Halfrauds, the good and the bad

[shouldbworking]

They are a strange shop aren't they.

Bought one of last years carrera fury second hand (2 weeks old!) at the weekend. Amazing value at £350 and really nicely specced.

This was as I felt like an upgrade from my rather vintage gt avalanche with its 75mm forks, v-brakes and generally rather worn appearance.

Seeing as they'd done so well on producing a nice bike I thought i'd see if they could get me a rear wheel for the gt, as its rear wheel has been rather on the piss for some time now and no amount of truing will fix it. I'd seen the wheel online but none of the local stores have it - nearest with it in stock was about 20 miles away.

So, I ask.. can you get one of those wheels sent here from your other store? nope. apparently not, but! they have one on the shelf here apparently. He produces a wheel that looks remarkably similar and brings it up on the computer. So far so good.. but they can't put the voucher codes on in store that you can online, and I'm a cheap bd. I confirm with him that it'll fit my cassette - I brought the gt in store to confirm. So.. i take the product code, go home.. ring it up. 8 speed wheel... the gt has a 9 speed cassette.

lying little st. No wonder he looked a little shifty when he brought it up on his screen and said 'yep thats what you need'. It's a good thing I'm a complete scrooge and went home to check it or I would have had a completely useless wheel. Honestly, what did he think he was going to achieve by deliberately misleading a customer?

So anyway I went to aldi to get some of those 2.99 brake pads and popped into the local bike shop next door where their prices are normally a little high and the guy has a bit of an attitude. After being lauded for asking if they did a seatpost clamp with a QR skewer he looked bemused at the concept of lowering it slightly for descents / fitting the bike into a car easier I left that shop with the wheel I wanted, frame protection stickers and a chainstay protector for the same price I would have paid in halfords.

Also the store had the new range of carreras in. Lower specced and higher priced than last years models were. Ah well, at least I got one of the good ones!

[Jimbo.]

Lower specced and higher priced than last years models were.

This can be said of ALL bikes on sale, be it a £400 Halfords BSO, or a £4000 Trek.

[robpearson]

Something like a 7% increase across treks range I think, not sure about other brands. My lbs was very forthcoming about the industry in general two weeks before he closed down :-(

[shalmaneser]

An 8spd freehub is a standard size. It'll fit 8, 9 and 10 speed cassettes, and a seven speed with a spacer.

Have you tried fitting your cassette onto the wheel?

[paranoid airbag]

Jimbo. said:

a £400 Halfords BSO

Jesus fking christ, have you ridden one? Or rather, have you tried to ride one and found it impossible? If the latter, I might be so bold as to suggest it's your riding that needs improving, not the bike. If it was rideable, then it's a bicycle.

Back on topic - doesn't suprise me, a big chain store like halfords it going to find it easier to negotiate discounts and therefore stock relatively good value kit - the same as has happened with every other commodity - than to train their staff to more than the minimum standard (if that). Especially if you're going off-piste and asking questions about bikes they don't stock - they'd rather just sell you a new one. You might get lucky and get a guy who knows their stuff occasionally though.

[shouldbworking]

shalmaneser said:

An 8spd freehub is a standard size. It'll fit 8, 9 and 10 speed cassettes, and a seven speed with a spacer.

Have you tried fitting your cassette onto the wheel?

No, I checked the reviews which confirmed that you couldn't fit a 9 speed cassette onto it.

[shouldbworking]

paranoid airbag said:

Jesus fking christ, have you ridden one? Or rather, have you tried to ride one and found it impossible? If the latter, I might be so bold as to suggest it's your riding that needs improving, not the bike. If it was rideable, then it's a bicycle.

You could probably still manage to spend 400 on a bso there if you wanted whilst the carrera, voodoo and boardman ranges are reasonable and even in last years incarnation very good value, the trax, apollo and diamondback brands are still very much in the land of bricks with wheels.

