My company has finally signed up for the bike to work scheme, but with Halfords, which has scuppered my Trek Portland idea.

I'm thinking of either a Kona Dr Dew or a Merida S-presso I-D8 for my ten mile commute. I like the idea of low maintenance offered by the Nexus hub. Does anyone have any experience or opinions of either bike as a year-round commuter ? I should add that I'm 6ft 3in, and the Halfords Hybrid is too short in the top tube for me.

I feel your pain brother…

can't Halfords order you in the bike of your choice? I think they can do that or is an urban myth?

Contact number os available in store to allow you to source bikes not stocked by Halfords

mine have just done the same. Buggers!!!

For a company our size they will only order bikes from their normal range.

* Boardman
* Carrera
* Condor
* Dahon (Foldable)
* Dawes
* Diamondback
* GT (Halfords Specific Range)
* Kona (Paligap)
* Merida
* Pashley
* Saracen
* Voodoo
* Van Nicholas
* Raleigh
* Apollo

Have you even asked what they can supply before complaining about Halfords?

I got a Bianchi via the scheme. Buit up and delivered to a local Bikehut shop which had a whole store full of well built up Fondreist, DeRosa's, Merida and other high end Boardmans, Konas ect ect

It was fine. Honestly. If you substituted every poor story about Halfords with a story about a bad experience with a black person, apparently we'd all be rascist. Seriously, you'll be fine, especially if you choose where your bikes delivered to – choose one with a good reputation.

You can spend your Halfords voucher in Condor in London. It is a really good bike shop and very helpful staff, I had a Halfords voucher and got a bike direct from Condor did not have to go into Halfords once. (they will also accept cash above the amount and let you put you 15% gear voucher towards your bike.)

there are loads of decent bikes from that range.

Jujuuk68 – yes, I have asked, hence me posting the list direct from their website. They have absolutely refused to supply anything else. Perhaps you hadn't read what I posted ? P.S. Racist is spelt r-a-c-i-s-t.

Yes there are loads of good bikes on the list Nick (Hi !) – to be honest there are more that I expected. I already have Andy's old 'dale, but fancy something different to commute through the winter, hence my questions.

ilikebikes – Condor bikes look good, but I'm not in London, I'm in North Wales and our scheme is open for 2 weeks….

Raindog… do you live anywhere near a Leisure Lakes? They take Halfords vouchers and last month I got a Cotic Roadrat from them on Bike to Work which they wouldn't get for me through the Halfords call centre.

ooh…..will look into that funkynick, thanks

been through the same today…although the guy on the helpline said he could get me an Orange P7…so with a few changes that will do me for my winter commutes

I got a specialized tricross sport thru halfrauds C2W last year no problems

Before you do anything re a cycle to work scheme bike can I give my one and best piece of advice
Check out your intended route/routes for the state of the road surface and cycle paths etc etc. Certainly my main route is only just with a lot of swerving round pot holes and crumbling road surfaces and sunken drains in bus lanes etc etc etc and is only just suitable for using a road type bike ie with thin tyres. If it wasnt for the fact that I would be running the risk of getting robbed (seriously one area of a certain Midlands City I ride through you do so at full tilt) I would consider spare wheels with slicks and a slower commute on the MTB. If you do get a road bike and you are a larger person I can thoroughly recommend Mavic Kyserium Elite wheels with Michelin Kyrilium Carbon tyres as being very sturdy but leightweight and dare I say it puncture proof wheelset.

I've been happy (to a point) with Halfords bike to work scheme – the 1st bike I got on the scheme was a Kinesis – I spec'd it direct with Kinesis UK and then Halfords ordered it in for me. I got them to fit the headset races, and did the rest myself.
it was a painless and easy experiance.

that was 3 years ago, and now just waiting for my next one via the same route.

If I was signed up to the Halfords scheme, I'd buy one of the Boardman hardtails, strip it, eBay the frame and replace it with something I'd like.

Other shops may take halfords C2W vouchers. I know alpine bikes in Scotland takes them.

Sponging Machine I assume you've actually ridden this bike you know you won't like. 🙂

Nope. just don't like the way they look. 😉

Sorry Sponging Machine I had erroneously assumed you wanted to ride it rather than look at it. 🙂

You're new here avdave, aren't you? 🙂

It could be worse, my lot went with wh**lies! "we can get you any bike you want" Can i have a cotic soul please, no never heard! You're not allowed a frame its got to be a bike. etc etc etc, until i just went a brought one.

I'm very very happy with my Boardman Team Carbon and the service from Halfords/Bikehut thank you very much.

0pt1cal – Alpine will take Halfords vouchers.

You said the Halfords hybrid is the wrong size for you but they do 4, there's a Boardman hybrid (which is very good) but also 2 Carreras, they're both pretty nice too- the Subway 8 does the job very well and they're both pretty cheap for what you get. They do GT Zums as well but I'm not so sure about that one.

