halfords employee

biff55

thoroughly enjoyed reading the debates on this issue. Nowthen , which is best rigid or full suss ? he-he :twisted:

biff55

oops , meant hardtail or fs :oops:

drummondjhn

supersonic wrote:

"The fact that one of them would undo the stem to get the bike in the back of a car instead of removing the front wheel pretty much proves that point... "

Why do people have a problem with this? In can be a quick and easy solution to create more space as has been pointed out many times in this thread.

hatch back and two bikes this is what most of us do :? :shock: :? :shock:

rhann

supersonic wrote:

"The fact that one of them would undo the stem to get the bike in the back of a car instead of removing the front wheel pretty much proves that point... "

Why do people have a problem with this? In can be a quick and easy solution to create more space as has been pointed out many times in this thread.

also quicker and easier to turn handlebars, taking wheel off may mean resetting brakes, due to their alignment moving when taking them on or off, fine if you have hydraulics (i believe, never used them)

colt

I've watched this thread with interest, how about a poll, do you take the front wheel off or loosen the stem? Personally I'm yet to meet someone who loosens the stem bolts, taking the front wheel off is the way to go!

nicklouse

colt wrote:

I've watched this thread with interest, how about a poll, do you take the front wheel off or loosen the stem? Personally I'm yet to meet someone who loosens the stem bolts, taking the front wheel off is the way to go!

you need to get out more.

supersonic

Poll not needed, it depends on circumstances lol. To say no one loosens the stem and twists the bars is a bit short sided!

colt

No not really, I'm just saying that I'm yet to meet any one who goes through the hassle of finding the relevant sized allen key, loosens stem bolts then has to realign said stem/ handlebars with the front wheel then tighten it all up,rather than just undo a QR skewer?

supersonic

Awww, poor you, what a hassle undoing a stem is! More than one way to fry this fish: and the amount of people I know who knock the levers and push the hydro pistons out is, well, a lot!

nicklouse

colt wrote:

No not really, I'm just saying that I'm yet to meet any one who goes through the hassle of finding the relevant sized allen key, loosens stem bolts then has to realign said stem/ handlebars with the front wheel then tighten it all up,rather than just undo a QR skewer?

try people with 20mm axled forks? people with triple crown forks? people who want to pack a few bikes as flat as possible (ok may remove the wheel and turn the bars and remove the pedals).

turning the bars may just be one bolt in many cases (XC stem) it is easyer than removing the wheel and fitting the pad spacer.

colt

Ok fair enough, But I have the foresight to push a bit of cardboard between the brake pads, still easier than messing around with allen keys no? So I ask again how many out there loosen stem bolts or just take their front wheel off?

nicklouse

like i say it depends on the bike.

so it would depend on the ratio of who replys to what type of bike/fork they have.

Pointless.

Oh and then there are the bike racks that need the bars turning to allow the bikes to be correctly fitted.

colt

Was this thread not started off by someone buying a bike from halfords? How many bikes do they sell that have 20mm axled forks or triple crown forks? I'll be honest and say I dont know, but surely the point is someone buying from them is likely to be new to biking and their mechanical knowledge will be of such?

supersonic

Quite a few have a 15/20mm fork. Including the bike this person bought!

nicklouse

Another thought that i dont know how i miss. the number of topics we get along the lines of.

Just got my new bike back from the shop and i cant get the wheel on to the fork/frame the disc will not fit between the pads.

Now if more people just rotated the bars there would be less problems will people pulling the levers on the hydros.

supersonic

Exactly my thoughts nick. Plus on standard QRs many don't refit it properly - hence instant rubbing.

colt

OK OK I give up, just noticed the time and I've got work tomorrow so I'll agree to disagree ! Have to say I could quite get into this forum malarkey, (I'm new to all this if you had'nt guessed) quite enjoyed the discussion tonight, but should have known better than to take on Nick and Supersonic! Hopefuly might get to meet some of you at the forum ride at the chase (still think I'm right tho! LOL)

supersonic

Haha, g'nite!

nicklouse

nite and it will be a bit far for me to visit

scale20

I walked into my local halfords on Sunday and saw two "bike mechanics" trying to get a nut undone on a bike. They could'nt get the leverage to undo it so they picked up what looked like to be a new set of suspesion forks, put the end of the spanner into the steerer tube and pulled down on the top of the forks to get the leverage to crack the nut.

They achieved their objective, but it did a damn good job of reminding myself why I dont take my bikes there!

MENTAL! :shock: :shock:

paul.skibum

Quoting NM ratings for bolts? I tighten mine up until I am happy - I dont have a torque meter and have not yet lost a set of forks or bars.

Psi in rear tyres - again I dont have a guage - I pump em up until I am happy and owuld probably expect to have to do that myself.

Who tightened the bolts and therefore aligned the front wheel? They put it on the wrong way round.

Rear shock pressure - OK maybe a little guidance and help might be in order in store for that one but did the bike come with a pump for the rear shock and an instruction booklet?

Sounds liek the purchaser bought the bike and ran straight up to the Dog to go for a ride without having checked over his new bike at all or indeed having any personal understanding of the bike.

To my way of thinking and from limited facts available - this is a case of one busy body, one numpty and someone looking to get money back for having probably bought the wrong bike for what he wanted......

paul.skibum

Sorry I posted after reading page one then got to page 6 - pretty much all been said.

But the fork steerer to undo a nut is pretty lateral thinking - longer lever to shift a tricky nut - if forks were to hand and nothing else was why not - no damage done.

llamafarmer

paul.skibum wrote:

But the fork steerer to undo a nut is pretty lateral thinking - longer lever to shift a tricky nut - if forks were to hand and nothing else was why not - no damage done.

:? Would you want those forks on your bike afterwards?

paul.skibum

why not? The steerer wont be damaged and the forks themselves will take a lot more lateral forces than they would have been applying. Admittedly somewhere in the store there must have been a longer armed wrench they ocul dhave used but then they have to sell that to someone too dont they!

jake_tenfloors

I work at halfords but refuse to work in the bike section because i know what the customers up there are like.

I'll help out when needed but the amount of time wasters that come into store is unreal.
The other thing is that we get so many customers coming back in saying we've done this wrong, we've broke that.

Our store has now set up a camera that films the bike before it leaves the store so we can see how the bike was when it left the store. So if we get accused that the forks were the wrong way round, we can politely show them, they were not

Jake

supersonic

There is no way you can tell from a camera like that what the final adjustmnets would be though!

scale20

paul.skibum wrote:

why not? The steerer wont be damaged and the forks themselves will take a lot more lateral forces than they would have been applying. Admittedly somewhere in the store there must have been a longer armed wrench they ocul dhave used but then they have to sell that to someone too dont they!

Forks do take a beating and it may not have done them any harm however I don't think doing something like that on the shop floor for all customers to see is the brightest of idea's!

God know's what goes on in the back room of your LBS But what you don't see Don't harm you!

saltyman

my brother in law has just recently bought a bike from halfords, one of those £160 full suspension and disc brake jobs..........despite telling him to stay clear as he would have problems.

needless to say didnt take long before he was moaning.

first off the bike was in stock, but would be a week before they could put it together for him.

he finally gets the bike and takes it for a gentle ride to the local park.........within minutes, the gears dont change propaly, the crank arms dont match up? dont know what he meant by that, the pedals were loose and on the return ride home the stem/handlebars became loose and the bars slid out of the stem almost causing him a serious injury.

all this within 20 mins.

after taking the bike back to the store, they have promised him a replacement bike and 12 months cover. :roll:

rhann

money back buy a new bike.

supersonic

Was this a bike 'reduced' from £320?