Dodgy Bikes

We each bought a new bike from Argos a couple of months ago, Debbie got a Challenge Oriana and I got the fella's version which is the same bike but in blue.

When they arrived the front wheel on mine was buckled, but rather than faf about sending it back I just swapped it for the wheel on my old bike. I wish now that I'd listened to Debbie and sent it back straight away.

We've only managed to get out on them a couple of times due to the rubbish weather we've had this summer.

Yesterday we took advantage of the rare weekend sunshine and went for a ride around the local woods. On the home straight along a path next to a busy main road I noticed Debbie wasn't behind me, I turned round to see her in the distance looking at her bike.

I was horrified to find that the chain had snapped, wrapped around the cogs, sheared half the spokes on the wheel forcing the pedals to bounce back smacking Debbie in the knee and throwing her from her bike.

Debbie is in one piece save a few scratches and painful bruises but it could so easily have been much worse if we had been on the road or the bike had made it on to the road from the path.

Checking over her bike, I noticed that the plastic guard on the back wheel was missing and thought that the chain might have jumped of the biggest cog but Debbie was changing from 4th to 3rd at the time so the chain shouldn't have been anywhere near the spokes.

I checked my bike and found the that the plastic guard was shattered and hanging on by a thread.

I called Argos, because we've had them over 30 days we can't have a refund, the best they can do is replace them with the same models. However, because Debbie's bike is out of stock she can have a refund but I've got to have the same model which I'm not happy about. All I can do is inspect it thoroughly when it arrives.

On top of that, they won't collect on Saturdays so we've got to wait until October so we can make sure that the new bike is delivered in one piece.

This morning Debbie's back is painful after the jolt yesterday, I think we'll be taking it easy today, gentle pottering about in the garden and a few good films on TV.

Paul.