Boardman FS – Bits fallen off. Damn now I have to call Halfords.

So, you get what you pay for. I had no choice on the B4W – long story, but ended up with a £1k Bman FS Team. Took it home, thorough service (I thought), tubelessed etc. Once round Glentress, garage for most of winter. Couple of 10 mile or so local rides since.

Beautiful day today so long trip planned. Got the shiny steed out, got 1 mile down the road. BB sus pivot bolt has fallen out on the drive-side. Limped home.

From poking about I'd say this is a M7 bolt, flat head about 15mm diameter, probably 10mm unthreaded and 20mm threaded.

I've called Halfords, took an hour to get through, promised a call back from "the mechanic" (but – Easiest if I could bring it in – Easiest for who? No.), of course no call.

Soooooooooo… Your experiences? Does the fallen-out-bit sound generic? Could I find one somewhere?

Pretty peed off at the mo!

Cheers, al.

Want an Orange 5? 🙂

Just take it back to your local store to get it fixed. If they don't have the part in (they should) then they'll order it in for you. It's what you'd do if you got your bike from your lbs.

get it into an lbs and pay for the repair, its a good bike for the money and well speked

I had a £1,800 + marin that had to go back for replacement after only 6 rides, it happens……..

Would you trust a Halfrauds mechanic to know what to do ? There may be some good ones, but Im yet to see one. If its just a bolt buy one and fix it yourself – if thats too much for you take it to your LBS.

I just want the part. It's a feking bolt, come on a bit of Loctite will prevent the problem in future (I hope). If the head wasn't concealed behind the chainrings I would have tightened it.

TBC: You are indeed evil and nasty. Filling your "other" window with all the bikes I DIDN'T buy is just plain evil and nasty. I'm going to hide under my Orange duvet.

Cheers, al.

no its just halford bike building skills
we ordered 2 team fsers at work mine wasnt riderable at all
and my mates wasnt much better.

Al – that's the 'holding pen'. Once it's been cleared then Procedure X can begin….

Halfords are busy on weekends and don't do any/many repairs on weekends too.

Cutting staff even more…You were lucky they picked up the phone!

Hopefully a one off but I would not let them do a bike build unless cytek trained at least.

Ah. Procedure X. I'll "steel my loins". Ouch.

It was a good bike for a couple of hours BTW.

🙄

al.

BTW. TBChain: Simple answer is "yes". Question is "do you take children? Or just that old-fashioned cash stuff?"

daddy al.

Well we could do with the floor swept and a constant tea supply…. but alas, cash is king.

Postscript: I got the right guy and the part's in the post! Rob from Straiton had a damaged frame, drifted the part out, talked to me knowledgeably, all very good.

It's a lottery with Halfords, and this time it's turned out OK 🙂

Cheers, al.

Would you trust a Halfrauds mechanic to know what to do ? There may be some good ones, but Im yet to see one.

They do exist… the Preston and the Manchester White city stores are pretty good. That said i've been in the Stockport store and seen a customers bike fall apart like a clowns car as he pedalled through the shop!

To be honest if you have no faith in them, take your bike in, point out the part and fit it yourself.

Edit: Oh wait… you did that 🙂

Bike shops are hit and miss… in my opinion Evans are no better than Halfords!

This is exactly what happened to my friends FS Team, half way out on the first lap of 10 more at Moray as well. He came back to the pits and we put it back together with some thread lock and put him back out to do his allocation of laps. Its been good ever since.
Moral of the story, do not rely on Halfords for anything.

The bolt would have been tightened inthe (far East) factory no?

Ie why use this as an excuse to slag off Halfords mechanics? Use your brain…:roll:

Whether it was tightened in the factory or not I'd still have expected it to be checked as part of a PDI.

It's not just Halfords though. I've had several bikes from a large Edinburgh shop and always had to do various things to correct set-up issues (gear indexing, brake set-up etc). Never had anything actually fall off though, although they did fit mudguards in such a way that it caused some toe overlap as they'd not been adjusted correctly.

What proof do you have that it wasn't checked? The bike has been used. Did you not check it over after the first few rides?

Pivot bolts come undone so need to be checked – regardless of where you bought it or what make it is.

I check mine reqularily – daily when in the alps. It's called maintenance. Harsh, but true.

mk1fan: thanks for your opinion.

In this case the upper main pivot on the rocker is a single Allen bolt, tightened from 1 side.

The lower main pivot behind the BB turns out to be in 2 parts, with the RHS concealed (you can not get to it) behind the chainrings, requiring the crank to be removed to tighten it – or to hold it still while you tighten the other end.

I assumed that the bottom bolt was the same as the top bolt and did one side up tight. I was wrong.

There should be a warning sticker on the RH chainstay IMO saying -> Tighten this thing regularly. And it needs threadloc in the factory.

Cheers, al.

Cheers, al.

Should def be threadlocked from new IMO

Up until recently I worked for halfords in manchester fort as a deputy manager, previously cycle specialist in macclesfield.

As for the halfords bit the stores are understaffed, the staff are underpaid ie minimum wage and overworked with very little training.

as for the bolt well yes that would have been checked in the far east and probably not in store, but its also something that needs to checked on a regular basis anyway more so when its a new bike. because its behind the chainrings doesn't stop you from checking it, it is only a 8mm allen key to remove the external chainset !!!!!!!

if you need a another bolt though, good luck, in my experience you'll be lucky to get one this side of easter from halfords, they certainly won't keep one in stock, the reason being, you try to stock every spare part for say 150 different bikes across 400 stores!!!!!! with warehouses the size of your living room

Got the shiny steed out,

Well, it looks like karma done it.

There should be a warning sticker on the RH chainstay IMO saying -> Tighten this thing regularly.

Are you American?

I agree that if threadlock was applied in the factory then the pivot bolt would be more secure.