Dear Anonymous Coward,
Thanks for your thoughtful, well argued, and compelling comment on my previous post on the failures of my Halfords bike (Apollo XC26s).
Having raised the bar for debate to a level unseen since Cicero, I thought better of responding on the thread itself, and decided I'd dedicate a whole post to my rebuttal and the poor quality of my Halfords bike.*
Much as your hastily tagged on apology was obviously heartfelt, please don't take this personally.
Now, as tempted as I am to call you are a mud-dwelling spineless cretin with a predilection for comsuming excrement from the rotten bowels of your employer, I'm not going to.
Because that wouldn't be nice, and I don't have any evidence, despite the strong hints from your four word missive.
The key word there was evidence.
Now go grab one of your special crayons, and write it down (take you time with the letters though so you keep it neat) because you'll need that later.
Lets get started then.
Firstly, normally I would put poor spelling down to typos etc. (a condition I suffer from myself) and not make light of it, however, in your case I'm willing to say it's from ignorance. After a considerable amount of experimenting with my keyboard I am still unable to recreate the spelling of overeaxaggerated you used.
Secondly, 'biased' usually refers to a judgement influenced by a prejudiced perspective (still with me knubnuts?) so I can only assume you're suggesting the experience of riding a bike could cloud the judgement of it's performance - and I can see why you would.
I purposefully waited three months before reviewing it so I could reflect more honestly on its performance, having 'lived with it' for a while. This, if anything, was favorable to Halfords as it meant the horrific experience of buying the bike in the first place would be less likely to cloud my judgement.
Sadly, this also gave enough time for the weaknesses of the bike to show through. My experience has found it to be made of cheap crap, and all the bits listed before (except the front disk brake which I said I rated) have failed on at least one occasion - all while riding through traffic which is pretty scary.
As I'm typing this I've still got grease on my hands (despite two showers since) from having to reattach the rear derailleur last night as the fixings it came with are disintegrating.
If I were biased I'd actually be working for another bike company or be pushing for something in return. Neither of these are the case and, as I said, I've already turned down the offer of money from Halfords customer services (Google 'integrity' for more info).
I know working for Halfords must be disheartening - all the returns and complaints - but if you're going to offer bikes as good value, they shouldn't need money thrown at them repeatedly to keep them on the road.
But then, I suppose that would mean you weren't making any money on repairs...
If people don't believe me, fine. They're free to have a look in bike forums for other independent reviews.
I'm sure there are even some people who bought this bike and have got along with it nicely. Good for them.
I also know Halfords do actually sell some good bikes - Boardmans, some Carrera's and even Kona's. If anything that makes it worse as it raises the expectation on the lower models - expectations I don't think they can meet.
I don't profess to be an expert at anything - which I think helps - so I probably am wrong on occasion.
But if you're just going to play hit and run in the comments section as part of a PR strategy for Halfords, at least have the decency to add some evidence to your argument or I'm going to have to waste even more time writing bad things about you...
* Thus help pushing criticism further up search rankings - good work fellah!
O/T Still not happy Halfords
Running, and consequently blogging, has been light because of the slow build up for my recovery. To make up for the lack of mileage on two legs, I've been working on exercising on two-wheels.
An earlier post highlighted the joys I was having with my bike, and now, after a bit more time living with the bike, and a lot more hassle, I decided I could write a fair review for the bike on Halfords review section.
For some reason it isn't up yet...
Anyway, not wanting the few minues I spent penning this missive to be in vain, I thought I'd share it here. I know it's not running related, but it's my blog and I make the rules!
* They're now trying to charge £279.99 - at least Dick Turpin wore a mask!
An earlier post highlighted the joys I was having with my bike, and now, after a bit more time living with the bike, and a lot more hassle, I decided I could write a fair review for the bike on Halfords review section.
For some reason it isn't up yet...
Anyway, not wanting the few minues I spent penning this missive to be in vain, I thought I'd share it here. I know it's not running related, but it's my blog and I make the rules!
