Boardman Hybrid Pro LTD

randlesf

I have been riding back from work approx 17miles for the past couple of months on my 2 year old Carrera Subway 2. I have never had a problem with this bike and it has proved to be a very reliable work horse that can do about anything.
After getting overtaken by everbody riding anything with drop handle bars (I average about 15mph), I decided to upgrade. So i went looking for a faster Hybrid and fell in love with the top of the range Boardman Hybrid Pro LTD. I couldn't find one anywhere in a shop within a 100 miles of Chester, so i bought online!
The bike arrived yesterday, so i rushed home from work, un-packed it, straightened the handlebars and fitted a pedal, now i am already to go.
I took the bike around the block, (approx 5 miles), to get used to the 'Double Tap' gear change, and the chain kept jumping off the first three cogs on the rear wheel. I put this down to me not operating the gears correctly.
This morning i took the bike to work on the back of a friends car, and cycled home. The chain constantly jumped off the first three rear cogs, made a clicking noise on the 4th cog and finally settled down on cog 5. This meant climbing the hills on the way home hard work!
When i eventually arrived home, i called Halfords and asked if i could bring the bike down immediately, the lad on the phone said they were too busy, but advised me to call tomorrow to book the bike in. I asked if he was in tomorrow and he replied no. So basically he was just fobbing me off. i asked if i could make an appointment there and then on the phone and again i was told no.
So i have just paid out £1000 on a bike that won't work and i am being fobbed off by Halfords.
Any advice? I just want my bike fixed now.

BruceyboyNotts

Really sorry to hear your having trouble. There's nothing worse when all you want to do is get out on the bike!

I had the same issue with a Boardman Team Road bike i got on the cycle to work scheme. Halfords had it on 2 seperate occasions and still couldnt get it to index properly. In fact it came back worse every time! So I decided to take it to my trusty LBS who charge me £40 for a once over and to sort out the gears. Best £40 I ever spent, although I know I shouldnt have to fork out for another shop to fix it!

Still...... it now runs like a dream

Good luck

charlieg

Ii had very similar problems with my boardman team carbon, gears were slipping took it back to bike hut (x2), on the last visit I was lucky enough to deal with someone who knew what they were doing and since them its being running like a dream. Last weekend rode to brighton and back (london) without any issues.

randlesf

Chris Boardman had a post on here last week saying how all bikes bought online were PDI'd by trained mechanics before being sent out. What happened, its a fantastic bike let down by the customer service.

Rockhopper

It sounds like it needs a tiny adjustsment to the gears. Have a look here

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html

DomPro

Index the gears yourself, its worth learning how to sort out these problems on your own.

randlesf

i am not spending 1k on a bike for it to be delivered defective. If it was my old carrera i would do it myself.
My wife called halfords today whilst i was at work and they told me to bring it down when i finish. I have just come back from the shop and everything is now working spot on. The mechanic in the shop could not have been more helpful, i wonder if he read my post last night. Cable stretch apprantly.
So i am just getting my shorts on to go for a quick 20mile spin!

markos1963

randlesf wrote:

i am not spending 1k on a bike for it to be delivered defective. If it was my old carrera i would do it myself.
My wife called halfords today whilst i was at work and they told me to bring it down when i finish. I have just come back from the shop and everything is now working spot on. The mechanic in the shop could not have been more helpful, i wonder if he read my post last night. Cable stretch apprantly.
So i am just getting my shorts on to go for a quick 20mile spin!

How can you get cable stretch when the bike is new?!!!! If it was a few weeks into its life I would accept that. Unfortunatly they(Halfords) seem to concentrate more on excuse training than customer care.

Poppanik

I had similar issues with my Boardman Pro Ltd.

I picked it up boxed from Halfords and popped it together myself, and it took weeks to iron out all of the kinks and niggles, most worrying of which was the fact that whichever cheaply trained dude had put it together in Taiwan (or wherever they're assembled) had not only slipped when tightening various components leaving marks in places, but had also not put the chain together properly! I spent ages trying to re-index the thing not realising that htere was just a warped plate untill it snapped. Once it did though, problem solved.

If it is an indexing issue (and not a bent hanger or mech) then follow SRAM or Shimano's step by step indexing guides that you can download as PDF files. they're pretty good.

My bikes lovely now, so it's worth the effort!

Stevo_666

The bike itself is a good one - I am happy with mine - but have had problems with local Halfords staff being clueless. I took mine down to my local/trusted LBS after buying it and asked them to give a the 'once over': well worth it as the bike has run fine ever since. Given the VFM of these bikes it's worth doing this for peace of mind if nothing else.

rrm1990

i was thinkig of gettig this bike for my self for getting back and forth to work. i know the halfords staff are just rubbish they actually don't get trained at all or there mechanic the so calledmechanic said all he id was go for the interveiw and said he could fix bikes from his personal experiance and that he as bad at retail and they gave him the job!!!!! an from buying a bike in a box its never going to be set up right and honestly you could become abetter mechanic than most of the halfords guys buy spenind a few hours on youtube watching how to videos and buying a small tool kit for around 50 pounds! and you will be able to do eveything other than wheel truing!!!

cougie

Sorting this out is the kind of thing you should learn to do. Gears do go out of alignment sometimes and you can fix it so easily with the barrel adjuster most of the time.