Halfords at London to Brighton

"injuryprone" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a
f*@%ing Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

In contrast, the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride (70 miles from
Wetherby to Filey) this Saturday was brilliantly marshalled
and organised. There were roving mechanics on motor cycles
and in vans - - folk didn't appear to have to wait more than
10 minutes or so befor being attended to.

Come up North for a more challenging and better organised
ride. Can't wait to next year's event

Quoted message said:

Turns out they won the contract to supply mechanics along
the route for this years ride and then almost all of them
failed to turn up, those that did turn up had few parts
(innertubes, nuts, chains etc) and so could only fix the
most simple of problems.

Surely if the bikes were well maintained and serviced to
begin with, ensuing problems should be simple?

having said that I was amazed at the poor mechanical
condition of some of the bikes on the GYBR - the sound of
dry rusty chains grinding through dry bearing'd deraiileurs
accompanied by dry bottom bracked bearings squeaking their
protests on several bikes set my teeth on edge....

Quoted message said:

Normally I'd suggest we all boycott them, but frankly
I'd be shocked if there was anyone capable of using
usenet news that would be stupid enough to use them in
the first place.

Quoted message said:

[censored].

A local problem for local people. Not all Halfords,
branches, products or staff are worthy of the derision often
meted out here in the newsgroup. Write a letter of complaint
to the organisers - you can't blame the troops until the
generals have been called to account.

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:02:11 +0100, injuryprone <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a f*@%ing
Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

Turns out they won the contract to supply mechanics along
the route for this years ride and then almost all of them
failed to turn up, those that did turn up had few parts
(innertubes, nuts, chains etc) and so could only fix the
most simple of problems.

What was their contract for? There's not many
organisations that could handle what I assume is a pretty
high volume of work and still offer anything more than
solutions to simple problems.

Quoted message said:

Normally I'd suggest we all boycott them, but frankly I'd
be shocked if there was anyone capable of using usenet news
that would be stupid enough to use them in the first place.

How should I take that remark seeing as I've just bought a
bike from them? 🙂

Halfords is a pretty well worn topic hereabouts. I think the
overall conclusion (mine, that is) is that they have their
uses but, as always, caveat emptor.

injuryprone said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a
f*@%ing Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

So what was wrong with your bike that you couldn't fix ?

[Not Responding] <[email hidden]> wrote:

<Snipped Text>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Normally I'd suggest we all boycott them, but frankly
I'd be shocked if there was anyone capable of using
usenet news that would be stupid enough to use them in
the first place.

How should I take that remark seeing as I've just bought a
bike from them? 🙂

Halfords is a pretty well worn topic hereabouts. I think
the overall conclusion (mine, that is) is that they have
their uses but, as always, caveat emptor.

Absolutely. I wanted a reasonably price bike for Emily to
make the next step up in bike size. I popped into the local
byke shoppe, which I thought would be best. OK, he gave
sound advice, but their assumption was that people only
wanted premium quality bikes - their cheapest was £200.

I didn't want anything too fancy, no shock forks and all
that kind of stuff.

I popped up to our local Halfords, and found what we were
looking for, a simple bike reduced to £99 - apparently
because it didn't have shock forks. That did the job nicely.

Now I was lucky enough to find a very helpful chap in their
store, who even gave us a shorter seat stem. I have since
been back, and finding the same chap, found him very helpful
indeed. I'll certainly be going back there again.

--
Andy Hewitt ** FAF#1, (Ex-OSOS#5) - FJ1200 ABS Honda
Concerto 16v: Windows free zone (Mac G5 Dual Processor)
thehewitts.plus.comthehewitts.plus.comOpen ↗ - now online

Andy Hewitt said:

Now I was lucky enough to find a very helpful chap in
their store, who even gave us a shorter seat stem. I have
since been back, and finding the same chap, found him very
helpful indeed. I'll certainly be going back there again.

There are good bike shops and Halfords branches and bad bike
shops and Halfords branches. You just need to find the good
ones of either and take your custom there.

Tony

I do 200 or 300km Audaxes quite often and we don't have
mechanics. If your problem is so bad you can't fix it; you
have to track down an LBS, hope someone passing can help
(bad form though, really) or pack in and find a way home.

Mechanics -- pah!

Tony Raven said:

Andy Hewitt said:

Now I was lucky enough to find a very helpful chap in
their store, who even gave us a shorter seat stem. I
have since been back, and finding the same chap, found
him very helpful indeed. I'll certainly be going back
there again.

There are good bike shops and Halfords branches and bad
bike shops and Halfords branches. You just need to find
the good ones of either and take your custom there.

Yes, that was my point.

--
Andy Hewitt ** FAF#1, (Ex-OSOS#5) - FJ1200 ABS Honda
Concerto 16v: Windows free zone (Mac G5 Dual Processor)
thehewitts.plus.comthehewitts.plus.comOpen ↗ - now online

injuryprone:

Quoted message said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a f*@%ing
Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

Ouch. What was your difficulty?

How was the ride apart from that? Hope you had fun and
didn't get rained on too much. My sister did it and
complained about the crowds slowing her down - but then she
was one of the many that walked up Ditchling Beacon.

d.

MSeries said:

injuryprone said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a
f*@%ing Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

So what was wrong with your bike that you couldn't fix ?

My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I don't carry a spare chain, although I think I
might from now on.

