Dear Halfords

[makster]

We've been having this conversation on the RB site for years. Just look how old the BSO threads are. Nothing has changed in decades and is unlikely to either.

Amen to that!

 

[technodup]

i do my best to politely explain the issue, and as i have said before i tend to go for the safety point of view but when the cost of repair is added up they generally can not comprehend the price,

I get it, but it's not worthwhile doing.

There's no win in what you're doing so why not look at it from a different angle? Someone above mentioned Bike Station who recycle bikes. Do something similar, have an amnesty for Apollos et al so when a customer comes in with one which cost £99 and they need to spend £70 getting it working why not swap it for something half decent for £50? Then you'd have a customer with a bike you'd be happy to repair next time. If you're swapping them out at cost or for a small profit it's better than losing money on labour time.

Old bikes are ten a penny on Gumtree/Ebay etc, and you could ask for donations as it's a good cause. You could use it to make a noise locally too, generating more interest.

* Off the top of my head but something like it combining education and a practical solution is the only way I see any progress.

 

[Woz]

Re:

Technodup on the ball.....worth
thinking differently rather than
take a monster like this head on.

Unfortunatly you will not be able
to influence the invisible hand
of supply and demand of cheap
disposable crap.

 

[cce]

we have this in Bristol for kids bikes. It's well good.

http://apeproject.co.uk/childrens-bike-exchange-scheme/

 

[SEANSTEPHENS]

Re:

I had the misfortune of working at halfords for two years, some of the comments ive read here made me laugh because they are painfully true. I seem to remember that halfords only make £10/£15 profit on any crappy apollo, trax, raleigh etc bike they sale. So its no wonder they dont pride themselves in them

Sean

 

[Flossyrockstar]

Re: Re:

I seem to remember that halfords only make £10/£15 profit on any crappy apollo, trax, raleigh etc bike they sale. So its no wonder they dont pride themselves in them

Sean

They make at least 200% profit on each bike because of their buying power etc and that's a conservative estimate!!!!! This is the corporate way of flogging bikes and they don't give a stuff about quality at that price, it's bottom line, period!!!

 

[Rampage]

It wouldn't surprise me if more money was made on accessories bought with the bike...

 

[SEANSTEPHENS]

It wouldn't surprise me if more money was made on accessories bought with the bike...

youve hit the nail on the head there

 

[mattr]

Re: Re:

They make at least 200% profit on each bike because of their buying power etc and that's a conservative estimate!!!!! This is the corporate way of flogging bikes and they don't give a stuff about quality at that price, it's bottom line, period!!!

A "conservative estimate".

You mean a wild guess really, don't you.

 

[tufty]

It's not just crap-shifters, though, and it's not just cheap bikes. A large part of the problem, once you get past the pressed tin and plastic levers, is bad mechanics.

Case in point - I work in a resort where we do a *lot* of downhill biking. There's at least 5 (largely overpriced) bike rental / sales places here. Only one has a mechanic who knows his stuff. Local kid broke his Voltage's frame, had a new one sent out to the local Scott dealer, who do *not* have a competent mechanic. Whilst mounting his ld pieces on the new frame, they told him his fork was shot and he needed to shell out big € to replace it (it wasn't he knew it, and was smart enough to tell them to mount the old one anyway), overfill the headrace bearings top and bottom, overtorque and destroy the bottom bracket, and miss a set of brake pads.

Yesterday, bloke arrives at the top of my lift with a more or less brand new Stumpjumper FSR. I do the usual "check the brakes and steering" thing taking it off the lift, whoops, headset needs tightening. "Hey, your headset needs tightening" "Does it?" "Yep, look, you have 2cm of play at the wheel. Know how to do it?" "Nope" "Okay, I'll show you". Started to show him how to do it, in fact I couldn't. On further investigation, the steerer was proud of the spacer / stem stack. "OK, *walk* your bike down, go ask Vivien to sort your spacers out".

The bike was sold like that, and this was his third day doing downhill riding with it.

My guess, looking at the local LBSs, there's probably one competent mechanic in 30.