If the old adage 'you get what you pay for' is true, then a steaming bag of manure must cost in the region of £179.99 (the price I paid for this in June*).My previous post helped elicit a response from customer services - they even offered me £20 voucher, which I declined to take on the grounds that:
Ignoring the fact the guys in the shop failed to correctly assemble the thing (who needs handlebars that actually turn the front wheel anyway, right?) and the ensuing near death experiences on the first ride of it, I thought I'd give it a bit of time before I reviewed this, so I wasn't too tainted by the initial shocking experience of buying the thing.
A few months later, I'm now considerably more experienced in keeping a bike on the road (and only the road as I'm terrified of what will happen if I actually tried to go off-road on this).
Lets start from the bottom, as it were.
The alloy used for the wheels seems to be the same substance used to make Wham Bars - seemingly hard, but easily bent. I now spend about an hour after every other ride truing wheels.
My rear cassette has less teeth left than my nan as, to quote the guy in the independent bike shop, "that's some of the cheapest metal I've ever seen". This makes quick acceleration but a dream unless you enjoy avoiding cars when setting off at traffic lights accompanied by the soundtrack of a grinding chain getting no traction.
This also adds a nice element of Russian roulette as you've never quite sure how far from home you'll be when the chain snaps - five miles is my average walk.
The guard on the chainset disintegrated when the chain jumped off going over a grate (and not a big one) at all of 10mph. The resulting debris made for further traffic fun as it jammed in the cogs making rotation impossible - just what you want when crossing a busy roundabout.
Now Shimano don't really make anything that's bad, and the Tourney gears are acceptable, but the guys in the shop decided I wouldn't need the full 21 when they set it up. Thankfully, I managed to get them set up myself thanks to the helpful instructions of the guys at Bikemagic.
The 50mm front shocks are about as much use over slight bumps as a potato - I hadn't expect much from such a small amount of travel, but it failed to meet even my low expectations.
The gripshifts started out doing fine - once you get the gears set up right - but the cheap materials again shine through as after only a dozen or so rides the rubber was peeling away from the plastic.
The front disk brake is the best thing on this bike - only a little bit of tweaking to the levers needed and you've got more than adequate stopping ability - if only you could build up enough speed to really test them.
In summary, if you're looking for a reasonably priced, reliable, no-nonsense hardtail, look elsewhere.
If you like being ripped off, want to walk more than you expected, don't enjoy the company of your family and want to learn how to keep a bike on the road this is the one for you!
- It could affect my impartiality;
- It would mean I'd have to go back into a Halfords store to spend it; and
- I'd have to buy something from Halfords.
* They're now trying to charge £279.99 - at least Dick Turpin wore a mask!
ITB recovery
Earlier this year, ITB syndrome - one of the most common injuries for marathon runners - meant I had to pull out of the London Marathon only 12 days before the race.
After hundreds of miles of training, over several months, this was, to put it mildly, a bit of a disappointment.
Thankfully, I was able to get physio on the NHS and was enlisted onto special 'knee classes' at my local hospital, so am now slowly - ever so slowly - on the way back.
Following requests from a few people (notably @PatrickAvis) I've eventually got round to putting together a post on my ITB recovery routine.
For those that don't know, ITB (illitobial band) syndrome is a problem that affects a fair few high-mileage runners.
The illitobial band is a bit of tissue running down your thigh that apparently has the tensile strength of steel! How cool is that?!
Unfortunately, long distance runners have a habit of doing it a mischief.
When the knee bends the band is pulled back over the bony bit of your thigh bone that's next to the knee. There's a fluid filled sac (*cough* *cough*) that's meant to prevent friction, but repeated flexing can cause it, the band or sometimes even the bone to get damaged.
Annoyingly, you can't tell you're doing it at first as the band isn't like a muscle and doesn't have nerves to let you know it aint happy.
So, by the time you start to notice a pain on the outside of the knee when running, you've already done the damage. At first the pain will subside soon after the run, but rears it's head again the next time you're out. If, like me, you ignore it, the pain comes on sooner, and doesn't go away when you're doing 'normal' things like walking, or going up some stairs.
