Buying from Halfords

buildabong

Bought myself a new Carrera Vulcan today from Halfords (most bikes are discounted btw), and the guy said I can have it immediately or wait a week for the complete assembled bike.
So being the brave person I am I decided to assemble it myself (Also the bikes on the floor looked like they were assembled by drugged monkeys) - I was expecting to have to put together the entire bike, not so at all. All I had to do was connect the handelbars, put the peddals on and the wheels, took me about an hour (Plus I was being supper carefull not to scratch my new baby). All with a set of Allen keys and a number 15 spanner.

The people infront of me all chose Halfords staff to setup there bikes :rolleyes:
-- end of my 2c worth --

E@gle.

whats the point of this post?

kona

good man:rolleyes: round of applause!!! takes me 15mins to asemble a bike from a box....prob 10 on somthing decent like that.you seem to have nothing better to do with your time. unlike the people in the que:D, good luck with your guarantee,

now are the forks on the right way??are the disc brakes balanced??do the gears shift?? have you set the limits???have you torqued the crank nuts??? and why did you need a 15mm spanner on a carrera vulcan???:cool:

why the hell would a sane shop assemble a display bike to a sale standard???sure youd spend you whole day adjusting things after people have a lil poke and click(which in turn would lead to ppl on boards complaining bout the amount of time halfords need to assemble a bike:rolleyes:).........i hate clickers, what the hell use is changing gears on a bike that is on a stand???

buildabong

If you buy from Halfords dont wait a week, get the bike the same day and assemble it yourself. Dont be afraid of doing it yourself.
semi pointless post. Anyhoo

EDIT: not V friendly folk on this side of boards (this is my first post in cycling) - guess I'll stick to the other side!!!
kona - 15mm spanner is for the peddals - guess you just use your ego to tighten things.

kona

a proper 15mm spanner is too wide to tighten a pedal sufficiently actually:rolleyes::D
unless you used a e30 pedal spanner(dont think so)
or
a ****ty cut-out piece of steel.

and with a post like that what do you expect??.....people to go
hold the phone call nasa, this guy is a pioneer, hes almost as good a engineer as brunel???
what did you what to achieve.....you basically came on and bad mouthed a shop that you seemed to have gotten a good deal in?? why didnt you tell the mechanic or sales man he was a drugged up monkey???

make sure those pedals are marker L and R and you put the R in the right hand crank...(the one with gears), and make sure those pedals are tight, if not bye bye guarantee

and no your ego is enough to tighten them enough tbh

Scrivo

> Kona, where do you get off defending Halfords? They offer poor quality bikes at not incredible prices and the other poster was not far off in describing the shop assitants. They have no clue. Have been in many times asking for basic things furrels and gear cable outer for example. The guy had no clue what a furrel was and gave me brake cable outer!

True the post is pointless, but get back in your foul mothed box when it comes to defending Halfords.

rubadub

kona wrote: »

why the hell would a sane shop assemble a display bike to a sale standard???

Gives a good impression to potential buyers, especially those who might not be aware of reasons not to. How are they to know what quality of assembly to expect, a shoddy display bike does nothing for your shop. Also I imagine most of the display bikes will eventually be sold so it will have to be adjusted at some stage, so why not now?

I think the point of this is that even an inexperienced person is able to assemble a bike themselves, some will not buy online since they fear the assembly side. Others might have left halfords as they needed the bike right away and were told they must wait a week.

I am sure if there are any problems he can go back and have it fine tuned.

i hate clickers, what the hell use is changing gears on a bike that is on a stand???

They might never have used one before, and want to get the feel for it, I do not like clickers that are hard to press or need a really deep press. I see more reasons to try it out than people who kick car tyres.

roadmanmad

I periodically made a pilgrimage to Halfords. Only to re-assert that my local shop is technically more competent, offers a better bike which he effectively gives excellent service on and he is local.

Any serious roadie will be friends with his mechanic. The small shops are far more competitive than the average punter realises.

Support them if you want to keep them.

Today i am the proud owner of bike number 7 which is steel frame racer 501, 700c wheels, huge frame, and about 20 years old, with rust dying to break out under the paint. All for 50 euro. You may ask why I would want 7. This last one is to replace one that has become unrepairable.

