newbie to mountain bikes :)

306ian

Just bought a Carrera Vulcan from Halfords a few days ago, its was reduced to 300£ as when it came out of the box it had a broken brake line which they replaced, I still had to wipe off brake fluid off the wheels and tyres, a few scratches here and there etc nothing major. The first day it was fine, all gears working. The day after it wouldn't change from the front middle sprocket to the front small sprocket when on the small cog at the rear, it tries but doesn't make it. So I rang Halfords explaining the problem, they said bring it in which I did, the young lad put the bike on the maintenance stand and tried the gears and still it wouldn't change down, his verdict was "its working fine, its normal, its supposed to do that" I told him all gears worked yesterday, his explanation was you've got to always keep the chain parallel between front and rear. I've also just noticed the front crank and chainset are not the one advertised. Its got a "sr suntour super pff" put it should be a "SRAM S200 3.0 chainset" according to the Hlafords website. Is the Suntour better or worse than the SRAM? I hope they haven't put a cheaper on on instead.

Thanks for reading !

cooldad

Read 'Read this first' below and sort it out - bikes need regular fettling.

RandG

I see you've met cooldad

cooldad

I speak just the truth. As it appears did the person at Halfords - although it should shift into small/small and big/big you shouldn't be using extreme ratios. The same gearing is available without crossing up the chain.
Avoid the opposite approx two/three cogs when in the big or small chainrings.

306ian

Thankyou, I will read "read this"

The Rookie

306ian wrote:

Its got a "sr suntour super pff" put it should be a "SRAM S200 3.0 chainset" according to the Hlafords website. Is the Suntour better or worse than the SRAM?

The Suntour is probably cheaper but also slightly better (lighter), in terms of performance you won't notice a difference.

306ian

Halfords really are are useless, front gears still won't work properly but that's normal according to them, it changes up no problem but changing from middle to small, it just doesn't want to do it, I've followed so many guides how to set them up. Both calipers leak fluid when the bike is left a few hours, small drops on the tyres. Back wheel wasn't aligned and some of the large chainring teeth are almost completely worn out. Not even had it a week :evil:

Kowalski675

306ian wrote:

some of the large chainring teeth are almost completely worn out

Are you sure about that? On my bikes the largest chainring has teeth of different profiles (apparently it helps with the shifting). I only noticed it when looking over my new Boardman - if it wasn't for the fact that it was brand new I would've thought that some of the teeth were worn, as they are shorter and profiled differently.

I found this vid the most helpful (after watching several) in setting up my front mech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuw9yCLwslQ

The Rookie

The leaking callipers need changing.

Indexing isn't rocket science, if in doubt start all over again, I suspect your low stop is engaging a little early.

gt-arrowhead

I seriously recommend learning to do it yourself. It is a 2 minute job when learnt, and you can just do it whenever rather than worrying about halfords doing it.

Some teeth are shaped differently, it is normal, this is to encourage the chain to move to a different ring at that point.

ElliesDad

Its a bit pot luck with Halfords mechanics. My local shop has quite a good mechanic but I still learnt to do it myself, there are some great guides on You Tube and it really is very easy. Would recommend investing in a bike workstand though, these are invaluable as you will need to make adjustments in the future when the cables stretch etc.