Pre-first-ride tasks?

[Arch]

Blimey, let the guy have some fun!

Any doubts Bandini, you can always let your LBS give the bike a look over.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Blimey, let the guy have some fun!

Any doubts Bandini, you can always let your LBS give the bike a look over.

+1

Which LBS is it Bandini?

 

[Bandini]

+1

Which LBS is it Bandini?

I PM'd you CP.

 

[dellzeqq]

But 'racks' and 'mudguards' can surely be mentioned on a touring forum?? I just want to enjoy the country side and carry gear with me.

Thanks for all the advice. And can you PM me about the McBludgeon thing please??

aaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can't say any more. Call it cowardice if you will.........

 

[dellzeqq]

Blimey, let the guy have some fun!

Any doubts Bandini, you can always let your LBS give the bike a look over.

in all seriousness (I confess, Bandini, that I am the bike fascist, and the noble McB the broadshouldered recipient of what passes for advice) any LBS is going to charge you a lot more for sorting out a Halfords bike than the margin between the Halfords price and the price they'd charge for a comparable, or better, steed. My brother, who owns an LBS, regularly sees bicycles bought mail order or from Halfords that need work that is both neccessary and futile - futile because the quality of the components is irredeemably crap.

So when you buy a bike at Halfords, or mail order, and you want to avoid it being one of the hundreds of thousands that are consigned to history every year you sort of accept that this is a bit of a project.

 

[Bandini]

I ordered through the bike to work scheme - but it is not a 'Halfords bike'. It is a Dawes tourer they ordered in for me. Not top notch, but a decent little entry level/mid range tourer. Read of a few people going across Australia and stuff on 'em.

I would NEVER have chosen Halfords, but they have an agreement with my employers.

Oh, also, I have a friend of a friend who runs an LBS, so perhaps they will be gentle on me!

 

[Arch]

in all seriousness (I confess, Bandini, that I am the bike fascist, and the noble McB the broadshouldered recipient of what passes for advice) any LBS is going to charge you a lot more for sorting out a Halfords bike than the margin between the Halfords price and the price they'd charge for a comparable, or better, steed. My brother, who owns an LBS, regularly sees bicycles bought mail order or from Halfords that need work that is both neccessary and futile - futile because the quality of the components is irredeemably crap.

So when you buy a bike at Halfords, or mail order, and you want to avoid it being one of the hundreds of thousands that are consigned to history every year you sort of accept that this is a bit of a project.

Dell, I'm ashamed of you, you haven't read the thread properly have you. This isn't an Apollo Radical-Maan here, it's a Dawes...

Of course, it's worth checking it over for the basics - any bike should be, LBSs aren't infallible.

 

[Bandini]

Thanks Arch! I was a little offended. I thought he might have been sneering at my lovely little bike!

 

[dellzeqq]

not at all. The Kara-Kum is a decent machine. But to take the rear mech hanger as an example - if this is wrong your gears will grind, and you stand a chance of pushing the mech in to the spokes. No Halfords shop will check the hanger as a matter of course - but then again, I've been told that Evans won't check it either.

 

[Bandini]

Thanks - advice like this could save me a lot of heartache.

I just realized that it looks like I am aping your use of late-Victorian- avatar vibe! I'm not - it is a picture of **** Hamsun (a favourite author) that I used as an avatar on my old thread! Who is yours?

 

[Bandini]

I just realized that it looks like I am aping your late-Victorian-avatar-thing! I'm not - it is a picture of K. Hamsun (a favourite author) I used as an avatar on my old thread.

Ha! When I put Hamsun's first name in, it asterisked the letters out.

Who is it in your avatar?

 

[dellzeqq]

well, I'm feeling silly. Pan is one of my favourite books (I've never read Hunger). I should have recognised him.

Mine is Marcello Mazzarella.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0fyGX0DsdI


'I'm interested in the cuffs'

 

[Bandini]

well, I'm feeling silly. Pan is one of my favourite books (I've never read Hunger). I should have recognised him.

Mine is Marcello Mazzarella.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0fyGX0DsdI


'I'm interested in the cuffs'

Pan is a great book - Mysteries is Hamsun's best IMO. I will look up Mazzarella later - work now. GET BIKE TONIGHT!

 

[ComedyPilot]

Pan is a great book - Mysteries is Hamsun's best IMO. I will look up Mazzarella later - work now. GET BIKE TONIGHT!

Well?????

Come on, don't leave us hanging?

 

[Bandini]

Been out on a little test ride. Love the bike. Will put some pics on when I take it out for a ride with me mates on Sunday. Unless the weather forecast is wrong for tomorrow. I will have a little go out tomorrow anyway. I might just go and have another look at it!