These bikes, I describe, as sacrifice bikes, these get all the dirty rotten spins that I have to take. It will last 5 years max. The bontrager tyres I took from my personnal stocks (only 2k milles on them) are more varuable than the bike.

for the record.
Racers x 4(from good to absolute crap)
Hybids x 3(all mediocre 2)

Slunk

Just out of interest how much was the bike. Was looking at a Carrera bike a while ago. Could have beenthe subway 2 though. Cheeers

copacetic

Scrivo wrote: »

> Kona, where do you get off defending Halfords? They offer poor quality bikes at not incredible prices

thats rubbish tbh, the service may be erratic but they have many award winning bikes such as the carerra subway commuter, the fury mountain bike and the entire boardman range, generally the prices are incredible too. eg the subway 8 with nexus hub for only slightly more than the hub costs as a part. you clearly don't have a clue what you are talking about...

kona

copacetic wrote: »

thats rubbish tbh, the service may be erratic but they have many award winning bikes such as the carerra subway commuter, the fury mountain bike and the entire boardman range, generally the prices are incredible too. eg the subway 8 with nexus hub for only slightly more than the hub costs as a part. you clearly don't have a clue what you are talking about...

totally agree.

btw its nt just halfords i defend from mindless bollox.:rolleyes:

every1 loves to hate halfords...the fact of the matter is halfords do good bikes at good prices....you find me a place not online where youl gett a kona for under e500??
i think this thread should get locked coz its full of ****

Don1

I bought my Saracen Mantra 1 (I am aware I should have bought something better) from Hallfords and brought it home to assemble as they were mental busy. Encountered a "problem" brought it back a few days later and they tidied it up. Gears then seemed to be wrong. Brought it back and they were fixed too, as were the brakes. Not one mention of guarantee problems.

Sean02

"Drugged monkeys" How could any self respecting person stoop so low as the refer to anyone in such a way. Builtabong post should never have got past moderator. I've only visited Halford's on a few occasions and found the staff to be extremly helpful and courteous.

copacetic

Sean02 wrote: »

"Drugged monkeys" How could any self respecting person stoop so low as the refer to anyone in such a way. Builtabong post should never have got past moderator. I've only visited Halford's on a few occasions and found the staff to be extremly helpful and courteous.

posts don't get 'past' the moderator, except on premodded forums which very few of the forums here are. they can't be expected to read every post either. that's why there is a report post button, if you feel a post is out or order, report it to bring to a moderators attention.

No-one has reported any posts on this thread, including yourself.

Bluefoam

Halfords do the GT iDrive 5 for €1200. Its an absolute bargain!!!

They also do a basic service contract for €25/annum which is great for basic stuff.

They also have plenty of good stock - like maxis high rollers for reasonable prices.

If I need anything serious I go to Bikerack for service and order on CRC for price & range...

blorg

buildabong- Kona gets a bit excitable at times, it's somewhat unpredictable as to what might set him off (although "I question whether Kona make the absolute best bikes in the universe" will generally do it...) So don't be put off the cycling forum on his account. You will come to appreciate the colour he adds to discussion ;-)

Pedal wrenches- needed more to get the pedals off than put them on, (you can get them on using an allen key, and while they have to be tight pedalling will only tighten them further.) You do not need to spend €30 on a Park Tools wrench, you can get a _much_ cheaper one (I do not doubt the Park one is better, but it is not necessary if you are not doing this for a living.) You _can_ break a standard 15mm spanner if using it to remove well stuck pedals. All IMHO/E of course.

On that topic make sure to grease the pedal threads if you think you might ever want to take them off again.

Ghost Rider

Don't be deterred from posting here. It's usually a pretty friendly forum. You might just have met someone getting out the wrong side of bed...

buildabong wrote: »

If you buy from Halfords dont wait a week, get the bike the same day and assemble it yourself. Dont be afraid of doing it yourself.
semi pointless post. Anyhoo

EDIT: not V friendly folk on this side of boards (this is my first post in cycling) - guess I'll stick to the other side!!!
kona - 15mm spanner is for the peddals - guess you just use your ego to tighten things.

kona

blorg wrote: »

(although "I question whether Kona make the absolute best bikes in the universe" will generally do it...).

yup that will do it:D

and i wasnt the one with the drugged up monkeys comment, hes the one who fell out of the bottom of the bed.

