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Gave a mate a lift home after our ride tonight and spotted his daughters bike as he was putting his in the garage.
I knew the answer but asked anyway, "is that bike from Halfords?"
"Yes, why?" Came his repl, I almost couldn't get the words out for laughing but the forks were indeed backwards!
Erm, so he is a regular rider rather than Joe Public and he hadn't realised that the forks were wrong?
It's real. They're out there. I've seen some shocking new bike set ups coaching kids.
(this coming from someone that once replaced a chain link on a ride but put the chain on the wrong side of the stay!)
I saw a woman at a MTB park a couple of years' back with her helmet on the wrong way around. Not a hint of irony.
Negative offset. It's going to be a new standard.
I saw a woman at a MTB park a couple of years’ back with her helmet on the wrong way around. Not a hint of irony.
I would laugh, but Ive done this, it felt wrong but took me ages to work out why!
I saw a woman at a MTB park a couple of years’ back with her helmet on the wrong way around. Not a hint of irony
I've seen a few people commuting like this, but not at a bike park. Backwards forks too, but pretty much only on kid's bikes
When I got my dune (from go outdoors) the forks were on back to front. Thing is, the guy in the shop had thought about this- he thought it looked wrong, but, it came out of the box that way with the stem attached and tightened and he was supposed to follow the checklist exactly. So he was pretty sure it was right. I said nah mate, this is 100% the wrong way round, look, the caliper's on the front. So he said, yeah but some bikes have calipers on the front don't the? And I said, well yeah actually, I had one of those. But this one shouldn't have. So he went off to check with someone else and came back and said, ****, it's back to front! We've sent 3 of these out like this!
Nice thing was that as I was paying for the bike, he was phoning one of the people who'd bought the bike from that shop. Pretty cool I thought! And the rest of the bike was actualyl really well assembled.
I did a thing for Sunday morning tele with Cheryl Baker and Toby Anstis (Quite a while back, that should date it). Toby wore his helmet back to front live on the BBC. Maybe the cool kids are copying that.
I've seen helmets back to front several times. Admittedly much less so now that helmets all have plastic retainer straps, buckles and dials at the back.
Seen shorts inside out twice. Both times absolute newbies on Sportives. Both wearing pants underneath as well to complete what was really quite a 'special' look. One of them was a bright blue chammy!
And some of the set up of everything from kids bikes to touring bikes leaves a lot to be desired. Bar ends pointing at the sky, steerer extenders mounted to other steerer extenders to give bars that are at chin height. 🙄
Seen shorts inside out twice. Both times absolute newbies on Sportives. Both wearing pants underneath as well to complete what was really quite a ‘special’ look. One of them was a bright blue chammy!
Going for the full Mandrill look?
Both wearing pants underneath
I have a colleague that does just that. If only that was the worst of it.
His entire bike is frame wrapped. Nothing wrong with that. Actually a lot wrong with that. Some people use special frame wrap kits made to fit precisely, some just wrap specific points. Some buy cheaper solutions, helitape or even maybe clear Gorilla tape. This guy doesn't. He uses...
Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them.
Definitely not a myth. My neighbour asked me to take a look at his bike because the steering felt wrong. Yep, forks on backwards and it was (shudders) an Apollo from Halfords. Completely obvious to me but not to him.
This guy doesn’t. He uses…
Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them.
need to see pictures of this!
There was a back to front forked bike in the bike shed at work pre covid, so I left a note on it.
The bloke caught up with me a couple of days later and thanked me. It was a cheap mail order bike he'd put together himself, and just not noticed.
We then had a conversation about saddle angle.
Yep, myself and another bike nerd were insistent on fixing another friend's daughter's bike at a BBQ a couple of years ago. Same issue, backwards fork sold that way by Halfords...
reeksky inner tubes you say ? That was me Summer 2010 Whistler for the season . Bought a brand new Spicy out ther at the start of the season , Whistler proofed 👍 brought the bike home looking almost new ! 👍
Those Wiggins bikes sold by Halfords with the Pinarello style forward bend fork used to give the assembly guys a headache.
When getting one for my grandson I received 10 minutes of patronising "this is the right way round" before I managed to persuade him that the wheel shouldn't really be rubbing the downtube.
need to see pictures of this!
I feel too guilty. He’s actually a nice guy.
This guy doesn’t. He uses…Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them.
A courier friend of mine did that once. He managed to do a season of couriering in London and the frame was still immaculate. Admittedly the drivetrain was shot to bits but once he'd stripped everything, he was left with a nearly new looking frame.
The bike weighed an absolute ton with all that inner tubing wrapped around it!
Saw a similar example at Beecraigs park, wee girl with her family with backwards forks.
Quick friendly chat with her dad and I offered to fix it there and then.
What I HADN'T spotted was that the lowers were facing backwards but the crown was facing forwards! A botched lower leg service by the looks of it. I politely made my excuses and backed away slowly, not a fix for the car park 🙄
. This guy doesn’t. He uses…
Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them.
I used to do the Dragon Downhill uplifts and the Caersws uplifts. The Dragon uplifts used to use quarry trucks at some venues. Everything was just shoved in the back, bikes and riders. I seem to remember that eventually they used one truck for bikes, one for riders.
