[Closed] Very badly made Bronson

So you saw one that did that, have you seen any others? Do you think they all do that and nobody has said anything?

I can't believe that nobody has bottomed out a Bronson until now! 🙄

mikewsmith - Member
So you saw one that did that, have you seen any others? Do you think they all do that and nobody has said anything?

SC owners not saying anything other than glow things about their bikes? Very possible 😉

It's all down to Science.

Surely this could be said of any bike frame though.

ah second ever post, first not flogging something. Somebody got a spare troll account?

How big was the guy riding it?

[img] [/img]

i thought the idea was the wheels taco'd before the frame was damaged.

Username is science and drawing conclusions from a sample size of 1? Oh teh ironing.

I had a 2012 Mondraker Dune that seemed as though it had been made without the use of any measuring tools whatsoever. One of many "issues" it had was the seat stay brace smashing into the seat tube on full compression. Another was the air can rubbing on the frame through the stroke. Oh and then there was the rear wheel steering that kicked in a few minutes into the ride after all the pivot bolts became undone.

Didn't have it long

i thought the idea was the wheels taco'd before the frame was damaged.

No, the rear tyre uses the natural pneumatic properties to damp the impact as it hits the frame, so preventing the shock sticking... #sciencefact

people eh, more money than sense some of 'em.

Maybe the shock stroke was longer than what the frame was designed for (either faulty shock or wrong one fitted)? That could push the link past where it should be.

Maybe it was one that slipped through QC? Given the number they sell I'd expect to hear the odd "horror story" now and them.

I can't believe that the OP has never seen a bike frame fail before, or that s/he believes that any other manufacturer hasn't suffered catastrophic failures. If these frames were all badly made or poorly designed, the web would be full of these stories and it's not.
It's bad luck is all.

I'm amused that soemone with a name like 'Science' can ignore the principles of that so easily.

If the frame can't use it's whole travel, it's either been manufactured badly or designed really really badly.

Or has been assembled wrongly, has a faulty/wrong shock or many other potential issues.

Not that Santa Cruz are indescructible; oh dear me, no.

Any one own a 04 onwards enduro? You know the one with the snapping stays, or a commencal from when they did that...

How can they sell such shit....

Anyway we should really stop feeding it

and lapierre and yeti and Intense.

My Intense is holding up fine and I look like that dude in the pic above.

😛

It's purely a faulty frame tolerance and does not reflect most SC frames like any other brand will have the odd faulty frame.

Better that than a recall for a completely shoddy design in the first place ala Cannonfail etc

A friend has a 2007 5.5 and it's still going strong!
Not all of them did though.......

i heard of the v10 doing it at woburn but that's the first time have seen it in n person and not the first time it had happened either or the only one.
mad eh

BONKERS!

But true.

I look like that dude in the pic above

nope....pretty sure that's Binners...now that he's quit smoking, he's been spending the fag money in Greggs!! 😛

outrageous.

I had a friend who had no friends and he's never heard of anything being badly built so it couldn't of happened.

😉

Was it a British made Bronson, possibly was badly built.

All the Bronsons i have seen have been on the Canal.

just saying...

But it did happen. I saw it with my friend, who I've never met befores eyes.

It's not bad luck, it's either bad design or bad tolerances in manufacturing. Bad ****ing luck? Sorry your £2k bike frame doesn't work, just bad luck. **** that shit.

When was the last time you saw durability or structural testing mentioned in a review? When was the last time you saw a bike get less than 3/5 in review?

I'm not hating on Santa Cruz, I'm hating on the way everyone seems to be happy with the mediocre crap that's flooding the market.

Don't let companies force generic lazy tat into your hand and tell you its gold.

I ****ing love mountain biking, if you let it die I will find you. And I will wrestle you.

Pics? Was it the lower or upper linkage?

Or are you going to avoid those questions here as well?