Ghost Rider

Are you suggesting he didn't assemble his bed properly?

kona wrote: »

yup that will do it:D

and i wasnt the one with the drugged up monkeys comment, hes the one who fell out of the bottom of the bed.

niceonetom

i find the tone this thread pretty disappointing tbh. this guy bought a new bike and 'assembled' it himself yet when he post here he immediately gets dog's abuse (Kona?) because of some perceived slight against spanner monkeys everywhere. what's the matter with you people, are you so dead inside that you've forgotten the 'new bike' rush, or the 'look what i made' feeling we sometimes get, even though all we've done is screw a few bits together?

i think it's perfectly reasonable to suspect halfords staff's ability to put a bike together based on the state of the ones on the shop floor if you don't realise that those bikes do get pawed to bits by the public. it's an understandable mistake, not a reason to chase him off the forum.

once you're accusing someone of using the wrong type of 15mm spanner to put his pedals on you really are just looking for ways to make yourself look big and clever and everyone else like a noob. i have a perfectly ordinary spanner that does the job perfectly, what's wrong with that?

this thread seems to confirm my suspisions that many (though not all) cyclists are pedantic, narky, cliquey, patronising, holier than thou pricks.

Harrybelafonte

niceonetom wrote: »

this thread seems to confirm my suspisions that many (though not all) cyclists are pedantic, narky, cliquey, patronising, holier than thou pricks.

TBH that's what I thought of the OP himself. He could have come on and simply enthused about putting his own bike together and how easy he found it, but he had to bad mouth both the service staff in Halfords which, it seems, he knows very little about and also implies that the customers who asked staff to assemble there bikes were Stupid/less intelligent than he or just lazy, whatever putting :rolleyes: after his sentence means.

Though I do share the same suspicions as you, I do think the OP was asking for it cos he was patronising and acting in a "holier than thou" manner

shapez

There's some difference between this thread and a previous one where a guy purchased a carbon trek frame!!

niceonetom

shapez wrote: »

There's some difference between this thread and a previous one where a guy purchased a carbon trek frame!!

there sure is. we're all pally-pally to those who've already become full on cyclists, but if a newby comes in (and makes a newby error) it seems out first instinct is attack attack attack. pity really. and this attitude is not exclusive to teh internets, though in real life the hostility is a little less obvious/direct.

blorg

If you look around a bit more though, you'll find that's not true. There are scores of threads with forum members giving helpful advice to new cyclists for every one that Kona decides to join ;-)

BTW niceonetom- it's "newbie", not "newby", n00b






...JOKE (just in case)

Ghost Rider

I agree with ya on the Internet issue there, Niceone, although I don't know about broadening it out to include cycling clubs, as I've never been in or near one.

In defence of this board, I think it's full of very well-intentioned people and as far as Internetiqette goes, it compares extremely well to other boards I've visited over the years. If there are some who fly off the handle once in a while, I don't think it's much of a deal. There are always a few others to reign them in with a gentle slap on the wrist.

The cycling forum is a broad church, my brethren, so now let us be thankful for one another's company and offer each other the sign of peace.

Yours sincerely,

Jesus.

niceonetom wrote: »

there sure is. we're all pally-pally to those who've already become full on cyclists, but if a newby comes in (and makes a newby error) it seems out first instinct is attack attack attack. pity really. and this attitude is not exclusive to teh internets, though in real life the hostility is a little less obvious/direct.

Harrybelafonte

niceonetom wrote: »

there sure is. we're all pally-pally to those who've already become full on cyclists, but if a newby comes in (and makes a newby error) it seems out first instinct is attack attack attack. pity really. and this attitude is not exclusive to teh internets, though in real life the hostility is a little less obvious/direct.

Cockiness isn't a newbie error, it's a personality error, sorry. I don't mean to be a smart ass I just understand why Kona gave him a hard time.

niceonetom

blorg wrote: »

If you look around a bit more though, you'll find that's not true. There are scores of threads with forum members giving helpful advice to new cyclists for every one that Kona decides to join ;-)

BTW niceonetom- it's "newbie", not "newby", n00b






...JOKE (just in case)

that's true, but usually only when the poster comes in grovelling, and surrounds his/her question with "help, i'm a n00b, i don't know anything about anything and am very grateful for your time, kind sirs, bicyclemasters, sirs" style provisos. any hint of confidence, well, that's a paddling.

oh, and thanks for the spelling advice. how very embarrassing.

shapez

I am getting back into cycling after many years of absence. So, I'm considered new. I have asked and will continue to ask questions here on the website. At present I am extremely grateful for the help, advice and opinions I've received from members.

But, I do think a little courtesy should be shown to others.

Remember, we all started at the bottom!!

Bicyclegadabout

niceonetom wrote: »

that's true, but usually only when the poster comes in grovelling, and surrounds his/her question with "help, i'm a n00b, i don't know anything about anything and am very grateful for your time, kind sirs, bicyclemasters, sirs" style provisos.