On the Caersws one, it was a farm trailer with bikes just loaded bar to tail in a big stack all along the trailer with riders huddled in at one end.
I'd bought a brand new Transition Blindside frame and there was no chance I was putting it straight on those uplifts unprotected!
One uplift and they could be gouged, scraped and totally ruined with all the jiggling about.
Absolutely covered the frame in inner tube.
A bit embarrassing but kept that new feeling for a bit longer 😊
Here's my mate, Dave riding his bike.
I haven't the heart to tell him...
I still see at least 2 or 3 backwards forks every week commuting in Sheffield. They come out of the box like that so if you don't know, you don't know.
Just after Xmas I saw a family walking round the nearby lake, both daughters on brand new bikes, one of them had the forks backwards and she was wobbling all over the place, As I was debating whether to say anything, the daughter tried to turn, clipped her toe and almost fell off, so I just went and explained it to the parents
We've also had to do a couple of the Cubs bikes when we've had group bike rides
This guy doesn’t. He uses…
Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them
How about a bit of pipe lagging?
This guy doesn’t. He uses…
Inner tubes. And cable ties. Lots of them.
A courier friend of mine did that once. He managed to do a season of couriering in London and the frame was still immaculate
Yep. My old London hack bike was wrapped in inner tubes. I'd often strap stuff to the frame to carry it around. Looked like shit but did the job. Also seemed to make it theft proof. It lived outside all day and overnight. A few time I forgot to lock it and it never went anywhere.
What I HADN’T spotted was that the lowers were facing backwards but the crown was facing forwards! A botched lower leg service by the looks of it. I politely made my excuses and backed away slowly, not a fix for the car park 🙄
Had a guy on one of our club rides do that, lowers were the right way round, stanchions and crown the wrong way round.
First big hit and the bridge wedged itself over the back(?) of the crown and wasn't going to move again.
So rode back to the carpark with rigid forks and a 73 degree head angle and 150mm of rear travel.
Unsurprisingly, new lowers were required.
We saw a couple at a trail centre and her forks were backwards
The guy I was with used the best must tactful approach I've heard, along the lines of
"Excuse me, whoever put your bike together has mistakenly put the forks on backwards. It'll be safer and handle better with them on correctly. I'm a bike mechanic, would you like me to take a look?"
No judgement, option to blame it on a 3rd party even if the rider was the one who unboxed it, qualification of his skills and a solution.
They were very happy and even found us after the ride to say how much better it rode!
I've also heard "Well I like them like that!!", What, wobbly as hell and toes rubbing the tyre?!
I’ve seen the fork thing a few times.
The hire bikes at Haldon all have an inner tube wrapped down tube
Noticed a lady arrive on her e-bike with forks the wrong way round as we were sat at coffee stop. I pointed it out to her and explained the issues. They’re been like that for the last 4yrs! Husband arrived shortly afterwards looked at it and was surprised he hadn’t noticed! His were correct way
Take a look at this beauty on Gumtree.
Particularly the front mech "setup"...
https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/marin-men-s-bike/1439454368
Particularly the front mech “setup”…
Er, that's original! Who needs a chain device eh? 😆
I saw a Halfords technician wheeling out a kid's brand new bike in the shop to be handed over after assembly. Forks were on backwards - I pointed it out in front of the customers. He tried to deny it, then I pointed at all the other correctly assembled bikes lined up in the shop...
Oh yeah, and recently I rode to the shop with my daughter and someone else had done the same but the kid's forks were on backwards. Father had assembled it and was sceptical that he'd done anything wrong until I pointed out the offset dropouts on the kids bike compared to the three or four other bikes that were there. The kid (about 8) said 'I told you it was wobbly and weird!'. I had tools so I swapped it around and she was much happier...
Take a look at this beauty on Gumtree.
That's vintage, that is.
We saw a couple at a trail centre and her forks were backwards
I saw someone half way around Gisburn with the forks on backwards. It definitely wasn't from Halfords as it was a top end Trek full suss. I got the allen keys out and sorted it out for him. The head angle would have been 'interesting' if he'd have got to Hully Gully 😳
Shame they didn’t read the attached manual.
Gotta wonder if they do it for a laugh. Surely, no-one employed in a bike shop is [i]that[/i] stupid? Please say they're not.
We saw a couple at a trail centre and her forks were backwards
The guy I was with used the best must tactful approach I’ve heard, along the lines of
“Excuse me, whoever put your bike together has mistakenly put the forks on backwards
So, mansplaining and insinuating that as she was female she couldn't possibly have assembled the bike herself?
You monster
😉
Both wearing pants underneath
I have a colleague that does just that. If only that was the worst of it.
I've been that guy. Thing is, nobody ever explains that you're supposed to go commando, it's just seemingly expected to be obvious. Which it's not.
@kayak23 I used to do the SDA's and it was the same story, never actually picked up any damage IIRC. On the track however...
