Expecting too much from a kids bike?

[rainagain]

I bought a bike for my son back in August last year for his fourth birthday from a retailer with an orange logo that also sells car parts. The box stated it included tools and instructions, when I got it home I found it contained neither, but thought no point complaining about this and I just built it up using my own tools. After a couple of months the back tyre developed a puncture, I looked at the tube and found it was leaking where the circle of rubber that makes up the base of the valve stem was joined to the tube, I can only assume it was not sealed correctly in the factory, but I managed to patch it ok. My son has only recently started to use the brakes, until then he was jumping off and wheeling it down any sort of steep hill. However it is clear that there is a lump on the front wheel rim as can be seen by the paint being rubbed off at the lump. This means when he applies the brakes it tends to stop suddenly as the brake blocks hit the lump.

Then yesterday I had a day off work so I took him to the local park, whilst he was riding it one of the pedals broke apart, this for me was the final straw and I took the bike back to my local branch. The first guy I spoke to just rather grumpily made a note of the faults and said we will have a look at it for you, I asked him if they would be paying to fix the pedals and the wheel and he said he would have to ask the assistant manager to speak to me and he wheeled the bike away. After a considerable wait I managed to catch the assistant manager myself, who I told about all the problems with the bike. At no point did he say sorry about what had happened instead he argued about each problem. He said the puncture was caused by me catching the valve on the hole in the wheel whilst pumping it up, I said that was impossible as the puncture was too far away from the stem for that to had happened. I repeated I was not looking for a new inner tube, etc I was just mentioning this to show how many problems I had had with the bike. He then said the pedal falling apart was caused by the bike being put down roughly. I said surely a kids bike should be designed to take some rough treatment, I know when I was a young kid I did not exactly treat my bikes like they were made of glass and yet I never broke a pedal.

I then moved onto the problem with the wheel, he said they are all like that as the wheel is formed from a section of metal being bent round and welded. I said I thought it was dangerous and could I compare it to the same bike they had on the shop floor. The display bike had a very small dip on the wheel rather than a lump and this did not affect the braking like the large lump did on my son’s front wheel. He then said he would fix the pedals as a gesture of good will and they would try and do something with the front wheel. He thought that the work should be completed by the end of the week.

I left feeling really angry, in my mind I had brought them a bike with numerous faults, I would have expected at the very least one of them to say sorry about this but instead they just argued with me, the assistant manager was particularly arrogant. If when I pick it up the front wheel still has a big lump on the rim what do you think I should do? Should I have just have demanded a new bike?

[richardxjr]

Skim read that but

1. Have you not heard of Halfords issues?

2. How much did it cost?

[BoRED S2upid]

12 month manufacturers guarantee? Swap it for a new one or your money back?

[sjg]

2 is pretty crucial. People seem to think that because kids' bikes are a fraction of the size of an adult one they should be a similar fraction of the price. Most of the components cost similar amounts to make at the same quality so most cheap ones tend to be both very heavy and pretty fragile.

Is there any reason you didn't let Halfords build and check over the bike themselves? Don't mean to critique your bike mechanic skills but a rim that's buckled/dented enough to affect braking would be pretty obvious when you built it, assuming it wasn't caused by rough treatment later?

If you dig out the prices of typical kids bikes friends and I had when we were that age and adjust for inflation, you realise they cost a fair bit back then. If you spent the same they would be considered pretty premium kids bikes now (Islabikes, Specialized Hotrocks, Treks, etc) and those are nicely made and last well. The industry has found ways of cutting costs to hit lower and lower price points - the really cheap end of the adult bike market is just as bad IME.

[Pete102]

Skim read, but for what its worth both my kids have Islabikes, well worth the money and fantastic quality.

[Obiwonkeyblokey]

Islabikes....more expensive but excellent bikes with incredible resale values.

[Mr E]

Obiwonkeyblokey said:

Islabikes....more expensive but excellent bikes with incredible resale values.

Sprog has an Isla in the loft waiting for him. I bought it second hand, and paid 60% of new price. I imagine I'll sell it for not much less than that once he's outgrown it.

[hman]

I bought by eledest one of these - its brilliant.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-MX16FS-Boys-16-M...


V- brakes so easy light and powerful action
Full suspension (adjustable shock on rear - and you can lower the bike by zip tying the front forks up and loosening the rear spring off completely) so they can ride around the woods over tree roots stones etc and the bike deals with it.

Its so tough that I can ride it without a problem and I weigh 89kg!

[rainagain]

Thanks for the replies, the bike only cost £60. I did notice the lump in the wheel when I built it but thought it might just be paint and didn't think it would cause any problems, the assistant manager at the store did confirm that the lump was caused by the manufacture of the wheel and not from damage. The problem is it affects my son sitting on it a lot more with him not weighing very much verses me pushing it along and pulling the brake.

With regards to requesting a new bike can I still do this with it being ~half a year old?

Thanks for the recommendation on a decent bike, I did want to get him a better quality bike second hand, but as it was his first proper bike following his balance bike the OH wanted to buy new.

[Pothole]

I'm tempted to say it serves you right for allowing the OH to dictate on matters she knows nothing about...

[gazza285]

hman said:

I bought by eledest one of these - its brilliant.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-MX16FS-Boys-16-M...


