Halfords

[Rusty Nails]

Check out the reviews on the Decathlon I've seen loads of negative reviews there with regard people having a bad experience. Halfords sell significantly more bikes than Decathlon in the UK although no question Decathlon sell a lot of bikes. It should also be factored in Decathlon have had many more recalls than Halfords thats when a significant number of bikes have failed, I would consider a bike frame collapsing under you a negative experience. I mean with chains like Evans and Go Outdoors neither compare to Halfords sales and I'd say in the case of Go Outdoors quite similar to Halfords. I don't see a huge amount of complaints about Go Outdoors compared to the other three but I'm not convinced that is because they are better trained just they sell significantly less bikes. It's important to be fair in any comparison, 25p in every £ for cycling is spent at Halfords which could equate to up to 40% of bikes sold in the UK sold at Halfords because of their lower cost which is a staggering figure. Last time I looked Decathlon were like 2-3% which was either what they had or were heading towards. I'm in the south west and simply don't have any Decathlon stores near me. I think the Poole store is about 50 miles away. I probably have about 5 or 6 Halfords stores within 25 miles.

The different brands excel in different areas too. I see in the real world a huge amount of Halfords bikes but they are typically mainly Carrera and mountain bikes and I would say many of their owners are teenagers. Decathlon mountain bikes in my experience are fairly poor on spec and not particularly good in comparison. I feel Decathlon excel more for road bikes and I see more Decathlon road bikes out and about. I feel like Decathlon sales are more skewed towards road bikes but that is just a guess by me by what I see.

The most damning reviews I see for bikes is Amazon, ebay and Argos. They pretty much just ship boxed bikes that needs careful assembly and adjustment and you see some incredibly unfair reviews on there clearly from people who bought such bikes but were clueless about assembly and didn't take to a bike shop for assembly as stated in the manual. They just want a cheap bike and have no idea about long term maintenance of a bike. Which ever shop it is there will always be a percentage of unfair reviews and the higher the sales the more there will be. Halfords sell a lot more bikes than all independent bike shops put together, they may not be such high value bikes. High value bikes I would say are typically in a better state from the factory too so far less work to be done by the dealer.

My own personal experience of having bought two bikes from a shop, one a local independent bike shop and one at Halfords although many years ago was that the local bike shop was poor for customer service but my local Halfords was very good. I should add the bike bought from Halfords was a Carrera Subway 8 with 8 speed nexus gears and roller brakes. Not a run of the mill bike. I didn't have a clue about adjusting the roller brakes myself at the time but Halfords were spot on servicing the bike after 6 weeks which was the last time it went to Halfords.

I have worked on and rebuilt literally hundreds of bikes over the past 11 years. A large proportion of these are Halfords makes. Based on comparative bike cost Halfords are just about as good as any other company on the quality of their bikes, including components.

I cannot comment on quality of staff compared to other stores.

 

[freiston]

The last time I used Ηalfords was July 2016, when I ordered a bike lock to collect from the local branch. The time before that was March 2014 for a Kryptonite cable, also to collect. Before then I didn't do much online shopping but nowadays most of my shopping is online and my bike shops of choice are SJS and Spa (though I have used others including Wiggle and Planet X).

I used to use Ηalfords and LBSs quite a bit for odds and ends up to the 90s - Halfords for the bog standard stuff like lubes, tools and the odd accessory and consumable. My current bikes were bought from Evans about 2014 (before they went off). I don't use LBSs much anymore - they usually don't sell what I'm interested in and I haven't required any work (that I couldn't do myself) to be done since god knows when. The last time I was in Halfords and the LBS, I had a look around and wasn't inspired at all.

 

[bonzobanana]

I don't think anyone is criticising the actual bikes they sell. Not much wrong with Carrera or Boardman bikes, but the experience of buying them or after sales can be a bit hit and miss. It's a pity that the bikes aren't available anywhere other than Halfords (or Tredz, aka Halfords in disguise).
The saving in price isn't worth the risk, IMHO..

You don't have to have a Halfords bike touched by a Halfords service technician you can basically buy it boxed just like a bike from ebay, amazon, argos etc. No reason to let them handle the bike if you don't want to. I would add though that when I bought my Carrera Subway 8 bike when Halford's technician tested it he found the bottom bracket was faulty so I got a free upgrade to a much better Shimano unit so was happy they had assembled it but if your own Halfords has a bad reputation then perhaps getting a boxed bike is the better option.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Check out the reviews on the Decathlon I've seen loads of negative reviews there with regard people having a bad experience. Halfords sell significantly more bikes than Decathlon in the UK although no question Decathlon sell a lot of bikes.

You are comparing chalk and cheese. Halfords has years in the market yet poor service, lack of adequately trained mechanics and cheap bikes. Thats their business model. I would never introduce anyone to buy a bike at Halfords. Even if the bike is affordable. I have seen inverted forks (more than one) personally. There are also enough stories in this forum over the years.