Gotta wonder if they do it for a laugh. Surely, no-one employed in a bike shop is that stupid? Please say they’re not
Afraid so. Was a shame as she was a lovely girl who was genuinely enthused to be working on the bike. Was the first CX they'd had in store. She was a keen mountain biker apparently. I did wonder if it was a Halfords in joke but I sadly doubt it.
Was a shame as she was a lovely girl who was genuinely enthused to be working on the bike. Was the first CX they’d had in store. She was a keen mountain biker apparently.
With younger people with a shorter cycling resume, they can be keen as chips on one specific genre, but have no experience on any other. Because, well, bikes are expensive and riding them properly/as intended is time consuming.
I can do most maintainence things on an MTB (finally, after 9 years and a lot of learning) but I've got no idea how to do a front mech, or take the rear wheel out of a BMX.
Experiences last summer show I've pretty much forgotten how to do tubes too.
I'd be useless in Halfords.
But but but... the [i]internet[/i]..! Anything bike related I'm not sure of, it takes seconds to find out what/how/why/where!
If "young people" aren't as good as me at the internet there's no frickin hope for em.
I can't find it now, but George Hincapie posted a picture of his absolutely top flight BMC mountain bike some years ago - with the forks on backwards. Reverse arch Manitou's I think. He was a bloody roadie professional at the time, presumably with a fleet of mechanics at his disposal.
I’ve been that guy. Thing is, nobody ever explains that you’re supposed to go commando, it’s just seemingly expected to be obvious. Which it’s not.
There was a thread on here a while back questioning who wore jocks under their padded shorts and who didn't. I was surprised by the question as I didn't realise it was a thing, I was even more surprised by the number that did.
I've seen the backwards forks a couple of times
Def not an urban myth, I have spotted it and mentioned it to the rider a couple of times.
First time was at a 24 hour race and the rider of the bike with reversed Fox Forks said he liked it like that. When I asked him about the lowers smashing into his downtube under full compression he said he set them up extra hard to compensate. Can't cure stupid I guess.
Second time was at trail centre, new bike, it was a voodoo so from halfords. I sorted it then an there for him and he found me in the cafe later to say thanks and it felt much better.
With younger people with a shorter cycling resume, they can be keen as chips on one specific genre, but have no experience on any other
I went into a well known LBS a few years back and asked if they stocked chamois cream. The tattooed young hipster in the MTB t-shirt looked at me for a few seconds and then replied "Is this a roadie thing? Cos you'd need to ask Neil...."
I can’t find it now, but George Hincapie posted a picture of his absolutely top flight BMC mountain bike some years ago – with the forks on backwards. Reverse arch Manitou’s I think. He was a bloody roadie professional at the time, presumably with a fleet of mechanics at his disposal.
Forks!!
Nah, that's his garage door.
IIRC it'd only been thrown together out of the shipping carton that morning.
And a vast vast (vast) number of top class road (and MTB) professionals, of both sexes, shouldn't be allowed to have tools of any description in the vicinity of a bike.
Spotted at Llandegla a couple of years ago:
[img] 
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I've seen quite a few kids bikes with the forks on backwards riding along the local canal path. I sometimes tell the parent and offer to turn the forks for them. Usually get the "that's how it came" reply but most are happy for me to put it right.
And a vast vast (vast) number of top class road (and MTB) professionals, of both sexes, shouldn’t be allowed to have tools of any description in the vicinity of a bike.
You see examples of this in pretty much any race where a rider has a mechanical and then watch the utterly hamfisted way they go about attempting to fix it.
The classic, especially in road, is standing on the left of the bike then bending double over it and attempting to sort a derailed chain. What are you DOING?!
@Crazylegs - that’s a high pivot hardtail, the front mech is meant to be like that. Didn’t you know that high pivot bikes are all the rage at the moment?
I used to work for Halfords, around the time they were rolling out the BikeHut branding. Even though the company had put me and a few others through a full Cytech (or whatever they were called back then) course they insisted upon sending us all on another course 'to make sure we were all on the same page' which involved a demo of how to PDI the more expensive bikes that were being brought into the ranges available to us. The guy went through his speel and informed us that there would be one mistake he would deliberately make that we had to spot. We got to the end and all of us said in unison 'forks are backwards' only for him to say No, it was that he hadn't set the limit screws on the rear mech. The look on his face when he turned back round to the bike and suddenly realized he had indeed fitted the forks backwards was priceless. Then he showed us pictures of the last two other presentations he had done and those bikes were the same!
There were also countless times, especially around Christmas when build slots were in short supply, that customers would take the bikes boxed and build them themselves. Some of the howlers were very funny but very dangerous, like thinking that tightening the top cap was enough to secure the bars to the forks. This one I sort of understood as A-Head sets were new at that point so lots of people had only ever known the old quill setup. Pedals in the wrong crank arms was another, sometimes fully wound in and actually solid enough to pedal for a bit.
Safe to say if I ever have to buy a bike from Halfords I take it boxed and build it myself!
I’ve been that guy. Thing is, nobody ever explains that you’re supposed to go commando, it’s just seemingly expected to be obvious. Which it’s not
To be fair when i was a teenager and i was "chamois-curious" I do recall being very unsure about how to wear them.