Halfords services any good?

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Put it this way

For £30 I'll fix what they screw up


Big chains have buying power and can offer good prices on new bikes. For professional and reliable maintenance/servicing/repairs use your local independant bike shop.
 
I'm afraid not - I prefer to do any bike servicing myself. I think you'll find it'll depend on which branch you visit. Some appear to have good staff and others have those that just don't care! I've always found the Wakefield branch very good - but wouldn't trust the Leeds one at all.
 

alecstilleyedye

nothing in moderation
Moderator
yes, and no. it depends on who's working there at the time. when i bought my carrera road bike, a very knowledgable chap set it up for me and it was good from the go. when i subsequently bought my daughter a bike there, it was so poorly set up that the back brake operated if you turned right!

the chap who did my bike had soon moved on to a proper bike shop…
 

kishan

Active Member
Location
London - Harrow
stay away from halfrauds, i once took my muddyfox in there and it came out worse looking then it went in with more issues go evans or your local bike shop
 
Just been in halfords and discovered they do a service for £20.00 anybody used them for it before?

Yes and they were ok but only went there as my old C2W bike was covered by them for free, couple of annoying things they did would put me off paying for it myself. Its too hit and miss on getting decent staff TBH
 

DiddlyDodds

Random Resident
Location
Littleborough
Just been in halfords and discovered they do a service for £20.00 anybody used them for it before?

The guy in the Chippy near me says he will do it for £15 and use chip fat grease, only joking but i would trust him more than Halfords, Unless you go in a lot and know the lads working there as some have a very bad reputation whilst others seem ok.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
What any bike shop will do for £20 for a service you can do for yourself when you get a basic tool kit and some lube.Pretty much anything you need to do you can find on the internet .
 
The £20 service is pointless - be it LBS or Halfords! Well, it should be - you should be more than capable of doing what happens as this service yourself.

My LBS does a 20 'service'. They are very open that all they do for this is check the brakes, the gears/chain and the tyres. They fix/alter/lube/service nothing, they just simply check them for safety and let you know if there's anything dangerous. They also let you know if anything needs work and what the price would be for it.

Essentially what any cyclist should be able to do in five minutes themselves!

Check exactly what they sell and do in the service. I'm more than willing to pay my LBS for their 'Deluxe Service' where they do the lot, true wheels, strip and regressed bearings, replace cables etc etc but the cheap 20 quid one is to be avoided.
 

david k

Hi
Location
North West
my local halfords in st helens are brill. i think it depends on which b ranch, i went to a different one and they were useless. like any national company some are good and some are not, mine are fantastic
 

cd365

Guru
Location
Coventry, uk
A simple answer is no!
I bought a bike from them, took it in for the six week check, said there was a bit of noise coming from the gears. They changed it and made it worse!! I ended up buying a bike stand and doing it myself (I was just too lazy to do it the first time around, lesson learned)
 

Chris S

Legendary Member
Location
Birmingham
If a qualified bike technician does the service then yes. However, it's more likely to be an unqualified teenager on work placement.
 

subaqua

What’s the point
Location
Leytonstone
If a qualified bike technician does the service then yes. However, it's more likely to be an unqualified teenager on work placement.


to be fair the "unqualified teenager " could well have been fixing bikes far longer and have far more experience than the 30Yr old "qualified " technician. It was certainly the case in one LBS i used to use.

halfords is at best a lucky dip. its OK for parts but servicing gets done by me.
 
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