“Criminal-level abdication of duty” – Halfords slammed over non-tightened stem bolts

I agree. Once ayear seems about right. But no Halfords where I live.

Not saying you're wrong per se, but you seeing about 1 person a year with fork on backwards is of course just as anecdotal.

Also, this might interest you 😉
https://www.instagram.com/yourforkisonbackwards/

Just to point out, sometimes they are meant to be like that:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLTf1_SN8MQ

I know, but I'm pretty sure the folks buying their bikes at Halfords are not into motor paced track racing.

I see about one person/month riding along with the forks on backwards. Usually this is a kid at the local BMX track and the parents don't know better. I've sorted out quite a few bikes, including one belonging to the child of a friend. In that case, the bike had been assembled by her brother in law admittedly, not Halfords.

You do see it occassionally.

I've done volunteer bike fixing at a local repair cafe since 2019. They had one in about 2 months ago, which was the first in that time, and sorry to say I missed it. A decent quality mountain bike that someone had bought and couldn't get on with so had passed to a friend. Friend had had it a while and was having problems too. Bought off the internet and assembled at home. Which I think is probably responsible for the bulk you see, because that's how they're packaged, rather than Halfords or anywhere. With all the legislative safeguards around bikes sales that's one that should be covered.

Most of what we see is humdrum, but occassionally we see something more alarming - snapped axels, a rear derailleur that fell off when we took the back wheel out, a rear hub with nothing to keep the bearings in.

Most common dangerous fault is brakes - people rarely ask us to look at those. They'll say their gears aren't working, the tyres are flat or whatever else. The fact their brakes do nothing seems not to concern them. 

Bought a couple of complete bike from PX and no probs. When I decided later to slam the stems found plenty of grease on nuts, bolts, brgs etc. So I suppose, like everything else it's a bit of a lottery, but my experience is good.

don simon fbpe wrote:

It takes a brave man to claim to never to have made a mistake.

It takes a brave man to ride a Halfords assembled bike without checking it first

It takes a stupid man to trust anyone's ability in this day and age.

don simon fbpe wrote:

It takes a stupid man to trust anyone's ability in this day and age.

Trust, but verify

That's not really trust...

What's your point here? I'm the mechanic quoted, and I can 100% state I have never let a bike leave my workshop with glaring, life-threatening faults like this present. At worst, for complicated faults of indiscernible origin like infrequent shifting issues, noises or issues like speed wobbles, I might advise a customer that I *believe* the fault to be rectified, but get back to me immediately if you note a recurrence. There's a mile-wide gulf of negligence and danger between an occasional creak in a carbon frame under load, and *not tightening the stem bolts at all*. 

The idea of the leaflet they fill-in as they build the bike is to make sure they do not make a mistake. However if they just fill it in beforehand to save some time, then the "everyone makes a mistake sometimes" excuse does not fit.

And your evidence for this is? Most bike shops I visit have separate workshops, Halfords have the mechanics working the tills, constant interruptions, perhaps the problem lies further up the management chain with those that organise the work and cut costs. That is if, indeed, this is as widespread and anecdotes make out.

I know at my local Halfords, where my Boardman was put together properly at least even if it came with an extra bit of plastic attached, but I thoroughly checked it myself before riding, and yet my mate had the infamous back to front forks and a loose stem too.

the setup there was they had only the one senior bike mechanic, cytech qualified, who worked most of the time in the workshop area fitting up bikes, occasionally did the tills if had nothing else to do or covered for breaks, and you could  have decent technical conversations about cycling bits with.

but they didnt work there full time, so occasionally the rest of the staff most of whom were much more junior in terms of experience, knowledge etc were left to fend for themselves.

and Ive always felt Halfords well documented bike construction problems, crop up because of that setup

As someone who's worked cycle tech upstairs in a halfords shop this rings very true.

Unless it's a big city branch you've more than likely got only one person up there for up to 8 hours a day (my shop constantly had upwards of 4 bodies downstairs and just me upstairs) handling everything from ringing stuff through tills, taking orders, facing up, putting stock out from deliveries, pre-build and service handovers, on demand stuff (tubes, tyres, chains, etc.), being pulled down for wipers and bulbs to slightly more incessant distractions (like taking displays out of loops for customers to try out, etc) As well as cleaning up after the stroppy weekend boys' messes.

Somehow this one person also has to fit in a multitude of new builds & repairs and the accompanying paperwork that's probably already well overdue in between all the aforementioned duties that are suited towards at least 2 or 3 bodies as opposed to just one dude.

I guess my point here is that no one goes in to a build with intent to be this blatantly negligent, whether through being interrupted constantly to the point of it affecting them being able to even remember where they were on it or just simply being rushed off their feet there is likely a fair explanation for this shit happening at pre-build.

ON THE OTHER HAND, whoever dimly handed this over to the customer with those bolts loose and didn't catch this fault has shown an active negligence to allow that to happen.

The customer didn't have a car so these bars would have HAD TO be turned for them in store, and they somehow didn't think "hey, these handlebars are just spinning round without me loosening anything! maybe I should check that real quick so they dont hurt themselves." yeah, that right there is criminal negligence. There is literally another stem torque check on the handover sheet for it.

There's a world of difference between making a mistake and fraudulently completeing a checklist to state you have done something when you simply haven't.

That's hell of an accusation.

don simon fbpe wrote:

That's hell of an accusation.

No, its a statement of fact, he hasn't accused anyone of anything.

Fraud? You have no evidence of intent. I'll let you crack on and I've got a wee tool here that help sharpen your pitchfork, if you want it.

It's what the article says happened.

That there was intent?

My old man was an aircraft fitter in the Fleet Air Arm. More than once pilots insisted that he accompany them on test flights after him having worked on a plane.

pockstone wrote:

My old man was an aircraft fitter in the Fleet Air Arm. More than once pilots insisted that he accompany them on test flights after him having worked on a plane.

A group of Engineering professors were invited to fly in a plane. Right after they were comfortably seated, they were informed the plane was built by their students.

All but one got off their seats and headed frantically to the exits in maniacal panic.

The one lone professor that stayed put, calmly in his seat, was asked: "Why did you stay put?"

"I have plenty of confidence in my students. Knowing them, I for a fact can assure you this plane will never even start."