I love these threads. Internetz are the way of the future, but certain themes keep reappearing. You can almost tell before they start how they're going to go, post by post.

OP: poor choice of tone, but it happens. Don't worry about it.

Everyone else: I think yee're nice enough.

Clique-iness on the internet? OMG! LOLZ! NEVR HERD OF DAT B4!

http://kscakes.com/LolCats/Detail.aspx/i-iz-in-ur-bike-forumz-bein-passive-aggressive/

kona

Ghost Rider wrote: »

Are you suggesting he didn't assemble his bed properly?

:D ye those suckers in the q had to wait a week, but atleast they dont fall out the bottom:D. sure the display models had the matress on the bottom:D

ye i agree that alot of cyclists are know it all pricks......ya gotta play em at their own game, this seems to work after spending 4 years around bikes and cyclists has taught me.

and if you actually read the thread the OP was coming on like he was the best thing since sliced bread, and bad mouthing people, i just threw it back at him . did anybody notice all the advice i gave him?? no???

and i agree that a well set up bikes says alot, but 9-6 aint much time when youve, bikes to build for display and customers, order goods, argue guaratees over things that aint guarante(puncture, believe me it regularly happens), take a break, and general day to day running of a bike shop, esp in a big store like halfords.

and when you come on the boards with such a one sided slander story like the op puts yourself up for libel....it has happened, im sure a huge chain like halfords has people looking at the internet to guage markets and other crap, may just stumble across this.

i ve been cycling for years.....and on this board for 1yr and a bit.........i dont get no pally lol i just get abused lol

buildabong

jeez I didnt expect quite a responce!!!
I was quite cheesed off yesterday after reading "some peoples" comments, but thanks to the rest. (BTW this is my first brand new bike I have ever purchased, before I always bought fully assembled secondhand: Giant ATX 760 and a Trek 4100 is the last bikes I owned). So yes this post was aimed at first time unassembled bike buyers - I should have been more clear on that!!!

Okay to clear up one thing about my Halfords buying experience yesterday (aka the drugged monkeys comment):
I asked the sales-teenager if I could try a bike out , he said no problem and walked off like most of the Halfords staff do. So i get on the bike, what happens: handel bars go one way, bike goes the other and I smack my shin on the pedal (I woke up this morning with a nice bruised shin). Anyway i went to the other sales-person and asked him to tighten the handelbars - Then he comments; "Sir, the bikes are not assembled properly - they are just for display." - Now they $X~*%*&$$ tell me.

No signs warning people of this.
The person that sold me my bike (Halfords sales-person number 3 was super friendly and very helpfull and carried my bike for me. So I should have stated that 2 thirds of Halford staff are (like a troop of drugged Monkeys) sorry I mean unprofessional.
Love these experiences of life
Peace :):)

kona

buildabong wrote: »

jeez I didnt expect quite a responce!!!
I was quite cheesed off yesterday after reading "some peoples" comments, but thanks to the rest. (BTW this is my first brand new bike I have ever purchased, before I always bought fully assembled secondhand: Giant ATX 760 and a Trek 4100 is the last bikes I owned).

Okay to clear up one thing about my Halfords buying experience yesterday (aka the drugged monkeys comment):
I asked the sales-teenager if I could try a bike out , he said no problem and walked off like most of the Halfords staff do. So i get on the bike, what happens: handel bars go one way, bike goes the other and I smack my shin on the pedal (I woke up this morning with a nice bruised shin). Anyway i went to the other sales-person and asked him to tighten the handelbars - Then he comments; "Sir, the bikes are not assembled properly - they are just for display." - Now they $X~*%*&$$ tell me.

No signs warning people of this.
The person that sold me my bike (Halfords sales-person number 3 was super friendly and very helpfull and carried my bike for me. So I should have stated that 2 thirds of Halford staff are (like a troop of drugged Monkeys) sorry I mean unprofessional.
Love these experiences of life
Peace :):)

i believe ya , but why not just sy that at the start, and tbh a sales teenager has just prop spent the day in school 9-4 then off to work, give him a break youd prop have the same interest in sellin a bike for 400 when your only getting paid e8 per hour:D;)
and i didnt realise that the bike as a disgrace like that, i just expected spongey brakes an crappy gears, why put the bars on without taking the 3secs o tighten them??? now thats not right:mad:

Capt'n Midnight

Don't forget to check every thing after a month or so on a new bike or a rebuild. This is to give the nuts time to bed in or loosen and the brake cables to take up the slack. And yes it's good to know how to adjust things on a bike.

