Dear Halfords

[Rampage]

Do Halfords still sell full suspension bikes? Last time I was in one the bike area had just been refitted and there were no full suspension bikes at all in the new range.

 

[makster]

Re:

I spent the weekend at a local family cycling event (this, if you're interested.... http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/) and was really pleasantly surprised to see that at least 80% of the kids there were riding decent bikes. Frog bikes had a stand there, and there were loads of Isla bikes being ridden around.
I'd say that the worst kids bike I saw was being ridden by one of my mates kids.
He asked me if I'd take a look at it, as the gears were making a funny noise.....it looked like the bike had been dragged out of a canal!
I guess that, generally, adults who cycle will tend to buy decent bikes for their kids.

I picked up a 'new' bike for my mates 11 year old last week...... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mountain-bike ... true&rt=nc

Now that's £60 well spent!

 

[Deleted member 71366]

I bought a second hand rigid Apollo about 2001 to use a commuter bike, converted it to a 1x 5 or 6 whatever it was and probably put some better brakes on it and cos I knew it wouldn't get nicked. Although it has long been sent to that recycle centre in the sky I thoroughly enjoyed riding that bike, it was bombproof and I wish I still had it as a run around. They are not all turds.

 

[W7Ford]

I bought a second hand rigid Apollo about 2001 to use a commuter bike, converted it to a 1x 5 or 6 whatever it was and probably put some better brakes on it and cos I knew it wouldn't get nicked. Although it has long been sent to that recycle centre in the sky I thoroughly enjoyed riding that bike, it was bombproof and I wish I still had it as a run around. They are not all turds.

I'm going to edit my response and apologise. When you posted two identical replies defending Apollos on years old topics, I wrongly presumed some sort of troll/spammer had posted them. I see you have edited your other post to read differently. I meant no disrespect by saying that Apollos aren't aimed at serious cyclists. I could have worded that more tactfully. Of course you are very welcome on here, no matter what you rode/still ride.

 

[Deleted member 71366]

Thanks for the reply. It would appear only serious cyclists are welcome here. I'll delete my account, thanks.

 

[rwm1962]

Thanks for the reply. It would appear only serious cyclists are welcome here. I'll delete my account, thanks.

Welcome to the forum from someone who also isn't a 'serious' cyclist! I know the term is used innocently & without snobbery but it's always grated on me in other pursuits where it may actually apply to me. Like a lot of people I guess you found this place via a google search & responded to what you found. Bravo! Nowt wrong with resurrecting an old thread. If there was they'd be deleted or archived after x amount of time. I found it interesting as someone who assembled a BSO today at work. We hate them but they are always assembled with full care & attention & we try & steer folk away from buying them. Unfortunately not possible with click & collect.

 

[dyna-ti]

Welcome to the forum from someone who also isn't a 'serious' cyclist! I

We can tell 'Orange Fan'

I once had an Orange(C16r) it was green.

This apparently caused much confusion to passerby's who would stop, look quizzically at my bike with their faces screwed up.

Being from Glasgow I felt this was the best make and colour to prevent being attacked by Rangers/Celtic fans.

 

[greencat]

The best bike is the one you ride. My first mountain bike (marketed as an ATB) was an Emelle Silver Challenge - centre ridge tyres, side pull brakes and steel rims made it a somewhat terrifying ride - but I had a lot of fun on it in the hills of Wales before upgrading it to a Saracen Sahara.

 

[dyna-ti]

Do Halfords still sell full suspension bikes? Last time I was in one the bike area had just been refitted and there were no full suspension bikes at all in the new range.

I've been looking at ebikes, and took a look in halfords, just really to see what they have, though no way id buy from them, mainly for the reasons above plus my own personal experience.

They have a voodoo zobop at their top full suss e bike, priced at £3000
But when you go through the spec, its all as low end as you can get. RS recon forks, retail at usually below £200, steel uncoated(ie prone to rust) stanchions. Which are a pretty thin 32mm, which to my mind is a bit thin for such a heavyweight bike.
Suntour chainset, again pretty much the bottom of the market, and as bottom the quality will be poor, so attention to quality and detail will also be low.

Next we have the brakes, an important factor on an mtb, again especially given the weight of the bike -54lbs and again it is the utter bottom of the shimano range, the altus which retail at a whopping £30 a set.
Drivetrain is low end sram nx., wheelset is formula hubs on no name rims.

All in all it is cheap spec across the board, and cheap kits doesnt last very long, and is prone to issues both build and mechanical.

But they have the audacity to ask £3k.
To my mind this is not a capable offroad full susser. Its going to start going wrong within a month, maybe two and just cost the customer money hand over fist.
Were you to remove the electrical parts of the bike and tout it as a full suss, it would be well below the £1000 mark, but still not up to its intended use.

 

[greencat]

It was well reviewed last year, but closer to £2K with various discounts etc. A friend of mine has one and apart from the brakes (terrifyingly bad) he rates as decent enough (although he's just upgraded to a Cube stereo eMTB)