*RESOLVED!* Confused over forks VooDoo Bantu not 120mm

lighty89

Bit of a weird one.

My dad recently purchased a Carrera Vulcan, and the forks on that look bigger than the ones on my Bantu, even though they're supposed to be the same.

As I was putting air in my forks I though I'd whack them up full see what they really are...
Turns out they're bang on 100mm!!

Voodoo advertise them as 120mm and so do Halfords!
The forks on the bike are the suntour raidon x3, which according to suntour are 100mm.

Rung halfords and they said they'll call back tomorrow after speaking to the parts guys!
At a loose end here as they aren't the forks that were advertised, bought the bike in May!

Thoughts people?

supersonic

So how are you measuring the 100mm?

lighty89

With a ruler! The whole of the stanchion.
My dads Vulcan is 120mm bang on, and mine are 100mm bang on.

supersonic

How much pressure? Inflate to max pressure and see what they are.

lighty89

Just to look at theyre noticeably smaller than the forks on the Vulcan as well!

lighty89

supersonic wrote:

How much pressure? Inflate to max pressure and see what they are.

Took them up too 150psi... Still wouldn't move over 100mm.

supersonic

Seems that you do indeed have the shorter version.

lighty89

The bike was bought at end of June, so take it they'll let me have the bigger ones?
As bike was not sold as described?
Sales of goods act section 14;-)

supersonic

Bought online or from the shop?

lighty89

supersonic wrote:

Bought online or from the shop?

From the shop...
I reserved them online! And collected from the shop once they rung t say it was built.
It's also had its 6 week service.

You'd think these bike "technicians" would notice these things.

lighty89

Gutted they're not what I was told!

anj132

That's a bit off really - Are you going back to them to get it sorted?

heez29

Have they got back to you?

Unless you look to see the difference not many would notice it. It's taken yourself a few months to notice the difference because you two bikes side by side.

lighty89

heez29 wrote:

Have they got back to you?

Unless you look to see the difference not many would notice it. It's taken yourself a few months to notice the difference because you two bikes side by side.

Well they have, apparently they are chasing some product guy, and waiting for him to get back to them.
Ideally they would want the replacement forks sent out, if not they said they would try to authorise a exchange by head office.

I spoke to the customer services team as well who also rung them up and got on the case.
I made them aware I have spoken to trading standards who have told me they should get the part or replace the bike.

Asked me take the bike down so they can meaure up the forks etc, so going take it down later.

Fingers crossed it will get sorted!

bennett_346

Theyre not dual air are they? That can suck the fork down in its travel.

The Rookie

lighty89 wrote:

You'd think these bike "technicians" would notice these things.

Get real, they take the bike out teh box and do a PDI, they won't have a full tech spec in front of them, they don't fit the forks that's doen in Taiwan. Hit on them for stuff they should do, not for what they shouldn't! After all you've ridden it for 3 months and didn't notice, you'd think these owners and riders would notice these things perhaps? How did you set up sag without measuring eh?

lighty89

The Beginner wrote:

lighty89 wrote:

You'd think these bike "technicians" would notice these things.

Get real, they take the bike out teh box and do a PDI, they won't have a full tech spec in front of them, they don't fit the forks that's doen in Taiwan. Hit on them for stuff they should do, not for what they shouldn't! After all you've ridden it for 3 months and didn't notice, you'd think these owners and riders would notice these things perhaps? How did you set up sag without measuring eh?

Well you would only notice to stick a ruler on the fork to measure them. Or put it next to a bike that actually has 120mm travel forks. Regardless of how you word the above, the fact still remains that they put the wrong forks on the bike, hence not being as described.

In store they said sag wouldnt matter to much, as they compressed about 20% when I sat on it.

The Rookie

Merida in Taiwan did, not the technicians at Halfords - got it yet, it comes assembled, you realise that yes? They saw less of it than you have in the last 3 months, you presumably put a ruler on it to set the sag (you did set the sag right?) and ....... you didn't spot it so why should the tech at Halfords?

Why should the tech at Halfords put a ruler against it and know intimately the spec of every bike sold?

lighty89

The Beginner wrote:

Merida in Taiwan did, not the technicians at Halfords - got it yet, it comes assembled, you realise that yes? They saw less of it than you have in the last 3 months, you presumably put a ruler on it to set the sag (you did set the sag right?) and ....... you didn't spot it so why should the tech at Halfords?

Why should the tech at Halfords put a ruler against it and know intimately the spec of every bike sold?

Well they sell the products, its up to them to make sure their quality control and adviertising complies with UK law.

With regards to the situation, I have spoken to them, they have seen the forks and the person who I was talking to said striaght away he did not need a ruler as he could tell they were only 100mm, so it seems the quality of the technicians is not consistent. He even said there was no way he would of let that bike go out, as hes a technician who works on bikes, and its his job to know...

