# Anyone heard of Trax?



## Soup890 (19 Mar 2014)

What ever you do don't buy it for your lil ones. They are useful as David Moyes 2013/2014 signings. 

My son has trouble peddling them. He is 4 years old. He does not have the motor skills to peddle correctly but the bike is stiff that he peddles anti clockwise then peddles clockwise to go forward (then repeats)

And as for David Moyes!!!


----------



## mcshroom (19 Mar 2014)

Trax are Halfords bottom range. Apollo bikes are poor so I'd hate to think how bad Trax BSOs are


----------



## summerdays (19 Mar 2014)

Soup890 said:


> What ever you do don't buy it for your lil ones. They are useful as David Moyes 2013/2014 signings.
> 
> My son has trouble peddling them. He is 4 years old. He does not have the motor skills to peddle correctly but the bike is stiff that he peddles anti clockwise then peddles clockwise to go forward (then repeats)
> 
> And as for David Moyes!!!


My middle child did the half pedalling for about 2 years!!! Eventually they managed to cycle properly aged 6!


----------



## sidevalve (20 Mar 2014)

Not much wrong with TRAX bikes if you accept them for what they are, just base line bikes. You wont win any races but they do what they do. I've had a trax mtb foe bouncing around the farm tracks and bridleways for a while now and so far it's been fine. Components are cheap as chips if you break anything, the frame [ally, not steel] is ok [and no I don't mollycoddle it]. Suspension is a bit of a gimmick but it takes some of the bumps out of the trail and works ok. Would I go on a serious downhill on it - no way. Is it ok for a bit of cheap fun in the mud [ooer] absolutely.
Yes I'm sure there are stories of frames breaking etc but TBH that can happen on expensive bikes too [but as a £1000 bike tends to be better maintained and looked after you don't get to hear of it as much].
Horses for courses really.


----------



## David Higson (13 Jun 2014)

I went on a bike maintenance course last year at a local college and they used Trax MTB's as teaching machines. Having pulled one completely to pieces over the ten weeks of training, I can say that they're pretty sound, if nothing special. Generally the parts are from the bottom end of each manufacturer's product range. 
You'll find a lot of prejudice against Halfords budget ranges. They service one end of the bike riding market and, to be honest, have kept people riding when local bike shops were giving up the ghost after the original owners retired. One of modern cycling's open secrets is that the biggest percentage of bikes today are manufactured by just a tiny number of Chinese/Taiwanese companies. Strangely, it's cheaper to get them off a production line at Giant than to build them yourself. Cannondale, Trek, Scott, even the famous Team Sky Pinarellos are knocked out in the same factories in the far east and cunningly sold to the public as US or Italian "assembled" rather than "manufactured". Apollo is a long standing brand name from Halfords, Trax is relatively new.


----------



## ufkacbln (13 Jun 2014)

Halfords Carrera Subway was for a number of years a well respected and much reccomended commuting bike!


----------



## David Higson (13 Jun 2014)

Soup890 said:


> And as for David Moyes!!!



I had a lot of sympathy with the man - he took on an impossible task with a fanbase that has been spoiled by too much "success" over the years. His predecessor would have been sacked for exactly the same reasons in his early days. But this is a cycle discussion not cash generation football. That said, cycling will follow the same path as football if it isn't careful. There's too much emphasis on the professional side and little interest from manufacturers in developing the "ordinary" bike. Not everyone wants or needs to travel at 40mph to get to the pub for Sunday lunch or do a bit of sightseeing around our glorious countryside. Halfords service a need where a lot of snobbish smaller dealers only cater to the extreme sporting crowd. Halfords started out, I believe, as a bike shop and extended into car spares and stuff much later. At least they offer some level of pre and post purchase service, unlike supermarkets who just shift boxes and expect you to cope.


----------



## David Higson (13 Jun 2014)

Not sure about Decathlon. They ordered four tyres for me a few weeks ago and lost the order twice before I had to wait an extra week for them to be re-ordered. Large dealers are all market-driven. That is to say, not driven by customer demand but by disposable dealer hype that pushes this year's fashionable ride. A good test of a dealer is whether they can supply spares across a wider range than just the bikes in store that week. Halfords are a car spares shop that deals in bicycles to a wide range of users. Their popularity is, as you say, due to familiarity and accessibility. Service quality varies although I've never had any issues with the guys at our local branch. Decathlon is HUGE on their multi-sport provision. Where else can you get a table tennis net to store the tennis racket on your bike


----------



## outlash (14 Aug 2014)

Trax aren't all bad. They were responsible for bringing out the first house music 12"'s back in the mid-eighties.


Tony.


----------



## gbb (15 Aug 2014)

Weren't Trax sold by ToysRUs some years ago, you could buy a racer for £50...yes £50.
One of the guys at work brought one to commute, albeit short distance.
As the works engineer, everyone came to me to fix stuff and inevitably, I got to play on it.
Tyres and tubes, horrible and heavy.
Wheels needed immediate hub adjustment...but once done, they were fine.
Most other components were poor quality, but worked.

But, it worked reqsonably well for 2 or 3 years..excellent VFM you could argue.


----------



## Cycleops (16 Aug 2014)

David Higson said:


> That said, cycling will follow the same path as football if it isn't careful. There's too much emphasis on the professional side and little interest from manufacturers in developing the "ordinary" bike. Not everyone wants or needs to travel at 40mph to get to the pub for Sunday lunch or do a bit of sightseeing around our glorious countryside.


I don't know how you can say this when there has never been so much choice in bikes and different types of bikes being offered from a large number of producers. Whether you want to tour Europe or just the Peak District there's a bike for you. Similarly there are bikes for you to pootle down the pub on or do a triathlon. I don't think dealers can afford to be "snobbish" and "only cater to the extreme sporting crowd".


----------



## BigAl68 (16 Aug 2014)

outlash said:


> Trax aren't all bad. They were responsible for bringing out the first house music 12"'s back in the mid-eighties.
> 
> 
> Tony.



Oh I still have a box full of Trax Chicago house. Marshall jefferson, Larry heard, adonis and the legend frankie knuckles. 

Many happy nights dancing in clubs, warehouses and free parties in fields. Takes me back


----------



## outlash (17 Aug 2014)

Nothing like a bit of proper Chicago house .


Tony.


----------

