I replaced a perfectly good bike with a no limits custom build around Easter.

In that time I’ve suffered 3 split rear tyres, a leaky rear shock, two duff dropper posts, one knackered hub bearing, a squeaky clutch on the mech, a broken shifter, a cable stop fall out of the frame and a headset that eats lower bearings.

The bike I replaced didn’t have that much go wrong in ten years.

Two one week holidays but other than that, it probably gets out less than once a fortnight.

Piece of shit spends more time in the workstand than on the trail. Useless bag of crap.

Was it from On-One?

Nope, that’s the frustration, none of the failures are linked. I selected each part to be the best it can be.

What bike?

Perhaps you had relations with a nun in another life?

That’s some rubbish luck

I must have done far worse than that for this sort of karma.

Oh, I forgot the pedals. They’ve been warrantied once and rebuilt twice.

Plus the shock has always had a “lumps in the stroke that I’ve never been able to cure.

And I had to get the rear hub replaced after I’d built it as I found one of the disc tabs was missing its thread.

I don’t think you’ve got the hang of these stealth ads…

Oh, and I had to buy a tap when the frame was fresh out of the box as the pivot bolts were full of swarf and crap.

And I’ve suffered misalignment and I’m awaiting replacement links which “should” sort the problem.

There is a lot to be said for a mid spec run of the mill bike decked with deore and a decent set of tyres. I’m still waiting to replace an old hollowtech deore octolink crankset but it just goes on and on mega smooth. The BB crankset on the other hand is poo!

3 split rear tyres, a leaky rear shock, two duff dropper posts, one knackered hub bearing, a squeaky clutch on the mech, a broken shifter, a cable stop fall out of the frame and a headset that eats lower bearings.

I can do you an exorcism?

Guaranteed to get rid of all known demons, but removing the squeak from a Bel Air costs extra.

Seeing as it’s you I’ll throw in a blessing and hear your confession for free.

£500 all in?

The bell air 2 hasn’t given me any trouble yet.

and for me the 2 new bikes were awesome, all of those near knackered parts in the bin, fresh an new, replaced pads, couple of bearings and some drive train parts over 4 years and 2 bikes. Had 1 issue with the dropper sorted under warranty and the shock gets an annual clean up. Whats not to like!

I sympathise. Back at university in the mid 90s I bought my first “decent” mountain bike for £700. LX throughout, Ritchey finishing kit and Mavic rims. By the end of the first year.. I’d broken, replaced due to crapness or warrantied every part (including frame) excluding the mechs, shifters, rear wheel and V brakes.

To add insult to injury I spent £400 on some Pace RC36 forks that ate their wiper seals more than once in the first few months for it.

As a positive my dad is still riding on the fixed rc36s occasionally 20years later.

was having a discussion with some mates the other day about this. Two of us have newish bikes and both of us have had issues with them. It seems bike are getting more and more expensive and the quality is just getting shite. My older bikes, years ago, ran for 10 years with next to nothing being done to them. Now I’m having to fiddle, repair, adjust all the time. I have spokes braking, shifters playing up my mate had his rear shock bolt snap……maybe the plot is make stuff cheap these days so you have to come back and buy spare parts all the time!

I feel your pain. I’ve just failed spectacularly (or more likely, dodged a bullet) to put a new FS together from parts thanks to the utter, utter shitness of Commencal-

1. frame ordered, turned out to be NLA and Commencal took ages to sort the refund which was eventually sorted out by phoning paypal and talking to someone.

2. The Superstar wheels I ordered (fortunately) were out of stock despite being advertised so I was able to cancel the order. Refunded no hassle at all,- phew! Thanks SS, but no thanks to Commencal you bellends.

3. Returned the gubbins (seatpost, BB, seatclamp and whatever else I ordered that I can’t remember at the minute) to CR for a refund because Commencal are shit.

4. I’m going to end up stuck with a shock I can’t use for a bike I can’t buy because of Greg The Liar at Commencal.

On the bright side, because you have to look for a bright side here otherwise I’d be driving down to France to kick Greg The Liar square in the plums repeatedly, thanks to the refunds and saving a bit more I now have nearly enough to buy a Flare (which, yes, is what I should’ve done anyway) 😀

What are the parts that have failed?

It’s unfortunate in the truest sense – a certain proportion of components will always fail (especially if they’re Crank Bros) and some unlucky sod will get the perfect storm…

Mind you, I saw Unno bikes are trialling non-destructive testing gear to scan their frames and check they’re perfect. Could be a nice touch that makes the 4k+ frame price more palatable.

I’ve been having tyre trouble on a new bike, and had to actually have a think and remember that although I occasionally have had flat rears on HT’s in the past, if anything a 29er should be better and at least one of the flats was just bad luck. The other 2 I think were down to choosing a too skinny/thin sidewalled mud tyre (for use in all winter conditions) which I pinch punctured twice in about a month, combined with my forks needing a service.