Some Halfords do have very shoddy workshops but that shouldn't be a problem for you, assuming you do your own spannering the uual issues of dodgy gear and brake setup shouldn't be a problem. Their warranty and parts supply is pretty good, provided the person you deal with on the shop floor has a clue.

I thing Spongy makes a good point, though the OP may be swapping the frame because it doesn't fit rather than because its not very nice to look at.

most boardman bikes seem worth the money for the kit alone. plus they have a good reputation after lots of good reviews so the frames fetch a fair bit on ebay leaving you plenty of cash to play with.

Don't pick on me for being honest. I just couldn't imagine myself on one. I have been led to believe that they're very nice though. I'm the same with Treks and Marins. I know they're good bikes, just don't fancy one.

I do wonder how they manage to spec so highly on a frame that's reported to be good. Do they make a very small profit on each unit or something? You may be able to tell that I'm not an economist.

My mate's wife has a Carerra Subway and it seems pretty decent. My wife bought a kona Dew for commuting and I've been really impressed with it. She really enjoys riding it too.

To clarify the Boardman hybrids are too small, I have no particular problem with Halfords otherwise, although I would prefer to spend my money in a local bikeshop rather than a large chain.

As it stands I'm following up some other leads from earlier replies and will see where that gets me.

I've had two bikes from Halfords through C2W and in both cases I was more than happy with the service provided. Like any other chain, it's gonna very much depend on the staff in the branch you deal with.

btw – thebikechain in Edinburgh also takes Halfords vouchers.

You're not allowed a frame its got to be a bike. etc etc etc

Well you're not – they were only quoting you the HMRC rules.

Last year I got a decent spec Viner Gladius from Halfords, they were retailing for £1350 and got it for £999, it took 8 weeks to arrive from Italy though, but was worth the wait.
This year I wanted a CX/Winter Bike, and the choice was very limited, I must have asked for about 8 different bikes e.g. Focus Mares, Trek Portland, Cotic Roadrat, Genesis Croix De Fer, many brands that they are meant to be stockists for. I eventually got a Voodoo Limba reduced to £699, although I swapped a lot of bits off my old bike.
With the balance of £400 I ordered Disc brakes for my MTB, pedals, and a Mech Disc Brake for my Voodoo, however the service was terrible and in the end I never got the Mech disc.

If you go to another bike shop that accepts the Halfords vouchers, you won't get the extra 10% as that is only available to bikes purchased from Halfords.

Doug

I'm getting a Trek 1.5T via Halfords Cycle2Work. They buy from Leisure Lakes. Good thing is, the bike never see's the inside of Halfords let alone is seen by one of their mechanics. Trek has some sort of policy that the bikes can only be be delivered in person at the dealers, in this case Leisure Lakes. Only problem is the LOC for the excess can only be redeemed at Halfords.

Sorry RD, I was posting my reply before your list.

But you really are the very first person I ever heard of who couldnt get what you want through Halfords, rather than becasue the manufacteruers dont have stock or what ever.

I really would check again – halfords actually have a couple of people (it seems) who do the sourcing from outside suppliers. And if you get it delivered to anex bikehut store, then you will get probably, a decent bloke spannering up the bike, dont be offput by the turtlewax and batteries.

I really would check *again* you've not misunderstood something.

Jujuuk… as I said earlier on the thread, I went through this a couple of months ago or so and spoke to several different people at Halfords when I was trying to sort out what bike to get and there are a whole host of bike brands that they no longer deal with… I understand it's only happened this year and prior to that they would get anything you wanted.

I ended up going through Leisure Lakes who could get me what I wanted, and they took the Halfords voucher.

I live in glasgow and a few of the shops here will take your halfords voucher, just fill in your form online for the bike you see in the shop you like, ask them to hold it and you voucher should be through in a week a 2 at most. the first bike i got i ordered via the halfords hotline and they sent it to glasgow via lakeland leisure bikes. the second my missus got and used her voucher in alpine bikes locally, they stille get the sale and redeem the voucher themselves so everyones a winner, just ak you might be suprised, go round all stores in your area and ask or lookk for the bike you want. if you dont find it phone the hotline number yourself and tell them what bike you want. simples 💡

oh sorry, my work said they would only deal with halfords too. but the voucher is king…

Juju – as our company has less than 1000 employees they won't source anything else. I've asked so many different people I've been warned by our HR department to stop pestering them…

As a couple of other people have said there are other shops that'll take the Halfords voucher. I'm going down that route now, but there aren't many 2009 Trek Portlands around (There's one in Bike Factory in Chester, but they won't take the voucher….)

Sorry if I bit your head off a bit with my earlier reply to you:-)

OP – My company did the same thing, if you ring halfords cycle to work dept, they can use Leisure Lakes (as mentioned breifly above) to obtain other non Halfords stock bikes. A local bike shop I know has an arrangement to take the Halfords vouchers. I'll find the right Halfords phone number when later and post up.