More ebike woes

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
19,494
16,440
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
I'm afraid this illustrates the hidden cost of budget Chinese bikes, fittings, bolts and the like are often made of cheese, so when it comes to laying an allen key on them, the mechanic is never sure what will happen next.
To be fair, most derailleur hangers can get bent.
His has got bent probably when the chain jumped and got entangled or the freewheel got jammed.

Gear hangers, or replaceable dropouts as they are otherwise known, are designed to be replaceable. They are usually made of alloy and will break under extreme stress in order to save your frame from being damaged. This can be the result of a crash, mis-shift or most usually simply being in the wrong gear when the chain and derailleur are under the most load either when the road goes upwards sharply or setting off from a standing/stationary start.
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/blog/gear-hangers-break/
 

RobF

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 22, 2012
4,732
2,311
Yes, and thats the bit that really got my back up. Not a comment I was expecting or had an answer to at the time due to surprise.

The problems they came across seemed to me to be they changed the freewheel, then had a problem removing the derailleur, then later found the hanger was bent. Surely a lot of that could have been discovered within a few hours, not days.
A competent mechanic would have reached that point in the diagnosis in under an hour - if left alone to get on with it.

What happens in many shops is the mechanic is not left alone to get on with it because he also has to serve customers, answer the phone, fix a puncture for a customer who is waiting, and so on.

Even allowing that much leeway, the shop should have been in contact with you with the up to date position within a few hours.
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,124
8,224
60
West Sx RH
The bit I find unbelievable is how easy the shop likes to charge for a simple repair, a broken derailleur wheel doesn't warrant a new derailleur unless of course it was damaged and not usable. Its one of those parts I keep in my spares box along with other useful parts such as brake pads, mech cables, cable end crimps etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy Bluenoes
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
I bought a frame from Ebay last week. The derailleur hanger got bent at right angles in transit, plus the slot where the axle goes was squished right down to nothing. Aluminium is easy to work with if you move it a bit at a time and heat it to anneal it each time before you attempt to move it. I took the hanger off and put it on the gas ring. 4 taps with the hammer, re-heating after each tap, got it flat, and three pulls with a big screwdriver, reheating between each pull, opened up the slot. It works perfectly now as good and strong as new and I've been riding round on the bike for the last few days.

Aluminium work-hardens when you bend it, so you can't bend it back without it breaking, but if you heat it up, it becomes completely soft until you move it. The moving makes it work-harden, which is why you have to do it in stages. You can feel how far you can go, because it's dead easy to move at first, but soon comes to a stop.

Use this method to straighten brake levers, cranks and similar.

It's great being an engineer knowing how to sort these things!
 

aardvark5

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 25, 2014
267
84
65
ST3 Blurton
If you search you will find my thread about a Cyclotricity Stealth I owned where everything except the electrics went wrong. The bike cost £900 so if you did a quick bit of (useless) maths the bike probably cost about £100 to make. In their defense Cyclotricity gave me the best customer service I've ever experienced in 59 years by driving 140 miles to my house one Sunday morning to turn my bike into a really good machine and upgraded it. The bike was now OK but I'd now realised the best way was to buy a really good bike and use Cyclotricity's electric kits. I bought a 2nd hand Trek 4300 and a brand new Trek 7.5FX, kitted them both out with Cyclotricity kits and never looked back.
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
I do recall seeing your thread, but it was after I| had bought the bike. I dont know if that would have influenced me either way, but I have had nothing but great service from Cyclotricity when needed, albeit not quite to that extent.

My early problems were due to the electrics, not really had regular issues until now. But hopefully I can manage those better now Im learning more.
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
Well, I have just received a call from the bike shop to tell me its ready for collection.
But due to staff shortage they are closing at 2pm...."thats if you want the bike today?"
Yes, I wanted it on Saturday at the latest as thats what you promised!!

This was followed by some snide laughing on his side.

Thankfully I can leave work early today, and will be picking it up before 2.
This is going to be a very interesting conversation!
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
Picked the bike up, managed to avoid a confrontation, mainly as they had left an old guy who was very pleasant and apologetic.

When I politely pointed out that it was very impolite, unprofessional and rude to be spoken about my bike the way I had, he agreed and said that would have been the boss, and he wouldn't apologise, thats just how he is!!

Ah well. The bill was what I expected, its working again now. This despite having to readjust the rear brakes as they were totally absent, and replacing the broken lcd bracket that they had managed to snap whilst in their care. Something I didnt notice till i got home.

Lesson learned. DIY in future.
IMG_20170320_125432.jpg IMG_20170320_133713.jpg
 
  • Informative
Reactions: flecc

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,124
8,224
60
West Sx RH
That really is poor and shoddy treatment Andy.

