so my mate bought a norco 29er from Evans about 6 months ago,1st to go where his forks,no movement in them whatsoever,preload was solid and his lockout was jammed on,sent away to be fixed and 2 weeks with out the bike,more recently his rear freewheel sheered and broke,which was warrantied,this was 3 weeks ago,he goes to cathkin 2 times a week,and thats it,no hard riding,he went 2 nights ago and wham,it goes tits up again,same thing freewheel busted,

so my question is,would he be within his rights to ask for his money back due to goods not being fit for proper use or is he left with a lemon that is constantly going to break down.would he have a case to ask for refund or change of bike ??

thanks for any input

Craig

You can hardly call the bike a lemon, parts have failed yes, those parts have then replaced under warranty (so far). The frame has hardly disintegrated underneath him has it?

<My understanding> He can expect the parts replaced, but not a refund or replacement bike, after so much time. Lots of info about the the “sale of goods act” is available on the net, if he want to try and take it further, but it sounds like Evan’s support has been quite reasonable.

Tell him to thank his lucky stars he didn’t buy it from Wiggle/kona.

would he be within his rights to ask for his money back due to goods not being fit for proper use or is he left with a lemon that is constantly going to break down

Neither.

I’d suggest asking nicely for a new replacement wheel or hub instead of a fix.

i was refering to it as a lemon on the basis hes had so much go wrong in such little time and not any hard riding,sometimes you get unlucky and get something that just constantly breaks,i had my last bike for 3 years and never had anything break,maybe i was just lucky

2 free wheels in a month to FAIL just doesnt sound right,the forks seized up on his 1st ride on a trail centre,resulting in new forks,I think when you pay a lot of money for a bike,you dont expect it to be constantly breaking….

Its back in the shop so its off road again for a week at least as they told him last time they had to order in the parts to fix it as they dont stock any free wheels,think he might be better pushing for new wheel,obviously something isnt right with the one on his bike if it keeps breaking…

I understand the frustration & agree it’s rubbish, but one part (or two) do not make a bike.

Wheels and forks are fairly major components though!
I would certainly ask for/insist on a new hub. As for a full replacement/refund; I think Evans would (quite correctly) tell him to do one.

Looks like my mate has won his battle,Evans has offered him a new bike,so hes went from an £800 norco with RS xc32 80mm travel and basic Alivio and deore drivetrain to now being offered a BMC with XT/SLX drive train and brakes,Fox CTD forks at £2000 reduced to £1500,i dont really know much about the BMC make of bike but its a far far better equipped bike to what he had,Just a pity its taken them 2 weeks to sort it out,

he’s done well 🙂

I think it’s probably a company the size of Evans is able to do more easily than an LBS due to the volumes that they do.

And they import BMC so cost to them is probably fairly low?

hainman – Member
Just a pity its taken them 2 weeks to sort it out

Jesus mate, look at things like Molgrips thread on his epic car… or people with builders taking months.

To get a bike worth double and more after a 2 week delay is exceptional !

Has he had to pay the difference though? That was the, (fair I thought) deal when I had a broken frame warrantee dragging on a couple of years back.

no money changing hands,hes had nowt but bother since day 1 and he has been on the phone numerous times to customer services,The 1st bike he was offered was a gt zaskar 29er,turned out it was sold out,then offered a trek which looked mighty good,great spec,which was about 1500 down to 1100 and it had to be delivered in store,he agreed and was all set to wait on it,then had a phone call an hour later to offer him the BMC,he asked me what i thought and said to bite their hand off for it,its double the price and double the bike,

Think hes running over tonight to grab it before the revoke the offer….

Well props to Evans.
I hope your mate likes his new bike!

Painful experience. Takes the shine off the sport for a bit too. I think it’s indicative of the forum that many saw the matter as a parts problem, not a whole bike issue. I’ve only bought one complete mtb bike, and that was my first. Every bike I’ve owned since then I’ve built from scratch around a frame. Once you go that way, the concept of what a bike is completely changes.

I love seeing mongrel bikes, carrying genetic information for years ago, still cutting it at the trail centres. rOcKeTdOg aired a classic of the genre a few days ago. The latest technological carbon fibre, 650b wonder bikes leave me much less moved.

I have no idea about what point I’m making here. 😐