My company has finally embraced this goverment scheme, its through halfords with the £1k limit.

Does anyone know if there are any other retailers that will accept these vouchers?

Many thanks

There are loads of bikes in Halfords within the £1000 limit that are perfect for cycling to work on. Why spend any more on a commuter?

Not sure but Halfords certainly will use other companies – I know that they've given credit to a LBS for a 'custom build' which they couldn't source.

It will depend entirely on the deal your company has setup as far as I can make out.. you will need to ring the C2W people to find out.

Sometimes my wifes scheme was Halfords only, sometimes it was independant LBS only and sometimes it was mixed.

We managed to get ourself's organized for a bike from Halfords only to find the tickets at the time were for LBS only, but the CTW woman swapped the type of voucher for us.

alpine bikes take halfords vouchers im lead to believe

We do but we do not take them via mail order. You would need to come to store.

Like many in the scheme we have to lay down a few rules. No sale/discounted goods – i.e. full rrp to be applied

Strict adherence to the limit and NO top ups.

My company does their scheme through Halfords as well – the good news is that you're not restricted to the bikes Halfords normally sell. They can get pretty much anything through on special order, but you need to ring their central office to put the order in. The bike is then delivered to your local store. I've had two bikes through the scheme in this way, both of which were pretty "niche" for Halfords – a Dahon Jetstream folder a few years back and my Cotic Roadrat the year before last. It takes a few phone calls to sort out, but worth it.

think Condor accept them

I can confirm that Alpine bikes can supply a bike to those with halfords vouchers. Accessories have to be from Halfords directly.

They can get pretty much anything through on special order

Depends on your definition of "pretty much anything" – they'll only work with certain suppliers they already have a relationship with.

Leisure Lakes do – I spent my Halfords voucher there.
Mainly because I could at least get a load of useful bits there with the balance of my £1k (after buying a cheap bike)

Only trouble is that, as the bike chain says, they appear to have been restricted by Halfords to only supplying at RRP and no-way were going to allow a "top-up" over the voucher value.
Got the impression that they were under strict scrutiny. Shame.

The full rrp thing is essential. We pay Halfords a sizeable commisson for taking the voucher. After that and then the VAT, bike build, 6 week service, sale and ordering process there is precious little left over.

It is very easy to lose money by selling a bike on the scheme of you don't keep an eye on all the wee pennies.

Condor does and (shhh it is a secret..) they allow you to top up if you want to go above the £1k.

Leisure bikes does accept them as well, but you must buy a full bike and it must be below £1k.

Hellfrauds claim they can order 90% of the bikes in the market but that is not true. They only do the big names like Kona, Specialized, etc. Pretty much everything you can get at Evans..

You might want to edit your post so people don't get in the shit…

We pay Halfords a sizeable commisson for taking the voucher.

Which is where the real con is – Halfords doubtless make vast amounts more for doing very little than the bike dealers supplying do if you use an outside shop. Hence why some refuse to deal with Halfords (but will do other schemes).

andrewmoke – what thebikechain said – it coudl go quite badly wrong if that were both true and general knowledge…

Barry Bethel – Member
There are loads of bikes in Halfords within the £1000 limit that are perfect for cycling to work on. Why spend any more on a commuter?

So everyone who takes advantage of the scheme are only buying adequate bikes for getting to work on?

Too late to edit it now….

oops. i tried. i really did.

My company's deal with Halfords seemed only to be able to offer the bikes from their extended range – which to be fair did include a large number of brands, some of them boutique.
That was the info I got over email, never did chase it up as I only wanted one of two specific bikes which were out of stock by the end of the year when our scheme opened. The next year's bikes were over the limit. 🙁

You tend not to get a very good deal if Halfords are "importing" one for you instead of from their range. So it's probably just as well that so many of the best £1000 and under bikes are Halfords own brands really.

For what it's worth, Halfords can supply the following brands direct:

Apollo http://www.halfords.com
Boardman http://www.boardmanbikes.com
Carrera http://www.halfords.com
Cinelli http://www.cinelli.it
Dahon http://www.dahon.co.uk
Dawes http://www.dawescycles.com
DiamondBack http://www.diamondback.co.uk
DMR http://www.dmrbikes.com
Electra http://www.electrabikes.com
GT (Halfords Exclusive Range) http://www.halfords.com
Identiti http://www.identitibikes.com
Kinesis http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk
Kona http://www.konaworld.com
Land Rover http://www.2x2worldwide.com
Merida www2.merida-bikes.com
Moulton http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk
NS Bikes http://www.ns-bikes.com
Pashley http://www.pashley.co.uk
Raleigh http://www.raleigh.co.uk
Real Classic http://www.halfords.com
Rocky Mountain http://www.bikes.com
Salsa http://www.salsacycles.com
Surly http://www.surleybikes.com
Trax http://www.halfords.com
Viper http://www.viper-bikes.com
Voodoo(Halfords Exclusive Range) http://www.halfords.com

Not sure the 'direct' Salsa and Surly is correct.
We have supplied Surly to Halfords previously…

TBC – Salsa and Surly can be sourced by Halfords for C2W

Nice one thanks guys.

Its a real pain this, I needed new bike this time last year so guess what I bought thats right a boardman pro ht through halfords but saved 10% off the price during one of their promotions, unfortunately i have been injured after playing football- dodgy knees- so haven't used it as much as i would have like.

So again with £1k to spend what would you recommend as an alternative to the boardman. Something to commute on but also to ride some trails now and again when summer appears.

What I did was just spend an evening looking through the various bikes available from the brands above & picked a few to look into properly

I've seen Surly's hanging up in Halfords (the Putney store). Also as other people said Condor except them.