Any decent bike shop should tell you that.

Gavin

kona wrote: »

ye i agree that alot of cyclists are know it all pricks......ya gotta play em at their own game, this seems to work after spending 4 years around bikes and cyclists has taught me.

Yes, a stunningly hypocritical point.

and if you actually read the thread the OP was coming on like he was the best thing since sliced bread, and bad mouthing people, i just threw it back at him . did anybody notice all the advice i gave him?? no???

Do you give your shop customers 'advice' delivered in the same tone ? I highly doubt it.

i ve been cycling for years.....and on this board for 1yr and a bit.........i dont get no pally lol i just get abused lol

Your comments tend towards the abusive. Certainly they are aggressive. It's not surprising that people are a bit intolerant.

You appear to be quite knowledgeable re bicycles, perhaps take a bit longer to compose your posts, abandon the text speak and tone down the aggression.

kona

Verb wrote: »

Yes, a stunningly hypocritical point.



Do you give your shop customers 'advice' delivered in the same tone ? I highly doubt it.



Your comments tend towards the abusive. Certainly they are aggressive. It's not surprising that people are a bit intolerant.

You appear to be quite knowledgeable re bicycles, perhaps take a bit longer to compose your posts, abandon the text speak and tone down the aggression.

if they approach me in a condascending,abusive know it all manner similar to the opening post(have you read it????)...then yes il shine em up and send them on, i dont particularly want them to buy a bike from the shop as if thats there attitude to me/bikes i dont really want to deal with them again especially in a situation where guaratee's or repair work is involved.
im sure this is the same in all shops, no profit is worth that hassle, especially if you can sell the bike 5mins later.

if they are nice and basically totally opposite to above descprition ill be more than happy to advise them on stuff and give out deals.
i can be very nice or a 9-5 NASTY.
all has to do with how you come off, if you look at my other posts youll see this.

crashoveroid

Halfords is a FRED zone

kona

crashoveroid wrote: »

Halfords is a FRED zone

so do you work there????
all the gear feck all skill:D

niceonetom

crashoveroid wrote: »

Halfords is a FRED zone

what's a FRED zone?

kona

niceonetom wrote: »

what's a FRED zone?

if im on the same page as crashoveroid , its a term used in mtb to describe a poser basically.

gimmeaminute

niceonetom wrote: »

what's a FRED zone?

Polite definition of a FRED: a high-end recreational cyclists.

Not so polite: A fat tosspot with a €3000 bike, who goes out for 3 hours at the weekend and thinks he's Eddie Merckx.

kona

gimmeaminute wrote: »

Polite definition of a FRED: a high-end recreational cyclists.

Not so polite: A fat tosspot with a €3000 bike, who goes out for 3 hours at the weekend and thinks he's Eddie Merckx.

yup:D although i dont think halfords clientel spend over e100 on a bike

Raam

niceonetom wrote: »

what's a FRED zone?

This guy is a Fred and knows it
http://www.thefredcast.com/?page_id=22

gimmeaminute

Raam wrote: »

This guy is a Fred and knows it
http://www.thefredcast.com/?page_id=22

This is a great podcast, though his updates have been slack recently. He did good Tour coverage and the shows on Interbike are well worth a listen.

Dave is, however, a right-wing Republican who gets all embarrassed if he has to talk about anything to do with peeing, erectile dysfunction or his ass, but that in itself has a certain charm.

Raam

gimmeaminute wrote: »

This is a great podcast, though his updates have been slack recently. He did good Tour coverage and the shows on Interbike are well worth a listen.

Dave is, however, a right-wing Republican who gets all embarrassed if he has to talk about anything to do with peeing, erectile dysfunction or his ass, but that in itself has a certain charm.

I enjoyed the ones were he was riding in one of the official cars in the Tour Of California.

I think we've taken this thread well off topic...so...
Halfords is a shop near where I live, but I have never bought anything there.

niceonetom

Raam wrote: »

Halfords is a shop near where I live, but I have never bought anything there.

this was true of me too... untill the day before yesterday. i bought a pretty good pair of polaris waterproof gloves there (€40). i was amazed to see that they were selling off full sus mountain bikes at €129. i know they're made of pig iron and that the welds look like the work of aforementioned 'drugged monkeys', but damn that's crazy cheap.