Sat outside the pub (The Fish/Wine Press at Hollingworth Lake) with a pint after our ride and a family with 2 young kids on bmx’s turned up.
Took one look and realised there was a problem, said “Excuse me, don’t mean to be rude but do you know your son’s forks are on the wrong way round?”
“What are forks?” says the father.

“That bit there, the part that holds the front wheel on, it’s the wrong way round”.

“Well that’s how it came from the shop”

“Halfords?”

“Yeah why?”

“Thought so. It needs sorting, could be potentially dangerous that but it’s not a big job”.

Bloke stomped off in a but of a huff, but came back later to say thanks and that he’d be taking it back to the shop tomorrow.
Really can’t see how anyone can let a bike leave the shop in that condition, surely there must be some sort of oversight from the manager before hand?

On the other hand, lots of people turn the bars to get bikes in the car, especially people who don’t know much about bikes, so there’s a good chance they’ve done it themselves.

Good point but the bars were the right way round with all the brakes set facing the right way etc, the forks were facing backwards with the front brake and drop-outs facing towards the rear.

Felt a bit pushy for saying something but it needed pointing out.

You done good

surely there must be some sort of oversight from the manager before hand

although its been a bad job, i really dont think the manager inspects every bike they sell to make sure its o.k.. I’m sure he/she has loads of other things to do with there time. Now the mechanic on the other hand, it is there fault and needs a training session

There was a whole hoo-hah about this kind of thing when ASDA started selling “mountain bikes” They all arrived from China with the forks on frack to bunt.

Even the ones on the supermarket display were wrong. ASDA took a hammering from the press and the local bike shops got a chance to justify why you should buy bikes from them.

Saying that, have you seen the prices that Tesco are selling their shite bikes for a the moment. £250 for the flimsiest bagof crap you’ve ever seen! There’s no way they are worth what they are asking!

Now the mechanic car-stereo salesman on the other hand

Definitely did the right thing in pointing out the error.

My mate has just picked up his brand new bike from Halfrauds, on his first ride the stem was loose and the crank came off and completely sheered the spline when it finally popped off, causing him to fall off into the road.

Halfrauds response: “oh they sometimes come from the factory not tightened un correctly…sorry about that. we’ll replace the bottom bracket and crankset”

What do they check when they check the bike pre-pick up??

muddy, you did the right thing. Good karma dude. Fret not.

Was sat in Keswick main street last year when a bloke asked me if there was somewhere he could buy a new seatpost. We looked at his ‘full suspension’ bike, which was probably 2 sizes too small (but 10kg too heavy), and not only was the seat post knackered, his fork was on backwards and he’d already had a pedal fall off that day too.

He was doing C2C and had already got to Keswick from Whitehaven, a remarkable feat of athleticism considering what he was riding. He had bought the bike from a well known car parts dealer a week before as it had been recommended by the staff there for just such an enterprise……..

My advice involved a skip and a visit on foot to KMB.

I always thought the whole ‘Halfords experience’ thing was a bit of an urban myth TBH, i bought my Boardman without any hassle and it’s a great bike and well put together.
I ‘knew’ it was a Halfords special (the fact it had Appollo on the top tube was a give away) as soon as he said it came from the shop like that.
He was adamant it was fine til his wife pointed out that the little girl’s bike was the right way round.

Oh well, at least it wasn’t a childs face this time! 😉

No but it could be next time.

Nowt wrong with helping people out with stuff if their bike’s aren’t safe. S’one’s duty to be a responsible citizen, surely?

Saw some bloke today; the bolt from his seatstay bridge had come out, and his rack was attached only to the dropout eyelets. Quickety-bosh, spare bolt from my bike, nip up the others with me multi-tool, adjust the rear brake a tad so it worked better, he was extremely grateful.

It’s surely an obligation to help out when you can, I think.

embarassment bad, injury to little un worse

help yourself to another pint 😉

I used to work at Halfords in the bike shop when I was 16.

The bikes come with the forks the wrong way round, out of the box, (it makes the boxes slightly shorter) and any idiot could see they needed changing around.

The branch I worked in all the bike staff actually rode and enjoyed working with bikes so took some pride in their individual work. No bike would leave the shop without a completed check list attached to it.

I guess if you have someone off sick then another member of staff (the car stereo salesman) would have to build the bikes that were due to be collected and therefore increasing the potential for mistakes.

The Apollo’s generally had faults with them out of the box and replacing parts on a new bike was common place.

I’ve seen some sights with small bike shops too but I guess due to the size of Halfords it happens more often.

I think Halfords are in the main ok and are very useful when your short of spares such as tubes, brake pads etc at the last minute.

I’m certain there are horrors stories from small bike shops too including the big names you see in the magazines.

Halfords aren’t that bad and will generally sort a problem out without too much fuss unlike some independent stores.

You did the right thing pointing it out to the parents mind.

You did good, could have ended badly.

When we picked up my girlfriends C2W bike from halfords I asked the mechanic why the tyres were on the wrong way round and he had a jolly good chortle at me with his mate from car stereos as ‘tyres don’t have ways round’ – oh but wait, why do they have these little arrows and front/rear notations on them. To be fair they were atrocious kenda rebadge rubber and probably dragged either way but it was indicative of the care and attention each bike gets.

That said some of their guys are really good and they are cheap if you time your puchases, I’d still buy a boardman or a voodoo if the price was right.

I wonder, assuming the front wheel was securely fitted (BMX so bolted on) how much dangert was the little lad actually in?
Steering would be compromised of course, how effective would the front brake be like that?

Not just Halfords, this one belongs to a bloke called George Hincapie

I’m guessing it was the Pace/DT rear bridge that threw him though.

I buy ubes/lube etc from Halford but would never the mechanic near my bike.
Went in for a connecting pin for a 10sp road chain. Couldn’t find one one the shelf, so I asked for one. “Just take an 8 speed, they’re all the same.” 🙄

GF’s sister bought a Halfords bike to commute on. Rear wheel had to go back straight away as it wasn’t true. They just gave her another one, with a different tyre so now one knobbly and one semi-slick. The brake levers pulled to the bars with no effect at all on the speed. I set them up as best I could but discovered that plastic V-brake arms flex – the brake bites then if you keep pulling the lever it bends the brakes arms!

Certainly looks that way! 😆
Although the drop-outs should have given it away….