Well what a situation... Perhaps I shouldn't have used Halfords but we are where we are...
I took my bike, a Cannondale Topstone, into Halfords for a replacement headset. They fixed it and called for me to pick it up so I toddled along.
When I arrived the mechanic said there was an issue, the integrated top cap/expander had snapped and the topcap had come off. The expander was stuck in the fork steerer tube.
The mechanic said he hadn't come across this before and that he would "try" to get it out but if he couldn't get it out then I would need a new fork (at Halfords' expense).
However if this is the case, the fork won't be colour matching, just a generic gravel fork.
Now, call me superficial but I like it to properly match. If it was a bike I'd built etc then I might not mind, and I know that it would likely function no problem, but the point is that it's my bike and looks are (rightly or wrongly) an important factor for me.
What is my best course of action here, if the girl can't be repaired? Demand that Halfords use an OEM fork (although I doubt Cannondale make one for a 2021 bike)? I imagine that asking for money for a whole new bike is off limits here?
Thanks
Can the expander plug be (very carefully) cut/drilled out?
I think I would want to do this myself rather than leave it to the same people who over-tightened it in the first place.
My worry would be that it broke as a result of overtightening which could have impacted the steerer (I once had someone in Halfords try to secure a stem by tightening down on the top cap).
Also, I'm not sure what expander you have, but when I search for Cannondale integrated top cap & expander, this comes up (certainly fitted to some Topstone models).
This would make me a tad nervous. If you do get it out and it is one of these, I'd have a think about getting something longer (I went for a Deda 70mm one for my gravel bike).
I hope you get it sorted. Can you source a colour matched fork from Cannondale yourself & bill Halfords/claim against their insurance?
-- Edit --
Sorry, if the top cap has come off, how is the expander maintaining tension?
My main concern would be how exactly does an expander “snap”?
Surely you’d have to be graunching like a maniac on the bolt to sheer it, presumably inside of a carbon steerer(??!!?)…
Anyway, their duty is to put you back in the position you were in before they deployed a gorilla on your bike, that means a sourcing a matching fork (from canondale) and then finding a competent mechanic to fit it. Reject their offer (IMO).
But yeah, never hand a nice bike over to halfords to work on…
good luck OP.
Depending on where the bolt has snapped, needle nose pliers on the bolt, wind it back out to release the pressure on the expander
If the club handed numpty broke it, I would not want them or thier colleagues near it.
We bought a Boardman CX bike. Out the shop floor the gears were not right and so we wandered straight back in and asked for a tweak. After 30 mins I waded in with my own multi tool and sorted within a minute (end stops and B-screw..)
First free service the brakes came back shockingly bad and mechanic told my son off for riring a CX bike off road....
I would be never ever go back to Halfords for anything.
Friend was keen to tell me how good the Halfords service plan was and it seemed like good value until they actually worked on his bike!
He had a new headset bearing fitted and turned up for a group ride but his forks just didn't look right. It was an aero road bike so the gaps are usually pretty tight between the forks/head tube but for some reason he had a gap of almost 2cm's and everything seemed very loose.
Following week he turned again on the same bike but everything looked normal. He explained that Halfords simply put a new bearing beneath the old bearing and attempted to tighten it (as best they could). Halfords repaired the bike (I don't think there was any damage) and he got a free service.
When I worked there as a teenager they used to send a memo to all sites as a warning about the mistakes people had made. One guy sat in a brand new Audi TT with a screwdriver in his back pocket which went through his trousers and left a hole in a brand new leather seat. Another guy fitted a hands free kit and when re-fitting the stereo he managed to crush a cable and short the entire cars electrical system.
Training when I worked there wasn't great to be fair. I remember a guy turning up in a relatively new Porsche Boxter and asked for a new battery to be fitted, I was in my glory working on a Porsche but if it went wrong it could've cost a fortune!
When did you last remove the top cap bolt and stem and inspect the steerer? We can be quick to judge bike shops when they carry out work, but often they are just encountering pre-existing problems when they take things apart for the first time in ages.
When did you last remove the top cap bolt and stem and inspect the steerer? We can be quick to judge bike shops when they carry out work, but often they are just encountering pre-existing problems when they take things apart for the first time in ages.
I had a look before I took the bike in. Basically, I was replacing my stem, lost the headset spacer, then couldn't work out how to get the topcap to work so thought it'd be just an easy job for them...
The steerer tube was fine when I took it in, as I took the time to inspect it whilst I had everything off for the stem.
