Halfords

[Brandane]

Its popular because its very reasonable and most items are o.k.

It's popular because the vast majority of people buying bikes don't know any better. Let's face it, most bike buyers aren't really into bikes in the way that most members of CC are going to be.
They just want "a bike" to knock about on for a while, before sticking it in the back of the shed. Or they want one for their child, and want to get one quickly and cheaply. They are Halfords target customer.
So what happens when they end up with a badly put together Apollo offering, with badly indexed gears and not the best quality components? They end up thinking "feck this cycling lark" and that is that. Into the shed it goes. Then we wonder why people aren't overly enthusiastic about cycling.

 

[Kingfisher101]

It's popular because the vast majority of people buying bikes don't know any better. Let's face it, most bike buyers aren't really into bikes in the way that most members of CC are going to be.
They just want "a bike" to knock about on for a while, before sticking it in the back of the shed. Or they want one for their child, and want to get one quickly and cheaply. They are Halfords target customer.
So what happens when they end up with a badly put together Apollo offering, with badly indexed gears and not the best quality components? They end up thinking "feck this cycling lark" and that is that. Into the shed it goes. Then we wonder why people aren't overly enthusiastic about cycling.

Well I've had a bike off them and it was absolutely fine, there were no problems with it apart from needing a gear cable tightening at its 6 week service. You pay your money and make your choices at the end of the day.