Halfords Boardman Comp - both cranks snapped !!

[tabs1980]

Sorry new on here so if I break any rules I sorry. I bought my Boardman comp in February of 2012 and had the usual thing go wrong with it all fixed by the LBS no problem I accept things wear and it saves me loads anyway.

Roughly 6 weeks ago I was doing my usual London commute home through Camden town when as I was up on the peddles accelerating away from the traffic behind me coming away from the lights when I suddenly found myself in the gutter. I thought my chain had snapped but according to a witness it was my peddle that had snapped off as he was holding this in his hand. A bit dazed and confused i walked the rest of the way home with some nice war wounds bleeding out.
Later that evening when my wife returned home and asked what had happened i went to show her my pride and joy only to realize myself that it was the crank arm that had completely broken off halfway down the arm??

After about a week of arguing with Halfords that this must of been a factory fault because a) I'm only 13 and half stone and b) Not the worlds strongest man they accepted that I could bring it in to be inspected so 2 weeks ago i brought my bike down to the Halfords on Kilburn high road for the new crank arm to be fitted and a week later I went and collected the bike, I rode it to the station 5 minutes down the road and then 5 minutes from gospel oak home and it seemed ok or so I believed.

This morning having left my road bike at work last night I decided to use the hybrid to get to work "big mistake" half way to work I found myself in the gutter again slightly less battered than the first time but road rashed neither the less the reason? the peddle on the opposite side to the newly fitted crank arm had just fallen off.

Halfords has got to be the worst company for safety of all time. Now i am wondering can I sue Halfords for twice putting my life in danger? as I don't want there repairs I have no confidence in them at all.

p.s the engineer at Halfords Kilburn even said to me it was the second time he'd seen this on the same bike in 6 months?? Any advice please?

[Brucey]

if you want to get anywhere with this you need to identify the exact model of crank and what markings are on it, and see if there are others out there who have had similar failures. You may need to identify which other models of bike are fitted with the same crank.

If there are many other failures in similar parts then both Halfords and Boardman (now owned by Halfords BTW) should

a) know about it and
b) have issued a recall

To prove that Halfords are negligent you would have to be able to unequivocally demonstrate that Halfords/Boardman knew about a high incidence of such failures and that they did nothing about it. This could be difficult.

cheers

[tabs1980]

Thank you

[tabs1980]

To be honest all I want is a new model of my bike as my bike was in perfect order before both crashes and all I want is to start from scratch and let my LBS deal with everything.

[Spinners]

I'd love to know what crank! In 20 years of being in a cycling club (c. 100 members) I've only known of one occurrence of this.

[TrevA]

I've had Ofmega and Stronglight cranks break. The Ofmegas both snapped at the pedal end, the Stronglight at the axle end,

I think the Ofmegas were a fault in the manufacturing process - allowing air bubbles to form in the alloy and creating a weak spot. I've never bought another set of Ofmega cranks. I buy Campag or Shimano now, but have recently bought another Stronglight which seems to be holding up well. Also worth inspecting your cranks occasionally to look for cracks.

[drossall]

I've broken two Zeus and at least one Stronglight crank like this. When the first Zeus went, I was in a team time trial. Luckily I was at the back, but we all got rather cold by the time we limped back to the start. After that, I knew the signs and spotted the failing cranks before being dumped.

I'm not familar with the Boardman, but bike "manufacturers" generally just assemble parts made by others. As Brucey said, it would be useful to know what make the crank is. However, any liability would still be with whoever supplied the bike to you.

[JohnW]

I've had three Stronglight 49D cranks break. Once whilst just pedalling up a hill and on the other occasion both cranks broke when I skidded and came off the bike...........how do you do that - break both cranks on one incident? That was 30+ years ago. I've never (so far, anyway) broken another crank. I have a more recent Stronglight crankset which has given no trouble - 15ish years old now and worn out several chainrings. I can't remember which model - I think it's a Stronglight 80.

My personal view is that if a crank has simply broken in use, then it was defective to start with. It's also my personal view that they've got your money now, so you're stuck with it. I hope they prove me wrong - for your sake.