Training when I worked there wasn't great to be fair.
I asked to do the official company bike mechanic training course when I was there (04/05), store manager’s response was ‘why would I send you on it? you know most of it anyway, and I’d have to pay you more’ Notice went in a couple of weeks later. ‘I’ve been expecting it’ was the managers response. When I joined the bike dept was staffed by genuinely keen MTBers. By the time I left, it was just kids who wanted to get in so they could move to the car stereos etc
I'd be going in today, now and taking the bike away from the hamfisted numpties and going to a proper bike shop. Possibly even a cannondale dealers.
Then send Halfords the bill for the repair.
(Not that they'll pay it.)
If it's the top cap/expander i think it is, they are easy to fit, and remove. And can be drilled out/removed in pretty much no time at all when they inevitably get left and corroded.
I still don't understand, in this day and age, why anyone takes anything to halfords.
Halfords is a large national business and they will pay if they broke it.
Taking it away and attempting to claim without them agreeing could be different though.
Be fair though as someone above mentioned that often they are working on something that was destined to break maybe.
I've got a suspicion we are only getting half the story
Yeah, cos Halfords aren’t telling what actually happened.
My son worked in Halfords for a while and he got training, Halfords and Cytech. But its a lottery which mechanic you get. Took my 3 Series in to get the headlight bulbs changed cos the lad could get good discount… got the car back with the bonnet all crooked and could never get it right again. But they employ people who are just gonna move on soon as they can, so you pays yer money, takes yer choice.
Be fair though as someone above mentioned that often they are working on something that was destined to break maybe.Doesn't really matter. If boyo has abused and/or neglected the expander and top cap assembly and it's broken as soon as they touch it, it's *still* easy to remove what's left.
I imagine that asking for money for a whole new bike is off limits here?
Because they broke a bolt in a stem cap? I'd say yes, thats probably pushing it a tad.
Assuming the bolt has snapped, any competent mechanic would be able to reverse drill that out
My concern woukd be how it's snapped. If its been overtightened no way would I be riding it due to potential steerer damage.
Depends entirely on the halfords. Some have some great staff in the bike sections, who know their stuff. (Some)
Alloy headset bolt, are you happy youve not been over tightening it, or it was installed correctly in the first place?
not sure i would leave an alloy bolt under tension, once the stem is done up (but then, i wouldnt use an alloy bolt)
I would need a new fork (at Halfords' expense).
that seems pretty good to go straight to that offer with no wriggling tbh, all things considered
Halfords have potentially f****d my bike
the fork won't be colour matching
not quite the same thing.
So, related.
I've got a Cannondale Synapse (c 2020?) that looks like it uses that part and I don't think it's very good - my headset repeatedly came loose early on and this has reminded me that it's loose again. I found I needed to tighten it far more than any other steerer tube plug I've owned to take out movement (and I may have tried adding grip paste).
So it *may* not just be complete ineptitude from the mechanics.
I've never bothered with anything but star-fangled nuts in metal steerers - even if I've fitted something like a Hope headset that came with an expanding plug I've binned it as they seem far more faff to fit and use. Has anyone got any recommendations for what to use instead of the Cannondale thing?
Has anyone got any recommendations for what to use instead of the Cannondale thing?
The longest bung you can get, 50-70mm. Get one that's the right OD for your steerer's ID. e.g. https://www.chickencyclekit.co.uk/shop/product/monza-carbon-expander
I think a few people in this thread are exhibiting the Dunning-kruger effect (as possibly would your average cytec-1 qualified halfords shop worker) ........
I think the Cannondale probably has their SI top cap? Which doesn't have a bolt. My memory is slightly hazy as it's been a few months since I've seen one in bits, but I think the top cap screws directly into (or onto, it might be a female thread) the expanding plug?
Applying a bit of lost in translation reasoning to that arrangement then if the mechanic pushes the plug in slightly too far, you're left with a top cap that won't screw into it and a hole that looks like a bolt has gone missing from it.
Have you actually seen the broken parts and compared them against the user manual for your bike?
Yes, if it's the one i'm thinking of the top cap has a female thread that goes *over* the male thread on the expander.
They seize (big thread, poorly made, crap aluminium) and are quite easy to crack the top cap away from the threaded section as well.
If the halfords "mechanic" doesn't know what they're looking at, or doesn't know how to get it out, i'd still be picking the bike up and taking it to a bike shop, preferably a cannondale dealer, or someone who is more likely to have dealt with the weird and wonderful world of bike "standards".
