuff off my plate. At least for a while. It was hard just finding this guy to begin with so I had high hopes things would work out better.

Hi Mark, I noticed from several of your posts in different threads that you are extremely good at searching the Forums. I was looking and looking for any posts about piston reboring and then finally I found a post you made where you linked to all previous discussions on the topic. So helpful. You either have a really good memory for posts or you wield the built-in search tool must more effectively than me. Thanks here for the flat-rate manual that is super useful!

In my younger days I was a (PSR) Product Support Representative for a forklift dealer in the early 2000’s and my job was to quote many repairs, having turned wrenches for many years prior I had a good idea what a job would take to complete, although I used the flat rate manual religiously, I still added 25% in hours to the flat rate manual suggestion as our jobs were done in the field and not in a clean shop with all the proper equipment and help, and the machines were usually older very dirty models with rusted bolts.
Our Dealer labor rate was $110.00 per hour plus all the other things that automatically got added on (shop supplies fee, environmental fee, disposal fee) and numerous other hidden crap the hourly rate ended up around $130.00 an hour. When I read your list I immediately thought 4 hours to be on the fair side for the mechanic and maybe 5 hours for stubborn bolts or unforeseen stop and starts or unless all the parts were there and waiting and the correct parts, sometimes you start off a job and find more needs to be done once you open it up, such as your wheel bearings, what shape are the brake shoes in, rim strip, new tube, new tire? We would not install customer supplied parts sometimes customer would want to supply parts and what happens when they are wrong or cheap quality, that machine is taking up valuable space while waiting for correct parts (we had to make money on the parts marked up 35% as well) if a customer supplies the part as not sure in your case the petcock who eats the labor for install and reinstall, if we supplied the parts we ate the labor on the re-work.

I think you got off in fair shape, not easy finding people willing to work on old rusty & crusty bikes where parts and information is usually scarce, most mechanics nowadays only want or can work on the new stuff, the first tool that comes out of their toolbox now is a laptop to connect and get codes and see where to begin, gone are mechanics that can rebuild starters or rebuild components, with labor rates and parts availability what they are, it is more cost effective to replace complete assemblies vs. fixing what you have.

There is no fee for "A Mechanic's" smarts regarding time honed knowledge. It's really easy to look at time spent resurrecting a bike using your own expected guide of how long a resurrection process should take. But that is simply not reality. $420 labor to go over your bike and give it back to you in a working order is a deal! Modern shops simply can't deal with old bikes and their labor rate is going to be alot closer to $100 an hour or more, and they will want to replace EVERYTHING! A time honed mechanic can get through & deal with old parts, re-use, make gaskets, etc...have those unteachable instincts that you cannot put a price on. Be thankful you found someone who is at $35 an hour and willing to spend quality time on your bike to get you riding it!

I read the original post and it didn't mention any money. There were things on the list that probably didn't need to be done.?. Finding somebody to work on your vintage motorcycle that's 50 years old is like trying to find a nun hanging out at hedonism Island. Generally speaking, if you don't know how to do the bike yourself, the bike cost about $1600 to purchase, ( not running 20 years ) you're going to have to put generally "that amount of money into it anyways" ( another $1600 ) to get the bike ( CORRECT and SAFE ) -- it's been done before -- and it's been covered before -- on this website.