There have been several threads on this Forum about Halfords.............I'd suggest that you try to find them. Personally I wouldn't dream if buying a bike from Halfords.

I hope that you get it sorted and that you find a decent, reliable local bike shop.

[tabs1980]

Thanks for your help guys.

[tabs1980]

What about the shambolic repair job? Surely if a mechanic fixes you wheel and doesn't fix the bolts properly and you crash because your wheel comes off they are at fault right? or wrong?

[beardy]

It depends.

Did you go in and say "replace my left crank" in which case they did that one thing and quite safely.

Or was it a case of "the crank has broken on this bike that you have sold me" in which case they should have thought to check the other crank. They probably thought of it as something that you had done to the bike rather than something intrinsically wrong with the bike.

[Brucey]

.... I bought my Boardman comp in February of 2012 ....... Roughly 6 weeks ago I was doing my usual London commute home through Camden town when as I was up on the peddles accelerating away from the traffic behind me coming away from the lights when I suddenly found myself in the gutter. I thought my chain had snapped but according to a witness it was my peddle that had snapped off as he was holding this in his hand....... that it was the crank arm that had completely broken off halfway down the arm?? After about a week of arguing with Halfords ......... p.s the engineer at Halfords Kilburn even said to me it was the second time he'd seen this on the same bike in 6 months??....

In all fairness your bike is over two and a half years old now. I don't know what the warranty (against manufacturing defects) is on that machine but I doubt it is that long. Yours may have been fitted with defective cranks, who knows.... but presumably one reason you bought that bike was that it was lightweight rather than heavy, and a good price.

I think it is fair to assume that if they bike were built so that none at all would be likely to break in two and a half years of hard use it would be very likely to be both heavier and more expensive. I do think that if they had done their job properly they would have checked the bike over and perhaps the second crank would not have broken; it is very unlikely that there was no crack in the crank beforehand.

If you have photos of the fracture faces then you may be able to see if the crack had been growing for a while or not.

In the long run I would advise you to carefully inspect your own bike very carefully on a regular basis; you are probably the only person who has a really large vested interest in the outcome. Nothing lasts forever! Parts that can crack include the frame, the cranks, the handlebars. If these break you will probably come off and it could be pretty nasty. But if the brakes fail or the fork/steerer breaks it could easily kill you.

ride safe

cheers

[pga]

I broke a Stronglight 49D next to the pedal about a year ago. Came off and a week later the left knee and ankle swelled up. The swelling has mainly gone down but the pain remains making walking especially difficult. On the bike the longer the ride the better.

I am concerned at the other breakages on Stronglight cranks reported above as I use them on my classic bikes. Perhaps we need to be more careful in using cranks well beyond their date of manufacture as failure can lead to serious injury. Any advice from experts in the field?

[JohnW]

I broke a Stronglight 49D next to the pedal about a year ago. Came off and a week later the left knee and ankle swelled up. The swelling has mainly gone down but the pain remains making walking especially difficult. On the bike the longer the ride the better.

I am concerned at the other breakages on Stronglight cranks reported above as I use them on my classic bikes. Perhaps we need to be more careful in using cranks well beyond their date of manufacture as failure can lead to serious injury. Any advice from experts in the field?

My 49Ds broke at the central depression - where the logo is stamped in. A friend has had one break across the pedal threads. This and mine (reported above) were all 25 - 35ish years ago - I wrote 49Ds off my radar at that time - I didn't know they were still made.

I've used Campag and Dura-Ace since then, concluding that it was worth spending the extra money for. I don't know what I'll buy for the future - I bought some Campag Centaur cranksets from GB Cycles a few years ago, when they were selling the square taper cranks off at wonderful prices; a triple chainset complete with rings was cheaper than two spare rings. They were a good buy at a good price.

I believe that Shimano cranks are also reliable, but new ones now all seem to be hollow-BB types, which seem to generate a lot more problems than the square taper BBs ever did. I think that my next crankset - which isn't too far away because I've got to the age when a smaller chainring is needed - will be Spa.

[Gearoidmuar]

I've broken a BB axle twice but never a crank, but a friend broke a good quality Shimano one years ago, half ways down, right side. He sent it to Japan out of curiosity to see what they'd say. He heard nothing back.