How can I trust the quality of your services?
At The Rapid Wrench, customer satisfaction is so important to us so we make sure that our service is at the top of our game, always. We’re always listening, learning, and being proactive with new training, tools and technology. We’re building quite the reputation for our service and skill set, so why not check us out on Facebook, WOMO (Word-Of-Mouth-Online), and Google Reviews to see over 1100+ reviews by our customers.
You can also see a compliation of our reviews here on our reviews page.
Who are your team members? What are their roles and experience?
We have a dedicated page for that here. You can find out all about the director and lead mechanic, Mike and his team.
What does a typical day look like for your mechanics?
Our team fills a broad spectrum of duties from day to day, however most of our days are spent services private clients bikes at their home or work address. We made a little video about that which you can view below.
We also do a all-day bookings at End-Of-Trip facilites, fleet servicing (schools, rowing clubs, businesses, etc), bike storage installations, mechanics classes, motorcycle transport, e-bike conversions, and more! So our days vary depending who calls us in.
What areas of Melbourne do you service?
We service everywhere in Metropolitan Melbourne.
Callout distance fee price is calculated by the shortest on-road driving distance. It is $4 per kilometre in one direction, applied after the first 10km from Richmond, Footscray, Surrey Hills, and Oakleigh.
Feel free to use the distance fee estimator in the footer of our website to see if there’s a distance fee for your area.
What days do you operate?
We do call-outs from Monday to Friday. We are closed on public holidays. Operating times are 8.00am – 6.00pm. Limited after hours appointments can be arranged for an additional fee, dependent on availability.
Do I need to book a service?
Yes. The best way is to contact Mike is by mobile . If you can’t reach him then leave a message or email. Mike will get back to you rapidly!
Do you do group services?
Do you service all types of bikes?
Do you stock parts?
Our vans stock a massive assortment of hi-quality spare parts to all his jobs. We stock genuine Shimano and SRAM drivetrain parts, and everything from cables to brake pads, grips, tires, fork seals, bar-tape, spokes, rim tape, bottom brackets, chains, cassettes, chain rings, rotors, basic seat posts, saddles, even spare nuts and bolts.
However, not all parts or quality levels can be kept in the service vehicle. If you need something specific it should be arranged ahead of time where possible.
If we don’t have a part we’re happy to get it organized for you ahead of a return visit. In many cases we don’t charge a minimum fee for the return visit – we keep things fair, and it is up to the decision of the mechanic on the day, based on the situation.
How long does it take to order in my parts?
It’s hard to say, but it will take the same time for us to get them as it would for any typical bike shop. We have accounts with just about all the suppliers in Australia and can get you what you need.
Some of our suppliers in Melbourne and Sydney have overnight shipping, and suppliers from WA and QLD can take 3-5 business days for an order to ship.
Will you fit parts I bought online?
What a common question. All too often consumers are getting attitude from bike stores when bike parts are bought for cheap online and off-shore, especially when the store has spent their time offering their precious sales advice. We know you love cheap online pricing, and still want quality advice. We will happily talk you through upgrade options, then expertly fit them for you, without the fuss and negativity!
Do you take on hi-tech race set-ups?
Those jobs are the most fun! We do speciality work on both road and mountain bikes including:
- Hydraulic brake bleeds
- Suspension fork strip/rebuild with new seals and oil
- Suspension spring rate and shim changes
- Shimano Di2 set-ups, retrofits and tunes
- Road and mountain tubeless tire setups
- Wheel building and truing
- Wheel hub conversions
- Speedo and Garmin calibration
Do you do bike fitting?
Yes, but only in its fundamental form – for example, we can give you advice on setting up seat height/angle, handlebar and brake lever/shifter ergonomics, and possibly stem length/bar height. However we do this in a non-scientific way, generally without taking measurements. This is suitable for a basic bike user experience, and is mainly to make sure your settings are ballpark/decent.
We also do general suspension setup using our many years of mountain biking and coaching experience.
A proper bike fit can be essential to advanced riders, and quite worthwhile to the average rider; but it’s best left to the experts in that field. We can refer you on to the best people in your area.
Will you build up a bike from the box for me?
Yes. Bike builds range from $50 for little child’s bikes, $99-130 for most adult bikes and ebikes, and up to $250 for complicated high-performance bikes such as triathlon race bikes, or downhill bikes including suspension setup. The minimum time required for any bike is 30 minutes. Dropper posts, tubeless, and handlebar/lever setup can be done at this time too. Building is charged at our general labor rate: $110 per hour. Keep in mind our minimum labor charge ($99).
If you’re unsure about what your bike would cost to assemble, just give us a call on 0416177802, or send an email.
