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Useless Bike Shops


hypermobilty

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Im replaceing my ffw don't have the tool so went down to the local bike shop

After being told I was an idiot because freewheels are on the backwheel not on the cranks

I showed the owner it was on the front

Oh no that's to exotic for my liking im not touching that

I had a simular experience at another bike shop

Ended up going to halfords who were really good

Anyone else had any simular experiences

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I had the same experience in a bike shop last year.

They wouldn't touch it to take it off.

In the end i bought the tools my self.

But now I work in Halfords in Middlesbrough so i now have access to all the tools and lubes i need and there is two of us who are trials riders who work there so all the repairs that come in and all the new bikes that go out are set up perfectly like we set up our own bikes.

Got to say, we probably have the best repair/building team in the country.

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one off the bike shops i went to they said they do custom trials bikes

that was a laugh £400 for a bike that was pretty much the same as my old ddg shooter

except my ddg was better specanyone ever been asked why there are holes in your rim at a bike shop

there not that new been around for ages

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bike shops aren't keen on fixing them because most of the staff have never riden one before.

and trials come with light weight + strong together which doesn't really work as far as relability.

you get the same with other bike types like fixies and slope style bikes

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Have to ever been to a Halfords store.

They seem to employ the throw backs from Mc Donalds.

The Middlesbrough store is real tight had to go through a series of interviews and

building exams.

This is when i'm at home.

Why did McDonalds throw you back? ;)

And a company the size of halfords I am sure the recruitment side of things will be pretty similar nationwide (Y)

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Why did McDonalds throw you back? ;)

And a company the size of halfords I am sure the recruitment side of things will be pretty similar nationwide (Y)

Its far from the same.

Our manager is really harsh, he does things his own way.

Once he knows you mind he's quality, we had a fight the otherday with nerf guns in the warehouse haha!

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Yeah, I've been in a few that are quite bad, got to say though, the worst one I've been in some guy told me my stem was wrong and that I needed a really short stem with no rise like a DH stem to get the most out of the bike (it's a Limey 3, and at the time it had something like a 125 x 30) I said that'd be silly, he tried so hard to sell me one for like 5 minutes, it was just after he closed his mouth I walked off. Quite ignorant of me yes, but I couldn't stand there much longer listening to his dribble. And besideds, a stem is fairly personal preference, to say I'd get more out of a 'customized-to-my-own-needs' bike is just riduclous.

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I've spent 6 years working in bike shops, and I was forever fed up with idiotic kids coming in because they thought they knew best about their bikes. Most of them were f**ked. Some of the bodges, quick fixes, makeshift tools and generally stupid things I've seen posted up on here, or walking in through the door are unreal.

You need to pick and choose your shop, the shop you went into is probably a roadie focused shop, one down the road is probably an XC focused shop, the one the other end of town is probably into DH and Freeride. That's the way bike shops go; the staff and managers influence the sort of clientele that will walk through the door and the stock that will be on the shelves. Even Halfords stores are like it; and with reference employment at Halfords I was offered the job of managing the Plymouth bike hut, they actually sent a letter to me at my previous place of work asking for an interview. I turned up, had a chat about bikes but mainly the area managers BMW and was offered the job there and then with a starting on Monday. I turned down the job but suggested a friend, they asked him for a CV and gave 1 half hour interview and he started 48 hours later.

So no Halfords are not all super strict on who they employ; but in all honestly for the lowly jobs they are usually scraping the barrel. The extensive interviews and countless times they phone you to rebook is because they want to see how reliable you are as a person and how badly you want the job. Better for them to dick you around now and then bin you off than to find out that you are nothing like your interview alter ego after they've contracted you.

There are many people on this forum who have worked in Halfords; doesn't make you a bottom run of the ladder low life though. It's not a bad place to work at all from all I've seen; and certainly given correct management the structure and facilities to offer a good bike shop are there. Bike shops are made and broken by their employees; good staff = good customers = good money.

Yes there are some shit bike shops out there for what you want; but they've got to be doing something right or they wouldn't be there.

Edited by Pashley26
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For me,its always interested me to find out how things work. As a childhood, one of my hobby's was taking shit apart, and putting it back together ( usually for it never to work again :P)

I enjoy maintaining my bike, because i know at the end of the day, when i jump on it and it rides like a dream, its because i've made it ride that way.

Id rarther have that then pay a monkey in a bike shop to fix my bike, where they properly don't have the slightest clue about a trials bike.

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I took this thing into my local Halfords to get some opinions for a project (its a electronic gear system for single handed users and my tutors deemed Halfords as reputable) and got offered a job on the spot just from looking at it by the store manager... high standards? I would say not, look at it, its a f**king mess of wires and old bits of bike I had knocking about, not a beautifully set up bike!

464993_10150797968030667_1766262012_o.jpg

It did work awesomely though...

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As a childhood, one of my hobby's was taking shit apart, and putting it back together

That's me now. I go by the theory of if you haven't opened something up, taken it to pieces and built it back up again you don't own it.

My phone, car, computer, bike :P It's how I prefer to learn

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