FAQ's

Bikes will normally be boxed for ease of storage but at Halford’s we can build any bike for collection, or selected bikes can be delivered built as well as collected. You will be able to find out your delivery and build options on your chosen bike’s product page. All bikes will come boxed unless specified that you would like the bike built when you order or reserve it. You may be able to pick up your bike in as little as an hour if you collect it boxed, simply select a collection slot that suits you. Please note that bikes built and collected in store can add up to 2 days onto your collection date, and bikes built and delivered to home can add up to 5 working days onto your delivery date.

Please be aware that bikes worth over £350 can receive a full build and safety check completely free of charge. For those that are less than £350, one of our expert technicians can build the bike plus conduct a full safety check, for only £10.

Interval training is where you break your training up into periods of time, or different intervals as opposed to training at a constant resistance and level of speed. Interval training replicates real road conditions such as climbs, down hill sections and times when you pull away from a standstill at junctions. An example of interval training might be 5-10 minutes of high resistance/low speed training, followed by 20 minutes of high-speed aerobic performance

Turbo Trainers from Tacx & Elite allow you to ride a bike indoors whilst it remains stationary. They are often used for exercise during winter months or by riders training or warming up for events. They have an advantage over a normal exercise bike by allowing the rider to use their own bike, and adjust the resistance to simulate going uphill or downhill for a more natural ride. The three kinds of Turbo Trainer are Rollers, Wheel-on and Direct Drive. They offer different benefits depending on your ability and experience. Direct Drive trainers are the most sophisticated and are compatible with computer programs to give a more realistic ride.

ANT+ is Garmin’s alternative to Bluetooth. It is the technology that a Smart Turbo Trainer uses to communicate with compatible training apps. It is a a wireless method of monitoring data, such as heart rate, breathing rate, calories etc. This information can be fed back into a computer or tablet to provide a more personalised training plan, as well as to help you track your performance on a week-by-week basis.

The different types of resistance offered by Turbo Trainers can result in quieter use, quicker response rates of movement, or more accurate representations of inclines and declines. Resistance is measured in watts - the higher the watts the more resistance the trainer can generate.

Mudguards help protect your clothing from mud, dirt and water when you're out riding. Different styles of bikes need different styles of mudguards; for example road or hybrid bikes work best with full-length mudguards, whereas this type of guard would be too thin and no use for a mountain bike. There are lots of different sizes available so you will need to know the tyre width of your bike before you purchase.

All of our bikes come with pedals as they are a legal requirement to sell a complete bike. However, we know that our enthusiasts like to use their own pedals, especially if cleated pedals are preferred, so we ship our bikes with a set of functional pedals. These basic pedals will be fitted as part of the build process unless another pair of pedals are ordered at the same time.

A bike frame size is measured by height and inside leg. Take the inside leg measurement and deduct 13 inches for a mountain bike or similarly styled hybrid, and deduct 11 inches for a road or cyclocross bike. For children, please use the following table as a rough guide, it is dependent on the childs height.

It's possible to supply paints for most current lines of Boardman, Voodoo and Pendleton bikes. Sadly, we're not able to supply chrome Boardman paints, or those for Apollo and Carrera. However, we may be able to match it against existing range of paints, or order in from paint mixing service.

Punctures can be caused by a few different things - foreign bodies, sharp burrs on the inside of the wheel and riding style can all be responsible for these happening. The inner tube may be pinched between the tyre and the rim or the end of a spoke needs flattening or taping. In some cases the beading is worn on the inside of the tyre.

Bike frames are measured from the centre of the crank to the top of the seat post tube. Using this, you can take a rough estimate of the maximum overall height of the bike by taking half of the wheel size and adding it & 14" to the frame size, so an 18" 29er mountain bike would be 46.5" tall.

Bike frames are measured from the centre of the crank to the top of the seat post tube. Using this, you can take a rough estimate of the maximum overall height of the bike by taking half of the wheel size and adding it & 14" to the frame size, so an 18" 29er mountain bike would be 46.5" tall.