Will you also re-box bikes for travel?
If you are traveling with your pride and joy then you want to make sure that disaster does not strike due to impatient baggage handlers. During our time in wholesale we re-packaged hundred of bikes for overseas travel, so we’re quite experienced! We go the extra mile to make sure your bike is boxed correctly. We remove derailluers from hangers, remove brake rotors if we think its required, etc. We’ll use an adequate amount of cardboard, foam and bubble wrap.
Leave it to the experts so your frame is unscratched and unharmed. We’ll even show up with a cardboard box if requested!
Will you be the wrench at my event?
Yes. Our services are often requested for large point-to-point rides, mountain-bike and road crit races, and personal support. Our team is able to cover a lot of ground to get in front of ride groups and set up quickly. We’re able to be set up in one place, or pick up and move on short notice, or follow a group for instant fixes – super flexible. Our experience is varied: from triathlons, mountain bike races, Ride2Work servicing, corporate events, school fleets, brand launches, charity events and fundraisers, and more.
We can cater for a user-pays system, or an event-organiser-pays system. Our goal is to keep every rider’s day on track, and add value, love and care to each event we cater for. We want to help in showing that the event organiser is pro-actively caring for its participants.
Our previous event experience includes:
- 4 x MS Melbourne Cycle
- 4 x Peter Mac Ride To Conquer Cancer
- 5 x 2XU Triathlon Series
- 5 x Victorian Downhill Series
- 5 x Alpine Gravity Enduro Victoria
- 1 x National Enduro Series – Victoria stage at Falls Creek with Blue Dirt
- 4 x Ride To Work service days
- 1 x VicRoads TAC Happy Riders safe riding promotion
- 1 x Festka Bikes/Bicycle Buyer demo days and brand launch
- 5 x Bikes for Tykes charity mechanic
- 1 x FACCI TDF Annual luncheon
- Road bike, on-ride support days
- Many mechanics group training sessions
- Many school fleet service days
- Many service days within the bike cages at big city buildings
- Many big days helping groups of riders with boxing and unboxing of bikes, ready for air travel.
*current as of July 2023
Contact us to talk about you’re requirements.
Can you service bikes belonging to my school?
Absolutely. Schools with a fleet of bikes love the ease and flexibility of our service.
Schools we’ve service bikes for include:
- Berwick College
- Brentwood Secondary
- Brighton Grammar
- Broadmeadows SDS
- Carlton Primary
- Casey Grammar
- Caulfield Grammar
- Croydon Hills Secondary College
- Elwood Primary
- Furlong Park
- Glenallens Special Needs School
- Heathmont College
- Jennings Street School
- Kilvington Girls Grammar
- Lalor North Primary
- Lynall Hall Community
- Melbourne Girls College
- Mt Scopus Memorial College
- Pasoni Rangebank Primary
- Patterson Lakes Secondary College
- Peninsula Specialist College
- Penola Catholic
- Rangebank Primary
- Reservoir High
- Richmond Primary
- Salesian College
- Scotch College
- St Arnaud Primary
- St Catherines School
- St Johns Regional College
- St Kevins Ormond
- St Leonards College
- Star Of The Sea
- Sydney Road Community
- Trinity Grammar
- Trinity Primary
- Valkstone Primary
- Warringa Park Special School
- Xavier College
Learn more about Fleet Servicing
Can you service bikes belonging to my rowing club?
Absolutely. Rowing clubs and schools with boat-shed bikes love the ease and flexibility of our service.
Rowing clubs we’ve serviced bikes for include:
- Caulfield Grammar (Albert Park and Southbank)
- Melbourne Girls Grammar (Southbank)
- Saint Catherines School (Southbank
- MLC Rowing (Southbank)
- Caulfield Grammar
- Brighton Grammar Rowing (Southbank)
- Loreto Toorak (Southbank)
- Scotch College (Hawthorn)
Learn more about Fleet Servicing
Do I need to be there while the service takes place?
Not really! Many customers aren’t able to be present during our business hours, but we have many workarounds. We are as flexible as you are.
Option 1: If you can’t be home, it may be convenient to ride or drive in to work with the bike, and we will do the service there.
Option 2: Most customers leave their bikes accessible so we can provide the service while they’re away.
- Hide a garage remote or door key.
- Leave it in a safe place around the back/side of the property, out of view.
- Leave it locked up and hide a key, or tell us the combination.
- Leave it with a neighbor or co-worker.
Option 3: Organise our arrival time for when you’re there, and tell us where to put the bike once we’re done.
In every case, it is completely at the customer’s discretion to take up this arrangement. Our insurance only covers us for bikes that are in our possession.
