I first heard of Karbon Speed when they did a facebook promotion for free toe warmers. I was intrigued so I did some research on their wheels and they seemed to be a decent alternative for training during the dry months but the price was a little high. Karbon Speed then surprised everyone with a Black Friday promotion on ANY set of their wheels for $999 including shipping and tax. THEN it made sense to take the plunge and I bought the wheelset.
I received them a few days later and DAMN they were beautiful in the box. They came very well packaged and the quality of the carbon hoops looked fantastic. I decided to install them on my 2012 Trek Speed Concept 9.9 and remove my Zipp 404’s to make room for the Karbon Speeds.
As many of you know, the braking system in the Speed Concept is very difficult to work on so I had a local shop swap the pads for me and I installed the cassette and tires. A few days later, I was ready to ride.
The Ride:
Right out of the gate, the wheels felt good! They held speed well on the flats and felt smooth in the wind. After a few miles of riding the flats and stopping at stop lights we started doing some rolling climbs in Los Altos Ca. It was pretty standard, climb up and them barrel down some non-technical descents on perfectly smooth roads with minimal wind. At the first descent, I noticed the brakes making a horrible squealing sound. This noise became increasingly worse as the ride continued and a few hours later, I brought the bike home and took a look at the mechanical aspect of the bike where everything looked OK to my eye so I took the bike out again. I rode about 5 miles on flat terrain and braked only at stoplights and every time I applied the brakes I would get the same barking / squealing sound. It became so loud that I no longer felt safe on the bike and took it into the shop.
On Facebook, I had “liked” the Karbon Speed page so I went through and looked at their user comments and saw nothing but praise so I decided to ask them about the issue that I was having. I explained the situation and posted it on their FB page. Then I went to their website and pasted the same message into their “contact us” form which emailed it to “Mark Mulch.” His response was “Did you change out the brake pads? We haven’t had a report of this problem before.” I replied that I had in fact changed the pads to the supplied cork pads and that I would be in touch after my mechanic looked at them.
Today (12/11) the mechanic got back to me and let me know that there were two issues. 1. One of the Brake Pads was not installed all the way and he adjusted the toe in. 2. The rear wheel was dished incorrectly and he had to re-dish the wheel.
I went back to the Karbon Speed Facebook page to reply to my original post as a follow up and found that my post was deleted and I was ‘removed’ from liking their page. I found that a little offensive since my post didn’t say anything was wrong with the wheels, but it raised a question for them. I then emailed Mark Mulch with the feedback from the bike shop and inquired to why I had been removed from the facebook page and my comment deleted.
His response:
"Glad you got to the bottom of it. Although I will point out that your wheel was in perfect true when it left here. We tested it on two different truing stands before boxing so I’m a little unclear of what your local bike shop could find to adjust.
We took the FB message off the page because we had already been communicating via email.
Let me know if you have any issues or questions about the wheels."
As a consumer who just spent a $1,000 on a no-name bike wheel and out of the kindness of my heart I decided to give this company a chance simply because they put a Bible verse on their box, I am pretty offended by the way they handled the situation. I’ve included my phone number in all of my correspondence with them and not once have they reached out to me via phone. They have never taken ownership or acted like they give a damn about what I am experiencing with the wheels but instead they let me know that they haven’t had anyone let them know of a similar experience. Even when I let them know that I found out what the problem was there wasn’t an apology or any sympathy, just a ‘glad you got to the bottom of it.’
Where am I going with this? This is a cross between a wheel review, a company review and a rant where I wonder where the sense of customer service has gone. I spend a ridiculous amount of money of biking stuff and somehow feel I should be entitled to some decent customer service but in reality, ALL consumers should have a good experience with start-up companies simply because they should want to build their business with a solid good reputation for a product that they stand behind and support. I may not be as fast as everyone in my AG but I’ve finished 3 full Ironman races and a billion other races and rides over the years. I’ve trained athletes, encouraged new-bies, been an advocate for triathlon and a positive mentor for folks that want to get their feet wet with triathlon. I’m fully committed to this sport! How can a brand-new company whos doors have been open for less than 3 months act like the customers who make their very existence possible don’t matter?
**Perhaps I should do what I was going to do originally, buy a pair of Zipp 808 Firecrest wheels for racing and train on my 404’s instead of trying to save them for racing. ** Perhaps Mark would have had a different response if he took a look in the garage to see over $40k in bicycles.
^^This^^
