The one I saw looked exactly like GaryC’s.

Going from that photo the frame hasn’t snapped though has it, the welds have failed.
Poor QC @ the factory rather than a poor design shirely?
Obviously not a great but it does mean it should only affect one batch (assuming some arse kicking happens) & is easily fixable long term?

(oh please lets hope “rob whatever his face was” start up about Ragley QC again, though is this the same factory?)

EDIT: and for the hater’s, did everyone abandon or doom Trek when there early EX’s all broke @ the chainstay?
Every (yes every) manufacturer have failures, it’s unfortunate for NP, but ain’t the end of the world.

aye, even the big boys (specialized with their demo 7, orange with a lot of early patriots) have big problems with things going wrong. I guess the only way to avoid that happening is not to buy a frame within the first 18 months of production

I’ve had 2 bikes in the past snap, first was a giant where the swing arm broke 3 times by the time the 3rd went on they had modified it with some extra gussets the second was an orange patriot LT which snapped at the shock mount. As said above every manufacturer has problems mentioned above, and thats what warranty periods are good for, hopefully NP will be able to sort out the problems.

I remember that Specialized had the some problem with chainstays snapping on the ’05 onwards Enduro, & they brought out a reinforced chainstay.

The bike in the pic isn’t mine btw, it belongs to a friend of a friend ( no, really !! ) & that happened in the Lake District a couple of weeks ago.

EDIT: I had a Yeti 575 that I bought new in 2006 & 3 weeks later the lefthand dropout parted company with the chainstay, & looking closely at it, all the weld material was still on the dropout & none whatsoever was visible on the chainstay.

that looks less of a snap and more of a weld failure.

I’m sure that was a massive consolation to the bloke with his bike in two halves.

Doesn’t matter how it broke. It broke.

Doesn’t matter how it broke. It broke.

But if it’s a QC problem rather than a design problem, it’s something that can be solved instantly, rather than having to go back to the drawing board.

Hi Singletrack forum readers,

This thread has been brought to our attention by a concerned Nukeproof fan and we feel that it is appropriate to reassure our customers with a statement. We have had a small number of customers who have had issues with the chainstays on their Nukeproof Mega frames. An isolated welding issue was to blame and only a small batch was affected. We have replaced these chainstays free of charge within 2 days of being notified and are confident that the vast majority of customers will have no issues but if any further arise they will be dealt with as a matter of utmost urgency. The Nukeproof Mega is designed as a heavy hitting All Mountain bike and we wouldn’t want any of our customers to feel the bike is not up to the job. It has been extensively tested by the ChainReactionCycles/Nukeproof race team who have experienced no problems with their bikes and the vast majority of our customers have been extremely happy with their purchase. I hope this clarifies the situation, we are all away at Eurobike at the moment so apologies for the delayed response.

cheers for the response.

Well, thought I’d add to this thread with some slightly more positive news.

I bought one of the first larges available. I built it up straight away and have ridden it relatively regularly since (it’s not my only bike though, and not the most suitable for local trails, so obviously cannot vouch for any long-term durability).

Build quality – I built the frame up from scratch, and was impressed with the finish (raw ano version). Some of the welds aren’t exactly pretty, but nothing that cosmetically caused concern. The (Nukeproof) headset was a bit of a bugger to fit, but no harder than most. Head tube certainly wasn’t over machined though.

Ride quality – with a 160mm fork on, lets face it, it’s a bit wandering on the climbs, but really not too bad. I’m not sure how much it weighs, but it felt heavier than I was expecting, despite a “sensible” build. Havingf said that, it rides ok, and a 36t x 36/11 1×10 set up gives me all the ratios I need. In comparison to my 456, I find it a little less “playful”. It needs a fair amount of rider input to get the most out of it. Descending, it is extremely stable at speed, and the Monarch shock feels well balanced in comparison to the 2-step Lyrics up-front. It took a while to find the sweet-spot in the shock… too much air and I felt very much perched on the bike. Too little and I was using all the travel riding off kerbs.