Decathlon sell decent stuff, good servicing of their bikes and good customer service. The usual complaint is their stock wheels for their entry level range. Nothing faulty, just too heavy and rolls less. Delighted to introduce beginners to Decathlon

I have been at their stores in UK, Singapore, France and UAE. Limited models but all well managed.

 

[bonzobanana]

As you say nothing much wrong with Carrera and Boardman but the Apollo bikes I've had or worked on have very poor quality components with a short service life.

That's the same with any cheap bike though, Decathlon have low end components on their entry level bikes and from I've seen typically cheaper components. Where as Halfords would have entry level Shimano components Decathlon use Microshift or worse on their lower end models. So I don't get the recommendation for Decathlon as a shop although totally understand recommendation of some Decathlon models which are very good. Looking here at a £250 basic folding bike Decathlon have fitted an all plastic very low end generic chinese rear derailleur with the high and low adjustment screws going directly into plastic and using metal rivets. It looks well below the typical Tourney parts found on Apollo bikes. You can see very basic single wall rims too although this doesn't matter so much on 20" wheels as they are pretty strong typically. I can't see a Apollo folding bike but Argos do a folding bike currently at about £140 using their 25% off code with significantly better components (Tourney) and for only about 60% of the cost of the Decathlon bike. Pay a lot more to get a much inferior bike at Decathlon.

Personally I often find Halfords by far offers the best value with local support and I think its a no brainer choice for a lot of people. The one exception being the garbage cheap dual suspension bikes they sell. You look on the Decathlon site though and they have a sort of marketplace where other sellers can sell their bikes now and some of those are very low end. Looks like those aren't dealt with by Decathlon at all its just their version of Amazon marketplace.

Ultimately most of the bikes people buy come from Asian factories, there are no Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Canyon, Bianchi etc factories they are reliant on the same Asian factories as many other brands. You get exceptions like Giant and Merida but most are just glorified importers.

It still amazes me despite their huge sales how few recalls Halfords have had for bikes although I guess that is probably mainly down to their high weight limits and going for stronger frames and forks than many other brands. This means they are less competitive in weight I guess than some bikes although Boardman certainly are competitive in weight.

 

[Brandane]

You don't have to have a Halfords bike touched by a Halfords service technician you can basically buy it boxed just like a bike from ebay, amazon, argos etc. No reason to let them handle the bike if you don't want to. I would add though that when I bought my Carrera Subway 8 bike when Halford's technician tested it he found the bottom bracket was faulty so I got a free upgrade to a much better Shimano unit so was happy they had assembled it but if your own Halfords has a bad reputation then perhaps getting a boxed bike is the better option.

OK, to avoid going round in circles any longer, I will admit to simply not liking Halfords, so as a person of principles I won't buy so much as a dust cap from them if I can get it elsewhere.
As far as buying bikes is concerned, I tend to stick with second hand purchases. Of the 5 bikes I currently have, 2 were bought from sellers on this very site, 2 from ebay/gumtree (with checks made as far as possible), and only one bought new (a Merida from a not so "local" LBS).
These bikes should probably outlast me, so no plans to enter the world of bike buying any time soon.

 

[classic33]

You are comparing chalk and cheese. Halfords has years in the market yet poor service, lack of adequately trained mechanics and cheap bikes. Thats their business model. I would never introduce anyone to buy a bike at Halfords. Even if the bike is affordable. I have seen inverted forks (more than one) personally. There are also enough stories in this forum over the years.

Decathlon sell decent stuff, good servicing of their bikes and good customer service. The usual complaint is their stock wheels for their entry level range. Nothing faulty, just too heavy and rolls less. Delighted to introduce beginners to Decathlon

I have been at their stores in UK, Singapore, France and UAE. Limited models but all well managed.

Tried getting served in their Leeds store yesterday, not a chance. Two were busy passing a basketball between themselves across the aisle. A third was wandering round, tablet in hand, doing their best to do nothing. The only one seen working, was working on a bike behind a counter(A good ten feet from the actual counter).

And worse still, they have self checkout only.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

So all the companies with call centres cannot be good companies? You could make a fortune advising them.

No - a good company should be able to run a call centre with a short wait time (or short by today's standards) and answer most of the companies questions first time

I have rung several that manage to do this - but you only ring them once so you tend to forget it. I have an bank account where the phone line is always answered like this and the customer service is very good

And - as far as me helping them - I was never a manager of the call centre - I worked on the IT system that it used but I saw how it worked.
I could never manage it but I know it can be done - it just costs more money

 

[Kingfisher101]

Tried getting served in their Leeds store yesterday, not a chance. Two were busy passing a basketball between themselves across the aisle. A third was wandering round, tablet in hand, doing their best to do nothing. The only one seen working, was working on a bike behind a counter(A good ten feet from the actual counter).

And worse still, they have self checkout only.

Well did you go upto one of them and say " can you help please?" etc.
I've been to Halfords loads of times and I've never experienced any problems apart from them not having enough staff on and there being a lot of people in the queue etc.