Is all servicing done on site?
We will travel to your home and business with the tools and spares necessary to complete most jobs. In rare occasions your bike may need to be taken ‘back to the lab’ to continue its’ pampering session. Your bike will be returned at an agreed time.
We don’t need you to provide space to work in, or parking for our van. We work inside or behind our work vehicles, and in the event there is no adequate parking at your location, we will load up your bike and drive somewhere suitable nearby. We’re good at solving problems like this from day-to-day.
How long does a service take?
Approximately 80 minutes for a General Service, 2-3 hours for a Pro service, and 3.5-5 hours for a full strip and service. Off-Road-Overhauls are generally a full day. A full bike build from scratch can take 3-7 hours, with some very complicated builds taking 10+ hours, it really depends on the bike and its parts.
Please note, if you don’t think you have time to be present during the service, you’re more than welcome to leave or not be present for the whole appointment. We often work on customers bikes at home when they’re gone. We can follow instructions to lock them up once we’re done and send you an invoice.
I hope you don't make a mess, will you?
Nothing to worry about there – a common misconception is that we need to set up in your living room, garage, or backyard.. BUT this isn’t the case. Our mechanics either work inside our big van, fully contained.. OR behind our smaller van in your driveway or on the street.
The only exception to this is when we work on indoor trainer bikes, but even for those we take the bike off the trainer and do most of the cleaning in our vans.
Any debris that release from the bike get swept up and disposed of. If there is any fear of oils dropping on to a precious driveway we will either: move to the roadside for this operation, take the parts off the bike and clean them in a washing tray, OR put protecting matting down. In our first ten years of operating we’ve never had a complaint about leaving a mess on the premises.
Even for our bike storage racks installations which do make a lot of dust and wood chips, we always sweet and vacuum after ourselves.
What methods do you accept as payment?
For payment on-site, we can accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, bank transfer, PayPal and PayID (0416177802). There is no additional charge for any option.
What if your pricing menu does not list what I need?
Have you seen the individual repairs pricelist ? If what you need isn’t there, and you have a specific job in mind, contact us for a quick quote.
Do you come out to do a quote only? What happens if I have a booking for a service/repair, and when you get here you find out that the repairs aren't worth doing due to extensive costs?
Unfortunately, we don’t offer ‘quotes only’ in-person due to the generally low cost of the work in comparison to the travel time and cost to get to your location. Salesmen in other industries generally quote for free due to selling product worth thousands of dollars- that isn’t the case for us. However, we can give you a pretty close price range for 95% of jobs based on our years of experience. Sending us photos of what you’re dealing with by email can also be a big help.
On the very rare occasion that we are already on-site, and determine that the work is not economically viable, we will simply charge you our minimum call-out fee of $99 (applied to most of Metro Melbourne. The fee will be based on the time and costs taken to get to your location, and nothing more). We can also simply do other work to your bike or bikes instead of the work we came for – this way you still retain the value of your booking.
Are you able to teach me or my organisation the art of bicycle mechanics?
Terms &
Conditions
Just some legal stuff, operational procedures, and house keeping.
By booking a service with The Rapid Wrench Mobile Bicycle Mechanic, you agree to all the below terms and conditions.
Customers watching while we're working
While we’re happy to share tips and tricks, help teach you how best to maintain and look after your bike and show you what parts needed attention, there also comes the time when we need to concentrate on doing our best work. Please let our mechanics do their job without long-lasting distractions.
We get that it can be interesting seeing our mechanics at work on your precious steed, and often we’re keen for a good chat about all that bike life – but please don’t look over our shoulder for the whole job. It can be distracting and we need to concentrate so that we do high-quality work, on-time.
Smoking around our mechanics
- Our mechanics love working out in the fresh air and we’d prefer to keep it that way. Please refrain from smoking while in the presence of our mechanics. This simple courtesy would go a long way to our comfort and ability to perform our duties.
- Due to sensitivities, our mechanics may decline to enter your property if the smell of smoke is present. If this is the case, our mechanics will ask you to bring your bike outside to be worked on, instead of the mechanic going inside to get it (eg, to detach it from a bike trainer, for instance).
Use of the mechanic's tools
It is required that all customers refrain from interacting with our mechanic’s tools and equipment, unless given express consent by the mechanic to do so, for instance during one of our mechanics classes.
Abusive or rude behavior around our mechanics
- Abusive physical or verbal behavior will not be tolerated. If there are any misunderstandings, or disputes between customers and staff, please discuss these with the staff in a calm and collected manner, OR please contact the business owner on 0416 177 802 to voice your concerns.
- The business reserves the right to terminate a service at any time due to aggression, hostility, or poor behavior of the customer.
Bookings
- Customer bookings can be made via phone, email, or website booking. In order to make the most efficient use of time and distances, your desired booking time and date may not be available. We will do our best to book you in at a time and date of your convenience, however please understand that on certain days we may be unable to attend your location due to scheduling conflicts.
- Booking times may be altered by the business in order to best suit travel requirements on the day. You will be notified of any changes to your booking before they are made.
Cancellations
Cancellations must be made a minimum of 24 hours before the scheduled service.
If cancellation occurs within 24 hours of a scheduled service, the business reserves the right to charge a cancellation fee in line with the standard minimum labor charge, $99 OR the total job value you we’re quoted, whichever is lesser.
No-show policy
If we show up to a confirmed booking and you are not present:
- ​We will first call or message you. We’ll door knock.
- We will see if you can allow access to the bike while you’re away.
- If we can’t get access to the bike, and/or you’re not contactable then this is considered a no-show.
- We understand that our customers are human too. We can forget, we can get the day or time wrong, or forget to let us know you wanted to cancel. When this happens it directly affects our mechanic’s income and schedule- we usually have a tightly packed day that is organized quite deliberately in a nice order, with jobs grouped together by location. It’s time-consuming to re-organize, and we might be caught waiting for hours until the next customer becomes available.
- We will always attempt to re-organize a new appointment, reshuffle the day’s bookings, or figure out a way to better the situation.
*** Depending on the reason for a no-show, or based upon the distance we traveled we may choose to charge a call-out fee for our time and expense incurred. In some circumstances, this may be our standard minimum labor spend per job: $99. This is standard practice in many trades and services, and even services where the customer attends the business’s premises. ***
Late arrival policy
We always strive to be on time and have great communication. However, there are many situations that are out of our control that can cause us to arrive late to jobs. Some of these things are just the nature of our working setup/conditions.
Reasons we could arrive late:
- Unforgiving traffic that we couldn’t plan for.
- Attending to enquiries.
- Jobs from earlier in the day have run over time.
- Previous jobs’s customers not realizing how bad of a state their bike is in and more time being required.
- Customers can ask us to do extra work “while we’re there” without telling us about it during the booking process- we try to accommodate these requests as best we can to keep everyone happy.
- We hit unexpected difficulties while working on bikes. Sometimes parts just aren’t cooperating and it slows us down, for example, parts that have been fitted too tightly, parts incorrectly fitted in the past, parts that damage or disintegrate while being worked on, tools breaking, and more.
What we will do to minimize disruption to your day:
- If you need us to arrive as on-time as possible, we will suggest the first appointment of our day.
- We will take on-board your specific instructions – some clients have to deal with their work, kids, pets, or other responsibilities. We’ll take note of this and work with you.
- We will give you an arrival time frame when you make the booking. For example, an 11am booking means you can expect us any time between 10.30 am and 12.30 pm.
- As soon as we realize we are going to run more than 30 mins late we will inform you either by calling or texting you, and give an updated ETA.
- We may choose to take bikes away with us and bring them back at a later time, to make sure that we arrive on time to the following bookings, where highly necessary.
When we have run out of time to complete your job
There are many reasons why we may run out of time to complete a job, such as:​
- Jobs from earlier in the day have run over time. Sometimes multiple jobs in succession have run over time so the final job of the day is really set-back.
- Previous jobs can run over time due to customers not realizing how bad of a state their bike is in, and it requires more work.
- Customers can ask us to do extra work “while we’re there” without telling us about it during the booking process – we try to accommodate these requests as best we can to keep everyone happy.
- We hit unexpected difficulties while working on bikes. Sometimes parts just aren’t cooperating and it slows us down, for example, parts that have been fitted too tightly, parts incorrectly fitted in the past, parts that damage or disintegrate while being worked on, tools breaking, and more.
- We are running behind and the next customer has a very tight and important deadline.
- Our business hours have finished.
- We need to order more parts for your job to continue.
If we run out of time to complete your job we will do our very best to schedule a new appointment to finish the remaining service items. If we’re halfway through a job we may opt to take your bike with us to complete at another time before returning. Usually, we would aim to attend within a day or two.
Payment
Payment of invoices is required on the day of completion, or on/before delivery to the customer.
For schools and corporate customers, unless otherwise agreed upon and written on the invoice, invoices are to be paid within an absolute maximum of 30 days. Please respect small business cash flow.
Non-payment and time frames
Unless otherwise specified, our payment terms are ‘due on completion’. For organizations such as schools, charities, big city buildings, and corporate clients, an extension of 30 days may be permissible to account for payment run schedules.
If we don’t receive a payment we will attempt to contact you by phone, SMS, or email. If we can’t contact you for 2 weeks we will try to reach you at the job address. If no payment or contact can be organized, we may engage a collection agency, even for small claims.
Parts
- Parts required for jobs may not be in stock at the time of service, and will potentially need to be ordered. Parts ordering can take a minimum of 2 days, and up to a week to receive from suppliers. In the case of parts on order, we may prefer to bring your bike back to our home base workshop and return it to you when the parts come in, and the job is completed. This helps with our workflow because we can finish off the job after hours, and we can make sure the received parts fit without needing to return to your location. Once done, it’s easier to schedule a drop-off time that works for both parties.
- Services DO NOT INCLUDE the cost of any parts needed for repair. These costs will be quoted to you upon inspection of the bike, or during the booking process. Parts Installation may incur additional labor charges, which will be quoted to you upon inspection of the bike. Please see individual labor charges on the Services and Pricing page.
- Note: some tiny and inexpensive items like cable end caps and ferrules are usually provided free of charge, but high end versions that are either needed or requested by the customer may present a charge. Usually small things like this are absorbed in to the labor charge.
Additional parts required. What if we can't get a hold of you?
Our standard policy when spare parts and additional labor are required is to get a go-ahead from the customer before performing additional work. Some small, inexpensive items like $8 brake cables and $2 bolts and washers are confirmed by default as they are a requirement to get the job completed to a satisfactory standard. In general, if we can’t get in contact with you and can no longer continue working on other things until we get an answer, we will have to leave the bike as-is.
Can I bring the bike to you?
In short, no. We are strictly a mobile service. Our mechanics have private residences and we don’t have a commercial base of operations – not yet. We may choose to bring customers’ bikes home for further completion of a job, however, customers aren’t permitted to attend a mechanic’s address.
Picking up the bike from high-rise apartments / excess time taken to access the bike and begin work vs bringing the bike to us
Our service is designed to provide make your life easy. As part of that, we will make our best efforts to run your bike in and out of your address, over to our workshop vehicle. From time to time the distance and complexity of the location where the bike is stored can cause quite a delay in our schedule.
Where possible, please have your bikes prepared to take out to our mechanic’s vehicle to help make our job straightforward. In situations where we help facilitate the transport of your bike through a complex building route, please provide us with accurate and concise instructions for us when you make your booking, to ensure we can provide an efficient service.
​If we need to spend more than 10-15 mins on-site, just to access the bike, we may need to:
- Decrease the amount of time we spend working on the bike, to match your budget expectations.
- Charge a small fee, fair and relative to the additional time required on-site.
Storage of bikes
Bikes held for pick-up and drop-off servicing where a return time cannot be agreed upon, or payment is not made, will be held for a maximum of 30 days, at which point they will be disposed of.
Damage while in possession
The business takes no responsibility for existing damage on customers’ bicycles.
The business takes no responsibility for perceived damage to customers’ bicycles that are supposed to have occurred during service or transport. Perceived refers, but is not limited to “not feeling right”, “not looking right”, and “not how it was given to the mechanic.”
The business takes no responsibility for damaged bolts, fasteners, fastening interfaces, threads, or mounting surfaces. If bolts are rounded out, snapped, or otherwise damaged, replacements may be sourced from our holding of assorted fasteners, however may not be available at the time of booking.
Bikes left at your address unattended
Many customers leave bikes unattended so that we can provide service while the customer is away. Sometimes we even make this as a suggestion. Sometimes the customer needs to leave after we have started the job, and we are instructed to leave the bike in a ‘safe place’. This could be at the front, side, or back of the property. Sometimes it is in a garage or shed, and we are provided a key that can be easily hidden in a discussed location. Sometimes there is a lock box. In each and every case, it is completely at the customer’s discretion to take up this arrangement.
The Rapid Wrench takes no responsibility for customer property stolen from their address before or after our mechanics have worked on them. Our preference is to have customers present for handover, but it isn’t always the case. Our insurance covers bikes stolen or damaged while in our possession, and public liability only.
Discretion based on the bike or location for service
- The business reserves the right to deny to service bicycles that the mechanic deems to be unsafe to work on.
- The business reserves the right to deny to service when the mechanic deems the location of the service, or its conditions to be unsafe to work on, and the bike can’t be picked up and taken elsewhere.
- The business reserves the right to deny service on bicycles that are covered in dog/bird/animal feces, spiders, a massive abundance of mud/dirt, or similar situations. The business also reserves the right to charge an additional fee for removal of such things.