So I'm a fettling numpty - but are Halfords any better?

JiveSinger

Here's my sorry tale...

I got myself a Carerra Gryphon from Halfords the other day, after pootling around for a few weeks on the ancient bike-shaped-object from my youth and deciding I wanted to get back into cycling.

As it happened I was looking in a big Halfords away from home because my local one didn't have such a wide choice of bikes in-store, but had already pretty much decided that was what I wanted, so I bought it there and then. Because I was away from home, I didn't want to wait all afternoon for it to be assembled and so I took it home boxed. After all, I'd looked after my old bike for 3 years at Uni so how hard could it be to assemble a new one...?

When I got home, I tried to be careful in puting all the bits together, and even found the "L" and "R" on the pedals, although I did notice that the right-hand one seemed to be a bit harder to screw in than the other for some reason. Got the brakes working and adjusted , put a bit of air in the tyres, and set off for a test ride...

... which was fine. The gears didn't seem quite adjusted (it threw a chain at one point, and some of the higher gears weren't selecting properly) so I spent a bit of time in the evening trying to tweak the stops etc., but it all seemed good.

The next day I went out for a more ambitious ride down a local cycle way, mostly on cycle paths (dedicated or dual use) and was starting to make some speed along a clear stretch, when suddenly there was a clatter and I only had one pedal.

Yes that right hand pedal (the one which seemed hard to tighten) had sheared off totally and wasn't going back on. I can only asume I cross-threaded it?

And I did discover that you can (almost) pedal a bilke one-legged if you sort of ease the crank round with your other foot.

So shamefacedly back to Halfords to ask them to repair it. Of course, as well as the pedals it damaged the crank so the whole front chainset (is that the right term?) needed to be replaced. And they didn't have the exact replacement either, although the lad did say it was an upgrade. And it took over 2 weeks to get it.

Anyhow, today I collected it, and I notice the following:
* The new pedals aren't tightened onto the cranks properly - I can unscrew them with fairly light finger pressure. I also feel a slight "grittiness" but not sure if that is the pedal rubbing against the new crank. Bearing in mind my previous blunder, am I safe to just tighten them?
* The new front chain rings have 48/34 teeth, when the original had 50/36. How much of a difference will this make to the gearing? (The original gearing already seemed a little lower than I was expecting, given it's basically a road bike, compared to my old BSO which seems higher). Incidentally it's called a "Gloria Prowheel" - is this a good thing?

Basically I'm a bit put out that the one thing that I got wrong last time (tightening the pedals on) is the bit they haven't actually bothered to fix properly.

zebra67

I'm not convinced you did the pedals wrong to start with, do you understand that you have to turn them (to tighten them) towards the front of the bike?

II only put my pedals on to just beyond finger tightness; I don't think there's any need to do it much firmer. Makes life much easier when you need to change or want to swap them around.
(Congrats on the threading mistake, don't worry, we nearly all do it at least once!!)

Can't answer gearing Q, that's beyond my knowledge base, but I think you won't really notice the difference.

Blue Meanie

Check the pedal threads for grease! Quite important if you ever want to swap them. As for fitting torque/tightness, I put mine on 'not so tight' but always fit customers' very tight.
Also, after the first hundred miles or so, check and tighten the left hand crank bolt or you might end up pedaling home one-leggedly again.

Oh, and purchasing a non-built bike is naughty. Consider yourself reprimanded.

The drop in gearing is certainly not an upgrade, neither is buying an un-built bike. A polite e-mail to the branch manager might earn you some freebies?

JiveSinger

Thanks for your replies folks.

zebra67 wrote:

I'm not convinced you did the pedals wrong to start with, do you understand that you have to turn them (to tighten them) towards the front of the bike?

I'm pretty sure I was tightening them the right way, 'cos I worked out early on that one of them had a backwards thread and needed turning the opposite way to normal.

Blue Meanie wrote:

Check the pedal threads for grease! Quite important if you ever want to swap them.

Do you mean they need to have some grease on? I don't think they had any; either originally or when I collected it yesterday. What sort of grease should it be?

Blue Meanie wrote:

Oh, and purchasing a non-built bike is naughty. Consider yourself reprimanded.

Well it seems to be the standard way they sell 'em.

Halfords website wrote:

All bikes sold online are supplied boxed and designed for home assembly.

bigflangesmallsprocket

I reserved my bike online and was surprised to find I had apparently chosen the 'boxed' option. They did actually assemble it instore, but I still had to correct some of their work when I got home.

By 'sheared' I'm assuming you meant the pedal spindle itself actually snapped? If that's so, I doubt cross-threading would be the cause of that, just the cheap pedals they often supply as standard.

48/34 is not a lot lower than 50/36, but the amount of teeth on a chainset is neither an upgrade nor a downgrade. 48/34 is common on many quality chainset and nowadays you'll often find them on decently specced bikes (you'll often find them on quite decent 'sporty' bikes, where comfort and a wide gear range is as important as pure performance). You can find chainsets of widely varying quality and just as widely varying gearing to suit personal taste.

The Rookie

Can you clarify, did the pedal spindle snap (leaving a piece in the crank arm) as sheared implies, or did the threads strip and the pedal fall out, the later could be incompitant assembly, the former not.

Simon

JiveSinger

The Beginner wrote:

Can you clarify, did the pedal spindle snap (leaving a piece in the crank arm) as sheared implies, or did the threads strip and the pedal fall out, the later could be incompitant assembly, the former not.

Simon

Ah I shouldn't have said "sheared" - it was the latter (threads stripped and the pedal came out)

desweller

You should apply some grease to the threads of the pedal before assembly. Anti-seize compound, e.g. copaslip or alumslip, is ideal but you can still use whatever you have in your shed - molybdenum grease or lithium grease will be better than nothing.

Are the pedals cheap plastic ones? Chances are that they are running with plain bearings (as opposed to rolling element bearings), so they will tend to feel quite rough when you spin them. There's not much you can do about this apart from try to run some oil into them at the boundary between the rotating part and the spindle.

You'll lose a bit of top end speed with the gearing you now have, but you'll have more gears at the bottom end for ascending steep hills. I'd be surprised if it is lower geared than your old bike, assuming your old BSO was a MTB. They usually have quite short gearing, partly because of low geared chainset and cassette, and partly because they have smaller wheels.

The Rookie

With Des, I always copaslip my pedals.

Simon

JiveSinger

DesWeller wrote:

You should apply some grease to the threads of the pedal before assembly. Anti-seize compound, e.g. copaslip or alumslip, is ideal but you can still use whatever you have in your shed - molybdenum grease or lithium grease will be better than nothing.

Ah thanks for that. I have much junk around the house but nothing in the way of grease. I'll look out for some at the weekend

DesWeller wrote:

Are the pedals cheap plastic ones? Chances are that they are running with plain bearings (as opposed to rolling element bearings), so they will tend to feel quite rough when you spin them.

Yep - exactly as you say, I can feel the roughness when I turn them (one is worse that the other).

DesWeller wrote:

You'll lose a bit of top end speed with the gearing you now have, but you'll have more gears at the bottom end for ascending steep hills. I'd be surprised if it is lower geared than your old bike, assuming your old BSO was a MTB. They usually have quite short gearing, partly because of low geared chainset and cassette, and partly because they have smaller wheels.

BSO is what I'd have called a "racing bike" when it was new and I was a teenager. Another Halfords own brand I think (it seems to be called an Olympic Royale GT), which was never that sturdy. Same size tyres as it happens too, so I'll maybe go and count the teeth at some point.