The outside of the knee can also feel quite sore too when you prod it. Some might say 'don't prod it then', but that's like telling me not to press the big red button under the sign saying 'do not press'.
It would be against nature.
It sounds nice and straightforward as injuries go, but if, like me, you ignore it and hope it goes away, you're gonna really screw yourself over.
Only once the pain has been reduced to less than excruciating (lots of rest and ice!), can you start trying to fix it.
For me, that meant six weeks of physio on the knee to strengthen it overall, combined with daily ITB specific stretches.
I've put instructions for the basic ones below as best I can, but it's a bit weird to describe really. Unlike say, a hamstring stretch, you can't really tell you're doing anything as there aren't any nerves in it, so I found myself actually feeling with my hand to check the band was tight ie stretching.
The main one involves lying on your good side, with that knee slightly bent, on the edge of a bed/sofa/table, with your back facing out over the edge. You then slowly lower the bad leg down behind the other, using gravity to stretch the ITB. Hold for 12 seconds and slowly bring the leg back up.
I started by doing this five times, then built up to 12.
As cycling to and from work doesn't always necessarily give you access to a bed to do this one on (and it turns out my desk it more slippery than it looks) I got my physio to give me a few others that could be done standing up.
With both knees straight, bring the bad leg behind the good one and as close to the unaffected side as possible,. Then bend down (ooh err missus!) as far as possible towards your good side.
Slight variation on this one is bringing the bad leg in front of the other, then bending down gently to touch the toes (or ankle if you're an unsupple as me!) of the bad leg.
Another one involves standing with the good leg slightly bent, and stretching the bad leg behind this one, as far out to the side as you can.
I built up to doing these standing ones twice a day, 8 times each and so far, it seems to be doing the trick.
Saying that, my ITB was caused by my running form putting too much pressure on the wrong parts of my knee (turns out I've been running/walking wrong for years!) so I've also been doing a lot of general knee strengthening too. Added to that, at least 22 miles of cycling a day and the strength is getting there.
But, I've still got to be very very careful about running. Building up mileages slowly (irritatingly slowly!) is the best way to avoid repetition of the injury, so I'm still yet to get above five miles!
Hopefully the cautious preparation will mean I'll make it to the start line this time around, but in the meantime it's trying to hold myself back and hoping the miles on the bike are helping with the overall endurance.
After hundreds of miles of training, over several months, this was, to put it mildly, a bit of a disappointment.
Thankfully, I was able to get physio on the NHS and was enlisted onto special 'knee classes' at my local hospital, so am now slowly - ever so slowly - on the way back.
Following requests from a few people (notably @PatrickAvis) I've eventually got round to putting together a post on my ITB recovery routine.
For those that don't know, ITB (illitobial band) syndrome is a problem that affects a fair few high-mileage runners.
The illitobial band is a bit of tissue running down your thigh that apparently has the tensile strength of steel! How cool is that?!
Unfortunately, long distance runners have a habit of doing it a mischief.
When the knee bends the band is pulled back over the bony bit of your thigh bone that's next to the knee. There's a fluid filled sac (*cough* *cough*) that's meant to prevent friction, but repeated flexing can cause it, the band or sometimes even the bone to get damaged.
Annoyingly, you can't tell you're doing it at first as the band isn't like a muscle and doesn't have nerves to let you know it aint happy.
So, by the time you start to notice a pain on the outside of the knee when running, you've already done the damage. At first the pain will subside soon after the run, but rears it's head again the next time you're out. If, like me, you ignore it, the pain comes on sooner, and doesn't go away when you're doing 'normal' things like walking, or going up some stairs.
The outside of the knee can also feel quite sore too when you prod it. Some might say 'don't prod it then', but that's like telling me not to press the big red button under the sign saying 'do not press'.
It would be against nature.
It sounds nice and straightforward as injuries go, but if, like me, you ignore it and hope it goes away, you're gonna really screw yourself over.
Only once the pain has been reduced to less than excruciating (lots of rest and ice!), can you start trying to fix it.
For me, that meant six weeks of physio on the knee to strengthen it overall, combined with daily ITB specific stretches.
