Apollo a good brand of bike?

Zebbedee

Anybody got any opinions of these bikes?
I have an Apollo Slant steel frame but the front gear derailleur doesn't always select. It was bought new 6 months ago.
I'm considering buying an Apollo Twilight alloy frame for someone but it has the same derailleur. Halfords have it on sale at 225 at the moment.
Is there better value for money out there?
I have to buy new to avail of the bike to work scheme.

Tonyandthewhale

No, they're not a good brand of bike. Halfords have a number of own brand brands of bike, trax, apollo, carrera and boardman.

trax and apollo are cheap ****e, carrera are decent value and fairly good quality, boardman are nicer high end stuff.

As regards better value, either save up and buy something decent for a little more (like the carrera subway if you're staying with halfords) or buy something second hand. There's no point buying something new just because you've got the bike to work scheme if you still can't afford anything decent.

Finally, why are you buying mountain bikes for under 200e? Mountain biking is a very demanding sport in terms of equipment and cheap bikes will not stand up to the abuse.
On the other hand, if you're not going mountain biking then you don't need knobby tyres and a suspension fork which are designed to deal with conditions not found on paved roads. Hell even when off-roading on reasonably technical trails I often use a bike with a rigid fork and slick tyres especially on dry days.

Crow92

Zebbedee wrote: »

Anybody got any opinions of these bikes?
I have an Apollo Slant steel frame but the front gear derailleur doesn't always select. It was bought new 6 months ago.
I'm considering buying an Apollo Twilight alloy frame for someone but it has the same derailleur. Halfords have it on sale at 225 at the moment.
Is there better value for money out there?
I have to buy new to avail of the bike to work scheme.

As Tony and the Whale said, ****e, apollo is better than trax but still entry level crap.
If your gonna use the biketowork scheme buy something decent. There is a boardman commuter for about 600 euro which'd be decent (or just over 700 euro for a boardman alu racing bike with a carbon fork and sora componentry). Or the carrera subway as suggested.

With regards to the front derailleur if you just adjust the derailleur correctly it will shift correctly (If not the most plush)

• Cable tension.
• Angle of the derailleur.
• Height from the chainring.

^^^These 3 things factor into the shifting of the derailleur. Also the limit screws need to be adjusted.


If you google or youtube how to adjust a front derailleur you should be a able to find a video on how to adjust it.

Icyseanfitz

dont waste a bike to work scheme on a 225 euro bike :eek: are you mad haha, as for apollo...absolute crap, if you must go halfords stick with boardman or carrera

killalanerr

i have my Apollo tdf road bike 10 years now and have ridden thousands of km on it and except when i got wiped out by a car and had to change the forks and front wheel on it i have never put a spanner to it,it is still hard at work as my winter hack and can be seen most saturdays as my steed on my clubs run
Is it a good bike ?, well as has been said its pretty basic entry level bike but it depends what you want to do with it and if i had known what i know now its not the bike i would have went for and Halfords is not the place id go for advice

Crow92

killalanerr wrote: »

i have my Apollo tdf road bike.........
Halfords is not the place id go for advice

Tis Actually the Carrera TDF, has shimano 2200 (or maybe 2300) on it.

Also not all the Halfords are bad for advice. There are a few monkeys working there but some people have an actual interest in cycling. There's a guy working in Navan who cycles in the RAS.

easygoing39

As most of the posts on boards about halfrauds say,
1.cheap low quality bikes
2. cheap low paid low quality staff

in summing up,best avoided

killalanerr

Crow92 wrote: »

Tis Actually the Carrera TDF, has shimano 2200 (or maybe 2300) on it.

Also not all the Halfords are bad for advice. There are a few monkeys working there but some people have an actual interest in cycling. There's a guy working in Navan who cycles in the RAS.

well i must have got one of the monkeys and mines defo an Apollo,i wouldnt fancy riding the ras on it

Crow92

killalanerr wrote: »

well i must have got one of the monkeys and mines defo an Apollo,i wouldnt fancy riding the ras on it

Apologies, I didn't know there was an apollo tdf, just a carrera, the irony of the bike being name Tour de France gets me every time:rolleyes:

Mycroft H

easygoing39 wrote: »

As most of the posts on boards about halfrauds say,
1.cheap low quality bikes
2. cheap low paid low quality staff

in summing up,best avoided

Ahhh here now, you can walk into where ever your local bicycle shop is and buy just as low end of a bike. Pay 250 quid anywhere and your only going to get a mediocre bicycle.

Still they are several steps above any magic 100 euro bicycle that crops up in dunnes every now and then.

