bike just ordered from halfords. need advice

[dodgy]

Someone should put a google maps mashup of Halfords with a competency rating of each one.
No, I'm not volunteering!

 

[Garz]

You see the problem is dodgy, that weekend staff differ from regular staff (and part-timers) so that some shops might be good but you could still go on the wrong day and experience a howler!

Maybe a list of halfords bike managers that have decent credibility (or member of staff names that have some decent knowlege)?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1

You should have asked for advice before you went to Halfords!

 

[blamelouis]

While I am a fan of keeping local shops ticking over (from butchers to florists etc) when I went to a few local bike shops I got this offensive feeling that unless you were spending over £1000 they either have little time for you or look down their noses!

If they want to advertise their custom to the people they meet then they do themselves no favours when emitting this horrible aura. So while I agree that places like halfords offend alot of you, there is another side to the coin of the 'LBS' that some of you may not have seen.

Im not a wealthy person so if my sub £1000 isnt good enough for the greedy/elitists then they dont deserve my custom.

sorry for the rant

Agree 100% ,the attitude i got from LBS's was elitist to say the least.
Where as the guys in Halfords were friendly and willing to go the extra mile. Askd the guy do they do many CTW's and he replied "thats all we do mate at least thirty a week"

 

[dodgy]

You see the problem is dodgy, that weekend staff differ from regular staff (and part-timers) so that some shops might be good but you could still go on the wrong day and experience a howler!

Maybe a list of halfords bike managers that have decent credibility (or member of staff names that have some decent knowlege)?

Seems like an awful lot of effort to effectively help out a failing (but largely profitable) company! I'll let them design their own marketing campaign I think!

 

[nickhuds]

+1

i have to say im dissapointed . i started this thread asking for peoples advice and on the whole its been very good advice, however the biggest surprise and dissapointment is that out of all the replys ive read, the two least helpful and constructive replies are from yourself (senior member) and dayvo (vice president) do you not think that it is expected from you guys and the positions you hold with cyclechat to be more helpful than others and less critical? i thought that this was a site full of friendly helpful people which as a majority is, but you two guys should be ashamed of yourself, i posted on the beginners section of the forum because im a begginer and thought thats were best to go for advice.

thanks to all you guys that have been willing to help and given me good advice & constructive critisicm, but as for you two thanks for nothing.

just one last thing to all the members, please accept my appoligies if i have upset any of you with my comments, but you have to admit these two guys need to re-evaluate there position on the forum.

 

[dodgy]

/subscribes.

 

[rjkc600]

Hi nickhuds - after reading this thread it just makes them both look silly, comments like that are very unhelpful.

Im sure your new bike will be set up just fine, if not then its not hard to go back and get them to re-check.

If it makes you feel an better about buying from halfords, my brand new Specialized Allez that i bought from evans cycles wasnt setup properly. tyre pressures too low, and the front gears wouldnt change effectively. i had to adjust it myself.

I think the majority of shops have lazy staff who simply cant be bothered.

There response to my low tyre pressure phonecall was "oh yes sir our compressor stops at 80psi"

They couldnt use a foot pump to get it up beyond that could they

 

[nickhuds]

thanks for your reply rjkc600, its good to have some support.
as i said most of the members have been really helpful & if not helpful have offered some constructive critisicm. i wont keep going on about it as ive said what i needed to say.
anyway sorry to hear your allez wasnt set up correctly i hope you have it sorted now, ive looked at some pics of the allez and it looks like a cracking bike, hope you enjoy it.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

one cyclescheme riders I know has had their new stead back to the LBS workshop three times without success. (I work in another town btw). on the fourth visit she was told it wasn't worth their while looking at it again as it was a cheap bike, they are all like that, nothing to be done. This on a £700 Spesh MTB. Sums up too much of my LBS experience. Wrong bike, wrong price point = wrong sort of customer. Exactly what sent me down the near self sufficiency route.

