TroutWrestler is there any chance you can get the Madison part number for the replacement swing arm from Alpine Bikes?

I have a friend with a broken green Grapil just sitting in his garage (he swore he’d never ride it again after it snapped), that I might be interested in taking on if one of these new swing arms could be obtained for it.

Thanks!

I’ve got a couple of hundred miles on mine now. Had some thrashing around some trail centres in Wales. Lots of rocks drops and jumps. Still in one piece. Seems like a good bike, there’s no MTB’ing I’d want to do that I can’t do on this.

I’ve bodged some a cable rub protector onto the swing arm, but it’s nigh on impossible to get it to stick to that CNC/forged linkage thing at the bottom bracket area.

I’ve wrapped an offcut from a chainstay protector, with a slot cut into it around the cnc part. It’ll either kill or cure.

I’m still contemplating the integrated headset, looks like it would’ve fitted…

Try
https://sugru.com/buy/?gclid=CPqc-ayisMQCFSsKwwodyw8Arw

For protection

I’ll try to find out when I collect it. Alpine Bikes have been much more helpful than the Madison “helpline”.

I picked up the bike tonight. Looks good. The new swingarm is the curved weld design with no graphics. Time will tell if I trust it enough for a 10-day Colorado/Utah trip.

I asked about the part number, but the lad who I spoke to didn’t know. Apparently any Genesis dealer should be able to tell you.

The guys at sprockets cycles in Kilmarnock have an ex demo Grapil with the new swing arm fitted 1×10 set up with s dropped all for £1099.99
http://www.sprocketscycles.com/grapil-20-18#.VQtatIqQGJI

I haven’t heard of any problems with the revised swing arm

That demo bike appears to have the snappy chainstay…

Oooof, they do need long hoses don’t they! Longer than my large anthem 29er.

New brakes time then. This isn’t quite the cheap rebuild of my carbon 456 as I was aiming for.*

* well its still darn cheap for what it is becoming…

Turns out the new style swing arm snaps too, mine let go mid corner today on the drive side.

Both being Madison brands I cant see how Genesis got it so wrong while Saracen can happily win world championship DH races

I’ve actually been back to Alpine bikes. I had an annoying creak, when pedalling under load. It turned out to be the dropouts, but investigations revealed that the seatstays are bent. One of the pivots is about 8-10mm out compared to the other. It is difficult to get the pivot bolt in on whatever is the second side.

AB are going to contact Genesis on Monday. My position is the bend on the seatstays is as a result of the snap of the chainstay.

hope you get yours sorted Troutwrestler. Good bikes when they are working!

any pics of the snap jamesoz?

*Groan*

Jamesoz – hard lines dude, your warrantee will still be good though, hopefully? And if they’ve run out of chainstays you might get a Kili flyer out of it*!

*this statement has no basis in reality but if madison are listening: do it, doooo iiit!

Jeez, how hard are you guys riding these things! Does seem to be pot luck which frames break and which ones don’t. Or do I simply ride like a wuss?

welshfarmer – Member
Jeez, how hard are you guys riding these things! Does seem to be pot luck which frames break and which ones don’t. Or do I simply ride like a wuss?
POSTED 31 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Middle aged man with a prolapsed disc hard.

AGAIN it looks like extremely poor weld penetration. The chainstay is literally pulling off the casting under tension. The weld has come off in a one-er. There is more contact between the pieces on the newer design, but the weld still looks poor.

Anyone from Madison/Genesis able to comment? Someone in design/QC must have something to add…

Time for Madison to give up on this one I think. Glad I opted out when I had the chance.

I’ve had a Grapil for a couple of years now after a frame swap. I snapped the chainstay about a year ago but wasn’t covered under warranty as I wasn’t the original purchaser. When I questioned Madison about the design/welding quality issue, here’s the response I got:

These frames/bikes were never withdrawn from sale, it was a problem that only affected a small minority of the bikes, a large majority of the frames have no issue at all.

You would be able to buy the rear chain stay however through one of our dealers. All dealers can be found at the following link: http://www.madison.co.uk/dealers.

Kind Regards,

Helen Baines
Warranty Assistant Manager

Seems like that “small minority”is increasing!