I'd prefer to buy a decent steel 80's racer then a 250 quid bike any day though.

iregk

Tonyandthewhale wrote: »

Halfords have a number of own brand brands of bike, trax, apollo, carrera and boardman.

Boardman are not a halfords own brand. They are their own company who happened to sign an exclusive deal with halfords a few years back. They have recently signed up to the now under new ownership wiggle.

ednwireland

iregk wrote: »

Boardman are not a halfords own brand. They are their own company who happened to sign an exclusive deal with halfords a few years back. They have recently signed up to the now under new ownership wiggle.

not in the uk boardman still exclusive to halfords

from the boardman website
http://www.boardmanbikes.com/buy/index.html
UK & Republic of Ireland:
Performance Series:
The Performance Series* of Boardman Bikes are available exclusively in over 250 Halfords stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland and available online at: halfords.com/boardmanbikes

Worldwide:

Elite and Performance Series:

The Elite and Performance Series of Boardman Bikes are available worldwide* direct to customer via Wiggle.

iregk

ednwireland wrote: »

not in the uk boardman still exclusive to halfords

I never said anything about UK and Ireland. I simply stated that they were not a halfords own brand and are available on wiggle now. Which they are.

manwithaplan

killalanerr beat me in a sprint on his Apollo on Christmas Eve. The shame!

Zebbedee

Thanks to all who replied.
Info has been taken on board and I'm looking elsewhere now for a bike.

Icyseanfitz

a budget of 250 for any new bike is pretty much guaranteed to be useless, if 250 is your max budget buying second hand is my advice, although saving up until you have at least 500 is better advice

Lynchy747

iregk wrote: »

ednwireland wrote: »

not in the uk boardman still exclusive to halfords

I never said anything about UK and Ireland. I simply stated that they were not a halfords own brand and are available on wiggle now. Which they are.

They are not available on Wiggle to the UK or Ireland, only the USA, therefore still exclusive to Halfords. By the way I'm a former staff member of Halfords with 8 years racing experience. I don't appreciate being generalized as a monkey. Which is what most people assume when Halfords is mentioned.

kenmc

Lynchy747 wrote: »

They are not available on Wiggle to the UK or Ireland, only the USA, therefore still exclusive to Halfords. By the way I'm a former staff member of Halfords with 8 years racing experience. I don't appreciate being generalized as a monkey. Which is what most people assume when Halfords is mentioned.

1 swallow does not make a summer.

Lynchy747

kenmc wrote: »

Lynchy747 wrote: »

They are not available on Wiggle to the UK or Ireland, only the USA, therefore still exclusive to Halfords. By the way I'm a former staff member of Halfords with 8 years racing experience. I don't appreciate being generalized as a monkey. Which is what most people assume when Halfords is mentioned.

1 swallow does not make a summer.

I understand that but as mentioned above in Navan (my old branch) the team consists of a Ras rider and a former professional. Halfords don't employ monkeys on purpose its probably people lying at interviews is the problem.

kenmc

Lynchy747 wrote: »

I understand that but as mentioned above in Navan (my old branch) the team consists of a Ras rider and a former professional. Halfords don't employ monkeys on purpose its probably people lying at interviews is the problem.

That may be true in this case, but for every exception there's generally a rule.

Crow92

kenmc wrote: »

That may be true in this case, but for every exception there's generally a rule.

The Real problem is that halfords is viewed on as a general company rather than basing it on the individual shop. From what I've heard, halfords Navan, Carrickmines and Coolock know there stuff (Though we have 1 or 2 guys who don't really give 2 fecks working there but the manager is very good)

So the good shops don't shine over the crap ones. Obviously it's also halfords fault for employing younger staff (a good bit of the time after having them in on work exp.) who don't neccesarily have an interest in cycling.

*Edit*
Also staff turnover totally change the dynamics of the shops every 2 years or so.

Zebbedee

I had two totally different experiences with staff in halfords recently.
The first one was where i was helped by a very knowledgable member of staff who was enthusiastic and instilled me with confidence buying there.
I returned a couple of days later to buy the bike. The same guy wasn't there and I was served by another guy. I just needed a little more advice before I ordered the bike. The second guy while very pleasant did not have any clue on the technical specs of the bikes and accessories and I felt that i knew more than him (and that isn't saying much). There was a more experienced assistant assembling a bike in the background who was tutoring him on a few points as he was attempting to answer my questions but made no attempt to interact with me directly.
Result: I left the shop confused and halfords didnt get the sale.
I've ordered a bike in a small local bike shop where i got expert advice and it was a little bit cheaper too.