 

[freiston]

That's the same with any cheap bike though, Decathlon have low end components on their entry level bikes and from I've seen typically cheaper components. Where as Halfords would have entry level Shimano components Decathlon use Microshift or worse on their lower end models. So I don't get the recommendation for Decathlon as a shop although totally understand recommendation of some Decathlon models which are very good. Looking here at a £250 basic folding bike Decathlon have fitted an all plastic very low end generic chinese rear derailleur with the high and low adjustment screws going directly into plastic and using metal rivets. It looks well below the typical Tourney parts found on Apollo bikes. You can see very basic single wall rims too although this doesn't matter so much on 20" wheels as they are pretty strong typically. I can't see a Apollo folding bike but Argos do a folding bike currently at about £140 using their 25% off code with significantly better components (Tourney) and for only about 60% of the cost of the Decathlon bike. Pay a lot more to get a much inferior bike at Decathlon.



View attachment 632958

That just doesn't bear out to scrutiny (and presumes that Shimano is superior). Look at the £250 Halfords offering - looks more plastic to me than the Decathlon offering (photo isn't as good).

 

[Cycleops]

Well did you go upto one of them and say " can you help please?" etc.
I've been to Halfords loads of times and I've never experienced any problems apart from them not having enough staff on and there being a lot of people in the queue etc.

Goes back to what I said earlier, do you feel lucky? It’s pot luck.

 

[bonzobanana]

That just doesn't bear out to scrutiny (and presumes that Shimano is superior). Look at the £250 Halfords offering - looks more plastic to me than the Decathlon offering (photo isn't as good).
View attachment 632972

Yes I am presuming Shimano is superior that's been my experience even for low end parts I've found Shimano shifters, derailleurs, freewheels and cassettes superior to the lower end stuff like Microshift and more generic Chinese components. I don't know which Halfords bike that is but you certainly see cheaper components fitted to children's bikes by many brands even the big US and European brands but I guess there you can get away with it because the loads and power won't be so high. The bike I showed was a actual Decathlon model one of their Tilt branded folding bikes designed for adults. It wasn't one of their marketplace type bikes which would be a very unfair comparison as sold through Decathlon but not sold by them directly.

 

[bonzobanana]

Goes back to what I said earlier, do you feel lucky? It’s pot luck.

Are you allowing for the huge level of sales at Halfords though. If 25p in every £ on cycling in spent in Halfords and up to 4 in 10 bikes sold in the UK are sold through Halfords even if less than 1% of sales had problems that is still a huge amount of unhappy customers. A £500 bike at an independent bike shop has typically far worse components than a £500 bike at Halfords so how do those shops somehow manage to achieve lower issues with inferior components? Even when I spend sometime on 3x7 freewheel based drivetrain I'm never really happy with the shifting across all gears, what magic pixie dust do independent bike shops have that can turn that crappy gear system into something that works well on their £500 bikes?

 

[Cycleops]

Of course it's all down to the level of sales and market dominance plus a lot of other factors like poor and untrained staff Halfords have @bonzobanana but why should customers have to suffer for that? Budget bikes are always going to have compromises wherever you buy.

 

[freiston]

Yes I am presuming Shimano is superior that's been my experience even for low end parts I've found Shimano shifters, derailleurs, freewheels and cassettes superior to the lower end stuff like Microshift and more generic Chinese components. I don't know which Halfords bike that is but you certainly see cheaper components fitted to children's bikes by many brands even the big US and European brands but I guess there you can get away with it because the loads and power won't be so high. The bike I showed was a actual Decathlon model one of their Tilt branded folding bikes designed for adults. It wasn't one of their marketplace type bikes which would be a very unfair comparison as sold through Decathlon but not sold by them directly.

The Halfords £250 bike is a Coyote Swift which is not a Halfords brand. There is a folding bike (Dallingridge Freedom - not a Decathlon brand) currently being sold by Decathlon for £175 that has the same rear mech as the Coyote Swift - this also demonstrates that Halfords does not de facto provide better value and quality .

The argument isn't about Halfords or Decathlon as a bike manufacturer - it's about what they sell and the level of service you get. You are positing that Halfords is by far the best ("Personally I often find Halfords by far offers the best value with local support and I think its a no brainer choice for a lot of people") and then compare two very specific (and arguably niche) bikes from two ranges of many bikes to support that - I'm just showing that I don't think your comparison is a clear indicator to support what you say. I certainly wouldn't say that Halfords is by far the best for value with support and that it is a no brainer choice.

At the bottom end of the market, one could argue that no bike is good value for money and that the components are bound to be inferior in order to hit the target price. Picking out specific and arbitrary examples from each shop and then making arbitrary judgements on the comparative quality (of what are arguably bottom-end products) by saying which you think looks more plasticky in a photo is not a reliable or definitive metric. The case for Halfords being the best and a no-brainer choice has not been proven 😉