I've put instructions for the basic ones below as best I can, but it's a bit weird to describe really. Unlike say, a hamstring stretch, you can't really tell you're doing anything as there aren't any nerves in it, so I found myself actually feeling with my hand to check the band was tight ie stretching.
The main one involves lying on your good side, with that knee slightly bent, on the edge of a bed/sofa/table, with your back facing out over the edge. You then slowly lower the bad leg down behind the other, using gravity to stretch the ITB. Hold for 12 seconds and slowly bring the leg back up.
I started by doing this five times, then built up to 12.
As cycling to and from work doesn't always necessarily give you access to a bed to do this one on (and it turns out my desk it more slippery than it looks) I got my physio to give me a few others that could be done standing up.
With both knees straight, bring the bad leg behind the good one and as close to the unaffected side as possible,. Then bend down (ooh err missus!) as far as possible towards your good side.
Slight variation on this one is bringing the bad leg in front of the other, then bending down gently to touch the toes (or ankle if you're an unsupple as me!) of the bad leg.
Another one involves standing with the good leg slightly bent, and stretching the bad leg behind this one, as far out to the side as you can.
I built up to doing these standing ones twice a day, 8 times each and so far, it seems to be doing the trick.
Saying that, my ITB was caused by my running form putting too much pressure on the wrong parts of my knee (turns out I've been running/walking wrong for years!) so I've also been doing a lot of general knee strengthening too. Added to that, at least 22 miles of cycling a day and the strength is getting there.
But, I've still got to be very very careful about running. Building up mileages slowly (irritatingly slowly!) is the best way to avoid repetition of the injury, so I'm still yet to get above five miles!
Hopefully the cautious preparation will mean I'll make it to the start line this time around, but in the meantime it's trying to hold myself back and hoping the miles on the bike are helping with the overall endurance.
Summer Update
For all those worrying I might have been eaten by a Portuguese Man-of-War on my hols, worry not - I survived!
Sort of.
As my body is very Yorkshire, it decided that another overseas holiday a mere four years after the last one (which was 12 years after the one before) was a bit too much like something a southerner would do.
So it decided to punish me.
On the third morning, I woke up, went to make a cup of tea and reached for the milk from the fridge.
This was when my body decided to launch it's attack!
My back suddenly felt like it had had a seermingly hot scimitar jabbed into it.
I spasmed, the milk fell, and I collapsed into a heap onto the floor.
I'm not sure about you, but for me, going foetal in a puddle of milk in a Portuguese apartment isn't one of the highlights of my life.
Eventually, I clambered up (using the shelves of the still open fridge as a sort of ladder) and managed to get myself to the shower.
After cleaning up in possible the slowest time ever, and being unable to find a comfortable position to rest, I realised this was going to be another holiday highlight (up there with Samlonelle from Egypt four years before).
Several days, and the most uncomfortable flight of my life, later, I was home, in my own bed.
I've now got a lot more mobility (I think the recent rain helped me convince my body that I was back in Blighty) so am hoping to get out and running again soon.
My original plan to get going to a proper schedule after my hols has been scuppered, so the training currently consists of just cycling to and from work, and additional stretches to try sort out the back!
God, stretching is boring...
Sort of.
As my body is very Yorkshire, it decided that another overseas holiday a mere four years after the last one (which was 12 years after the one before) was a bit too much like something a southerner would do.
So it decided to punish me.
On the third morning, I woke up, went to make a cup of tea and reached for the milk from the fridge.
This was when my body decided to launch it's attack!
My back suddenly felt like it had had a seermingly hot scimitar jabbed into it.
I spasmed, the milk fell, and I collapsed into a heap onto the floor.
I'm not sure about you, but for me, going foetal in a puddle of milk in a Portuguese apartment isn't one of the highlights of my life.
Eventually, I clambered up (using the shelves of the still open fridge as a sort of ladder) and managed to get myself to the shower.
After cleaning up in possible the slowest time ever, and being unable to find a comfortable position to rest, I realised this was going to be another holiday highlight (up there with Samlonelle from Egypt four years before).
