Dave Hinde Bikes & Shop: opinions

passout

I'm thinking of buying the Dave Hinde Hydroform (Alu/Carbon) frame at £495. Looks good; you can see pics at http://www.davehindcycles.co.uk/

Do you, my cycling gurus, know anything of this frame and the shop itself. Namely:
1) What is the frame build quality like?
2) How does it ride?
3) Is it best to have the bike built up by them or get my LBS to do it?
4) What is their customer service like? (I won't be doing it by post).
5) Do they have a good fitting service?
6) I'm I better off going to Ribble or Hewitts?

Any alternatives (frames under £500 or bikes under £1200) welcome.

Thanks.

cougie

From what I've seen here - I'd look elsewhere.

rjsmith

Customer Service at Dave Hinde :twisted:

After experiencing their ebay shop customer service personally and hearing the many horror stories of others I would never go near them again. They are just plain dishonest at times and there is no excuse for that.

giant_man

Hewitts won't screw you! That is the difference.

on the road

Dave Hinde has a very bad reputation, you might want to go else where.

mekonta

I used them once a couple of years ago. Never again. Ordered a pair of handbuilt wheels (Open Pro's on Ultegra hubs) and had constant problems with the back wheel running out of true. And I seem to remember chasing them for other bits in the order like tyres and cassette which turned up wrong/late. They did a good price, but really not worth the saving.

alfablue

Dave Hinde has had some of the worst reports of customer service ever seen on this forum (and it's predecessor), and lots of it! Allegedly when things go wrong (as they apparently do quite often) the staff resort to rudeness and sarcasm of a very strong nature, lying about delivery, and often refuse to resolve issues. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole whatever they are selling and at whatever price, however fantastic. They also trade on ebay as Number1bikebits.

passout

I'm glad I asked! Thanks for the warnings, I'll take heed and avoid Hinde.

aarw

just try typing in Dave Hinde in google.... other than davehinde.com it makes for soem scacry reading. :shock:

I bought a groupset of them last year, took over 3 months to ge tthe correct parts i orginally requested. :evil: :twisted:

stay clear :!:

steve23

its such a shame, as Dave Hinde has got some great deals to be had, and is very reasonably priced. but, his after sales service is very poor.

if anything were to go wrong with your bike/equipment/etc, then he wouldnt want to know.

avoid!

cougie

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications ... n_id=38390

aarw

cougie wrote:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=38390

only the tip of the iceberg!

JustRidecp

Thanks for the heads up guys. Retailer sounds like a complete bandit. I'll stay well clear in future.

socrates

Second vote for Hewitts. Gave me some sound advice over the phone even though I was not buying a bike off him and he was aware of the fact.

xio

re the comment about after-sales; I had too may problems with pre-sales to ever get that far. Shonky is too short and polite a word.

yakk

Ditto Hewitt.

Yak

nickwill

Give Paul Hewitt a ring!