Every bike on sale in the UK has a frame number. Similar to a Vehicle Identifier Number (VIN) on a motor vehicle, it's a code of letters and numbers which provides a unique identification. This makes it easier to track should the bike be stolen and then resold, or lost by accident. These are normally found on the underside of the bike, between the pedals. Due to the high number of bikes we sell, it's difficult for us to keep a central record of these numbers. Instead, you'll find this number on the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) form which is handed to you when you receive your new bike. It's always recommended that you make a note of this number and inform the company you have your household insurance with. If your purchase was within the last 6 months, our colleagues in store should be able to find a copy of your PDI form from our storage - please bear in mind that you would need to return to the store where you purchased the bike from originally.

If your bike has a Quick Release (QR) rear wheel, that is an axle which has a lever which folds out to, it'll fit onto a Turbo Trainer. If your bike doesn't have one, you'd need to replace your rear axle with a QR skewer, though this usually involves replacing the rear wheel as well. If the Turbo Trainer your looking at has a direct drive, meaning it has a cassette already on the base, then you won't need to worry about this. Some models don't come with a cassette included, so you may need to buy this separately. When buying a Turbo Trainer, please consider extras you may need such as a trainer tyre and a front wheel block.

We accept Cycle2Work, Cycle Scheme and Bike2Work in Cycle Republic stores. Cycle Plus, Cycle Solutions and NHS schemes are not accepted.

Bike Care Plans were formally phased out on 10th September 2018 and replaced with CycleCare. Any Bike Care Plans bought before this date will still remain Bike Care Plans, unless renewed as the relevant CycleCare package. A CycleCare package is available for all Halfords bikes, starting from £13.33 per year when bought as a 3 year plan. It can be used in any Halfords, but not in Cycle Republic stores. A service may be required if the bike is not brand new.

ADV bikes are designed with adventure in mind and catering for the ‘bikepacking’ cycling community. CXR bikes are more race-focused for cross-country racing. A Cyclocross bike is specifically designed for the conditions of a cyclo-cross race. They tend to resemble the racing bicycles used in road racing.

Chain wear, otherwise known as chain stretch, is caused simply by dirt. There are minute gaps between the link sides so that the chain can flow freely, and dirt can get between within these gaps and cause damage. Make sure you clean the chain often; every time you go off-road in wet conditions with a mountain bike or hybrid. We'd recommend doing this in dry conditions as well, due to dust particles. If you're commuting on your bike, clean your chain at least once a week, or more often if your doing heavy mileage.

An M-Check is a system of checks on a bike used whenever a service or repair is carried out. We do this to ensure that your bike is safe to ride when it leaves the store. The M-Check is so called because it follows the M shape on the bike.

This is a simple check of the bike to see if any work needs to be carried out. This service is available for all bikes, Halfords or not, new or old.

Using a rear-mounted bike rack is probably the easiest and most convenient way to transport a BMX. Put one arm of the bike rack through the frame of the BMX, where the down tube and crossbar meet below the stem, and put the second arm through the rear wheel (preferably holding onto the rear stay). Then make sure your secure the bike with straps and that it’s mounted on foam cushions.

All of our rear roof and towbar-mounted carriers have been tested up to 80mph or 130kmh. This means that it's safe to drive to the national speed limit with these attached, but remember to take care in high winds.

UK Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations (RVLR) law states that any vehicle must be fitted with reflectors during the time between sunset and sunrise. For a bike, this must be a red reflector on the rear of the bike and amber reflectors on the pedals, which must not be covered. In addition to this, front and rear lights are mandatory for riding during this period. In the Highway Code, it is suggested that front reflectors and wheel reflectors are also fitted to ensure the rider is seen, however, they are not needed by law. None of these items are required during daylight hours. The Pedal Bicycles Safety Regulations (PBSR) forbids the selling of unsafe products. To ensure your safety, the PBSR sets out minimum requirements for all bikes to feature when sold. These are: hand-operated brakes arranged left-hand rear, right-hand front, a bell, white or yellow reflectors on both sides of each wheel or tyre, a white wide-angle front reflector, or a front lamp, a red wide-angle rear reflector and amber reflectors front and rear on each pedal.

We'd always recommend replacing your helmet every two years, and the pads should last this amount of time. If the pads have worn out sooner, sadly it's not possible to replace the pads on Halfords-branded helmets. This is because the pads are bespoke to each helmet model, and therefore we don't carry spares.

