Evil Bikes – frame failures

Just looking around on behalf of a mate that has a “The Following”, but i seem to remember a load of complaints about frame failure on the rear triangle and the response from Evil being pretty poor.

This particular incident has been put down to a “crash” which it was not, at best it’s for riding up hills too quickly. The importers were all set to Warranty the 3 month old frame and Evil in their infinite wisdom have decided not to. Tis Sh!t if you ask me.

and so it begins…..

But their track record for quality has been so goo…………oh yeah I forgot.

Oh dear!

15 posts until an Evil owner gets an arse on

it’s a shame, he’d been pretty wax lyrical about the ride itself.

That said, my other mate is now on his 4th Rear end on a Mojo HDII in 2 years. In the same group is an Enve rim that has split (Enve want to go halfs on replacement). And with that ther post about Bronson’s – is the future Carbon?

(sshhh – i’ve just got some Carbon rims so fingers crossed)

Not to go against the grain and spoil the doom and gloom but I had nothing but excellent after sale service from evil. The rear triangle of my uprising broke and was warrented and replaced in 2 weeks I doubt anyone could be better and when I spoke to Mike about replacement bearings they where sent at no cost from evil Europe. So I was well impressed. Yes it goes against the general consensus but I’m more than happy with the service I received. I guess it’s also down to the bike shop who supplied the frame

I must admit whilst I love the ride of my Evil Uprising I am not looking forward at all to sorting any issues that may develop. It rides so well I’m a bit ‘lalalalala can’t hear you’ about these threads.

Steel is the best frame material for bikes designed to be ridden hard…..why do you think BMXs are all made from steel? Yeh, they can still break, but generally not catastrophically, and it’ll take some time before they do.

I suggest your mate heads on over to the Cotic website and orders a Rocket. Plus, they’re good guys, so they’ll sort him out if he’s got any issues.

Carbon frames are just a good money spinner really; cheap and easy to make; lightweight so they appeal to your average overweight mountain biker; plus when they’re painted bright colours they stand out when strapped to the back of a VW Transporter.

There’s nothing wrong with carbon use in mountain bikes, it can fail just like steel or alu. Let’s not open this debate again, its about Evil and their ability to service their customers.

If it were steel Evil the OP’s mate had broken, the response from Evil is unlikely to be any different.

The question is, do they respond differently to how everyone fears, based on their past dubious reputation on MTB forum discussions.

What I find odd is why one customer gets treated one way, another gets a completely different experience, surely the most inmportant thing when dealing with customers is consistency

Interesting to hear as I’m currently looking out of interest at the following.

Plus not all bmxs are made from steel, GT for example is carbon and others besides I’m sure.

Am sure part of the warranty process is good healthy “nice chit chat” comms and if you piss them off from word go then it will be a no go!

the damage can be seen here

http://forums.mtbr.com/evil-bikes/cracked-following-990764.html (hope he doesn’t mind me posting)

I do agree breakage can happen with any material and, you are right, the customer service is where the value added is (to a point).

Any pictures or details? Where on the swing arm is the failure?

Edit, thanks for the pics!

I’m no expert on consumer law, some others on here seem to be though. But if your frame breaks in 3 months with normal use surely you should be able to get a refund from the shop you bought it from ? The manufacturer wouldn’t have to come into it.

Plus not all bmxs are made from steel, GT for example is carbon and others besides I’m sure.

Difference between race BMX’s and park/trail/street BMX’s. A carbon race bike wouldn’t last if you tried to ride trails with it. It’s designed to be ridden smoothly, be very light and will probably shatter if you landed it too hard.

Having cracked steel forks on my jump bike, I’m going nowhere near carbon on my BMX!

The rear triangle of my uprising broke

So I was well impressed.

Can not compute.

Hmmm, first-gen carbon frame cracks and company with reputation for cracking frames blames customer.

I usually like to stay open minded until we get both sides of the story, but this doesn’t look good for Evil.

