am i hurting local bicycle shops by running my own shop out of my garage?

You are charging for your work.

You had better consider liability insurance as you are open to a lawsuit if something -- almost anything -- would happen after you worked on a bike. Someone crashes, blame your work on the brakes. Doesn't matter if you did it right or not, only matters if you can afford to protect yourself from their ambulance chasing attorney.

Sound ridiculous to you? Think again. All your assets are at risk (or your parent's assets if you live with them as you don't state that.) to litigation.

See, a bicycle shop pays liability insurance -- part of being professional. It is why they charge what the do as part of the cost of doing business.

As established experts they will be in business long after you lose interest in fixing Wal-Mart toys.

I have been in the bicycle business for over 35 years and can assure you that my repairs are FAR more complete than yours and I still carry $2 million liability insurance. It is less than $300 a year.

To do a repair correctly you should NEVER be using adjustable wrenches NO MATTER WHAT.

As soon as you touch another persons bike and charge ANYTHING- even if it is 2 cents- your responsibility starts for the correctness of the ENTIRE bike. Charging signifies that you are professional and "should have seen" anything else wrong with the bike. It is this "shoulda coulda" part that gets most bike mechanics in trouble. THIS is why many mechanics won't touch "Walmart" bikes- one problem usually signifies another.

Most times when a person comes in with a Walmart bike I provide a list of things I determined to be wrong with the bike if the customer refused the repairs. They then sign it and I keep the original, they keep a copy. If the customer is obviously under 18 years old I refuse the repair altogether.

It is only a matter of time before you end up homeless due to a claim against you. I hope your parents have good homeowners insurance.

EDIT: I just did a quick search on licensing and zoning in your area. I strongly recommend that you do the same or you may be subjecting your self and your family to hefty fines and possibly loss of your home.

You need to STOP, right now, and make sure that you have your parents check their homeowners insurance. If stuff you do isn't covered and they don't have an umbrella policy worth at least $1 million then you have to get one. Repairs that you have completed BEFORE now will not be covered and if something happens it will be a terrible thing.

I buy, sell, and service used bikes. Doing so I have a different perspective than some answering here.

1) Doing this at your home (or your parents home) WILL cause any claims to go against them- meaning the house or them personally;

2) Even if you put up a sign like "USE MY SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK" or something like that will NOT protect you from liability;

3) Your explanation of your work is clearly amateurish and shows lack of understanding about bicycle repairs. I do appreciate that you are trying- but there is a "right" way and a "wrong" way of doing things. The "right" way is to learn at a bike shop or school, the "WRONG" way is to get your information from youtube;

4) the way you say things clearly shows that you really DON'T have any real experience. If you like the industry, the way you are entering it will block you from anything further once a possible employer discovers what you did... it shows a disregard for common sense rules and the safety of customers;

5) You can't just pocket that money. Taxes are due on all of it regardless of your age.

So what if you are? As long as you have the right business licenses and insurance for what your doing, I don't think you should be concerned about what is happening at the LBS, it's still a (somewhat) free country after all.

EDIT: Unfortunately, you can still be sued and maybe lose everything even if your work was 100% correct. People sue for everything, even if they don't know how to use a QR, they might decide to sue you for their own ignorance if their front wheel falls off. Here is a bike shop being sued for something that happened nearly ten years ago in 2003:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Laws...

Probably not since you are working on Walmart bikes. Most shops wont touch them and if they do they charge more then it's worth to a customer. They are probably getting the parts from the shop anyway. It takes a lot of tools to be able to service a wide range of bikes.

If you are charging money, you need a business license. You will be subject to zoning ordinance, liability insurance, filling for taxes and book keeping. If you are buying stolen bikes you will be in deep trouble as well.

Even if you do a good job, you could still be sued.

As far as insurance goes consider if something breaks on a bike you've worked on and the person gets hurt. Who do you think is going to get blamed for it?

Hope you're saving Big Brother his share of that income, He's watching, you know ?

god

so m a ny words

you are just blabbing about yourself

i am sure you aren;t hurting the real shops

usually people who brag so much, can;t really do anything

sorry

wle