I went nuts as I'd recommended a Spesh to her as a quality product (3 in my shed), but had suggested a different LBS. Asked if I could have a look.... front mech way too high which was the root cause of the shifting problem AND the aheadset was loose.

as for other forum members; cycling forums like any others are full of elitists and snobs and their inverses too. no one means any real harm by their posts (outside of the trolls in politics and life anyway)

You are getting a great bike. Those lable snob dinosaurs who think otherwise probably drive Rovers in preference to Skodas.

 

[nickhuds]

thanks grumpygreg, its good to hear some positives about the bike.
i cant wait to get out there on it, still only 1 more day :-).
as you no a thing or two about bikes, and are nearly self sufficient, could you recommend a book on bike maintenance/repair or are you self taught?
i know what the front mech is but what is the headset?
excuse my ignorance as i say im a complete beginner.
any advice wil greatly appreciated.
thanks
nick

 

[GrumpyGregry]

start on the web. google park tools and go see their web site. it has an excellent interactive guide to the parts of the bike and how to maintain them and what tools you might need. That's the downside of bike DIY; specialist tools but they are available cheaply on line of enough quality for DIY use. Park Tools are prob the best but are for pro's at pro prices.

Park do a book which I've not used. Richard's Book of Bicycle Maintenance (go see on Amazon) got me started plus "The Bike book"

For some jobs, esp obscure ones relating to only one bike in the family fleet, where the tools cost more than the LBS would charge I still use an LBS on occassion but I present them with a totally stripped bike or sub assembly as I've had people tinker with other stuff trying to be helpful.....


and provided you get the right size I'll eat my helmet if you don't LOVE your boardman

 

[amnesia]

I bought a Boardman Comp from Halfords in April, and rode it straight home.

I did check that the quick releases were done up on the wheels and that the handlebar bolts were tight (which they were) in the car park though.

I haven't had any problems since... it's a cracking bike and excellent VFM.


One thing I would recommend is changing the pedals on the comp as they are shocking... clipless is the way to go

photo taken before I'd seen the light and got decent pedals

Daniel.

 

[johnnyh]

just remember that those same people who slate Halfords and harp on about the LBS probably shop in a supermarket rather than the local independant fruit and veg shop, butchers, hardware store etc...
It is a hobby trade, simple as that.

Your bike will be fine, and use sites like bicycletutor.com for nice videos on how to set up and service common stuff.

My first road bike (Carrerea Virtuoso) was from Halfords, and I had to tweak it a bit but it runs fine and gives me no bother. My Trek was from the local bike shop 'cause that is where I was when the urge took control I am sure for the same notes a Boardman would have been just as good.

Enjoy your bike.

 

[Crankarm]

hi guys, ive just orered my new boardman comp road bike from halfords . ive taken them up on setting the bike up for me, but after reading some comments on halfords im a little concerned.

i understand from what ive read that its fairly common to recieve a bike that isnt set up properly, and in some cases fairly unsafe?

ive bought the bike from my local halfords in basildon, and to be honest the guy i spoke to upstairs in the bike section, seemed very helpfull and sounded like he new what he was talking about.

i was just wondering if anyone else has had any experiances with the basildon halfords, and also what i should be checking before riding off.

thanks for your help and advice in advance.
nick

Hi Nick,

I have seen the Boardman bikes and have to say I have been impressed by the higher end ones I have seen. I think Cycling Weekly last week gave the thumbs up to the Boardman Pro Team about £800.

I have no experience of Halfords Basildon. From my experience the level of expertise and competence they demonstrate can vary tremendously from store to store as with any large chain. The posts I have read to date most certainly support this presenting a very variable service from Halfords. Perhaps it's an issue that Halfords really need to address given that some stores are clearly doing a really good job.

My Huntingdon Halfords has a very good bike team one chap in particular I hope goes a long way in the Company. I try to give him encouragement although I feel he too gets dispirited with them. In contrast my local Peterborough Bike Hut are frankly hopeless so it is a bit of a lottery as to whether your local store is any good. I think a lot has to do with the priorities the store manager places on cycling. I don't buy much from them anyway, but the odds and sods I have, have been good and the service good.