Can’t say I agree with the guy on mtbr that says that looks like an impact.

A mtb should be designed to take a certain amount of knocks and heavy, but within, reason loading.

I can see a small chip in the paint on the top but that is consistent with a crack happening and then a bit of paint flaking off. I would be inclined to suggest that the manufacturer should warranty it.

Looks more like a failure under compression whereas the red bike a bit lower down you can see the impact damage before and after the paint was removed. That red bike could be easily patched and made safe but the longer he rides it the more damage he risks to that bit and other parts of the frame that might be overloaded.

the bloke it belongs to is anally retentive when it comes to looking after bikes so quite confident in how it’s generally been looked after. Also whilst not an xc mincer he’s not an Enduro gnarr Josh Bender machine either

Agree with comment about the bike should be able to take some knocks, it’s all to do “is it fit for purpose” – hard one to call that.

Ive dented a load of frames and bashed stays, and it wouldn’t look as clean as that. I’m incredibly surprised they’re not warrantying it. Maybe they’ve xrayed it and they can see an impact that we can’t see from that photo.

I am always amazed by companies that have poor customer service. The internet makes the world a very small place and these comments and bad dealings have a way of making there way onto forums like this and MTBR and will not go away.

One of the many reasons i am a Turner fanboy is their near legendary customer service. It keeps customers very loyal to the brand and makes them happy to buy from them as they know that if there are issues then 9/10 it will be sorted promptly.

I think Banshee are gaining a good reputation as well. Maybe its a small company thing. Maybe not as Evil as pretty small themselves.

Evil are on odd case, as I understand it every single one of their 1st bikes was recalled, customers were left high and dry waiting months for refunds/replacements
Their next bike was nearly as unreliable and just as bad service …

The latest bikes sound great, but their internet rep is so bad at this point that I’m amazed people buy their bikes

Evil have allegedly admitted problems with following rear triangles according to this chap here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/evil-insurgent/page/2#post-7105813

I’m surprised Evil took that view, given their biggest battle in gaining consumer trust is warranty issues.

I’m gutted really, my jaw dropped when I saw the Uprising, I was metaphorically on my way to buy one, when my Wife declared she was pregnant, so I put it off, then suddenly 26″ was dead, so I put it off, then the Insurgent came out, jaw all over the floor again – but whilst there’s a dozen very happy owners on every thread about them, there’s a half dozen tales of woe, broken frames, months for replacements, or worse buyers being told “sorry, we don’t make parts for that anymore – congratulations you own a £2k unweight boat anchor”.

It’s a HUGE purchase for me, family comes first, Evil is just too much of a gamble – they were being interviewed when the 29er came out, full off apologies and excuses about dodgy factories and scraped frames and how everything was better now – I’m not getting the feeling it’s true.

Even if the crack the OP shared was a result of a crash, how robust are these things, I crash now and again, it’s part of the sport – I crashed so hard once I put myself in hospital for 3 weeks and didn’t ride for 9 months – but when I did, it was on the same, slightly more scratched bike.

but their internet rep is so bad at this point that I’m amazed people buy their bikes

Im amazed they are still in business.

If that earlier picture is the actual bike then I would kick up a huge fuss if I were you. There is hardly a mark on it around the crack, ludicrous to suggest that it is crash damage.

Im amazed they are still in business.

IIRC the company is basically a play thing for the owner

It would be interesting to hear from ‘richiethesilverfish’ about now.

