Cycling UK Forum

Hi all,

Just joined this site, so hope I do everything OK.

I just bought a cycle from Halfords for my girlfriend Alison - we are casual cyclists only. We went out on our first ride with it - nothing strenuous, just through a local wildlife reserve (flattish gravel track), across the top of come locks and on the TransPennine Trail and a few roads. When crossing the locks coming home, Alison fell sideways, but, being unfamiliar with cycling, thought it just her clumsiness. Last Sunday we went out again and the pedal cuaght on the ground even in the smallest groundholes, going over lowish speed humps and, surprise surprise, the locks. Comparing her cycle with mine, the ground clearance when the pedals are at their lowest is half, only about 2 inches, so it's bound to hit the ground now and again, and has made her very nervous about using it. Does anyone know whether there are specifications for ground clearance and what we should do to address this unsafe situation? Thanks

And I wish I could type Pedal correctly!!!

It certainly sounds like a serious design fault which should surely be refered back to Halfords. How do
the proportions of the bike compare with your in other ways?

They sold me something naff a few years ago and did replace the item without much question ( a panneir bag which snapped when I mounted a pavment two days after purchase) I also got a rahte different pannier bag the second time round.

They are aware that quite a lot of their merchandise is poor quality and they make huge profits on the Chinese/Korean end of things
so replacing is no trouble to them.

If Alsion can't use it as they said she would be able to, then they must replace. If it has jarred her nerves; then they have a serious responsibility to do so.

Get them to it, and no excuses from them.

Handal...( just like Pedal but not with my feet)

Ian, it sounds as if the cranks are way too long - If your girlfriend is happy with the bike in all other respects then get Halfords to fit shorter cranks, thereby increasing the ground clearance. Having said that, I don't think crank length varies by more than about 20mm in 5mm increments so even if the bike has the longest ones and you fit the shortest then it looks like the clearance will still be very low. I just measured the clearance between ground and pedal on my dawes tourer and its over 4 1/2"" so theres definately something not right if hers is only 2" !!
I concur with the previous respondent - GET IT BACK TO HALFORDS AND MAKE SURE YOU GET SATISFACTION !! Lets face it, the problem could have resulted in a very nasty accident.
Hope you get sorted
Best wishes
Colin

I bought a bike from halfords a few years ago, a cheap £100 thing. I got it home and the wheels were far from 'true' I took the bike back and pointed it out to the salesguy. He told me that bike wheels are never true, it is impossible to make them so. I looked incredulously at him and wnet to one of their v.expensive bikes (>£700) and said what about on something like this? ands spun the wheel, sure enough that wheel was off true as well. Heseemed to think that this proved his point. That wheels in general are always a bit buckled. I was amazed, took the new bike down the road to a proper bike shop, got the wheels straightened for £8 each and decided never to buy a bike from halfords again, for any price! The back continued to be crap for the whole time I had it. Seat post clamp, would not tighten up properly, brakes were near impossible to set properly, saddle would decide to point at the sky every now and then, all sorts of problems that made cycling a misery. It eventually got stolen and I'm glad! I didn't report it 'cos I figure that the guy who rode off on it had prbably been punished enough by the time he got to the end of the street.

My advice would be to take the bike back to halfords and spend just a tiny bit more at a proper bike shop.

Interesting comments about Halfords
sales policy. Buy it dirt cheap in the Far east
and sell middle range here; don't even think about quality of the gear whether it is bike or equipment.
Just sell it.

They know that is their policy, and they cannot object when some (by no means all) of their dissatisfied customers demand properly built goods.
Good things we have got consumer protection laws isn't it!

Handally

It is illegal to sell a bicycle that does not conform to BS6102/1. Regarding ground clearance, this standard requires that the unladen bicycle is capable of being leant over at an angle of at least 25 degrees before a pedal at it's lowest point can touch the ground, (with the pedal tread parallel to the ground and uppermost where the pedal has only one tread surface).

If this pedal is truly only 50mm from the ground and making a reasonable assumption about the distance from the bicycle centreline to its outward edge, I estimate that this bicycle touches a pedal to the ground at about 16 degrees angle of lean. In which case the retailer is liable to prosecution under the Pedal Cycles (Safety) Regulations 2004.

Perhaps thanks to this regulation, it is much more common for pedals to be rather too high – a manufacturing precaution which has the unfortunate side-effect of leading most untrained cyclists to pedal inefficiently with overbent knees, due to their desire to have the saddle low enough to put a foot on the floor without first getting off it. Heigh-ho.

A friend of mine worked in Halfords. With no training she was still classed as able to assemble and sell bikes. This was one of her reasons for leaving what I've heard is an awful employer.
My advice would be to return it to Halfords as others have said and try to get a refund to take to a proper bike shop. I wouldn't trust halfords too far, especially going by your experience and what's been said about their attitude to true wheels.