Everything else is great apart from the squeak in the rear hub (I think) which came across from my old HT, and the initial forks which were cheap and I was always going to replace anyway (hopefully selling them on Monday for the same amount I paid, with about 6 month’s extra use but a recent service…).

Sounds extremely unlucky.

I bought a new bike (Stif Morf) 2 months ago, have ridden it almost daily, washed it once, crashed it a few times including nosing straight into the middle of a gap jump and it’s been perfect.

Put it on a stand last week to give it a service and nothing needed doing!

Onzadog – Member

I selected each part to be the best it can be.

It’s double annoying when new stuff fails though. The last 2 new tyres I fitted both flatted within 10 miles. I think they were both flukes- one was the same model as I’ve used for 2 years- but still, **** you tyres.

on the other hand, my bike (built out of used parts*, and an on-one Codeine frame fwiw) hasn’t missed a beat all year.

during last weekend’s ride** i found myself thinking how great modern bikes are, nothing goes wrong!

(*including a rear brake that’s made out of a 10yr old lx lever, and an even older deore caliper, it works perfectly)

(**there were about 20 of us out, and in my experience that would mean a ball-aching amount of faff-and-failure, but we only had to wait for one slipped gear cable – a quick and easy fix)

need to know what frame it was so we can point the finger of blame at that

Boooo Didn’t realise you’d had quite so many problems! I’ve had a split tyre just on the bead and issues with generation 1 Middleburn X-type chainlines but nothing like you seem to have had.

Not fun undoing all those nipples and feeding them through the rims again!

Plus the shock has always had a “lumps in the stroke that I’ve never been able to cure

RS monarch then

Blimey Onzadog, that sounds crap. I think I know what bike you’re on about (via another forum) and some of the issues surprise me….hmm, maybe not the headset one…erm, and maybe the shock. But the pivot hardware and misalignments/linkages don’t sound like the usual level of QC. Hope the manufacture sorts the frame issue soon or maybe you should be in line for a new one.

I selected each part to be the best it can be.

I think maybe the failure process began at this point. 🙂

I’d be curious to know the brands involved in the failures. I built myself two new bikes this year, and have been fortunate so far – one crank replaced under warrantyy, and a shock recall, but even those small things are pretty annoying when you can’t ride your new toy. You must be incredibly frustrated

Most peoples problems come from the fact that they spend money on losing weight in moving parts like suspension. KAGE RCs might weigh a bomb but they cost less that 200 quid with a steel coil, where as monarch rct3s will set you back close to 400. Thats a fair bit of savings to losing weight from things that wont go wrong…like the frame, wheels crank arms. The Kage will prrform better to boot, so why in this age of sub 28lb Enduro bikes were still using unreliable air shocks is beyond me.

Lumpy monarchs are an issue with the internal anodizing, tf tuned sorted that issue out for my old man.

Too much tech ain’t worth the bother…

Bigjim, yes, it was as a monarch plus. Came with the frame rather than selected on its own merits, but still supposed to be a good shock.

Shimano XTR shifter. No one expects them to go wrong.

Conti tyres, never let n down on 26″, never worked in 650b.

Headset was FSA that came with the frame but I put it down to the fact that TH-073 bearings are only sealed in one edge, open on the other.

Dropper was a Thomson. All droppers seem to have issues so not sure how I could have won that.

Rexated, I think you do know.

Tom_W1987, that’s interesting to hear. Are fisher/SRAM admitting that or is it just what TFT have found?

How’s the other one fairing?

New bikes just are’nt worth the bother.FIFY
Try golf.

The Kage will prrform better to boot, so why in this age of sub 28lb Enduro bikes were still using unreliable air shocks is beyond me.

Because for 95% of people the air is reliable, performs well and does exactly what it needs to, it’s far more adjustable, doesn’t need separate springs etc. I think we are at the point where coil is just about dead apart from the ever decreasing group who still claim to prefer it. Outside of DH I think I’ve seen one trail bike this year with a coil and not heard many complaints about air shocks.

My 2009 Carrera Banshee X has been more or less trouble free since 2009.Now I just need younger legs to pedal it.I wonder if light weight parts nowadays come with a reliability tradeoff?

Tom

The Kage will prrform better to boot, so why in this age of sub 28lb Enduro bikes were still using unreliable air shocks is beyond me.

I broke a rock shock kage, the shop I took it into said they had seen loads of broken Kage. My mate, with the same bike, also broke his.

These were on dh bikes in whistler and morzine but mine had just not had that much stick.

They were both replaced with vivids under warranty rather than new kage’s.

Any component can break no matter how heavy.