Halfords to stock Pinarello

[jdtate101]

my point on bike snobs is there is nothing wrong with the bike,s Halfords sell i.e carrera, boardman,Voo doo e.t.c,but some peeps seem to think unless its a trek,cannondale e.t.c they wont go near it....
I agree the cycle mechanics in the main are pretty clueless and the customer service is in many case's pretty bad.
I had a BB issue with my boardman just after i bought it,i took it back to the shop,and the lad sorted it there and then.
any maintenance i do myself and i probably wouldn't take my bike back to Halfords.
people need to rise above the name Halfords and buy your bike and enjoy it..
if you need it fixed after the warranty runs out take it to your LBS...

I too bought my 1st bike from Halford's, which was a Boardman, and it was a quality bike, but it was assembled wrong and had numerous defects as a result. This was not due to the Boardman brand, but more the training quality of the people in the bike huts. I agree that sometimes you can get good staff in Halford's who do seem to know what they are doing, but equally there are a lot of kids working there who have the bare minimum of training and damage expensive bikes as a result. I would buy spares and accessories from Halford's (and have done) as it's convenient to walk in, but unless they up their training then I wouldn't trust them with my bikes.
As for brand names, well that can be said of any product, some people like to own quality items and are prepared to pay a little more for them. I dare say some would consider my Dogma overkill, but I race it and it brings a smile to my face every time I use it, so for me it's great value. Equally my cross bike (which I use more often than my Dogma) is much cheaper and just as much fun but for different reasons, and I bought it from Evans, another large chain store (but there the staff have a good standard of training, but not without some issues).

 

[Drago]

I dont see a problem with halfords selling Pinarello,i bought a boardman team last year from halfords.
it's my best ride and a quality piece of kit which has nothing to do with halfords,and i would happily buy a Pinarello if i was in the market for one which im not.
I also have a carrea TDF which i bought 2 years ago to use as my winter bike,for a entry level bike it has been a very good buy and i spent very little on it apart from tyres pads e.t.c.
Chris Boarman has made a mint selling his quality bike's through halfords so pinarello will no doubt do the same.
He continues to sell his bike's so Halfords cant be that bad.
It make's me chuckle that their are so many bike snobs who seem to think the word halfords is something to avoid at all cost's

Boardman continues to sell his bike through Hellfrauds for no other reason that its making him a lot of lolly. Simple as that.

 

[jdtate101]

Also I'm sure the kids in the Hut's would like more training as it will increase their own job prospects.......

 

[Robeh]

I dare say some would consider my Dogma overkill, but I race it and it brings a smile to my face every time I use it, so for me it's great value.

i feel the same way about my Cube GTC

 

[Robeh]

Boardman continues to sell his bike through Hellfrauds for no other reason that its making him a lot of lolly. Simple as that.

same as any other brand name then...............

 

[nickyboy]

Just to provide a bit of balance, Halfords reported 33% increase in what they term "premium bike sales" 2012 v 2011. Forumites opinion of the Halfords brands that constitute "premium" will be different, but they include Boardman, Carrera and Apollo

http://www.halfordscompany.com/investors/reports-and-accounts/annual-report-2012

Seems to me that forumites are not representative of the Great British cycle buying public. I suspect that whilst most people here wouldn't buy their Pinarello from Halfords (just as they wouldn't buy any bike from Halfords), plenty of folk will. Of course, the more expensive the bike, the more sophisticated the customer and the greater likelihood of rejecting Halfords. But don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone with a couple of grand to spend on a bike is just like you.Loads of £1K + bikes have been sold by them so Pinarello-man isn't such a major step

 

[Mapster5]

Just to provide a bit of balance, Halfords reported 33% increase in what they term "premium bike sales" 2012 v 2011. Forumites opinion of the Halfords brands that constitute "premium" will be different, but they include Boardman, Carrera and Apollo

http://www.halfordscompany.com/investors/reports-and-accounts/annual-report-2012

Seems to me that forumites are not representative of the Great British cycle buying public. I suspect that whilst most people here wouldn't buy their Pinarello from Halfords (just as they wouldn't buy any bike from Halfords), plenty of folk will. Of course, the more expensive the bike, the more sophisticated the customer and the greater likelihood of rejecting Halfords. But don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone with a couple of grand to spend on a bike is just like you.Loads of £1K + bikes have been sold by them so Pinarello-man isn't such a major step

To true

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

I would have thought that Boardman would open it out to any retailer that wants to stock them.

