New bike has wobbly wheel. Is this safe?

Shifty Geezer

Chain Reaction Bicycles sent a replacement bike for the one that threw me off onto the pavement. I've just been fitting it ready for a test ride (pre-assembled bike. Just adding handbars, mudgausrd, suspension seat post) and found the front wheel has a good 5mm wobble, hitting the brake pads alternately. There's no play in the hub, so I guess this is spoke trim or something? This is my commuting bike, so I have to get it working. Is it going to be safe for me to ride it into town and have the LBS sort it out?

As general advice, don't buy from Chain Reaction Cycles, and don't buy Corratec bikes!

supersonic

Sounds like it needs truing, they shouldn't send out wheels like that (or it got damaged in the post).

How did you get thrown off?

Shifty Geezer

I'm not entirely sure. The front of the bike gave way just travelling on a pavement where it hit a very slight ridge. I know the original Corratec had loose parts with a head stem that cannot be tightened properly, and the various front wheel stem components were found lose at the LBS. The pedals also click each rotation. And the back mudguard was delivered twisted so it rubbed the back wheel. And the rear light doesn't work.

Looking at the rims on this replacement bike, I see the rim radius isn't even on both wheels. There are clear wobbles and bulges when the wheel is spun and the rim/tyre interface is watched, wobbling in and out relative to the hub. The brake safety line is of varying thickness too. Surely the rim should be perfectly round in this day and age of modern manufacturing?

Big_Paul

I have a Corratec from CRC and have travelled several hundred miles in the past couple of months with no fiddling beyond adjusting the shifter cable and the brake cables, the bloke I work with bought the same bike and although he hasn't travelled that many miles, he's had no bother either.

What I did notice, was that my bike came in a large carton marked Corratec, my colleagues came in a box marked CRC, my bike has a QR front wheel and his has bolts, also the hubs appear (front and rear) to be different models.

Quite possibly your wheel has been damaged in transit, when the parcel force bloke was taking my one from the van, there were a load of parcels piled on top of it that needed to be shfted.

supersonic

Uneven spoke tension causes rims to wobble and hop. Or damage.

Always a good idea to regularly check stem bolts.

Shifty Geezer

Big_Paul wrote:

I have a Corratec from CRC and have travelled several hundred miles in the past couple of months with no fiddling beyond adjusting the shifter cable and the brake cables, the bloke I work with bought the same bike and although he hasn't travelled that many miles, he's had no bother either.

What I did notice, was that my bike came in a large carton marked Corratec, my colleagues came in a box marked CRC, my bike has a QR front wheel and his has bolts, also the hubs appear (front and rear) to be different models.

How expensive was your
Corratec? Mine came in a massive Chain Reaction Cycles box. There was no visible damage, and there was substantial padding around the forks and frame, so I can't see how the spokes could get wobbled out of tune or the wheel bent, even if the bike was rattling around inside the van. These wheels will see far worse shaking on the roads I commute on!

Before buying these bikes I read up on Corratec's reputation, being an unknown name to me, and it was good. But that is for £1000+ bikes. I bought ~£500 commuter bikes, and I wonder if these aren't getting the same quality, effectively being cheaper bikes branded with the Corratec name? But then the reviews on the Chain Reaction Cycles website are positive. The fact you both bought the same bike and got different parts is very odd. Could CRC sending out bikes with bits replaced?

Big_Paul

It was £249 reduced from £649 (allegedly) The different parts on the two bikes are just versions of the same part, my one has the older version of the hubs apparently. the rims are the same on both bikes. The actual frame is built like a tank, my one weighs in at 22kg in it's usual trim, and I'm something like 105kg so it doesn't get an easy time of it. Put it this way, the bike I bought from Halfords lasted 3 weeks before I got sick of screwing it back together after every ride.

The only cheap and nasty bits I can find fault with are the pedals and the brake levers, they're both coming off at some point.

What model did you buy, out of interest?

supersonic

It is pretty obvious that CRC have not opened the bike box and checked the bike over. It sounds like will need a full check over (and spokes tensioned) before is ridable. I'd email CRC: they will probably give you some cash to spend at a local shop.

Of course eventually you will need to learn how to do much of this stuff anyway.

Shifty Geezer

Big_Paul wrote:

It was £249 reduced from £649 (allegedly) The different parts on the two bikes are just versions of the same part, my one has the older version of the hubs apparently. the rims are the same on both bikes. The actual frame is built like a tank, my one weighs in at 22kg in it's usual trim, and I'm something like 105kg so it doesn't get an easy time of it. Put it this way, the bike I bought from Halfords lasted 3 weeks before I got sick of screwing it back together after every ride.