I don't recall mine ever corroding, and it would have been quite a chunky piece of aluminium to snap, but yes if you did break the top off it I can see how it would look even more like you'd snapped a bolt.
I still don't understand, in this day and age, why anyone takes anything to halfords.
I work in a bicycle recycling charity refurbishing bikes. The head mechanic is an absolute wizzard when it comes to knowing things like how to remove siezed parts or make cost effective repairs to seemingly hopeless bikes. And that's because 99% of bikes aren't Cannondale or Specialized, or Trek or Giant with their daft proprietary standards. They don't have SRAM cranks or carbon steerers with odd expanding bung setups.
It's one of the reasons why everyone should learn to do their own maintenance. Modern bikes and components have so much novelty in their design that even if you took it to a bike shop, it's entirely likely that the mechanic has never seen your bikes unique headset, or even things you'd think might be relatively common, like how to remove that 2nd generation HT2 XTR crank that used a completely different system to every Shimano crank before or since.
Has anyone got any recommendations for what to use instead of the Cannondale thing?
The longest bung you can get, 50-70mm. Get one that's the right OD for your steerer's ID. e.g. https://www.chickencyclekit.co.uk/shop/product/monza-carbon-expander
of course the bung length shouldn't make any difference - once it's tensioned up in theory and you've done up the stem bolts you should be able to completely remove it. I'm going to clean up the steerer and add grip paste under the stem as well.
According to the owner's manuals - here it uses a "special" lightweight (ie. short) expander plug. Thye provide no user instructions on how to adjust, like its a fit & forget component... good place to save weight though eh! such a non-crucial component.. 😛
According to the owner's manuals - here it uses a "special" lightweight (ie. short) expander plug. Thye provide no user instructions on how to adjust, like its a fit & forget component... good place to save weight though eh! such a non-crucial component.. 😛
I found the Cannondale manual completely hopeless when it came to the internal cable routing on my frame. Gave no useful help at all.
I guess that's the "SI" part of it. If you're Cannondale and can specify the fork, headtube length, the headset, bung and stem then you can make the steerer strong enough in the right places in the first place, which is probably a lot lighter than having to reinforce it with a metal bung?
If the halfords "mechanic" doesn't know what they're looking at, or doesn't know how to get it out, i'd still be picking the bike up and taking it to a bike shop, preferably a cannondale dealer, or someone who is more likely to have dealt with the weird and wonderful world of bike "standards".
The above is doubly true for Cannondale where the word "standard" seems to mean "come up with something that no-one in the bike industry has ever seen before or would ever dream of using".
They are their own weird world of bonkers and it's a brand I'd always (a) not buy in the first place and (b) if I was unfortunate enough to own one, I'd always take it to a specific Cannondale dealer.
If you're Cannondale and can specify the fork, headtube length, the headset, bung and stem then you can make the steerer strong enough in the right places in the first place, which is probably a lot lighter than having to reinforce it with a metal bung?
You'd hope so, but there have been a couple of notable recalls due to overly short bung issues.
Generally I think that it's accepted that the top of the bung should be above the top stem bolt & the bottom below the lower otherwise the clamping forces can compress the steerer around the bung. Impacts can also flex the steerer a little so I think for a gravel bike where things can get bumpy I'd prefer the whole stem clamp area to be covered by the bung. Anyway I went for a 70mm one & didn't worry about the weight.
They wrecked my Z2 bomber BITD and damaged my Chris king headset that i didnt notice till later.
Advertised as servicing forks and i popped the bike in(Orange Clockwork)
Headset wise instead of loosening off the stem bolts and giving the top of the steerer a whack, they tried to jam a small screwdriver blade between the top cup and race snapping a bit off.
Disassembled the fork, didnt replace oil or anything then reassembled it forgetting to put back the little circlip that holds the rebound cartridge.
As a result the inner bit of the rebound adjuster was forced into the preload adjuster so it could no longer be turned.
Refused to take the blame though they didnt ask for any service fee.
I was a new to it all at the time and didnt really understand the workings or my rights.
They're not nicknamed 'Helfrauds' for nothing. Never go there. They might occasionally have one guy who knows his onions, but the vast majority as students or Saturday kids and dont know their arse from their elbow.
What is my best course of action here
Collect the bike from the inept numpties, and take it to an actual bike shop with actual mechanics who know which end of a screwdriver to hold, who will fix these very easily and quickly.
Based on your decription, the fact this is even being deemed as something 'difficult' to fix mean they are useless mechanical numpties, Cytech trained or not.
