As previously blogged I recently purchased and new Boardman hybrid – mainly for commuting use but also for longer weekend rides that I’ve recently started doing.

Still a great bike, but a few build issues are creeping in.  Many people complain about Halfords ability to assemble bikes, but as I’ve said before, I’ve had issues with several bike shops and no longer trust any of them!  A bike is pretty easy and rewarding to maintain so I prefer to look after them myself.

I guess the only bike shop I have found to be truly excellent is the Bicycle Doctor Ltd. in Manchester.  The whole buying process (they let me take the bike out) and assembly of the Trek they sold me back in about 1999 was just great.  Unfortunately it’s a bit far to travel to now.

I would expect to have to adjust some things after a month or so as I appreciate that things wear in and new metal will stretch (causing screws to loosen etc.) but some of these niggles are just down to bad assembly.

Rear rack came loose

Halfords fitted one of there rear racks at my request.  On the way in last week it came off at the wheels.  I walked back up the road and found the bolts for one side and refitted.  Strangely they had used an inch or so extender on each side, presumably to clear the disc brake fitting.  This was simply never going to last.

spacer used for rack – with my work bag loaded with laptop – huge amount of leverage.

I replaced with a couple of smaller washers making it much more sturdy.

Refixed rack this time with two washers – much tighter to frame – much less leverage.

Again, the Bicycle doctor fitted rack required no maintenance in over 11 years.

Rear mudguard not attached.

This was simply not attached at the bottom bracket.  I put a tie strap on – which has since broken.

Front mudguard not attached.

The screws on the picture above were simply not in the plastic as they are now.  I simply had to squeeze with some pliers and screw them in.

Front brakes not feeling good enough.

The front brakes just don’t feel right.  I checked the pads – there is plenty of “meat” on them (as I would expect for new).  I also purchased a bleed kit from eBay and bled them.  This did make them less spongy but they still don’t feel good enough to me.  May be because of road grit getting in between the pads and the disks .

Rack fixing screw fixing stripped

When I refitted the rack this fixing appears to have stripped.  I didn’t tighten it particularly.  This is the problem I’m most worried about.  I’ll probably try a longer screw – hopefully ther’s some thread left further in.