On the evidence of this thread and the similarly bad experience of a friend of mine I plan to strip my AM this week and see how it looks.

Fingers crossed mine is not like that 😕

All fair comments above – 2 weeks in the Alps was a lot of riding true, but given I was there with wife and 4 y.o. child it’s not like I was riding the Passeportes 14 times in succession! I’m still surprised it disintegrated to that extent which again makes me think it started out in poor nick.

I’m not really willing to name and shame as I’m going to have a chat with them but someone earlier in the thread has already.

i’d kind of side with Nicolai as the damage looks due to neglect to maintanance

hard to argue I admit.

Hopefully Nicolai come back with a favourable price for the repair

fingers and toes all crossed.

“take it this was an ex-hire bike from Glentress hub?”

I assume thats the post your referring to. I thik you are right to give them the opportunity to comment about the state of the bike, but if it were me personally, I would be asking for my money back, given the reputation that the Hub at Glentress should be looking to maintain.

Hypothesising – If the damaged occrured at the hire centre where you bought it from, I would have thought this was quite worrying that they are sending peopl out on potentially unsafe bikes that look cosmetically ok.

Did he say the hub?

Hub website not mentionning Nicolai bikes on the hire fleet… Ibis, Santa Cruz, Orange, Lapierre, Genesis

Don’t think they do them tbh

THhey certainly had Nicolais in late 2007, I remember my mate taking an HT out as he wanted to try a Rolhoff.

I kind of hope it is the Hub; since their homepage has the inspiring title “Ride it like you stole it.”

Ooops

Yes, they were definitely selling on Nicolai’s as ex-demo.

Their prices aren’t exactly cheap either for what are essentially used bikes. My recollection is they justified their prices being a fair bit higher than the 2nd hand market generally because the bikes were ”fully maintained” etc by a mechanic after each ride. This thread really suggests otherwise, or at least, that some questions need to be asked of them.

Hmmm you bought it ex-hire. TBH I don’t think you have much comeback apart from asking for goodwill help.

having been involved with repairs on hire bikes from most trail centres and hire centres after folk have bought them – id never buy one – EVER – regardless of what they say the history is …..

ive yet to see one that justifys the price they command for it – in one case the only thing i had to suggest the chap bought a new bike as it was in a similarly **** state to this.

some admittedly are worse than others.

ive also had the misfortune to unpack a bike a customer and friend bought from a professional rider – he paid 2.5k for it on the assumption of it would be in race ready condition and it required a **** load of work – EVERY bearing on the bike was shagged to within an inch of its life and the shock felt like a bag of gravel had been emptied inside – seller didnt want to know. customer took it on the chin and looked on the bright side of the fact his forks and shock would be custom tuned for him

Saying this it depends how it was sold to you. If the bikeshop laid it on thick saying ‘bike will be fully stripped/cleaned and prepped for you. As a rule anything that needs replacing will be replaced before it comes to you’ then I’d raise that.

However you’ve had too many rides and your holiday (which could be argued is hard on bikes). The bikeshop could have checked the bike and thought ‘its acceptable’ but your wear and tear put it over the edge.

So I’d say sorry, lesson learnt- just replace etc.

On the forks I’ve repaired worse. PeterPoddy’s still riding round on them and the repair looks almost hidden/non-existent.

thats a nasty experience you’ve just had…i hope you’ve got a chin made of granite to take the wallop Nicolai will no doubt hit you with for the repair as i cant see it being cheap.
as it was a used bike, i cant see that the seller will accept that they sold you a poorly maintained bike as they have got your hard earned now and will try to pin the blame on you and say the the rides you put the bike through caused the damage,
the only thing you could do is get actual confirmation that the damage to the bike has been as a result of long term neglect thus impicating the original owner and then using that to maybe force them to maybe contribute towards the cost of the repair as a gesture of goodwill.
your story is a lesson to us all on the perils of buying a second hand bike.
as for cleaning bikes i dont really know why anyone would want to use washing up liquid to clean their bike as it will kill the bearings and seals. also i cant see it being good for the disc pads either.
i use hope shitshifter and have never had any problems with it. it cleans all the muck off the bike and also works on the disc brakes without damaging the paintwork.

Any word back from Nicolai, your probably looking about the £500 mark I would guess, though I might be pleasently surprised. My nicolai did 4 weeks in the alps, and about 30 days riding in the uk and the bearings didn’t show any wear at all. I’m guessing somewhere along the lines the preload became loose and they never bothered to maintain it.

No word from Nicolai for a week until I prodded them. They replied asking did I want a price for a basic get-you-back-on-the-trail repair or the full kahuna. I said give me both and then I can decide how far to go.

That was 10 days ago and no reply – guess they are all at Eurobike. 😕

What did the shop say?

Nicolai(.de) are not famous for their speedy replies to enquiries. However, simon at nicolai.uk has always come up trumps for me when I’ve needed help.

wow, what a horrible experience!
Good work on keeping your cool throughout (so far) the process.

I almost exclusively buy second hand for frames, shocks, forks (got stung once out of maybe 10forks) and wheels; but obviously new for drive train, brakes, contact points & consumables. Buying ex-demo from bike shops I’ve considered, and once came as close as getting to the till (then card declined for the monster bank shock amount and then never returned).

But somehow not sure, ex hire or ex fleet especially on anything more hardcore than trail centre type bike I would always go new. On XC marathon & road stuff I wouldn’t have any qualm’s, but heavier stuff you just know someone is going to have really made sure they have gotten their 20 quids worth of riding out of it, each time 🙁

Forks *could* be repaired with fresh ano + bushings, but again £200+ easy. When honestly you could get away with just riding them into the ground (1-2years use?) then just get something else down the line.

As for repairs, I guess the only sensible option is go full on, get it back to how it should be, take it on the chin that the used bike + repair will likely cost more than RRP.

And most importantly, once its back, built up and your riding it, FORGET ABOUT THE WHOLE THING, don’t waste any more precious riding time worrying about it, as it’ll only get you down and put a taint on things.