V- brakes so easy light and powerful action
Full suspension (adjustable shock on rear - and you can lower the bike by zip tying the front forks up and loosening the rear spring off completely) so they can ride around the woods over tree roots stones etc and the bike deals with it.

Its so tough that I can ride it without a problem and I weigh 89kg!

Trouble with that is its weight is 11kg, that's a hell of a lump for a young kid to lug about, the equivalent Islabike is just over 6kg, so it's a lot easier to ride and manoeuvre and so a lot more enjoyable to ride.

[richardxjr]

Pothole said:

I'm tempted to say it serves you right for allowing the OH to dictate on matters she knows nothing about...

this if true.

Look, £60. Sixty quid for a whole machine of many parts that you are entrusting your kid's life on (sort of).

That's £50 + vat.

Halfords margins are 'generous' so let's say they bought a container load at, hmm, £30 each, direct from the far eastern manufacturer.

Deduct shipping and import costs, perhaps £5

£25. For about 100 components, of which each will have been sourced, made, marked up by the manufacturer and sold to the assembler to nail it together and earn a bit of profit.

So £20 of actual parts, being generous. The price of a not very good tyre. Less than you could buy a reasonable single wheel to fit this thing for.

You bought cheap.

Edited by richardxjr on Tuesday 6th January 13:19

[Jayyylo]

Without seeing the bike it's a difficult one to call. Obviously the wheel is faulty but if you had let them build the bike or used their 6 week check up service then this would have been spotted and most likely fixed if you raised the issue.

As for the tube, well that's a one off.

The pedal breaking could quite easily have been caused by the bike being dropped onto it. Obviously we haven't seen it so we don't know for sure. If this is the case then it clearly isn't Halfords fault and it's considered misuse and abuse.

As ever; buy cheap, buy twice.

(However, I agree that maybe their customer service skills could be improved in how they dealt with it)

[GaryGlitter]

rainagain said:

With regards to requesting a new bike can I still do this with it being ~half a year old?

So faults are with pedal(s) and a wheel, I'd say no to the new bike but request that the wheel is replaced with one of acceptable quality and provides safe braking.

Or save up and get an Isla/Hotrock etc.

[aka_kerrly]

richardxjr said:

this if true.

Look, £60. Sixty quid for a whole machine of many parts that you are entrusting your kid's life on (sort of).


You bought cheap.

Edited by richardxjr on Tuesday 6th January 13:19

Yes a £60 bike is cheap but the trying to explain to most people that spending £200+ on a bike for a 4 year old like those ISLA bikes isn't going to be easy.

There probably isn't a lot on a £60 bike that can't be fixed for pennies by someone who knows a little about bikes! I wouldn't expect someone in Halfords to have much of a clue or a care given the state of some of the display bikes in those places.

[hman]

gazza285 said:

hman said:

I bought by eledest one of these - its brilliant.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-MX16FS-Boys-16-M...


V- brakes so easy light and powerful action
Full suspension (adjustable shock on rear - and you can lower the bike by zip tying the front forks up and loosening the rear spring off completely) so they can ride around the woods over tree roots stones etc and the bike deals with it.

Its so tough that I can ride it without a problem and I weigh 89kg!

Trouble with that is its weight is 11kg, that's a hell of a lump for a young kid to lug about, the equivalent Islabike is just over 6kg, so it's a lot easier to ride and manoeuvre and so a lot more enjoyable to ride.

Yes its heavier, however the lightweight bikes for kids thing is a red herring, they will learn to cope with the weight and will gain strong balance and leg muscles in the process light weight bikes are for long distance touring not kids who believe they are the next FMX rider! lol.

He was 4 when he started riding it - so if a 4 year old can cope with it.....

Anyway the raleigh is quite low geared so hills really arent a problem. In the summer he cycles 3 miles to school and then 3 miles back on it and then goes to the park to hoon it over the jumps in the woods.

I picked his one up for £25 second hand and it needed a new front wheel, sourced for £10, so total spend £35 for a full suspension bike with v-brakes that can handle a full grown adult riding it

Equivalent Isla bike doesn't have suspension, and from what I have seen its very effective when 16" wheels are dealing with rocks and tree roots.

The Isla cost an eye watering £200

[paulrockliffe]

The Isla bikes are an absolute bargain. Worth every penny.

My nephew was biking 16 miles with his Grandad at age 6 on his Isla bike. At that age it has to be enjoyable, hulking the previous piece of halfords st around wasn't, so there's no way we'd have got him out biking properly.

[donfisher]

hman said:

Yes its heavier, however the lightweight bikes for kids thing is a red herring,

IMHO FS on a kids bikes is an even bigger one. But realistically they look cool and that's a good incentive to get them out on their bikes.

[aka_kerrly]

donfisher said:

hman said:

Yes its heavier, however the lightweight bikes for kids thing is a red herring,

IMHO FS on a kids bikes is an even bigger one. But realistically they look cool and that's a good incentive to get them out on their bikes.

It's cool to have full sus but I prefer the idea of learning to ride properly by picking the fastest/smoothest lines on a hardtail first, then move to FS where it lets you get away with far more mistakes whilst often being faster.

[gazza285]

Most of the kids in our club have Islabikes, and the bikes all get shifted around the club when kids grow out of or grow into them, same with the team kit.

My best advice is to join your local club, most will have a kids section, we have a regular kids training session from Spring to just short of Christmas, there's always at least 45 kids there, from the age of six upwards.