Not defending anything, just adding this for a little bit of balance…

Evil blamed their manufacturer in the Far East for the problems they had with various bikes up until The Following. The Following and the new Insurgent are being made by the same factory that makes all of the Santa Cruz carbon frames now (and I suspect a lot of others), so we expect the quality to be better. Or, at least Evil went out of their way to remove that variable from their frames…

I ride a Following, and so far (touch wood) have had no issues with it of any note. I’ve sold several of them now too, some of those that have bought from me also dwell on this forum. I’m not saying there aren’t going to be issues (every manufacturer is going to have issues, especially with carbon, it’s how they deal with the issues that often counts) but given how many Followings are now out there against the number of reported issues (and given Evil’s past rep, it’s fair to assume we’re going to hear about ANY negativity on the internet ad infinitum), I’m putting my faith in this being an isolated case and “the right thing” being done by Evil/Silverfish/your LBS etc…

From a personal point of view, the bike rides incredibly, the best bike I’ve owned in 20 odd years of MTBing. It’s raised the bar so high for me personally in terms of my own riding, I struggle getting on with other bikes these days! As an owner myself though, I’m also very keen to know that I will be looked after should anything bad happen, but as someone who sells these frames too, I’m always paying very keen attention to how any issues are resolved.

Interestingly enough, I was speaking with Jaydyn from Fanatikbike in the US the other day on their web messenger, he was saying that The Following has been their best selling bike by far this year (they shift a LOT of them too), and the Insurgent had dozens of pre-orders from their one shop alone! And so far the only negative feedback had been to do with a couple of heavier riders struggling to get an ideal shock setup, which is more to do with the limitations of the Rockshox Debonair shock than it is Evil.

Good luck to all concerned, keeping my eyes and ears on this one with interest…

15 posts until an Evil owner gets an arse on

30…

Sooooo…..back to the original issue.
Importer said yes to a warranty and have been overruled by the manufacturer…..allegedly.

makes all of the Santa Cruz carbon frames

Not a comment on whether Evil bikes are good or bad (or their customer service or anything else for that matter) but FWIW I’m pretty sure Santa Cruz bikes come from _at least_ 2 different factories nowadays, one Taiwan based and one in China.

made by the same factory that makes all of the Santa Cruz carbon frames now (and I suspect a lot of others), so we expect the quality to be better.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!

So weird the only other frame failure thread I’ve seen on here in a while is a Santa Cruz 😛

Hmmm – am in two minds about posting, as it’s my frame in question and one reason being cited by Silverfish for the warranty not being honoured is me posting the thread on MTBR. I’ll therefore keep it factual rather than expressing any opinion, because it is still being discussed.

At this stage, Evil are refusing to replace the rear triangle under warranty, claiming that this has been caused by crash or impact damage. They have opined on this based just on photos, as the frame has been returned to Silverfish, rather than Evil themselves. I don’t believe this to be the case – I haven’t crashed the bike where a big impact to the rear triangle would have occurred, and it’s been ridden almost exclusively around the Surrey Hills where rocks are non-existent. My LBS concur with this, knowing both where and how I ride. I’m now waiting on Silverfish / Evil to come back with a price on a replacement rear triangle.

I’d agree with the comments on how good this bike is – it really is phenomenal. So much so, I was just about to pull the trigger on an Insurgent to complement the Following – needless to say that purchase is on hold pending the conclusion of this.

Hmmm – am in two minds about posting, as it’s my frame in question and one reason being cited by Silverfish for the warranty not being honoured is me posting the thread on MTBR.

If this is true I would be using Facebook/Twitter to tear ’em a new arsehole, we’ll happily help if you’ve got evidence this is the case.

And I though silverfish’s rep couldn’t get any worse. I mentioned buying an Insurgent to me LBS, they told me that I should never buy anything distributed by that lot.

Doesn’t really matter how good a bike is, if the after sales support from the manufacturer isn’t there then there isnt much point in buying new.

Of course a company needs to protect itself against bogus warranty claims, but a reputation for crap CS hangs around for a long time and puts off a lot of potential buyers.

Takes me back to the days of lifetime warranty Race Face Turbine cranks, that Silverfish used to routinely renege on

heihei you are being very calm about this – I would be livid if I had received this opinion. There is hardly a mark on the frame. Unless there is clearly a massive rock mark on the frame it should be quite enough to be asked if there has been an impact and then accept the answer, rather than basically telling you that you are lying on the basis of a picture.