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Halfords have always been notoriously shitty about the training opportunities they provide to their employees. Basically, they thought that their employees would leave them as soon as they were qualified, so restricted their opportunities for training by denying them time off to attend training courses. Obviously a lot of staff did want to leave, largely because of this lack of respect and care from Halfords. A classic Corporate Catch 22.
AFAIK this has started to change recently. There are three levels of bike provision in Halfords; the unbranded bike bit in a car shop, then the bigger BikeHut branded section in a larger store, and at the top there are the new stand-alone (cycle-only) BikeHut stores. I believe that Halfords policy is now to support the staff in BikeHuts in achieving CyTech training (the bike-mech NVQ). This is a good move, and should improve skills and morale.
In my limited experience, Halford staff seem to be knowledgeable in their own areas of interest (often chunky downhill bikes and the like) but very limited outside of that. This is symptomatic of Halfords reliance on staff bringing their own (enthusiasts) knowledge with them, without providing any opportunity for development. Hopefully this will be changing from now on.
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to be fair crank i've found a similar thing in evans, but then again from the staff on the shop floor, not the people assembling the bikes!
Best one yet: went into evans on shaftsbury avenue asking for an armadillo (tyre, obviously), the guy looked at me as if I was asking for the animal, then started looking on his computer for it, while the tires were directly in front of his line of sight.
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ive had friends who have worked at Evans and Halfords. I certainly wouldnt have given jobs to those that Halfords hired, bless their souls. Evans in Kingston on the other hand has always been friendly and informative.
even the one in Victoria, quite small, actually do have knowledge on fixie, which is nice when I ask them my rear wheel need to be tighten a bit since it's a new chain and they immedtially go 'right right, we'll do that' getting what I meant.
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to be fair crank i've found a similar thing in evans, but then again from the staff on the shop floor, not the people assembling the bikes!
Best one yet: went into evans on shaftsbury avenue asking for an armadillo (tyre, obviously), the guy looked at me as if I was asking for the animal, then started looking on his computer for it, while the tires were directly in front of his line of sight.
Maybe he thought, "my first instinct is that this bloke wants an Armadillo tyre, but the fact that it's quite clearly in his line of sight and yet he hasn't looked at it, pointed at it, or grabbed it himself (if it was accessible to customers), makes me wonder if he's talking about something else. I don't want to appear presumptuous, or patronizing, so I'd better look like I'm taking his request seriously by looking in the catalogue, which is also characteristic of my diligent approach to working here."
Probably not though, eh?
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And the fact you were eating a Dime bar.
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Bring on the animal pictures...
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Last time I had to use Halfrauds I was left waiting at the service desk in the bike dept' for 10 mins while the assistants raced each other round the store on the display bikes, when one of them did eventually come over I asked ' Do you sell any 130 BCD chain rings? and the answer? Yeah thats right you guessed it: ' Errr, whats BCD sir? As I was walking out I said ' you're the bike mechanic, you tell me' That was my last visit ever!
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Armadillos are shit. It's all about Hyenas.
Man that takes some balls to take a Hyena for a walk!
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The hyena looks house-broken; so-to-speak. Its stomach looks full, which I'd expect only to see on a hyena after a kill (though I'm no expert). Its gate lacks confidence, and it seems very aware of the long stick, which I think has been used to train it. That said, I would feel more confident taking a wolf for a walk than a hyena. It was once said that the Spotted Hyena had the strongest bite (jaw pressure) in the animal kingdom world. If that were near me, I'd be up a tree, or push my best friend in front of me......just to see how things turned out. Kidding, just kidding.
Oh yes, and some Bike Huts sell the bikes by Chris Boardman. Check the "Road - Pro"; took many front spokes? http://www.boardmanbikes.com/ -
Answer: shop at your LBS instead?
+1
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Halfords have always been notoriously shitty about the training opportunities they provide to their employees. Basically, they thought that their employees would leave them as soon as they were qualified, so restricted their opportunities for training by denying them time off to attend training courses. Obviously a lot of staff did want to leave, largely because of this lack of respect and care from Halfords. A classic Corporate Catch 22.
AFAIK this has started to change recently. There are three levels of bike provision in Halfords; the unbranded bike bit in a car shop, then the bigger BikeHut branded section in a larger store, and at the top there are the new stand-alone (cycle-only) BikeHut stores. I believe that Halfords policy is now to support the staff in BikeHuts in achieving CyTech training (the bike-mech NVQ). This is a good move, and should improve skills and morale.
In my limited experience, Halford staff seem to be knowledgeable in their own areas of interest (often chunky downhill bikes and the like) but very limited outside of that. This is symptomatic of Halfords reliance on staff bringing their own (enthusiasts) knowledge with them, without providing any opportunity for development. Hopefully this will be changing from now on.
this is semi-related, and stops me from making a new thread... I was in a Halfords in newcastle 20 mins ago buying innertubes, asked the guy behind the counter as i was buying them if he knew of somewhere I could bulk buy inner tubes to save money/time/effort. His reply was "well not really because if you bulk buy them they will be bad quality and last about 2 hours, good innertubes like michelin and continental are sort of made to order, because they dont make very many of them."
...eh? made to order inner tubes? what are halfords feeding their staff? So, back to my original point, anyone know where i can bulk buy them?
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more here
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this is semi-related, and stops me from making a new thread... I was in a Halfords in newcastle 20 mins ago buying innertubes, asked the guy behind the counter as i was buying them if he knew of somewhere I could bulk buy inner tubes to save money/time/effort. His reply was "well not really because if you bulk buy them they will be bad quality and last about 2 hours, good innertubes like michelin and continental are sort of made to order, because they dont make very many of them."
...eh? made to order inner tubes? what are halfords feeding their staff? So, back to my original point, anyone know where i can bulk buy them?
@ ribble:
[](http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/productdetail.asp?productcatalogue=CONTTUBE450) **[Continental Race 28 Inner Tube (25 Rate)](http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/productdetail.asp?productcatalogue=CONTTUBE450)** Save money by buying inner tubes at our quantity rates. RRP:£98.75 Save 62% RIBBLE PRICE £37.75 **Save 10% off baskets over £50 and pay** [](http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/productdetail.asp?productcatalogue=CONTTUBE450)Only £33.98 Save 66%They also do bundles of 10
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Difference between Evans and Halford (Bikehut)
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@edscoble
Difference between Evans and Halfords
A while ago in 2006 I have a Kona Smoke, a black 2005 model, i loved that thing as it's my first hybrid bike and it's steel to boot, changed tyres from fattie to slick and it's a nice sweet handling bike, every compound is sound, gear changing, braking, the mudguard even is perfectly in sync, I got this at a discount from Evans.
it got stolen, right outside my house, someone managed to cut my £50 lock and actually took it with them, after a while, I got an insurance replacement but the bike's in Halford (well, Bike-hut, but it'll forever be Halford to me), exact same one, just the next year model, and after recieving it, it's not exactly smooth, gear is quite clackly, the brake shudder (you know, like shook back and forth when you squeeze gently), mudguard rattle a fuck-load that in the end i removed it, and the rear wheel isn't even straight! it's a fucking singlator and it's not straight!.
i suspect that it's less to do with the bike, more to do with the quality and care of putting the bike together, Evans did their well, but Bikehut just despite some of them looking rather.. knowledgable, they're just shabby, thank fuck I didn't buy the Bianchi Pista off Bikehut.
is this what you usually get? or is it just me?