Failure to buy a bike

jezcc · July 2008

Today I went around London making an attenpt to spend £700 or less on a road/racer bike.

First I went to bikehut at St Paul's to see about a Boardman comp - No dice, they didn't have any and didn't expect to have any. Then they started giving me a sales pitch about them and I explained that I was aware they were excellent value, and might wel;l have bought one if they could find one in the next 2 weeks.

Then I went off to Spitalfields and a quick spin round Cyclesurgery didn't turn up anything of interest, so I wandered over to Evans "Biggest Cycle Show Room In London" says the sign. I wonder in and it also turns out to be the emptiest cycle show room in London, they had about 30 bikes total.

So finally I gave up and went to Oxford street to do some other shopping, dropped in to Evans up there and had a test ride on a Felt Z70, thought it was ok, but didn't really feel like it was £700 worth of awesome and came home bikeless.

How hard is it to buy a bike these days?

I've developed a theory that the big bike shops just stock a few bikes so that their shop doesn't look weird, then they make all their cash from accesories.

jezcc · July 2008

...no I've decided that, as I can't get to a better bike shop easily, I'm going to have to get one of them there internets. The questions is whether to go for ribble or wiggle.

Advice?

The ribbles look nice, but I'd get better value on the components from a focus from wiggle, though the frame? Dunno

chuckcork · July 2008

Jez, its not too hard to get a road bike for under £700, you would just have to accept what you get, and that it won't be top of the line in all regards. Mostly the extra money is about reducing weight and going for more exotic materials e.g. carbon everything. Practically though its the legs that count.

I would suggest that most of the shops are likely to have show stock, and will then order in, so whatever happens you'll probably have to wait a few days.

If you can wait until October the Cycle Show will be on at Earls Court 10-12 October. Might be worth a visit?

Infamous · July 2008

jezcc wrote:

First I went to bikehut at St Paul's to see about a Boardman comp - No dice, they didn't have any and didn't expect to have any. Then they started giving me a sales pitch about them and I explained that I was aware they were excellent value, and might wel;l have bought one if they could find one in the next 2 weeks.

Strange. a couple of months ago I bought a bike from halfords, they didn't have any in (they only had a handful left in the country!) and all they did was get it sent by "TNT" to the shop. It took about 2/3 days. And that was from a shop hundreds of miles away.

Maybe you can ask them to "TNT" one in for ya?

Kirkeh · July 2008

I was the same mate. Ordered my Boardman Comp on the internet a few weeks ago, turned up at the shop and it turned out that the 'large' framed model i had ordered was in fact an XL when they opened the box :roll:
Credit to them though, they also just 'tnt'd a bike in from another store. 3 days later I was on my way. I even got it for the bargain price of £540 ! It was only £599 on internet less 10% dicount that they are/were running on reserve and collect items, which was nice

Great first bike btw, I dont really understand some of the snobbery surrounding halfords and boardman bikes tbh :?: I am a noob I suppose, maybe when i'm more hardcore I'll shop elsewhere

fizz · July 2008

Kirkeh wrote:

I dont really understand some of the snobbery surrounding halfords and boardman bikes tbh

Its not the bikes themselves. Its more to do with the staff that work in some of the halford stores i.e. some of them dont know one end of a spanner from the other.

I'm not saying the store you bought yours from is like this, but the store local to me having seen the results of their work I wouldnt trust them to work on my bike.

Again I'm not implying that every branch of halfords is like this.

_Brun_ · July 2008

I spent the majority of a weekend touring round London's bike shops and can understand your frustration. Road bikes are generally not the biggest sellers, so it's quite reasonable that they don't dominate the limited space available in stores.

I think your best bet is to check the websites for anything that looks like it might fit the bill, and get on the phone to find out where you'll be able to take a closer look and have a test ride.

Rich Hcp · July 2008

The 2009 bikes are well on the way and so 2008 bikes are getting short on stock

As said above, you'll be lucky to test exactly what you want, I tested a higher spec bike with the same frame than the one I've bought.

It was no problem at all

It's frustrating, but the shops cannot stock everything...

jezcc · July 2008

in the end I had a sit on a mate's Ribble and decided I liked it enough and ordered one of them of the net.

I wonder how long it will take to arrive.

babyshambles · July 2008

fizz wrote:

Kirkeh wrote:

I dont really understand some of the snobbery surrounding halfords and boardman bikes tbh

Its not the bikes themselves. Its more to do with the staff that work in some of the halford stores i.e. some of them dont know one end of a spanner from the other.

I'm not saying the store you bought yours from is like this, but the store local to me having seen the results of their work I wouldnt trust them to work on my bike.

Again I'm not implying that every branch of halfords is like this.

Oh, i'm, pretty sure that they are like that.......

meagain · July 2008

Can't see any preference between H'fords satff and that of any bike shop really. Most of the former know little and I certainly wouldn't let them set upo a bike for me. Many of the latter know just as little but are more patronising and misleading. And I wouldn't let 90% of them near a bike of mine either.

The whole H'fords thing is plain snobbery.

Failure to buy a bike

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