Several days, and the most uncomfortable flight of my life, later, I was home, in my own bed.
I've now got a lot more mobility (I think the recent rain helped me convince my body that I was back in Blighty) so am hoping to get out and running again soon.
My original plan to get going to a proper schedule after my hols has been scuppered, so the training currently consists of just cycling to and from work, and additional stretches to try sort out the back!
God, stretching is boring...
So it begins...
Last Tuesday marked a significant step on my way to next years London Marathon - the physio said I could start running again!
It's been more than three months since my last run (a now incomprehensible 20-miler if I remember rightly...) and I'm now allowed to get going again after weeks of physio, wonderfully named 'knee classes', and seemingly endless stretching.
A month ago, in an effort to stop the complete loss of any fitness I'd built up in training, I got a bike and now cycle a 22 mile round trip to work during the week, with some more relaxing - and usually condsiderably muddier - excursions on the weekend.
This has the added bonus of actually helping strengthen my knees to both aid recovery, and prevent me doing it to myself again.
The other so-crucial-it-must-not-be-understated-under-any-circumstances-or-I'm-in-the-doo-doo-again point to remember is that I must build up my mileage very, very, slowly.
This is my golden rule.
When I first went to see a physio (at a walk in medical centre in Kent) he said that he was convinced the schedules that people run for things like the London Marathon are the reason so many get injured in the last stage of training.
He did tell me why he thought so, but I'd kind of zoned out by then as it followed the bit where he said "you won't be running the marathon you've spent months and months, and hundreds of miles training for."*
So, I now have the best part of nine months to get up to 26.2 miles.
First step will be a test run on a night as yet to be decided this week, where I will attempt to run the pathetic distance of...
drum roll please...
A mile.
Seriously.
That's what I've been told to start with to see how it goes. If I manage that unscathed, I can then try a whole two miles.
Insanity! Surely the molecules of my body will vapourise at such a staggering effort!
If I master that collossal distance, I can try three. But shouldn't go up after that until I've got that comfortably under my belt a few times.
At the moment, in my head, that'll be easy as falling off a dog - I cycle more than 100 miles a week so should have some of my level of fitness.
But, deep down, I suspect that might not be the case.
Anyway, tune in later this week to find out how I get on!
* I may be paraphrasing.
It's been more than three months since my last run (a now incomprehensible 20-miler if I remember rightly...) and I'm now allowed to get going again after weeks of physio, wonderfully named 'knee classes', and seemingly endless stretching.
A month ago, in an effort to stop the complete loss of any fitness I'd built up in training, I got a bike and now cycle a 22 mile round trip to work during the week, with some more relaxing - and usually condsiderably muddier - excursions on the weekend.
This has the added bonus of actually helping strengthen my knees to both aid recovery, and prevent me doing it to myself again.
The other so-crucial-it-must-not-be-understated-under-any-circumstances-or-I'm-in-the-doo-doo-again point to remember is that I must build up my mileage very, very, slowly.
This is my golden rule.
When I first went to see a physio (at a walk in medical centre in Kent) he said that he was convinced the schedules that people run for things like the London Marathon are the reason so many get injured in the last stage of training.
He did tell me why he thought so, but I'd kind of zoned out by then as it followed the bit where he said "you won't be running the marathon you've spent months and months, and hundreds of miles training for."*
So, I now have the best part of nine months to get up to 26.2 miles.
First step will be a test run on a night as yet to be decided this week, where I will attempt to run the pathetic distance of...
drum roll please...
A mile.
Seriously.
That's what I've been told to start with to see how it goes. If I manage that unscathed, I can then try a whole two miles.
Insanity! Surely the molecules of my body will vapourise at such a staggering effort!
If I master that collossal distance, I can try three. But shouldn't go up after that until I've got that comfortably under my belt a few times.
At the moment, in my head, that'll be easy as falling off a dog - I cycle more than 100 miles a week so should have some of my level of fitness.
But, deep down, I suspect that might not be the case.
Anyway, tune in later this week to find out how I get on!
* I may be paraphrasing.
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