The bike feels a natural in the air and incredibly well balanced, whether jumping or drops (think the biggest drop I’ve taken was about 6ft, on to a bit of a flat landing… not entirely intentional)… no snapped stays, yet :-/

I’ve ridden friend’s Patriots, 5s and Alpine 160s, as well as a Transition Covert. I’d say the Nukeproof compares pretty well to all of them, particularly taking into account the price.

Overall, I’m happy for what it is. I wanted a bike that would replace my DH bike, but could be taken on big mountain rides and ridden up as well as down… as well as something to offer a silly alternative to the 456 for rougher trail centre ragging. Part of me wonders whether I should have gone for something slightly short travel/more “trail”, but that’s not really a flaw of the bike.

Nice to have an official response – I’m definitely still getting one!

Thanks Martin. Loving my mega but am a little worried about the weld issue. Can you advise of frame numbers that were in that small batch so owners can check if their frame is at risk?

Great to have feedback back from the Brand, hopefully an isolated incident as he says.

Nearly finished my build up. Glad I got small as they are quite long.

Be a good shout if Nukeproof replaced the faulty bits of all the megas in or close to that batch then it could save a big crash for someone and set a few minds at ease too

Thanks Mr Hotlines: Nice to hear from you. It makes all the difference in a close-knit community such as this where rumours get out of hand quickly!

I can’t wait to test my new bike now!

trout – Member

Be a good shout if Nukeproof replaced the faulty bits of all the megas in or close to that batch then it could save a big crash for someone and set a few minds at ease too

certainly would.

I’ve now seen 2 broken ones. (one in this thread and one in my LBS waiting to go to Hotlines). They’re both silver. A quick poll: what colour bikes has anyone seen with snapped chainstays?

An isolated welding issue was to blame and only a small batch was affected.

I think it only appropriate to recall the identified batch before a Nukeproof Mega owner gets seriously injured.

I was riding with the Lakes rider that snapped both the rear chainstays in the above photograph,a couple of minutes earlier or later would have resulted in a Mountain Rescue, and a trip to the local A and E,not the kind of publicity a bike manufacturer needs on the launch of a superb and well thought out bike.

Along with the owner of the snapped mega, theres quite a few well respected members of the mountainbike community looking closely at this thread. (even troutie :wink:)I would have thought it well within Hotlines interests to offer some sort of recompense,before catastrophic faliure (for the affected party) at such an early stage of the bikes development, and saving the brands reputation longer term.

Its still an exellent bike, and YES, I am considering buying one,but not before I am happy with the batch number 🙂

martinhotlines – Member
Hi Singletrack forum readers,

This thread has been brought to our attention by a concerned Nukeproof fan and we feel that it is appropriate to reassure our customers with a statement. We have had a small number of customers who have had issues with the chainstays on their Nukeproof Mega frames. An isolated welding issue was to blame and only a small batch was affected. We have replaced these chainstays free of charge within 2 days of being notified and are confident that the vast majority of customers will have no issues but if any further arise they will be dealt with as a matter of utmost urgency. The Nukeproof Mega is designed as a heavy hitting All Mountain bike and we wouldn’t want any of our customers to feel the bike is not up to the job. It has been extensively tested by the ChainReactionCycles/Nukeproof race team who have experienced no problems with their bikes and the vast majority of our customers have been extremely happy with their purchase. I hope this clarifies the situation, we are all away at Eurobike at the moment so apologies for the delayed response.

Brilliant response and professionalism of the company
Kills all worries and worth investing with this high attitude to business .

Thing is, it’s the sort of bike you want to take off to the alps or do enduro racing and the like without wondering if the back wheel will fall off (speaking from experience as a Hemlock owner here! Mine snapped at a convenient time and was sorted fantastically well, but I’d not have been happy if it’d done it on day one of a £1000 holiday in France, no matter how fast they replaced it)

If it’s a bad batch then that suggests a really high fail rate from a small range of frames, rather than a slightly high fail rate from the whole run of frames… And if they know which batch then releasing that information and replacing on request rather than waiting for them to snap seems reasonable.

(I would still buy one, still seems like my sort of bike, but I’d be asking questions first!)

