A workshop three doors from the showroom, for machines we sold and machines we did not.
A routine bike service from 450 rufiyaa, a full service with brakes, filters and adjustment from 950, and a car service from 1,400. Parts on the shelf for everything we sell, which is a deliberate cost we carry so that a customer is not walking to work for five weeks.
The interval here is not the interval in the book. In a place with short journeys, constant heat and salt air, we service a bike every three thousand kilometres or every four months, whichever comes first, and the months matter as much as the kilometres because a machine standing still in this climate is still corroding.
Salt protection is most of what makes a machine last, and almost all of it is free. Rinse with fresh water once a week, chain and underneath included, then dry it and spray the chain. Four minutes. Keep it out of direct spray if you can, cover it if it lives outside, and check the brake caliper bolts and the exhaust mountings twice a year because those are where corrosion turns from cosmetic into serious. We will show anybody this at the counter whether or not they bought the machine here.
What we replace early rather than late, because the consequence is worse than the part: brake fluid, chains and sprockets as a set rather than singly, fork seals once weeping, and any electrical connector showing green. Chasing an electrical fault caused by one corroded connector costs several hours of labour, which is many times the price of replacing it while it was merely ugly.
We give a written estimate before work starts and we telephone before doing anything beyond it. If we find something that can safely wait, we say it can wait.