Time to name and shame I'm afraid, the boss of that shop is a Tosser.
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,124
8,224
60
West Sx RH
Generally keep on top of things and then the likelihood of to many problems tend not to manifest themselves, visual checking and a bit of tinkering helps to keeps bikes out of the hands of a dodgy LBS. In the ownership of my bikes only one has seen a bike outlet and that is the one I collected it from as new.
My latest bit of tinkering on one bike has been to remove the 9sp cassette and derailleur and replace it with a smooth Alfine 8 IGH.
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
That really is poor and shoddy treatment Andy.

Time to name and shame I'm afraid, the boss of that shop is a Tosser.
It is tempting I must say. The guy has tried to explain his actions in reply to my facebook review, which was pacifying me a bit. But then he asks me about the alleged broken LCD bracket....the word alleged made me feel like I was making it up jut for the fun of it.
Only reason I didnt make a big thing of it was I had already left the shop, and I had a spare anyway.
 
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
The bit I find unbelievable is how easy the shop likes to charge for a simple repair, a broken derailleur wheel doesn't warrant a new derailleur unless of course it was damaged and not usable. Its one of those parts I keep in my spares box along with other useful parts such as brake pads, mech cables, cable end crimps etc.
I've just been helping a guy with his gears. He paid £200 for a new bottom bracket and rear mech, but found afterwards that he couldn't get all the gears.

Firstly, he couldn't use the small chain-ring. they told him that the springs in his front mech were worn and it needed replacing too. When I checked it, it was as close to the frame as it could go (no more adjustment) and that was about 3 mm short of where it needed to be. I guess that either they'd put in a shorter BB or left out the spacer that goes behind the flange on the drive side so that the chain-wheels were closer to the frame. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to remove the cranks and BB, and I didn't have a spacer with me anyway.

Secondly, he could only get 7 of his 9 speeds - no top or bottom gear. They hadn't set the derailleur end-stops in the right place, so I sorted it, but then the jockey wheel was catching on bottom gear. Maybe they didn't know about the tension screw at the back and deliberately set the end-stop on 2nd gear and hoped that he wouldn't notice.

He had only put his bike in for a service. It was working OK before, apart from a bit of roughness from the BB. It makes you wonder about some of these bike shops. The bike was worth about £200!
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,124
8,224
60
West Sx RH
Only reason I didnt make a big thing of it was I had already left the shop, and I had a spare anyway.
That's not the point though :(.

He treated you with contempt and as I said with poor shoddy service, naming and shaming may save someone else the misfortune of having to deal with this individual.
Certainly not some one I would not like to give business to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy Bluenoes

Fordulike

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 26, 2010
3,802
1,537
Even allowing that much leeway, the shop should have been in contact with you with the up to date position within a few hours.
Exactly Rob. Communication is key to customer satisfaction, even if the issue isn't resolved quickly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy Bluenoes

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,124
8,224
60
West Sx RH
Great to here d8veh, it's good that there are still good honest folk out there willing to help others out.
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
I really dont like naming and shaming as I'm sure for every one bad review they have 10 good ones, but its only fair people are aware of what can go wrong.

Anyone who has travelled the Trans Pennine Trail between Manchester and Warrington will know them.

Devereaux Cycles.
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,142
6,315
i only found 1 bike shop willing to help me out when my xd hub got stuck on my wheel.
even they did not know what a xd hub was let alone remove it and fit a new one.

did they get it off yes but only with me in the work shop using there tools helping them as never seen 1 b4 and it took 3 of us a fkn hour to remove it.

http://www.noahsark.co.uk/bike-service-in-gloucestershire-i51

that is the only place i would send my bike to get a service but there is a 3 month waiting list :eek:
 

Andy Bluenoes

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 31, 2016
849
305
54
uk
i only found 1 bike shop willing to help me out when my xd hub got stuck on my wheel.
even they did not know what a xd hub was let alone remove it and fit a new one.

did they get it off yes but only with me in the work shop using there tools helping them as never seen 1 b4 and it took 3 of us a fkn hour to remove it.
I can believe that, and wondered if that was there reason for saying it was a difficult bike to work on.

Ive cracked the back wheel removal now, done it a few times swapping tyres over in the hope that if i get a puncture i can get it done at the roadside....I can changed a tyre in about 15 minutes now, which inst bad on the monster of a wheel.

Doing it in the dark when its pi55ing down might be a different story ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: D C

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,142
6,315
the rrp of the parts put them all off imo. 2 even put the phone down on me pmsl.

wheel £500
cassette £300
xd hub £90
hope disc brake £45
 

Advertisers