The British Safety standard BS6102 governs the position and brightness of front and rear bike lights. Not only do certain laws apply in the UK, currently, the EU requires us to recognise equivalent standards from the European Commission. However, the most important guidelines to follow are detailed below - given you apply these you should not encounter any issues. As advised by the Department of Transport, any bike which is used during the hours of darkness or during periods of poor visibility MUST be fitted with the following: a white front light, a red rear light, a red rear reflector, amber/yellow pedal reflectors - front and rear on each pedal. The front and rear lights may be steady or flashing, or a mixture e.g. steady at the front and flashing at the rear. A steady light is recommended at the front when the cycle is used in areas without good street lighting.

Slime Puncture Sealant is a liquid which is designed to fill in holes no bigger than approximately 3mm in an inner tube, should you ever get a small puncture. Once the hole is sealed, the liquid will harden, allowing you to continue riding. It's good for two years before it stops being effective as long as you keep riding the bike.

Candlepower measures the intensity of a beam in the centre of it whereas lumens measure the total output of a bulb in all directions. Because they are two different types of measurement such as minutes versus miles, the calculation often used of multiplying 1200 lumens by 12.75 to get a 1 million candlepower rating isn’t 100% accurate.

Bikes will need either DOT brake fluid or mineral oil. Fluids are not compatible with each other, and you must only use what is recommended by the manufacturer. It’s recommended that you don't use any brake fluid which has been open for more than 12 months. Mineral oil is unaffected by this.

To change the the rim size on a bike you should consider a 1.5"" drop in tyre width for every inch bigger you're making the tyre. As you increase the size of the tyre, the width of the tyre will increase too, so by reducing this it will make the tyre fit within the frame. Moving down in size is much easier and will allow you to fit wider tyres on the rims, increasing comfort and ridability. However, it's always worth checking out the clearance of the frame, and whether there is any adjustment needed in the brakes.

We sell adult stabilisers, which are suitable for most bikes except for those with hub gears. Aide adult stabilisers will fit bikes with wheels from 20-26 in size, which you an find on Cycle Republic's website.

To get the best out of your Turbo Trainer, we'd recommend buying a trainer tyre, a mat and virtual training subscription.

A pannier rack is mounted to four individual points which are two pairs on opposite sides of the frame. The first pair are located at the bottom of the seat stay, just above the axle. There are two holes here, so you should fit the pannier rack to the higher of the two as highlighted with the red circle on the right (the second hole is for mudguards). When fitting the screw into this hole, just make sure that the screw fits flush from behind and doesn't interfere with the casette. The second pair are on the seat stay, either side of where the mudguard or rear V-brake calipers are mounted, highlighted with red circles on the left. Two thin brackets come out from the bottom of the pannier rack to prevent the rack from falling backwards away from the bike when it is loaded. The screws come out of the frame, and the screws are inserted into the loops on the pannier rack brackets, then screwed back into the frame. Once fitted correctly, this will leave enough room for a rear mudguard underneath the pannier rack, but this is dependent on the bike, rack and mudguard.

Due to legal issues surrounding the ownership of a bike bought on Cycle2Work, we can't refund price differences after purchase as cash or gift card. Instead, as a gesture of goodwill, we offer the difference in accessories.

Cycle2Work vouchers can be redeemed at Halfords, but also at Cycle Republic, Tredz and Wheelies.

Electric scooters and hoverboards are covered by legislation which prevents them from being ridden on the pavement or road. Given how electric scooters and hoverboards are designed - being propelled with a motor rather than by human force, they fall within the legal definition of a ‘motor vehicle’. Therefore, the laws that apply to motor vehicles also apply to e-scooters and hoverboards.

It is, however, legal to use e-scooters and hoverboards on private land with the permission of the land owner. If a customer wishes to return a hoverboard or e-scooter, they can do so in accordance with our Returns Policy.

We offer a repair service on Halfords own brand E-Scooters (Indi and Carrera E-Scooters). These repairs range from inner tube replacement to some electrical component replacements. In order to understand exactly what your E-Scooter will require we recommend booking in for a Free E-Scooter Health Check where our in store colleagues will complete a 20 point check on your Halfords own brand E-Scooter.