[anonymous-user]

shouldbworking said:

paranoid airbag said:

Jesus fking christ, have you ridden one? Or rather, have you tried to ride one and found it impossible? If the latter, I might be so bold as to suggest it's your riding that needs improving, not the bike. If it was rideable, then it's a bicycle.

You could probably still manage to spend 400 on a bso there if you wanted whilst the carrera, voodoo and boardman ranges are reasonable and even in last years incarnation very good value, the trax, apollo and diamondback brands are still very much in the land of bricks with wheels.

you could spend £400 on a BSO from your LBS too and they would also happily take your money and snigger when you have gone....
carreras fill a nice little hole in the market for people who want a good value bike but find places like an LBS intimidating.

[Floor Tom]

shouldbworking said:

No, I checked the reviews which confirmed that you couldn't fit a 9 speed cassette onto it.

Somthing not quite right here. An 8, 9 or 10 speed cassette will for on an 8 speed freehub (or a 7 speed if you use a spacer) for 9 and 10 speed the spacing between cogs gets smaller. If the freehub was smaller then it was a 7 speed freehub.

[snotrag]

What he said - dont be so quick to slate the lad.

8 or 9spd freehubs are the same thing. If it fits an 8spd cassette, it will fit a 9spd.

No idea what 'reviews' you are reading to get your info from.

Edited by snotrag on Monday 11th July 11:48

[paranoid airbag]

shouldbworking said:

You could probably still manage to spend 400 on a bso there if you wanted whilst the carrera, voodoo and boardman ranges are reasonable and even in last years incarnation very good value, the trax, apollo and diamondback brands are still very much in the land of bricks with wheels.

who was the bloke who challenged his son to spend an absurd amount of money, and buy nothing of value? sounds like a challenge in that vein... I may need £400 to try though... (edit: brewster's millions).

Above is right though, even the halfords stuff is noticeably worse spec than last year. Not a good time to buy

Edited by paranoid airbag on Monday 11th July 14:26

[shouldbworking]

snotrag said:

What he said - dont be so quick to slate the lad.

8 or 9spd freehubs are the same thing. If it fits an 8spd cassette, it will fit a 9spd.

No idea what 'reviews' you are reading to get your info from.

Edited by snotrag on Monday 11th July 11:48

Why would there be 2 different products then, one standard and one specifically marked up as 8 speed?

The reviews I read would be the accounts of people attempting to fit 9 speed cassettes to an 8 speed hub and finding there wasnt enough room for the last ring, which seems conclusive to me.

[P-Jay]

They really should be the same thing. 9sp and 8sp cassets are the same width, on the 9sp the cogs are housed closer togeather, hence why you need a narrower 9sp chain.

Halfords, as I think we must all know by now, are complete gamble in regards to how how helpfull and knowledgeable the staff are. You get eveything from the 16 year old saturday kid who's only there to earn some pocket money to the seasoned bike mechanic, the company are pretty shambolic IMHO.

Wouldn't stop me buying some of their bikes if I was in the market for that sort of thing, but I'd check it all over to make sure it's be built right and wouldn't bother with the free service thing.

[shalmaneser]

P-Jay said:

They really should be the same thing. 9sp and 8sp cassets are the same width, on the 9sp the cogs are housed closer togeather, hence why you need a narrower 9sp chain.

Exactly. Wind your neck in and see if it fits - it it's marked as 8spd it should fit a 9spd cassette.

As for the labeling, there are any number of boring stock control reasons why they might be marked up differently.

[shouldbworking]

shalmaneser said:

Exactly. Wind your neck in and see if it fits - it it's marked as 8spd it should fit a 9spd cassette.

Ok, I'll return the wheel I bought that does fit the cassette and is now happily fitted to my bike, buy the wrong one that a customer has said will not fit a 9 speed cassette.

Oh wait, no I wont

I'm not saying you're wrong.. It's entirely possible the customer had tried fitting a sprocket backwards or whatever and consequently it didn't fit, but it's all done now!

Anyway this has all gone a bit like I hate halfords, which I really dont and I am looking forward to taking out my newly acquired carrera fury on its first proper outing round longleat tomorrow.