Author Topic: £50 bike repair voucher for all  (Read 10654 times)

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #50 on: 28 July, 2020, 10:15:25 pm »
What is non roadworthy?  If you need your brake pads changing?  If your gears don't work?
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #51 on: 28 July, 2020, 10:20:40 pm »
What is non roadworthy?  If you need your brake pads changing?  If your gears don't work?

At a guess, doesn't comply with the law for road worthy, meaning:

< 2 efficient brakes
bald tyres
incorrect or absent reflectors

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #52 on: 29 July, 2020, 12:17:14 am »
... and it's crashed!
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #53 on: 29 July, 2020, 06:17:12 am »
I’m a bit conflicted on this. On the one hand the idea of a free service is appealing, on the other I’ve been (relatively) unaffected by pandemic restrictions thus far so I will be passing on this, in the hope that it does encourage a new or returning cyclist back onto the road. I’m certainly not judging anyone else’s decision on this.

A

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #54 on: 29 July, 2020, 06:28:16 am »
What is non roadworthy?  If you need your brake pads changing?  If your gears don't work?

At a guess, doesn't comply with the law for road worthy, meaning:

< 2 efficient brakes
bald tyres
incorrect or absent reflectors

J

On this basis, I think I only have one "roadworthy" bike
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #55 on: 29 July, 2020, 09:31:42 am »
Quote
Thank you for your interest in the Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme. There are no vouchers available right now. Vouchers are being released gradually to reflect the capacity of the bike repairers signed up to the scheme. More vouchers will be made available as soon as possible.
FFS!
This first thing today, following the system not working last night.
WTAF
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #56 on: 29 July, 2020, 12:18:57 pm »
Apparently it came up at about 4am but was down by 6.30am.
Rust never sleeps

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #57 on: 29 July, 2020, 12:49:44 pm »

On this basis, I think I only have one "roadworthy" bike

Yep by the letter of the law most bikes aren't road legal. Right now I'm sat in a bike shop in
NL, there is exactly 1, and only 1 bike in the building that fully complies with the letter of Dutch law for bikes. It also complies with the Vienna convention, and the UK law. It's my bike.

But then there's also not many people sad enough to sit and translate the relevant legislation and make sure thei bike applies. Cos for most people if it's got lights and a brake, that's enough. Apart from anything else most cops don't know what the rules are either...

It still makes me uncomfortable that .NL only requires one brake. Mostly as it's shocking how poor most brakes are. Took me a while to learn that while I can stop in a very short distance, the Muggle behind can't, which changes the way you ride... But I digress.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #58 on: 29 July, 2020, 02:26:30 pm »
A friend has an ancient heavy folder that is currently stuck in the highest gear (beyond my very limited abilities to fix) and limited funds to fix it. She's had no luck as yet. It is rideable but must be bloody hard work. She's also tried to buy a new entry-level bike but all she can find in stock is Halfords Apollo (ie their cheapest one) and I've told her not to bother with that.

As others have said I'd rather leave it for people like her than benefit myself, not that they appear to be easy to access anyway.

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #59 on: 29 July, 2020, 10:25:06 pm »
Mrs TB and I were speculating last night if it would mean a run of people going to LBS with knackered or irrepairable BSOs and possible altercations if LBS turned them away

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #60 on: 29 July, 2020, 11:12:59 pm »
Today I've had 6 lots of people enquire about bringing their bike in for a service and wanting to use a voucher.  Only 1 has actually got one.  The others have still booked their bike in and say they hope they'll manage to get a voucher before they need to bring their bike along in 3 weeks time (big backlog unsurprisingly).

One poor lady said she tried from 23:44 and then every 30 minutes until 3 am before she gave up!!

Oh, and in another example of typical lack of thinking, the special website now very helpfully states they've used up the  initial tranche of vouchers, and they'll release more vouchers soon.  The trouble is, that web address was also supposed to have the login for bike shops, but the idiots have removed the link.  So I can't actually register a voucher or redeem it anyway!!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

dat

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #61 on: 30 July, 2020, 09:43:10 am »
Vouchers open again

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #62 on: 30 July, 2020, 01:59:23 pm »
Vouchers open again
All out!
But the site is available for shops now.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

fuaran

  • rothair gasta
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #63 on: 04 August, 2020, 01:33:12 pm »
And now a scheme for Scotland. Seems no voucher required, just book it in at a participating shop. https://www.cyclinguk.org/ScotCycleRepair

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #64 on: 04 August, 2020, 02:10:06 pm »
And now a scheme for Scotland. Seems no voucher required, just book it in at a participating shop. https://www.cyclinguk.org/ScotCycleRepair

And the view from mechanics and bike shop owners in Scotland is that it's a nightmare.

From someone on LFGSS:-

Quote
Scottish scheme works a bit simpler than the English scheme, however the number of total roasters wanting to modify their already nice functioning bikes with free money aimed for getting those in non fortunate positions to simply even have a working bike has been frustrating. English scheme I think the gov website is the filter for this, whereas up here, im the filter for it. Means probably a higher % of the funding will go to those who need it. If everyone booked in already needs full funding, money all spoken for already! Less than a day (to book, around 5 days of work) is all it lasted
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #65 on: 23 September, 2020, 11:28:27 pm »
Glad to see that this is still going strong and round after round has been rolled out.

Not
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #66 on: 24 September, 2020, 12:14:18 pm »
A friend has an ancient heavy folder that is currently stuck in the highest gear (beyond my very limited abilities to fix) and limited funds to fix it. She's had no luck as yet. It is rideable but must be bloody hard work. She's also tried to buy a new entry-level bike but all she can find in stock is Halfords Apollo (ie their cheapest one) and I've told her not to bother with that.

As others have said I'd rather leave it for people like her than benefit myself, not that they appear to be easy to access anyway.

Said friend did eventually manage to get the bike sorted, to her delight. She had to top up the £50 voucher with £20 to get the gears sorted. But yeah, another round would be helpful.

Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #67 on: 16 November, 2020, 12:06:33 pm »
Back online now!
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: £50 bike repair voucher for all
« Reply #68 on: 19 November, 2020, 10:13:32 pm »
Back online now!
Only for a couple of hours!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein