Dodgy bike setup from Halfords?

CarrotCakeIsYum

Hi,

I guess I'm what you'd class as an occasional lurker! I was after some advice on MTB set up...

I usually ride TT bikes, but wanted a mountain bike for trips to the pub and a now-and-again trek out along the surrey trails. In the end I went for a cheap Apollo Evade from Halfords, which seems to be made out of jelly metal but does the job.

On one of my first rides I was turning right from a main road into a side road. The front wheel stuck - causing me to stagger around and look like a bit of a prat (and of course some muppet who was waiting to come out of the side road wasn't happy to wait an extra two seconds and honked his horn).

On inspecting the bike they've set it up so the front brake cable is routed as going across the back of the fork (to the right hand brake lever). This means when I turn the handlebars to the right the cable gets caught on the tyre tread. I don't know if the pictures are clear enough to show the problem? I have always set brakes up so the cable is routed in front of the forks, so doesn't get caught in the tyre - its done that way on every other bike I own.

I'm happy to alter the cable myself. But feel I should contact Halfords to let them know, in case they do it again and it causes injury. I just wanted to check I wasn't being thick, and they were in fact setting them up correctly.

Cheers!

cooldad

That looks rather wrong

nicklouse

Yes report it back to them as that is not good.

rockmonkeysc

Just take it back then. Why the post on here?

CarrotCakeIsYum

Thanks for the advice - I've dropped them an e-mail.

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Just take it back then. Why the post on here?

Firstly: The last line of my 1st post - I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something and check this wasn't some new-fangled way of setting up bikes.
Secondly: I thought this would be a good place to ask, it being a cycling forum 'n all.

dirkpitt74

Quil stem - didn't realise you could get them.

Cam't you just slacken off the alan bolt in the stem and spin the forks 360 to get the cable the right side?

ilovedirt

that's some clever cable routing.

stubs

DirkPitt74 wrote:

Quil stem - didn't realise you could get them.

Cam't you just slacken off the alan bolt in the stem and spin the forks 360 to get the cable the right side?

This^^ some muppet turned the handlebars the wrong way when it was being pulled out of the box.

paul.skibum

stubs wrote:

DirkPitt74 wrote:

Quil stem - didn't realise you could get them.

Cam't you just slacken off the alan bolt in the stem and spin the forks 360 to get the cable the right side?

This^^ some muppet turned the handlebars the wrong way when it was being pulled out of the box.

No.

It's set up wrong, not just a spun around fork. Cable should come to front of fork arch, down leg beside wheel and through to the disc brake - the way it is, running up back of leg and under frame to get to right lever cannot be done simply by spinning the fork around. Or at least not in my understanding of 3 dimensional shapes.

The Rookie

Perhaps you should try, it will, the bike was built up before getting to Halfords, they've just fitted the bars with the forks rotated 360 degrees, loosen quill stem, rotate forks back 360 degrees (it will only work one way not the other) tighten quill stem. That will move the brake cable as required.

dirkpitt74

The guys at halfords would only have put the bars on and possibly the wheels.
Thats how we got them when I worked for them in my student days.
We had a batch of Apollo once where the fork steerer was made of cheese. Didn't matter how tight you did the stem bolt after a minute or so they'd rotate. We couldn't get the forks out on one as the steerer had deformed so much.

oxocube1

The Rookie wrote:

Perhaps you should try, it will, the bike was built up before getting to Halfords, they've just fitted the bars with the forks rotated 360 degrees, loosen quill stem, rotate forks back 360 degrees (it will only work one way not the other) tighten quill stem. That will move the brake cable as required.

This.

A couple of the guys in my shop almost sent a few Evades out like this when they first started, good job i spotted it before it left the shop. Every one comes from the factory like that so it just requires a 360 degree turn of the fork before installing the stem. Easy to do yourself with a 6mm Allen key but take it back to store if you want them to do it for you.

CarrotCakeIsYum

Great advice - quick loosen of the stem, a spin of the forks and it's all sorted. Saved me messing about with the routing, so thanks for that.

dirkpitt74

CarrotCakeIsYum wrote:

Great advice - quick loosen of the stem, a spin of the forks and it's all sorted. Saved me messing about with the routing, so thanks for that.

No probs.