Boardman HT Pro front derailleur allignment

marky harvey

Hi

I have a new Boardman HT Pro with direct mount front derailleur. The tube welded onto the frame doesn't look that well aligned which means that the derailleur isn't parallel to the chain. Is there any adjustment to sort this or do I need to take the bike back and get the frame swapped?

Thanks

Mark

The Rookie

There is no adjustment.....

The derailleur will only be parallel to the chain in the gear that aligns with the chainwheel in use (assuming one does......so in lowest and highest gears at the back they can never be parallel.

marky harvey

Thederailleur isn't parallel to teh chain wheel at all. It looks like the bracket which the derailleur bolts to has been welded on in the wrong place.

cooldad

A picture would help - if it's that wrong obviously take it back.

marky harvey

Halfords say it's ok and "the same as all the other Boardmans". The reply from SRAM says it isn't. Maybe all the Boardmans at the moment are being made wrong?

The Rookie

cooldad wrote:

A picture would help - if it's that wrong obviously take it back.

marky harvey

An update to this. After a lot of hassle and numerous un-returned mails to Halfords and Boardman this has been resolved. Although the shop's opinion was that the derailleur worked, they eventually accepted that the derailleur alignment wasn't correct and returned the bike. Eventually (after highlighting consumer rights to them) Halfords customer services replied and agreed to swap the bike but the correspondance from the store was shocking. When the bike was exchanged it came back with the original wheels and the store gave the impression that they were going to clean up the orininal frame and sell it again, absolutely shocking. Overall, the customer service from Halfords, especially the store was awful. I'm also surprised and disappointed that Boardman themselves didn't tale any interest whatsoever in this as it's clearly a manufacturing fault. Whilst the new bike is great, the whole experience and attitude of Halfords (arguing that the bike is correct until shown evidence that it clearly isn't and not bothering to reply to the supposedly priority emails to customer service) and of Boardman (showing absolutely no interest whatsoever) means that would probably never buy another. Interestingly Halfords store also said that they had no way to contact anyone from Boardman for technical advice. The whole impression is that Boardman and Halfords just want your money and don't have any regard for customer satisfaction at all. Small wonder that Halfords came bottom in a recent survey regarding customer care!!!

benpinnick

You cant build bikes at Halford's cost without sacrificing something - quality control is often the first to go as tenders for frae manufacturer go to the cheapest supplier, who are cheaper for a reason. Some Taiwan manufacturers won't even offer smooth welds as this effects quality for example, so finding someone willing to build smooth weld frames at the kind of cost Boardman punts out at means something has to give. Its a shame Boardman aren't all over this though, they are still paying for straight frames, even if they are not getting them. You have to question who is driving that bus, if anyone?

marky harvey

I get the impression that Boardman bikes is a couple of people in a room just sourcing the stuff.

steviecapt

i had the same problem, sent boardman bikes an email about my bike, they were not interested at all, was told to deal with halfords, they dont have a clue about any of the bikes they sell, all there interested in is taking your money, wait till you need a part for your bike, like a gear hanger, you will soon see what halfords customer service is like,no wonder they have a crap reputation.

cooldad

That's the same for any manufacturer - your deal is with the seller.

marky harvey

I agree that you deal with the seller but if they're not pulling their weight then the manufacturer should get involved (Halfords just try and palm you off with something that's not right). I would also have expected Boardman to take an interest as this is clearly a manufacturing fault. If they've made a few bikes like this then i expect they're using a mis-aligned jig for manufacture and so will probably have made hundreds like it. Between Boardman and Halfords, the customer service is rubbish. I wonder if Boardman have the same approach to the journalist who review their bikes? Doubt it! I suppose the lesson from all this is to buy a different brand.

YeehaaMcgee

I'm still not 100% convinced there was any alignment issue. Like the Rookie says above, there is no way for it to be perfectly aligned for all gears, so a compromise is made. And the best compromise may not actually mean having it parallel with the chainrings.

benpinnick

Not according to the shimano specifications. The face of the D type mount should be parallel to the BB face (which in turn is parallel to the chainrings). I think its a fair assumption markey harvey meant chainrings not chain? Given the chainring chainline is designed specifically to make the best chainline (straight as possible) when running big > small, mid > mid and Small > big I think that the chances of this being deliberate are small. Sounds like someones welding jig was a bit off and no-one spotted it.

YeehaaMcgee

I dunno, I'll reserve judgement. I've often rotated the front mech to get less drag/rubbing on the typically used gears, whilst making a small sacrifice to the extremely low gears that are hardly ever used.
I've never used or seen a direct mount mech, but I still think it's plausible that some angling was designed into it.
Basically, what I'm saying is that it's worth getting an answer from them instead of getting angry.

marky harvey

SRAM stated that the derailleur should be parallel with the chainrings so that's good enough for me

johnsav

sorry to drag a thread up but I too had the same issues as the OP with the same bike.
I ended up ditching the direct mount mech and just fitting a clamp type. Works great now so was most certainly the frame at fault.

marky harvey

I still find it hard to believe that Boardman haven't sorted this out. It seems to be a company that really doesn't care about customer satisfaction. You live and learn, but I would never recommend them. Did you have to cut off the direct mount?

YeehaaMcgee

Maybe they were all from a single production run with a faulty jig or something.

marky harvey

That's what I thought but if so, Boardman should be well aware of it and have removed the bikes from that batch from the shops. Maybe they don't get the feedback from Halfords about the problem. My impression from Halfords was that even they found it difficult to get technical support. I know it's easy to moan, but when you pay good money for a product you expect it to be right and if it's not it should be sorted without issue. Good business need repeat trade and Boardman will struggle with that if they don't sort out simple faults like this.

YeehaaMcgee

All I can see is a justification for my irrational dislike of direct mount "stuff"

Kowalski675

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

All I can see is a justification for my irrational dislike of direct mount "stuff"

Surely if there's justification for it then it's not irrational?

YeehaaMcgee

Well not now, no. But it was before.