They may have an exclusive deal with Halfords that prevents them from going to anyone else in the UK.

 

[Drago]

They probably do, but without a shadow of doubt the contract will have performance related get-out clauses, so of the dough stops rolling they'll be able to bail.

And even if they didn't, no court would enforce it if business dried up and Boardman wanted to bail. Any court will take the view that a contract is not a suicide pact, and inherently unreasonable terms won't be valid under UK contract law.

But I daresay the money is rolling in nicely. Boardman has a budget brand but with a good bit of bling that stand it apart from the competition in the eyes of typical buyer, ad a presence in Britaons biggest high street bike retailer. He's sitting pretty as he is and I can't see there is much incentive to change things.

 

[aces_up1504]

Has anyone thought that going in a local bike shop can be somewhat overwhelming to a newbie, your walking into a store in which you know nothing about, brands you may not have even know exsisted. To many people it is just much, they dont want to seem like an idiot.

Same can be said about many specialist shops, I remember walking into a Local fish shop and being completely put off from running a Marine tank by there opinions and some might say snobbery. It put me back a year and run a tropical tank with the help of store within a garden center and it was much more accessible. It was not until i found a shop with a friendly guy who helped rather than preached that i got my marine tank.

The point being a newbie walkling into a LBS does not know what to expect, will they be looked down its only natural to think this. Halfords like a fish shop in a garden center is netural ground, you feel safe because you have been in there before and know what to expect and the sales dont lie, dispite the internet forums complaing about build quiality they are still one if not the biggest bike sellers in the UK.

I wonder % wise how there build quality wise bikes are returned to Halfords or LBS for fixes. It could simply more sales therefore more complaints?

Overall by this premium brand Pinarello agreeing to sell in halfords they are opening themselves up a huge market that was not be accessed sales wise.

 

[Mapster5]

Aces up has a point I play guitar and going into a guitar shop or going to a muso's night can be the same if your guitar is that current flavour if the month or your amp isn't hand built by a redneck from Alabama using wood from a tree in his backyard you feel can be made to feel that your not a real musician same can be said about cycling

 

[Drago]

My LBS is awesome. Their typical approach is "go and have a free coffee in our lounge and think about it." No pressure, just decent advice from folk that know what they're about.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Has anyone thought that going in a local bike shop can be somewhat overwhelming to a newbie, your walking into a store in which you know nothing about, brands you may not have even know exsisted. To many people it is just much, they dont want to seem like an idiot.

But ..... I can't believe that many 'newbies' are prepared to spend over £1K on their first bike without some research. If they are maybe the description 'idiot' is appropriate.

 

[aces_up1504]

My LBS is awesome. Their typical approach is "go and have a free coffee in our lounge and think about it." No pressure, just decent advice from folk that know what they're about.

Most LBS are probably like that, its the fear of the unknown

But ..... I can't believe that many 'newbies' are prepared to spend over £1K on their first bike without some research. If they are maybe the description 'idiot' is appropriate.

Most people think going into halfords to spend 1k on c2w scheme is doing research. Otherwise forums like this would have 10s of thousands of members. Forum users are probably are only a small % of total number of people in a hobby or sport

 

[youngoldbloke]

Most people think going into halfords to spend 1k on c2w scheme is doing research. Otherwise forums like this would have 10s of thousands of members. Forum users are probably are only a small % of total number of people in a hobby or sport

Ah... forgot about that - it's never applied to me. Apologies for veering off-thread but It has always seemed very unfair to me that a similar scheme wasn't available to retired people, or perhaps a bicycle-on-prescription scheme.