Kickstand failure on my eZee Quando II

[bersh]

Yikes, two days ago, I discovered that my "U " shaped kickstand had completely separated from my bicycle's frame. Both welds had fractured, and there was a hole in the frame, part of the detachment. I phoned the dealer and per his request, emailed him a photo of the damage. But one thing the representative said was troubling: he referred to the possibility that I had sat on the bike while it was on the kickstand, which, would create the failure. I feel that just the possibility of this design failure exonerating the manufacturer from responsibility, or making responsibility impossible to determine is unreasonable and a potential cop out.

Since my bike is about six months old, and is three thousand miles away from the dealer, these complicating factors are troubling. I am hoping for some positive outcome, but in the meantime, WILL ANYONE WHO HAS HEARD OF THIS KIND OF FAILURE, PLEASE RESPOND. The dealer's rep whom I spoke with, said that he had heard of similar failures, and suggested that one solution would be to attach an auxillary kickstand to replace the original-a totally unacceptable and again, troubling possibility.

This bicycle has no more than three hundred miles on it.

[flecc]

I'm afraid this is normal on any bike Bersh, from brand new, and particularly so with an alloy frame, they simply cannot be sat on with the bike on it's stand without risk of breakage. I've seen split lower tubes and separated welds even on steel frames in the past. Making any bicycle frame unconditionally strong enough to withstand those sort of twisting forces on the tubes would mean very thick and larger diameter tubes and the bike being impossibly heavy.

I wouldn't expect to sit on the bike on it's stand with my 11 stones / 70 kilos weight, and, forgive me if I'm wrong, I seem to remember that you are somewhat heavier than me.

If the controller, keyswitch and battery support are unbolted and tied to one side, plus the wheel slipped out, the frame could be welded by someone experienced with welding thinwall aluminium tubing, and the best place to explore to get that done would probably be a motorcycle dealership. They would be competent to disconnect those parts, and also often have experience of aluminium repairs done on motorcycle frames.
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[bersh]

Flecc, your memory of my weight (127lb) is pretty amazing. I did not indicate that not only had I never sat on the bicycle while it was on its stand, but that actually trying to do that would be pretty hard to do, since putting the key in the bike, taking it off the stand, and then getting on the bike are my normal sequence of every takeoff.

I was referring to the notation in the slim manual accompanying my eZee, the dealer's referring to that scenario, and trying to find anyone who had my experience which came from normal bicycle useage. Putting the bicycle on its stand, and removing it, require a fair amount of stress on the kick stand/mounting welds. I guess the big question is, what is the failure rate, and thus, would the president of eZee bicycles come forward and describe exactly what kind of repetitive stress testing was done on the kickstand/welds before the bike was allowed to go into the market place?

[flecc]

Understood Bersh, it wasn't clear from your original posting whether you had sat on the stand or not. I can only say that I've had no trouble with mine, either with the original stand or the slightly longer legged one I added when I converted the bike. As I said, I've seen both breakages and split welds, both where no-one has necessarily sat on the bike on the stand, but I have never heard of this on a Quando, or any eZee bike to date, all the models using the centre stand mounting. Given the material used, it's certainly just as possible on them as any other alloy frame bike.

The tubing is fairly standard thinwall stuff, which I know from when I deliberately separated two of the welds when I converted to the Q bike form, and this isn't very strong against twisting forces as when a bike is put on a stand and it bangs against the stop.

Perhaps it would be an idea to try the main contacts now. eZeebike's main agent for the USA is Eric Sundin at:

Electric Bikes Northwest
Website: Electric Bikes Northwest
E-mail: info@ebikesnw.com
Tel: 206/547 4621

If you cannot then get satisfaction, the eZeebike president is Mr Wai Won Ching:

EZEE KINETICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
Tel: +86 21 58 22 40 40
E-mail.: ezeebike@gmail.com

Hope that's some help and that you get this resolved to your satisfaction.
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