Well I’ve stripped it down and emailed ukbikesdepot. What I can’t get out of my head is if it’s replaced and it fails again at a critical moment before a drop or on a narrow track I’m gonna get hurt. As it is it now has a dent in the down tube where I abandoned ship.

So maybe something similar that has 26 inch wheels 31.6 post and a 142 back end?

You can still get Saracen Ariel frames with 26ins wheels & 140 or so mm travel, the 14x. Could be worth seeing if Madison will replace for one of those..

So maybe something similar that has 26 inch wheels 31.6 post and a 142 back end?

You can still get Saracen Ariel frames with 26ins wheels & 140 or so mm travel, the 14x. Could be worth seeing if Madison will replace for one of those..

I’m pretty sure they’re 30.9mm, Madison offered me a couple of options from Saracen but I didn’t really fancy any of their bikes and it also would have meant buying a new dropper post. Isn’t there some reports of linkage tolerance issues on 14x bikes too?

Bandit 26 (later ones) fits the bill if you’re buying 2nd hand, fun fun fun bikes compared to the Grapil.

The grapil is 30.9 too. At least both mine have been!

My Grapil is definitely 31.6

My mistake. 31.6. Not sure why I had it in my head it was 30.9. Glad I didn’t win that Reverb on Ebay now 🙂

Oh the joys of getting old

I had a Saracen 14X, no problems with the linkage for me, it’s an all Alu frame and I think the wobbly back end came with the newer bikes that switched to a carbon rear triangle.

Great bike though, would happily have another….bastards stole my one!

Update on the bent seatstays on the Grapil.

Genesis wanted the whole bike to assess the distortion of the seatstay. The seatstay sits about 8mm too high at the driveside seatstay pivot. When the bolt is through the pivot, but not engaged with the threads it is gripped by the shear force across the pivot, and it can’t be pulled out by hand. I need to compress the seatstay down to remove/insert the bolt.

On the nds, the inverse is true with the seatstay down relative to the chainstay.

Photos have been sent to Genesis by Alpine.

Dropped mine off in the week, apparently the only new design to fail. The whole frames gone back to genesis I believe. It’s done maybe 150 miles of Swinley, so nothing that rough.

Probably a good idea to actually get out & ride mine then before it breaks out of sheer boredom sat in the garage 😳

I’m half thinking about stripping the back end out of mine to check the alignment of the rear triangle… Just a thought.

Well, I guess it had to happen 🙁

After nearly 12 months with this, my second frame, the non-driveside chainstay finally went pop tonight. Bare in mind this is an original design, has done a week at Les Arcs and 1000 miles of natural singletrack around the Brecon Beacons and I guess it has feared far better than many of them. I heard it crack and on the next bump felt it shift, so was able to stop before any more damage was done. I am going to get my brother (a TIG welder by trade) to see if he can repair it and add some extra bracing around the whole shebang. Meanwhile I guess I will be looking for another frame. Hmmm, Liteville 301 anyone? 🙂

Grapil – lump of iron useful only for lobbing off cliffs.

Oh well at least I didn’t do anything stupid like buying one.

D’OH!

Well mines been returned, pretty damned quickly with nice new chainstays. Unfortunately the head tube has been squashed.

I’m really enjoying riding mine, potential issue aside, I think it’s a great frame. Running it massively mismatched with a 150mm fork + external headset, but as we all know, it’s unlikely to fail at the headset first!

If it lasts 1-2 years I’ll be happy, would have lost more than it cost in depreciation in that time on nearly any other new FS anyway.

@ Jamesoz. Is yours a large? I can provide you with a perfect front end with a new 1 degree slackset for a good price. Or if you want you can sell me your new chainstays 🙂

Sorry Welshfarmer, it’s been taken back again by courier.

I’m really enjoying riding mine, potential issue aside, I think it’s a great frame. Running it massively mismatched with a 150mm fork + external headset, but as we all know, it’s unlikely to fail at the headset first!

Been happy with my first outing too 🙂 off to the Brecons Beacons for a couple of weekends at the end of the month, so will see how it fairs then

OK, finally literally minutes away from its first outing.

What pressure are folk running on their rear shock and how much do you weigh? Just after a starting point…

Ta

No idea, 12st 4oz, mine’s in the boot of the car now, see if i can a cheeky hour in after work. Assuming the arse doesn’t fall off you’ll find it a little ripper of a bike. 😀