Regards, Mark

"Simonb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I do 200 or 300km Audaxes quite often and we don't have
mechanics. If your problem is so bad you can't fix it; you
have to track down an LBS, hope someone passing can help
(bad form though, really) or pack in and find a way home.

Mechanics -- pah!

That is indeed the ethos of Audax. The ethos of L2B seems to
be (for many riders) do no training then dig the old bike
out (rust chain et al) from last year, maybe put two
pumpfuls of air in the tyres and ride (walk) to Brighton,
and also hope it doesn't rain so you end up wearing a bin
liner. But what the hey, it gets people out and raises 1.5m
for the BHF, even if they pack. Still worth doing just for
the Beacon, nothing comes close to the atmosphere on the way
up there and at the top. And yes halfords failed to turn up
at Turner's Hill, probably the major stop en route.

injuryprone posted:

Quoted message said:

My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I don't carry a spare chain, although I think I
might from now on.

A spare link and/or a chain breaker would allow you to
shorten the chain a link and carry on in less than 10
minutes .. 😉

--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

[QUOTE][i]
My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I don't carry a spare chain, although I think I
might from now on.

Regards, Mark [/B][/QUOTE]

I know that you should be prepared and everything, but it does make me wonder what kind of problems these mechanics could fix. One of the cyclists in my group snapped his gear cable and they were unable to do anything about that either.

"davek" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

injuryprone:

Quoted message said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a
f*@%ing Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

Ouch. What was your difficulty?

How was the ride apart from that? Hope you had fun and
didn't get rained

on

Quoted message said:

too much. My sister did it and complained about the crowds
slowing her down - but then she was one of the many that
walked up Ditchling Beacon.

d.

The crowds were horrendous and at many places everyone had
to get off and wait, either because of the huge crowds
walking up hills, or because of waiting to cross a major
road. Turners hill being one, that must have taken me 20
mins to get through. There were a couple of small hills I
might have got up but couldnt due to crowds, I walked
Ditchling because I wasnt up to it. I might try LtB again
but I'll do it under my own steam rather than with the
crowds which probably added 2 - 3 hrs to my ride. I guess I
spent about2 hrs in queues either going up hills or at
junctions. Glad I did it though even if it was hail and
freezing torrential rain for the last 2 hours (for me).
Gonna do IOW next time (later this summer).

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

Tumbleweed said:

Quoted message said:

The crowds were horrendous and at many places everyone had
to get off and wait, either because of the huge crowds
walking up hills, or because of waiting to cross a major
road. Turners hill being one, that must have taken me 20
mins to get through. There were a couple of small hills I
might have got up but couldnt due to crowds, I walked
Ditchling because I wasnt up to it. I might try LtB again
but I'll do it under my own steam rather than with the
crowds which probably added 2 - 3 hrs to my ride. I guess
I spent about2 hrs in queues either going up hills or at
junctions. Glad I did it though even if it was hail and
freezing torrential rain for the last 2 hours (for me).
Gonna do IOW next time (later this summer).

We had a better experience than that. Only 5/10 mins at
Turner's hill and all hills cycled even Ditchling which was
not as tough as I'd expected from all the horror tales - set
of in bottom gear and just ground it out! Ice-cream at the
top was just about the best I've ever had.

We spent the worst of the rain in a pub in Ditchling!

pk

injuryprone <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Just got back from this years London to Brighton, having
spent *3 HOURS* at marshall point 115 waiting for a
f*@%ing Halfords mechanic that never turned up.

May I suggest that you carry a few basic tools and learn how
your bicycle works? What happens when you ride more than
five minutes walk from home?

Cheers, Al.

injuryprone said:

I don't carry a spare chain, although I think I might
from now on.

You don't need to carry a whole chain, just carry a few
spare links and pins; and a chain breaker.

Humpkin <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I don't carry a spare chain, although I think
I might from now on. Regards, Mark

I know that you should be prepared and everything, but
it does make me wonder what kind of problems these
mechanics could fix. One of the cyclists in my group
snapped his gear cable and they were unable to do
anything about that either.

Did you all manage to get entered on the day? Some joker put
an unused number on my bike as I was on the train home from
working night duty, so I (ahem) used it!

Quoted message said:

My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I

don't

Quoted message said:

carry a spare chain, although I think I might from now on.

Regards, Mark

That sounds like a very weird accident. I do carry a chain
rivet tool, so I suppose I could fix it if it happened, but
I don't think such an accident ought to happen. I replace
my chains before they start wearing the sprockets badly
enough for them to need replacing too. That's less than
2000 miles nowadays, not much more than 1000 miles with a
Shimano chain. What state was your chain in, and what is
your policy?

Jeremy Parker

Jeremy Parker said:

Quoted message said:

My chain snapped (actually it broke into a few little
pieces). I

don't

Quoted message said:

carry a spare chain, although I think I might from now on.

Regards, Mark

That sounds like a very weird accident. I do carry a chain
rivet tool, so I suppose I could fix it if it happened,
but I don't think such an accident ought to happen. I
replace my chains before they start wearing the sprockets
badly enough for them to need replacing too. That's less
than 2000 miles nowadays, not much more than 1000 miles
with a Shimano chain. What state was your chain in, and
what is your policy?

Jeremy Parker

I'm glad somebody else thinks the same as me about
replacement chains. I have been laughed at for my policy of
1500 mile chain replacement intervals. Not that I've ever
managed to stick to 1500, it always gets left for a few
weeks and generally works out at 2000 mile intervals. Never
had one fail on me yet though.

Terry Duckmanton