If anyone is looking for a grapil, my lbs – sprockets in kilmarnock have just taken a trade in which looks like it’s been polished more than ridden. No idea what size it is – looks M or L and it’s black, but it’s immaculate. It won’t be on their site yet, maybe give them a bell if ye need details.

Nearly there, need to set the star fangled nut, fit front caliper and trim the brakehoses.

Forks Not sorted 🙁

Still, just had a payday CRC splurge – going for black with (mismatched) ano green touches – just for STW disapproval points
fireeye stem (ano green)
Funn bars
cheapo seatpost (If i’m a good boy I meight get a reverb for my birthday)
Trail king 2.2 front, mountain king 2.2 rear
deore trail pedals
slx cassette
rt66 rotors
snaggle tooth 1x ring ano green
grips with green lockrings
some other boring bits

Next payday = forks and build!!!!

Not sticking with the Wolverines, Pete?

Friggin wolverines, best tyre I’ve ever ridden, the bastards.

Might have jst got some (probably stolen) forks off pink bike too!

Well, finally got mine built up, ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow. Still need to find an old inner tube for a chain stay protector and the saddle height is a bit high, bit apart from that I’m pretty happy with it. Doesn’t weigh as much as I feared it would!

Please forgive the weeds and the paving needs a jet wash I know I know….

How has everyone routed the brake cable around the bottom bracket?

Just doing some maintenance on mine, and noticed the cable has already worn a noticeable groove into the swingarm.

Pic of the area on bikemagic here…

http://cdn4.coresites.mpora.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/100_05382.jpg

HH, I’ve done mine exactly the same as you, but I badly attached a frame protector sticker there so its OK for the moment. Possibly just need to find a better way of protecting that area of the frame.

Got my second proper ride in at the end of last week – up the glentress red and down the black. Other than my having lost a lot of fitness over the winter it was brilliant. Just so happy riding over stuff and keen to accelerate. I wouldn’t exactly call it a playful ride, but that’s not really what I’m after. I need something that it composed so I can concentrate on actually riding better.

Mine snapped today at the weld between the chainstay and the forged main pivot on the drive-side, landing a mighty 8 inch bunny hop. Fourth ride. Underwhelmed. More annoyed by the walk to the end of the ride. Luckily a good Samaritan gave me and the bike a lift back to the car.

The weld is clearly a shocker, with an obvious lack of penetration. TBH it is barely more than a cosmetic chunky weld on the outside of the tube.

Will contact retailer and Madison in the morning to explore options. I wonder if the mythical redesigned rear ends are sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be despatched? If they exist…

Hmm, my lower shock mount creaks under load and if I’m honest the back end seems a bit flexy on hard cornering.

@TroutWrestler – OH. BALLS. 🙁 !! I guess there was always always that risk given their track record… Still doesn’t make it any easier to stomach. Please let us know how you get on, just in case we need the info…. Good luck!

I’ve just been out on mine for its maiden voyage, 30 mins in I notice some rub from the gear cable at the bb area. Protector now applied, scratchy Surrey sand already done the damage though…

@TroutWrestler, keep us updated on this please. I keep checking my lads frame after he’d ridden it. So far it’s all OK.

jamesoz – Member
Hmm, my lower shock mount creaks under load and if I’m honest the back end seems a bit flexy on hard cornering.

Check the bolts holding your dropout plates to the frame, I had a replacement black frame, rode for a month or so & was taking the wheel out & to change a tyre, things were barely held on. Lots of loctite & a torque wrench later & they haven’t moved in 6 months.

As to upgraded swingarms- I wouldn’t hold your breath, I suspect madison got rid of all their grapil related stuff when they were clearing out the frames cheap.

Buy cheap
Buy twice
Gets coat, puts body armour on, runs into distance

Aww crap.

Trout Wrestler – take it it was one of the ukbikesdepot batch. Got assurances from them it was a redesigned rear.

@TroutWrestler, is your frame from Cycle Gear/UKBikes Depot or one of the eBay ones that Dooleys Cycles/ianian5251 was selling?

Cycle Gear/UKBikes Depot said that their stock of Grapil frames featured the redesigned swing arms, and they are at least cosmetically different to the original swing arms because they lack both genesisbikes.co.uk web address printed onto the inner chain stay on the non-drive side, and the token Genesis chain stay protector on the drive side that were on the original swing arms.

<edit>Just reread earlier in this thread on page 2 that kix12 messaged the eBay seller frames are 2014 models with lifetime warranty, so presumably the same updated frame as Cycle Gear.

I was just wondering if your swing arm had the Genesis website address and Genesis chain stay protector on it indicating it might be an older style swing arm?

Managed to find a photo that shows an original Grapil frame courtesy of Drover Cycles and presumably the redesigned swing arm on courtesy of poster Big M (hope you don’t mind me using it as an example, let me know if you’d prefer me to remove it), the welds do look different between the two, but disappointing if they’ve botched the welds on the replacement swing arms too.

Either way, I’m gonna ride mine like I stole it, and what will be, will be. 🙂

I had a Green grapil (snapped) which was replaced with a black grapil frame (not snapped yet) but to my eye the swingarm looked much the same

I got an ebay one… I don’t recall seeing the chainstay graphics being present, though I’ll check tonight. Mine has been absolutely fine, mainly as it’s still in the box in the attic awaiting time to build 🙁

FWIW the ebay seller Dooleys/ianian confirmed they were new rear ends.