They are getting me some more forks ordered, if they can't they will authorise an exchange. I had spoken to Trading Standards, who confirmed what I suspected with regards to the Sales of Goods Act if Halfords weren't willing to comply, but hopefully I will not need to go down this route.

supersonic

You are jumping the gun with trading standards - all you needed to do was speak to Halfords! Mistakes happen, let them sort it, probably something as simple as a spacer in the fork. Seems like they are going to sort it, so relax and let them do it!

anj132

The Beginner wrote:

Merida in Taiwan did, not the technicians at Halfords - got it yet, it comes assembled, you realise that yes? They saw less of it than you have in the last 3 months, you presumably put a ruler on it to set the sag (you did set the sag right?) and ....... you didn't spot it so why should the tech at Halfords?

Why should the tech at Halfords put a ruler against it and know intimately the spec of every bike sold?

What side of the bed did you wake up on?

The Rookie

The right one, the OP is being an arse.....mistakes happen, in this case in Taiwan, yes its complicated route of Voodoo speccing the bike, Merida making it in Taiwan and then Halfords selling it, but of those to blaim, Halfords is not the one even if under the SoGA they are liable legally, but then Halfords have offered to sort it, what more does he want?

Willing to bet if he was the tech in Haldfords he wouldn't have spotted it, he didn't for 3 months and is now getting all hissy over it.

We don't do shoulders here as I recall!

lighty89

The Beginner wrote:

The right one, the OP is being an ars*.....mistakes happen, in this case in Taiwan, yes its complicated route of Voodoo speccing the bike, Merida making it in Taiwan and then Halfords selling it, but of those to blaim, Halfords is not the one even if under the SoGA they are liable legally, but then Halfords have offered to sort it, what more does he want?

Willing to bet if he was the tech in Haldfords he wouldn't have spotted it, he didn't for 3 months and is now getting all hissy over it.

We don't do shoulders here as I recall!

No I wasnt being an arse, the guy in Halfords said himself it was wrong!
And my contract of sale is with them, so they are liable.
Hence why they are being quite good so far and sorting it.

I will keep you all updated.

The thread is more to make people aware, as the guy in the store seemed to have said this has happened a few times.

anj132

The Beginner wrote:

The right one, the OP is being an ars*.....mistakes happen, in this case in Taiwan, yes its complicated route of Voodoo speccing the bike, Merida making it in Taiwan and then Halfords selling it, but of those to blaim, Halfords is not the one even if under the SoGA they are liable legally, but then Halfords have offered to sort it, what more does he want?

Nothing more I don't think... just blowing some steam that it wasn't noticed when sold and has to go back to get it sorted. I would have been a bit narked off I didn't have what I was sold but as long as it gets sorted that's the main thing.

I disagree that Halfords aren't the ones to blame, it's down to their QC to make sure what they are selling is the same as the description.

But I reckon he could probably blag something if he wanted. No harm in trying.

Willing to bet if he was the tech in Haldfords he wouldn't have spotted it, he didn't for 3 months and is now getting all hissy over it.

Techs in Halfords should have more experience in noticing it than Joe Blogs off the street.

We don't do shoulders here as I recall!

I'll be the exception then

Woodmonkey

I read somewhere you can change the travel on the raidon air with ladder and pin, chances are they are the right fork just set up wrong. I also read they handle slightly better with slghtly shorter travel, having less flex!

Woodmonkey

In fact it mentions it in the bikeradar review !

Woodmonkey

http://gearinches.com/blog/how-to/how-t ... ork-travel
Raidon is same as epicon just shorter travel.
Sorted we can all be at peace now and trading standards won't need to execute anyone!

jolmes

Think you well jumped the gun with contacting trading standards OP, those types of forks can be switched internally to be either 80-100-120mm travel if I'm thinking right and if anything Bantu's are even supposed to come with x3 forks. As far as I'm aware the only bike to come with any sort of sr suntour raidon "x" model is the Carrera fury.

Perhaps if everyone took a breathe and looked at the bigger picture...

You're getting it sorted, Halfords are dealing with it without whining/messing you about. Something just slipped past BOTH Taiwanese QC (if they have any) and a techy may have had a bad day and just missed it by mistake.

On the plus side, it's being sorted and hope you can get back on it soon it's a lovely bike

supersonic

It's an easy thing to miss. It happens. They are sorting it which is good news. I hope your bottom bracket axle isn't 2mm too short ;-).

The Rookie

How many base Lardrocks went out - including from Spesh's own concept stores - without the frame tabs for discs and with a freewheel isntead of a cassette? Thousands at a guess, no-one blamed the stores for that, blaming Halfords for a bike being delivered to them wrong is just being stupid frankly. I blame Wiggle.

lighty89

The Beginner wrote:

How many base Lardrocks went out - including from Spesh's own concept stores - without the frame tabs for discs and with a freewheel isntead of a cassette? Thousands at a guess, no-one blamed the stores for that, blaming Halfords for a bike being delivered to them wrong is just being stupid frankly. I blame Wiggle.

Well I blame Halfords as my contract of sale was with them, not Voodoo, or Merida or whatever.
How is it stupid expecting to get what you pay for as well?

Lol don't people like Wiggle?