Took my bike into Halfords for its annual service covered by the £19.99 payment last year . Told the technician that the brakes needed bled , gears were skipping and I had a massive buckle on the back wheel.

Picked It up today they had bled both brakes (juicys), trued the wheel and put new inner and outer gear cables on and charged zilch for the pleasure.
As much as they are maligned on this site thats got to be good value.

On the downside It seems I need a new cassette , chain and the rear mech Is on Its last legs. 🙁 Still thats all wear and tear for a year old well used bike.

They know what they are doing it's just the stuff they sell is generally ****.

New rear mech? How can you need a new rear mech? Who has ever worn out a rear mech…?

pivots become sloppy

oh

The guy just said It had taken a real knock and was taking Its time to shift the gears , which Is true . I thought the new cables might have fixed that but Its obviously a combination of worn out drivetrain.

Look at the hanger first, before the mech.

Can't seem to kill my old xt rear mech. It must be over 10 years old and bent it bad in a crash. Bent it back and shifts fine. Just gone on my new build.

Molgrips I was advised by the lad at the Independant bike shop at Innerleithen that the hanger was bent . So Ive replaced it recently , As Ive said general wear and tear for the years cycling If I have to get a new cassette and chain Its no hardship . If that dosent work I'll look out for a good deal for an XT rear mech over the next few months.

"big-chief-96 – Member

They know what they are doing it's just the stuff they sell is generally ****. "

That's almost the exact opposite of what everyone else thinks about Halfords They sell some brilliant bikes at silly prices, but they're staffed by shaved apes, by and large.

(Incidentally, the cardboard box that Apollos come in, fits perfectly almost to the mm into one of these:

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/polaris-cargo-bike-bag-with-hard-base-and-wheels-id43967.html

and seems to make for a very nice bike carrier. Plus I'm enjoying sticking my ego chariot into an Apollo box.

Who has ever worn out a rear mech…?

Some of you guys either-

a) don't cycle enough
b) own too many bikes and spread your miles out over them all
c) replace kit before it's worn out

I've killed rear mechs via many methods. Throwing star jockeys, sloppy pivots, seized dropout bolt bushes, failed springs.

Mind you, a year to wreck a mech? Either big miles or a crap mech, or one that has had a few rock interfaces.

My jockey wheel imploded a couple of weeks. Took the hanger,mech,chain and a spoke out as collateral damage! A right PITA

I dropped 2 Darlington Cycling Club memebers off at Halfords yesteday with a broken drive side spoke. They were doing LEJOG!
Halfords couldn't help as they dont have a cassette tool?!

Surely a basic requirement?!

Waderider I have a 10yr old XTR rear mech on my only mountain bike.

Its been on circa 50 frames I bet 😆

Its been out every weekend over last winter. Its scarred and recently I replaced the Jockey wheels with Ultegra ones.

Perfect.

wrote off 2 XTR mechs in 3 years. Bust one main pivot randomly on a shadow – the spring snapped internally ….and the other exploded about a mile from home after a 130 mile round trip towing my trailer ! – went through 8 sets of jockey wheels in the same time ! – and i predominantly ride SS !

Rear mechs do wear ! – sram ones quicker than others i find ! – when the jockeys go ninja and have lots of side to side movement the shifts go shit !

"Its been out every weekend over last winter."

so wade rider was right – you hardly ride it !

While we are talikig about breaking rear mechs.

I managed to break in half an old sram mech after only having it a few weeks. I did a drop off a wall to flat tarmac landed it just right and the mech snapped in half from the jolt! It was made of plastic which probably isnt the best material to make a mech out of.

I once snapped a Sram front mech, ~I also have a 4 speed x9 where the parallelogram got bent..

I'd be happy if I got all that work done for £20…

I agree Halford's are generally good but I was doing support at a Charity Ride the other week and was fixing a bloke's bike when I noticed his wife was standing there with her almost new Carrera Hybrid and thought: "Something about that bike doesn't look right".

Turned out the front forks were on BACKWARDS and this was compounded by the fact that it had disc brakes which meant the rotational force when braking was wrong.

You'd expect that on supermarket or internet bikes that the punters have built themselves but not from a professionally PDI'd example.

namastebuzz – thats what gets my goat about halfords – they will sell a bike in a box without even taking it out the box to look at it ….

cowboy attitude !

Turned out the front forks were on BACKWARDS…

Seen that on a brand new bike from Decathlon- bloke turned up outside my LBS for a night-ride with his new bike he'd just picked up in Canary Wharf. Decathlon had turned his reverse-arch Manitou forks round so the arch was on the front. The absurdly tight/twisted brake hose was a bit of a give-away too…

Turned out the front forks were on

What about the rear forks?

"Quirrel – Member

Turned out the front forks were on

What about the rear forks?"

about as funny as stepping in a turd ….

Well I think the vast majority of what Halfords do is good and they're responsible for getting most of the people who ride bikes in this country onto bikes in the first place – so that's no bad thing. I've also heard loads of good stories about Halfords guys doing lots of really helpful stuff for customers so that balances out the odd bad thing IMHO.

As voodoo-rich points out other big shops aren't immune to the "bicycle shaped object" syndrome either.

What about the rear forks?

Made me laugh – dunno why I always say "front forks" now you mention it.

To offer a different perspective, I've had loads of crap experiences from independant bike shops.