Wrt to your current situation do you have any cycling friends who are mechanically competent to take a look at your bike? They can highlight any problems there might be so you can take it back to Halfords for them to remedy if your friend can't. I would have thought Halfords would do a free first service after a couple of weeks/months. Alternatively you could take your new bike to your LBS but they will obviously charge you and then you have all the hassle of persuading Halfords to re-imburse you if they are of a mind to. Under the Sale of Goods Act and The Supply of Goods and Services Act you would first have to take the bike back to Halfords to give them a chance to inspect, identifying the fault(s) and remedy them. Under common law they also have a duty of care to provide you with a product that is safe and will not injure you. So I would go back to them if you have any concerns with your bike. It might just be a simple case of adjustment which being a new bike may well be inevitable in some cases. It is always best to keep communications friendly but formal.

The brakes should be spot on. Test them off the bike by simply trying how effective they are by leaning on the front handlebars or the saddle for the rear brake. The lever movement should not be excessive to apply the brakes and the calipers should operate without fore and aft movement which if they do means they need tightening on their mountings. The transmission should change smoothly and not be noisy ie clicking or making rubbing sounds, the bottom bracket and chainset should have no lateral play or movement which can be tested off the bike by applying both front and rear brakes and putting pressure in each pedal to see if they is any movement in the bottom bracket or alternatively grasp each crank arm and rock laterally seeing if you can generate any movement in the bearings. If so the cups need tightening. Handle bars should be straight and tight, the wheels trued and the bike running straight. Take a test ride in their car park or get them to take a test ride with you watching. Not much else really, bikes are pretty simple. The rest is adjustment particular to you. I'm sure they will spend time with you and your bike if you go back to them with any problems and you are fairly stoic about it. It is in their interests to have a happy customer. I'm sure they would be happy to demonstrate anything for you. I wouldn't do this at peak times though as with anywhere. Bear in mind most mass produced bikes will be partially built in the factory in Taiwan and the bike shop will assemble the rest and set the bike up. They may or may not use grease on bolts and fittings. More often they don't to save on costs. As a small point I would recommend at some point in the future the whole bike is checked and all bolts fittings removed to check they have been greased prior to fitting otherwise in years to come they may be impossible to remove or shear on removal.

Oh I just read about QR above, yes check they are tight otherwise..........catastrophe. To do this from loose put the lever in the locked position and tighten the the other end deraillieur side as much as you can with your fingers, then unlock the lever on the non drive side and return to tightening the drive side one turn, then half, then quarter of a turn until it is almost impossible to fully close the lever, then back off/loosen the drive side end nut very slightly by no more than 1/4 or 1/2 a turn, so that QR lever locks firmly and tightly. Keep the wheel central in the rear frame or front forks as you do all this by holding it at the top to the stays on the rear or the top of the forks or bottom of the headset which is where you forks secure and turn on the front of the frame.

I'm sure I don't need to mention but when changing gear - only turn the pedals with mimimal power until the chain has skipped to the next sprocket (back ring) or front chain ring then re-apply full power otherwise you will quickly knacker your transmission. Much like driving a car. Your legs are your engine. Sorry if this is really basic but I see so many doing this and they wonder why their bike tansmission isn't indexing properly or is knackered. Ok it has to be set up correctly in the first place. Also once the initial lube has worn off the chain re-lube using a good one. For that you will have to look at the other threads........

You can buy cheap bike tool sets on Chainreactioncycles for £40-80.

I would highly recommend a track pump to easily keep your tyres properly inflated which will greatly reduce punctures.

Hope this has been of help.

Enjoy your bike.

Nb. Some of the responses you get when you post a thread do make you wonder about some people's shoe size but don't let that get you down, there are many on here who are constructive and genuinely want to help.