Deliberate Obstruction by Halfords!

I doubt if any on here have bought this bike, and it's been unusable up here recently because of the rain and unobtainable mudguards. However, I have obtained some now from Tredz- 20" Bluemels which are really good and stable. Fitting hints available on request. Still no decent wider tyres available, though.

Good bike; shame about the tyres and the seller! It was like early autumn in North Lancashire today. This is looking down the Trough of Bowland- at about 3 1/4 hours it was 15-20 minutes slower than a full size bike. I kept checking the tape repair of the rear tyre, and it's holding. That's the new 11-36 silver finish cassette - a worthwhile improvement even though it's only 2 more teeth!

It has now reached its sad and disappointing conclusion: Halfords wouldn't respond so I had to go ahead with the money claim, which cost £35 initially. Halfords then offered 10% discount on the bike, claiming they couldn't get hold of any 37-451 tyres, or any other -451 tyres. That would have amounted to £45 only! I refused, pointing out that in addition to the £35 court fee, it would cost about £50 for me to obtain two tyres (remember they advised me to change both when they gave me 2 replacements of the wrong size). I offered to end the complaint for £100. Halfords then offered £90, describing it as a 20% discount. I could see me losing in court if I refused, so I gave in.
There is one small postscript: I had previously offered to take the pair of new incorrectly sized tyres to Halfords Lancaster if they assigned an order number, because I go into Lancaster anyway. They never answered this, and as they went to the trouble of 'beating me down by £10’, I’m just going to be bloody minded and keep them. They're no use to me but at least Halfords won't get them!

Worse to even worse.

6 days after the deadline for me to initiate the legal court money claim, I received a phone call from Blackpool. I did not answer this, as there's no record of what was said. I then received an email from 'Resolution Expert' saying he was sure the problem could be solved and asking me to phone the dreaded Halfords number which is routed via South Africa where they have no idea what you're talking about. I gave them the simple means to resolve the dispute 2 weeks ago- send two correct-size tyres (I gave them the ERTO specification, along with that of the incorrect tyres they gave me last time) to my address and I will take the incorrect ones to Halfords Lancaster next time I'm passing. I'm not interested in traipsing to Blackpool for a third time! They chose to ignore that request, so it has had to go to the courts- could take a long time, I know!

Still no reply from Halfords, so it may well be that I will be forced to reject the bike for the sake of Halfords refusing to provide 2 proper tyres. There was no point in me accepting their previous offer to provide a new bike, because that could well include duff tyres as well. I'm certainly not letting them force me into buying proper tyres myself!

Bad to Worse!

Halfords cocked it up again. I appeared at the shop to find the tyres (they said I should replace both) were labelled 20 x 1 3/8 and ERTO 37-438 rather than the 37-451 I was expecting. They said it was the correct size, and the tyres on the bike have no ERTO size printed on them- only 20 x 1 3/8 and 'designed in the USA', and the bike specifications on the website merely state '20" '. As soon as I got home I could see the Schwalbe replacements were wrong- obviously too small. And so they proved! Halfords clearly doesn't know the size of these wheels, but I now know that the correct BSD is definitely 451 and not 438 or 406. The unedifying saga continues!

Well, I took it out this afternoon for a good hilly ride to see if there were any problems in addition to the duff tyre that I should mention when I visit Blackpool Halfords tomorrow. There weren't, but I discovered that the brakes were even better than expected now that the pads are 'bedded in'. The braking is astounding- a real 1 finger job, or you'll lock the rear wheel. I listened out on the quiet back roads of North Lancashire for disc brake noise (a la Chris Froome) but there wasn't any. The tyre 'repair' is holding up well, but I can detect it coming downhill fast on a smooth road.

I think I am now at The Beginning of the End. I received several apparently disconnected emails telling me that my new bike was ready, although I had already stated it was the tyre only I was claiming. Eventually, I received one on Monday afternoon stating that my bike was 'ready to collect' (even though it was actually at my house) :

Cycle Repair     Qty: 1

ExOrder0000122 2WS External Part S/O     Qty: 1

Schwalbe 20x1.1/8-1.3/8 PRESTA (SV7A)     Qty: 2

I then received various phone calls which I didn't answer, resulting in voicemails asking me to call Halfords Blackpool. I waited a day and tried to call- you can't phone direct and have to go through what sounds like South Africa. A couple of calls failed where I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. Eventually South Africa allowed me to speak to a Scouser in Blackpool, and we agreed I would collect what I was asking for: a single tyre without inner tube . I think they should have posted it to me but it wasn't worth the effort of trying to insist on that because I have to go into Blackpool on Thursday anyway. Here's hoping it really is a tyre which fits: a genuine 20 x 1 3/8 or 37-451 and not something like a 20 x 1.5 or 35 (or 40) - 406. That would be annoying as I tried to sort it out on the phone, with no comprehension or success

Now that Halfords has conceded the point by offering a complete replacement bike, I can't see them publically refusing to provide a tyre. The main fault lies in importing a lot of bikes without a single replacement tyre. I don't need a new tyre for now- my repair using x-ray film and Gorilla tape is working well and is undetectable while riding