Almost brand new bicycle, how do I approach Halfords

TopBloke

Christ, I can't believe the amount of errors i've made in my posts about this bike. Yes it's 29" wheels, 22.5" frame. It's a decent bike, much better than the 21" Carrera Kraken, although that too was a solid bike.

I took it to Halfords and I noticed one of the chain links was solid. In no time at all they'd got my chain off and stuck a new one on free of charge saving me about £23. It looked like the link had taken an impact somehow but none of us could even guess how it happened as there's nothing to jam the chain between.

Cost was a factor here, and I was going to get 10% off, the other places simply wouldn't budge. It's £640 I only had to spend because my old bike got stolen from inside the house so I hadn't really had time to save.

Anyway, sorted now and many thanks for the quick and helpful responses.

andygb

Strider590 wrote: »

Halfrauds can't set up a bike properly.... SHOCK HORROR!!!
Are the front forks on the correct way around? and are the brake levers at the correct angle (should be invisible to the eye when seated)?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/halfords-warning

How it should not look:



As you've already bought the bike I suggest you look up how to adjust the gears, turn the bike upside down and do it yourself. I was doing this from the age of 12, so im sure you'll eventually get it.......

It is probably a bit unfair to tarnish all Halfords staff, just because of one error, and as for the bike above, that is a bit obvious isn't it, even for a blind imbecile.
I know a couple of guys who have worked in Halfords, and they worked there because they loved cycling, and were very competent bike mechanics (right down to trueing/building wheels).

grizzly1911

Just brought a new bike for son, at Uni, from Halfords, it was needed quick. Tyres weren't even inflated pat about 10psi so I wouldn't rate their PDI that highly, it was ticked as checked , on the work sheet.

I have recently swapped over the derailleur, rear cassette, and new chain on my wife's 24 speed hybrid following a failuer in the dropout bracket. Working without a proper axle stand I got it 90% of the way correct but it was slipping as the OP mentions sporadically.

Dropped it in with a LBS and for a tenner they sorted it out perfectly. Sweet as nut.

Later found several sites on tinternet that show you how to correctly set up derailleurs. One that was new to me was to remove cable from derailleur and set the one parameter under the tension of assembly alone.

andygb

Cycle maintenance is pretty easy providing you have the correct tools, and the internet has made it even easier. I did notice the other week, that Aldi or Lidl had a really good cycle toolset for about £25, which contained headset, bottom bracket, axle cone spanners, as well as allen keys and cassette and crank removal tools. Learn how to maintain a bike, and it will always feel good.

custardy

andygb wrote: »

Cycle maintenance is pretty easy providing you have the correct tools, and the internet has made it even easier. I did notice the other week, that Aldi or Lidl had a really good cycle toolset for about £25, which contained headset, bottom bracket, axle cone spanners, as well as allen keys and cassette and crank removal tools. Learn how to maintain a bike, and it will always feel good.

well they had a cheap set.
I can't say if it was good or not.

andygb

custardy wrote: »

well they had a cheap set.
I can't say if it was good or not.

This one was around £25 in a case about 35cm x 25cm x 15cm deep, and had a lot of the "essential" tools for doing the fiddly jobs. I am not suggesting that they would compete with my Campag/Stronglight?Mavic tools, but they did look pretty useful.

Strider590

andygb wrote: »

It is probably a bit unfair to tarnish all Halfords staff, just because of one error, and as for the bike above, that is a bit obvious isn't it, even for a blind imbecile.
I know a couple of guys who have worked in Halfords, and they worked there because they loved cycling, and were very competent bike mechanics (right down to trueing/building wheels).

I know and i've known friends work there too, same as you mention, cycling enthusiasts..... But for their minimum wage, they found themselves under pressure to not do the job properly, unreasonable time restrictions and oppressive management interested only in numbers. Largely because as well as dealing with bikes, they were having to carry out other tasks, they couldn't prepare bikes to a standard they were happy with and they left.

Problem as usual, is the management of the individual stores.

bazster

Badly-adjusted Derailleur gears are a pig to use (especially with the modern set-up of three chainwheels), but they're not at all difficult to adjust correctly. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of which screw to twiddle, and which way to twiddle it, in order to solve a given problem, but it's worth spending a little time learning to do it yourself, because even if your gears are well set-up now, they won't stay like that forever.

Also don't try to change gear when you are giving it maximum heave half-way-up a 1:3 hill, and definitely don't try changing front-and-back simultaneously, unless you fancy a messy half-hour at the roadside trying to extract and untangle your chain from whatever recesses it's jammed itself into.

TopBloke

I can confirm the bike works flawlessly now, no snags since the brand new chain was put on. I was impressed with the fact they gave me a free chain without prompting. In fact, they were going to use a chain a customer had brought back because 'he didn't need it' until it turned out that too was knackered - so I know i've not been fobbed off.

When the weather gets decent i'll go a bit further than just cleaning the bike and maybe try and give it a few easy once overs. Might pop into aldi on the way home to see if there's a bike kit in there. For £25 I expect any plastic/metal combinations to fall apart after a week but whatever, i'm not paying £100's for something i'd rarely use.

Strider590

TopBloke wrote: »

Might pop into aldi on the way home to see if there's a bike kit in there. For £25 I expect any plastic/metal combinations to fall apart after a week but whatever, i'm not paying £100's for something i'd rarely use.

Nah, a lot of my tools are Aldi/Netto specials and they've been pretty solid.

Well known tool companies like Draper, Silverline, Am-Tec, Rolson, Clarke and Sealey, often use the same tool supplier/manufacturer with different branding added..... The Aldi stuff is often the same supplier again, but with Aldi's own branding......