Agreed, absolutely, vote with your feet/wallet. BUT I was tied in to Evans via the Ride2Work scheme. Otherwise I would have hot-footed it to a friendly LBS.

I feel for you being tied in, My dad was too.

But I really think considering who much time all of us spend on the net we can do enough of our own research to make an educated purchase.

And also sometimes the crap advice given by the spotty staff at these stores is the best they can at the time, Poor advice and customer service comes when an organisation gets to big to quickly and doesn't invested in the staff that are the first contact of their business.

I'm not defending Evans but staff who are not trained in customer service or aspects of the cycling industry that doesn't interest them, Have you ever asked the lad in a shop wearing baggy jeans and nike 6.0's thats hanging round the jump bikes (sorry for the generalisation) what a compact chainset is? Because I feel its not their fault if they don't know to best way to size a customer for a bike.

BUT there will always be people who don't give a shit and think they no better.

My Evans' experience.

Went to the Evans store next to the appalingly named "Chill Factor-E" at the Trafford Centre. We were looking for a bike for my OH, first bike for her and I'd not ridden in teens of years and was very out of touch.

Picked out a GT on recommendation from a friend ("good frame") and was discussing the purchase with the salesman. My OH is a fuller-figured lady (though not as big as she thinks she is) and asked if the fork would be strong enough for the trail centres and XC riding we were planning on doing. The assistant actually laughed, and said modern bikes were designed to be ridden hard and you could drop this bike off a height the size of the door and it'd be fine.

A month later we were pootling around Witton Park in Blackburn, OH says "my forks aren't working." Seems that they'd compressed and stayed compressed, all the bounce had gone out of them. Not jammed exactly, more like the travel had halved.

Took it back to Evans, post-repair the mechanic said that he'd bodged it (his words) and that it'll be ok for now, but if we carry on riding the way we were they'd be damaged irreparably. To reiterate, this is a girl riding round a bridleway in a country park.

It took till I got home to think "bugger buying new forks, this is a new bike and we specifically asked the question when we bought it." I wrote a letter to the head office explaining the situation, and soliciting comment.

I got back a really terse reply from the branch manager, essentially calling me a liar, and offering me free labour if I buy a new fork off them. I was in the process of composing a shitogram to them when a friend offered us a pair of Rebas for a reasonable price and I just figured, y'know what, screw 'em, they're not worth the time it's going to take me to finish the letter. (Instead, I'll badmouth them on the Internet at every opportunity, that'll learn 'em.)

the crap advice given by the spotty staff at these stores is the best they can at the time

This may be true, but it doesn't exclude them from the Sale Of Goods Act. To wit, if they tell you goods will do what you ask, and then they don't, they're not fit for purpose.

the crap advice given by the spotty staff at these stores is the best they can at the time

This may be true, but it doesn't exclude them from the Sale Of Goods Act. To wit, if they tell you goods will do what you ask, and then they don't, they're not fit for purpose.

Yes and this is why Evans need to address the situation.

Just to argue the other side, I was very impressed by the service I received, and what I saw other receive, from Evans in Nottingham the other month when I bought my Dew there. The spotty oik there knew his limits and asked for help when he got out of his depth.

That said, I came across a very nice new Cannondale MTB in the bike shed at work today with it's forks on the wrong way round – first thing I did was check it for an Evans sticker, but there wasn't one.

"back to the op

I'm confused – you built the bike up, but did not have time to adjust the gears.

Why did you not tell him that you just needed extra time to adjust the gears? How long are we talking about? 10 mins max? Did you think that him taking it to a cenral London Evans would be an easier solution than just doing it yourself?

Do you know how to adjust gears?" [/i]

I am very much still learning but know enough that I have been able to reset a few gears on my wife's bike and my (ex)Cannondale.

I had broken the bike down to sell the frame only but he wanted to whol bike so I had to put it back together.

It was late on a Sunday night after digging a trench all day and had promised my work mate the bike on the Monday morning. I didnt want to dissapoint him hence why I offered to pay to have the gears properly set to ensure he was happy with the bike.

I thought this was a good idea but it turned out not!

Ben

I have been impressed at the level of customer service at central london evans ( and halfords) who have helped me out mid week a couple of times ( for the w/e ride you see).Without their mid week help I would not have ridden at the w/e.

I'm really surprised at that saddle. But to be honest, I'd probably just stick it on the bike and ride, it'll be mucky soon enough being white, no matter how new. I'd take photos and email Evans and bitch and moan as well though, just out of principle!