The only cheap and nasty bits I can find fault with are the pedals and the brake levers, they're both coming off at some point.

What model did you buy, out of interest?

This bike I purchased:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=69514

£650 reduced to £300. It was a bit of a snap purchase as I needed an immediate replacement for my dead commuter bike. I didn't notice the '2008', so it had been sat in a warehouse doing nothing for years. But still, a bike doing nothing shouldn't be falling apart. As a replacement I found the next my-sized (48 cm) front-fork suspension bike, which was this one:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=75551

TBH I think bikes are one of those things that you need to source locally, unless you know what you're doing regards maintenance and can trust your efforts checking out an online purchase. My prior bike was a Raleigh that lasted 10 years with almost no problems. Just wore out the chain and bearings and sprockets to the point it wasn't cost effective to repair.

Thinking about the components, I guess electronics mix and match components. I know a TV ofa specific model can have one of 4 different LCD panels, of different quality, and you don't know which one you get. The thing that most surprised me with your story was the Corratec box. If Corratec bikes have Corratec boxes, why are some sent in CRC boxes?

Shifty Geezer

supersonic wrote:

It is pretty obvious that CRC have not opened the bike box and checked the bike over. It sounds like will need a full check over (and spokes tensioned) before is ridable. I'd email CRC: they will probably give you some cash to spend at a local shop.

Yeah, I'm not going to trust it until I've had someone who knows what they're doing give it the once over.

Of course eventually you will need to learn how to do much of this stuff anyway.

Should commuters maintain at the level of spoke tuning? I don't know what spoke endurance is supposed to be like and whether this sort of wear and tear is normal for the owner to tackle. My Raleigh I rode for 10 years, and only changed the brake pads, rear hub+sprockets, and tyres. The gears lost tuning a year from the end and I couldn't get themsorted, but as I only used two gears it was something I could live with.

Shifty Geezer

Another quick question : when a wheel is manufactured new and tuned, is it normal for it to lose tuning without use? If my bike was built by Corratec, then it shouldn't be CRC's fault if the wheel is wrong unless wheels do spontaneously lose roundness. It is CRC's fault the wheel trim wasn't checked, but I feel the manufacture was at fault for the bike to get like this.

Big_Paul

This is my tank............

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=69528

Everybody uses different components, I work in the motor trade for my sins, and I've seen Mini's built in 2010 with clutches marked as made in 2003 in them, it wouldn't be the first time I've had a customers car built a year before the date it was registered. You'll probably find that Corratec have the wheels built for them, I think you've just been incredibly unlucky to have two friday afternoon specials in a row. Our bikes look to share a lot of componentry and my one has been pretty much bulletproof.

I'd get the LBS to sort it, then phone CRC and get them to sort the bill out, but knowing what makes your bike work and being able to sort it before it fails or without having to resort to the LBS, is invauable in my experience, the bike I had before I had the Halfords BSO that inspired me to buy the Corratec was an ancient Dawes from a recycling yard that gave me 5 years of service before some lowlife nicked it, the key was being able to maintain it myself.

slowbike

Shifty Geezer wrote:

Chain Reaction Bicycles sent a replacement bike for the one that threw me off onto the pavement. I've just been fitting it ready for a test ride (pre-assembled bike. Just adding handbars, mudgausrd, suspension seat post) and found the front wheel has a good 5mm wobble, hitting the brake pads alternately. There's no play in the hub, so I guess this is spoke trim or something? This is my commuting bike, so I have to get it working. Is it going to be safe for me to ride it into town and have the LBS sort it out?

As general advice, don't buy from Chain Reaction Cycles, and don't buy Corratec bikes!

My old cheap bikes had significant wobble in the wheels - as long as the spokes are tight there is unlikely to be anything "wrong" with it - and the wheels just need truing ..
Probably worth learning how to do this yourself .. plenty of guides on how to do this.

I wouldn't want to disappear off at 30mph + but as long as the wheel is fitted correctly the first indication you will get is a bit of a wobble when you start getting some speed up. Braking won't be a significant issue either - the mech is (usually) designed to put the same pressure on both pads - so as the wheel wobbles, so will the mech. The most you'll feel is a little pulsed drag - assuming you don't try and do an emergency stop down a 10%+ hill you should be fine.



*My comments on here assume you have a degree of common sense !

Shifty Geezer

Big_Paul wrote:

This is my tank............

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=69528

Very similar to mine. I wonder what went wrong with my bike then?

Everybody uses different components, I work in the motor trade for my sins, and I've seen Mini's built in 2010 with clutches marked as made in 2003 in them, it wouldn't be the first time I've had a customers car built a year before the date it was registered.

Okay. That's a good thing to learn.