I’m just fuckn pissed. From my exerpience there is simply too much failure with bicycle components. No, let me rephrase…way, way too much failure. Don’t they do any testing? This really surprises me, especially here in the US where a crash due to failure of a component could end in a tremendous lawsuit.
So I’m spending this week end in Palm Springs. This morning I wanted to ride Hwy 74 up to Idyllwild. I had so much shit going on in my life and I want to train, but every time I keep going again shit happens agan and again… Before I left I made sure that the quickreleases were safely secured. Well, 1km down the hill from the hotel, around a curve at a speed of about 35km/h the front wheel starts wobbeling. Shit! Well, luckily I could safelely walk away.
Upon inspection I realized that the front quickrelease has become loose. Wow, within 1km after I made sure it was all tight. Well, I couldn’t secure the wheel anymore. The front QR has failed.
I mean this is fuckn serious shit. What if I were doing 70 km/h at that time. I’m not only pissed over the failure of the QR, but even more so at the company that produces them. Here’s why: When I purchased my bike, it came with wheels from that very same company. Before my purchase I only heard good stuff about them, so I was confident in all of their products. Within 400miles, the rear wheel became out of true (and yes, I ride light). So I brought it back to the bike shop from which I purchased the complete new bike. For trueing wheels they have to charge me. So I was out $18. Couple weeks later, during a ride…ping…and a spoke snapped on that very same wheel. Back to the bike shop they told me that they would have to send it back to the factory because there obviously is something wrong with that wheel. The bike shop told me that the factory would either replace the wheel with a new one or rebuild it. Two weeks later, within the promised time period, I received the wheel. Surprisingly I had to pay for the shipping, another $15. I was pissed because I just purchased a Powertap SL and was short on cash. Is it just me or is it normal to have to pay over $30 on a new wheel because of failure? As mentioned I got the powertap wheel and used that one for a while, in fact, I didn’t even inspect the wheel that has been returned by the company, it just stayed in its box it came with. Yes, my mistake, but I was happy that I could train on the bike again (with the PT wheel) and didn’t care too much at that time. A a couple of weeks later, I came across the box with the wheel. I had time and inspected it more closely. To my surprise they didn’t even replace that one spoke that got slightly damaged (lost black color and is not 100% straight) by the spoke that snapped during that one ride. I don’t know much about wheel building, but if a customer would send me a wheel because he was unhappy with the product and it failed him already twice within a very short time period, I would have replaced all spokes that don’t meet the standard. To me, it seems as if all they did was replace that broken spoke. No, I don’t believe that they rebuilt the wheel; if so, why would the use that damaged spoke again??
Sorry, I know it starts getting long…
Anyway, the QR and the wheel were from that same company. Here’s another reason why I am pissed at this company. Shortly after I purchased the wheel, somebody on the road told me about a recall on those QR. I went back to the bike shop were I purchased the bike and they told me that this one hasn’t been affected. Online I found a Recall notice (http://www.recall-warnings.com/cpsc-content-04-04227.html) I also called the company myself and they also assured me that this one hasn’t been affected. I mentioned the recall notice and that the description matches my QR. In the recall notice they even describe the wheels that were often combined with that particular QR, and even that was a match. In the end I took their words for it that the QR I have isn’t affected. I took their words because they assured me that my QR was safe and I know that from a financial perspective, it wouldn’t be wise for them to gamble and safe $25 for not replacing my product but potentially facing a lawsuit in case of failure. Maybe I was wrong and they don’t think that way.
I will call that company and visit the bike shop on Monday. But what’s the fuckn deal?
A) did they not replace my QR that was officially recalled
B) did they not learn from their problem with the QR and produced another one that fails?
C) A or B plus they don’t give a shit about their customers. They have proven it with my wheel repair.
sorry for making it soo long.
daniel