Halfords Preston?

sophidog

anyone have experience of their bike assembling/fitting skills folks? am considering the Boardman Hybrid Pro in the next month or two but recently saw a very young fella(week-end only?) assembly a Boardman road bike one Sunday whilst the anxious young lady purchaser stood and waited. Just don't want have to take it back & have it done again if you know what i mean.........

Clarion

I would hate to have a bike assembled by any branch of Hellfrauds.

I believe that Boardmans are now available via Wiggle, so you can assemble in the comfort of your own home.

keyser__soze

Clarion, only for Wiggle customers outside the UK

Boardman bikes are available exclusively to our overseas markets, this excludes the United Kingdom, Ireland & Korea

Clarion

Oh arse.

I had a similar dilemma, as I bought a Ridgeback Solo for peanuts in a sale at Evans. The 'mechanic' built it up (a day too late, while I stood, seething, in the shop), and made a right bollocks of it, including forgetting to pump the tyres up. I ostentatiously rejigged the set up on the shopfloor, blocking access to the counter, and rode it to work. I never went back for their free service.

I'm happy with my bike, but I woud have to have a very pressing reason to use Evans again. Halfords are one down the food chain even from there, and I might accept a bike being built up by them if I were able to get it home by car and fettle it before riding. I'd prefer to get a box from them, even if it has to be picked up from the shop rather than home delivered.

nation

Halfords get really arsey if you ask for the bike in a box. Or at least, they were when I did.

Ended up fettling it myself when I got home. Still not happy with the position of the hoods (which, to be fair, wasn't necessarily Halfords) but fixing that requires retaping the bars so I've never got around to it.

bunter

some halfords are good - the bedford branch employed guys from a defunct lbs who knew their stuff. My local [Blackburn] branch employs total f**kwits who don't know how to work a chain whip.

jeremyrundle

Plymouth and Bodmin, good service at all times, no complaints at all, but when I had my bikes "built" last year by a local bike shop I wouldn't take them to Halfords find smaller inependants offer a better service as their bisiness relies on it.

The Rookie

Two Halfords near me have excellent reputations, 1 other has a bad one, which is probably the same ratio for the LBS, it's just that being Halfords we have all heard of them. Certainly I don't think they are any worse than Evans (their only nationwide competetitor I think, Decathlon not having enough effective coverage to count).

Simon

Confusedboy

Bought my hack (Apollo Code) cheap in local Halfrauds, and my LBS was quite happy to check it over for me, They found that the bottom bracket was incorrectly installed and fixed it for me. Result; a cheap (£150) shopping bike which I don't fret too much over when I leave it locked up in town. I would be quite happy to buy Carrera or Boardman but would want them checked over by someone I trust. This means I would be factoring in the potential extra cost when considering such bikes.