Haha @gavinckirby I just looked at the photo and though cool mine looks like the one on then right…. then realised it was my pic 🙂

My pic looks like it’s been welded in an arc rather than the straight weld in the first pic.

The images I can find on the web of the broken ones seem to be of the straight weld… fingers crossed.

Check the bolts holding your dropout plates to the frame, I had a replacement black frame, rode for a month or so & was taking the wheel out & to change a tyre, things were barely held on. Lots of loctite & a torque wrench later & they haven’t moved in 6 months.

Thanks, you were spot on. The dropout bolts were very slightly loose, looks like the loctite wasn’t reapplied when it was swapped. Creak free now, could have sworn it was the shock pivot.

If anyone would like theirs tested give me a shout, for a small fee I’ll see if I can add to my present total of 2 snapped Grapils. 😉

And there’s no point keeping an eye on it, there’s nothing externally to see, it’ll be perfect then it’ll be in two bits.

Just for balance, I have had 2 (one replaced under warranty after over a year for a completely unrelated issue), both have been ridden relatively hard (the latest one did a week of uplift in the Alps last summer), and neither have suffered from any cracking….. yet. There, that has put the kiss of death on it.

HOWEVER… let us not talk about the longevity of the shock pivot bushes. If you have been riding for more than a month I suggest you check them out in case they need replacing before they start to wear a groove in the axles.

Mine was from Dooley’s. The swingarm is definitely the one on the left with the graphics and the straight weld.

I hope Madison have spare upgraded swingarms. Dooley’s have said to return the frame to them or to any Genesis dealer (with proof of purchase).

I have emailed Genesis via their website asking if a replacement rear end is likely to be available. If so I will take the complete bike to my local Alpine Bikes
I am happy to fit the new rear end if Genesis permit it. I would rather not strip the entire bike.

If new rears are not available, and frames are not available, I’ll be a bit miffed as I had to buy new 142mm wheels, which don’t fit anything else in the stable. A minor 1st world problem really.

I’ll keep you updated. I wonder how long Genesis will take to reply.

Well I guess tht’s a relief for most of us. Still not much use to you. Might mean there’s afew new back ends knocking about though.

I too have a frame from Dooley’s. There does appear to be a distinction between the welds on frames from different retailers suggesting two distinct construction runs. Mine is certainly of the square type and the swing arm has the graphics on the chainstay. All rather ominous really. Don’t relish a catastrophic failure during a fast descent.
Shame as it’s had it’s maiden run out in the mountains and I felt it rode very well. Watch this space.

Mine is now in with Alpine Bikes as they are a Genesis dealer. The “Customer Services” at Madison were unable/unwilling to tell me whether Madison had any spare rear-ends in stock.

CS:”You’ll need to take it to a dealer who can check whether we have the part in stock. “

Me:”Can you tell me whether you have it in stock?”

CS:”I’d need to know the part number, that’s why you need to take it to a dealer.”

Me:”If it take to the dealer, I doubt they’ll know off the top of their head the part number for a Grapil rear end.”

CS:”They can contact us to find out.”

Me:”Do you know the part number?”

CS:”I’m afraid not, the dealer would need to check.”

TBH I gave up, but the fella at Alpine Bikes said he’d be on to Genesis in the morning and let me know. You can’t say fairer than that.

@TroutWrestler, it’ll be interesting to see what Alpine Bikes report back, and hopefully it’ll make more sense than that conversation you had with Madison’s customer service. 😀

I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility that they’ll keep the revised swing arms in stock given it’s a known issue, and they should be easier to store (space wise) in a warehouse than entire frames. Though if they do have replacements, it will be interesting to see whether those are the same as graphic-less UKBikesDepot ones.

Regardless, I hope you get it sorted or at least Madison step up with an acceptable solution for you.

LOL @ Big M, hope you didn’t mind… it was by far and away the highest resolution photo I could find of a confirmed redesigned swing arm from UKBikesDepot that showed the welding, I would’ve taken a photo of my Grapil frame (also a UKBikesDepot Special – but I wasn’t at home at the time).

But it certainly does seem that it’s the straighter welded arms that have experienced the failures, fingers crossed indeed. Welding aluminium properly is more difficult than steel but it’s hardly a dark art, It does seem highly unlikely that they’d botch it again simply to try and offload the frames cheap – potentially exposing themselves to additional brand damage/refund/repair/replacement costs down the line. These were well developed frames, and an inherent design (as opposed to production) flaw would’ve been apparent long before.

@catfishsalesco, thanks for the dropout/loctite tip, not something I’d have thought of checking, but I’ll be sure to do that when I build up my frame in the coming weeks. 🙂

UPDATE: Alpine Bikes have been excellent. True to their word they called mid morning to let me know what was happening. The rear end is to be removed from the bike and sent to Genesis. It is being treated as a priority and Genesis aim to turn it around in 48 hours. Alpine Bikes will re-fit the rear end and let me know when it’s ready.

If it plays out as anticipated, that will be a good outcome. Here’s hoping the new chainstays have the curved weld…

that sounds like great service so far!

nice work from Alpine Bike there…

Finished 🙂

useful looking machine that, fella.

where’s the view? nice.

mines done too. pics tomorrow!

My votes top of spooky wood?

can someone who isnt quite so special make these work, please?

cheers Mowgli. Well chuffed with the blighter. Not ridden in anger yet but up and down the front street tezts bode well. Not bad for less than £850. Christened it Phil.

Alpine Bikes have just called to say the Grapil, complete with a re-designed chainstay, is ready to collect. Will collect and ride asap. Alpine Bikes have been excellent.