Kills all worries

I dont think I would like to do Garburn pass on a bike knowing I “might” need to wash TWO bikes by the time i reached the bottom!! 😐

Northwind + 1 😉

Mines silver and I think an early one too so certainly have worries

I am a heavy bugger and like rocky stuff but not a flyer as gravity is too strong Its the not knowing that is the worst now will it wont it is now at the back of the mind .

also what if it survives for 2 years and 3 months then snaps ( had a pace do that a couple of years ago )

I guess an email to hotlines with the frame no wont hurt.

The snapped frame I alluded too is the same one Gavgas mentions and as shown in Gary C’s photo, so isnt an additional snappage…

Surely Hotlines could issue replacement chainstays to owners rather than issuing a recall on the whole batch? That way people wouldn’t be without their bike for longer than it takes them or their LBS to swap them out.

wondering if mine was an early one as it was a display model.

They know about the issue, if they don’t recall them properly and someone gets hurt, they should be sued.

It’s the only way to prevent Beta testing on consumers.

Hopefully this is all under control now (as I fancied one)

But I may have to watch from the sidelines a bit

If the issue is one batch of poor welding as stated by the NP person above then its not really Beta testing, just bad luck.

Agree they should recall the frames in the poor batch to avoid injury though.

+1 dunstick

hotlines knowing and admitting there is a batch of frames out there with a potentially dangerous fault with them is seriously asking for trouble..

I hope they have’nt sold any in the states, if so kiss good bye to your company, homes and underpants if one snaps and injures a yank!

If I were hotlines I would be issuing a recall on that batch sharpish

+1 for Sodajim…

was tempted …but, as difficult as it was, decided to wait until the first batch is out of the trails…
seems that it was a wise decision,
I had an “issue” with my blue pig from the first batch, and even with perfect warranty service from CRC, –thanks again !- it was really annoying..but at least not dangerous…

its still on my wishlist…but I´ll wait until problems are solved…

Also mine is broken, SX stay, not snapped fortunately, because i’ve seen the crack just in time.
A little disappointed, but i’m still thinking that the Mega is a great bike !!!!
I work as MTB Guide, and this season i’ve done about 35.000mt of climb during my Tours with this bike, and i’ve never found another “total machine” like this (up and down).
Fortunately, during the next 10 days i will not have MTB tours, so i hope i can replace it 😉
Cheers, Luca !!

cracked on the weld?

Yes, is the weld, a clear crack about 200 degrees around the stay….
I’ll post some photo later !

as long as its a weld issue,no design fault.

hope the new uns are spot on with welding,as the frame sounds a winner on the ride front.

Glad you are OK funbiketrentino. So the recall hasn’t happened. Just a matter of time before someone is hurt.

I would be looking for more than 2 year warranty, before they get my money.

Hopefully you’ll be sent a properly welded frame replacement soon.

Here the photos.
I hope i can help someone else before a “drama” 😉

Anyway, in the last 5 years, i had 3 snapped frames (MDE, Specy and now Nuke), and a broken suspension link (Giant Reign X).
I can just say that if you do a constant use of the bike, these things can happen !!!

not sure why a snapped chainstay would result in a hospital visit? On a bike with other things keeping the rear end in shape (as it is on a 4 bar bike) the bb drop (depending on chain length would determine how far) and you’d just grind to a halt. I ripped the entire backend off a canondale gemini and just stopped, without any real issues.

Snapped Cannondale by 5lab, on Flickr

The broken Mega chainstay somewhere up there ^^ in the thread was mine. Glad it failed during a slow part of the ride. I could not fault the way the bike rode, just seems I was unlucky with the batch mine came from. Anyway I am pleased to report the warranty was handled without any fuss or bother by Hotlines.

you the guy from the lakes Max?

Surely if there is a welding failure on the chainstays then this raises questions of the long-term stress integrity of the other welds of the frame? I wouldn’t buy one until they are recalled and new frames are fatigue destruction tested. If there going to have a lot of potential warranty or even legal issues then I imagine this would be a prudent and cost-effective step to take. It would also better their image as a dependable, customer-focused brand.