[i]I will wrestle you.[/i]

Could we agree on rock, paper scissors? Best of three.

the linkage went past the cam action and jammed

It's not bad luck, it's either bad design or bad tolerances in manufacturing. Bad * luck? Sorry your £2k bike frame doesn't work, just bad luck. * that shit.

Don't let companies force generic lazy tat into your hand and tell you its gold.

Is it just me or are there two people posting about the same bike?

i was there. he is talking about the same bike 🙂
i would suggest science is having a boring day in his office.......

Cheers, I was getting most confused!

i have heard it happens but it is the first time i have witnessed it. and the owner said its not the first time either

The way SC linkages work they get close to the inflexion point (if thats the right term?) at the end of the stroke. Perhaps the bottom-out bumper had failed allowing the shock to travel the small extra distance that allowed the link to flip over. Or potentially.. was the rider running offset bushes?

no standard ctd shock iirc

When was the last time you saw durability or structural testing mentioned in a review?

Component durability is mentioned quite a lot in the reviews I read. Or if its a test of a new item the writer usually states its new and not had much mileage so they are unsure of durability and will comment once they have put in adequate mileage.

I believe Santa Cruz posted videos a while back of their frame testing rigs. If have a search on You Tube I'm sure you'll find them.

As said already, people usually complain and shout a lot when bikes don't work correctly. If this incident wasn't a one off we would have heard about it before.

Any one own a 04 onwards enduro? You know the one with the snapping stays,

Yes, after 5 years and a crash big enough to put me in hospital for 3 weeks, my chain stay snapped (we crack a little bit) Spesh replaced it - I could have waited 2 weeks for the correct silver, but I got a redish pink one in a couple of days - anyway, I understand this isn't the point of your post 😉

I'd be very surprised if the Bronson in question was 'right' my friend has one, whilst it's very boring to talk about how competent they are, unfortunately they are - it's by all accounts a very well made, very flexible (in terms of use) bike which is something of a miracle considering how small Santa Cruz is compared to Giant or Trek.

I actually think there's a genuine issue lurking here, albeit not a very well articulted one!

I've got a 2015 Cube Stereo Carbon which I bought new in December - probably the most expensive bike I'll ever own.
So far:
- the reverb has been replaced under warranty (same problem has since re-surfaced on the replacement unit)
- both tyres replaced under warrenty (Hans Dampf side-nobbles ripping off, a well documented issue)
- rear wheel bearings 'comically worn' (in the words of the mechanics at Bike Park Wales) in the rear DT Swiss hub. I've never worn out a set of bearings & I've run many sets of new and second hand wheels over the years. I don't cover much mileage, sadly!

Now let's keep this in context - non of these are catastrpohic failures, but they are all expensive bits which shouldn't fall apart quite this easily. I'm left with the feeling that the industry is too focussed on rushing the next big thing onto the shelves and less concerned with proper product development and quality control.

Overall I agree with Science's sentiment - we shouldn't put up with being fobbed off with expensive crap.

I'm trying to find pictures of broken Bronsons because I'm bored and all I have is this,
[img] [/img]

Looks like exactly what you want from one of the most expensive bikes out there.

Where did it happen OP? I thought Santa Cruz's were only designed for use at Swinley Forest?

STATO - Member

The way SC linkages work they get close to the inflexion point (if thats the right term?) at the end of the stroke. Perhaps the bottom-out bumper had failed allowing the shock to travel the small extra distance that allowed the link to flip over. Or potentially.. was the rider running offset bushes?

I was there and I fixed it.

Stato is right, the rocker rotated over center, so the shock is then forcing it in the wrong direction.

The bottom-out bumper is fine and the shock is the original correct one and was serviced/rebuilt after the first time it happened.

My gut feeling it that the frame/linkages/shock is right at the wrong end of the tolerances which allows a tiny amount too much travel.

The owner is contacting SC, in the meantime I'm going to add to the bottom-out bumper to stop it happening again.

hey mike, good to see you yesterday 🙂