Place to report safety concerning defective products?

eresco

I sent this message to the Bike Radar team back in February and never heard back. I checked and chain reaction is STILL selling those defective brake pads, and people are continuing to post reviews highlighting that they are DANGEROUS, they fail!
I posted on twitter, emailed Clarks, etc, no answer.
Does anybody know of a place to report defective bike products?

---

Forwarded message

---

Date: Sat, Feb 4, 2017 at 12:49 PM
Subject: Place to report safety concerning defective products?
To: Paul.Douglas@immediate.co.uk, ben.delaney@immediateus.com, josh.patterson@immediateus.com, jonathan.woodhouse@immediate.co.uk

Hello Bike Radar team,

First of all, I must say that I enjoy very much the reviews on your website. I often look for them when making purchasing decisions. Keep up the good work.

I'm writing to you with a question. I've been biking to work every day 40km for the last 7 years, and in this time I've had a number of bicycles and had a number of issues. Many of them are mundane, but some of them have to do with safety. In particular, I've had two instances of failing brakes. The first time was a defective caliper that was recalled by Shimano, and I didn't know, and my bike shop didn't know (I even bought the bike brand new AFTER the recall had been issued). When it failed, I suddenly lost one brake, I continued with the other brake, and it also failed, so I was left with no brakes going downhill, very scary. I googled the part and found that there was a recall, the part was changed, but don't know if anybody else had problems like me.

More recently I bought disc brake pads from Chain Reaction. I installed them and was happy with them, until suddenly one of them failed. It completely lost the pad from the brake metal support. It was sudden and without warning



. I thought it was strange, but maybe just bad luck. Installed a new pair, and a couple of months later, the same problem. Obviously it is a defective product that needs to be recalled. I tried to post a negative review on Chain Reaction but it was rejected. I was left with no idea where to report this safety concern, as other people who bought the same product should be warned.

These two experiences have made realize that there should be a dedicated website for bicycle products that have been shown to be defective and dangerous. This site should be regularly visited by all bike shops and bike clubs, to be aware of such instances. Do you know of a website like this? I am trying by going to twitter and posting this (https://twitter.com/eresc79/status/827967151097016320), and I'm currently requesting an account in your forum to report this, but I wish there was a better place just focused on safety.

I very much appreciate your help in this matter. I'm just trying to do the right thing.

Yours truly,
Eric Escobar, avid cyclist commuter from Vancouver, Canada

PS. The Caliper I mention above was the BR-R515, Recall site: http://bike.shimano.com/content/sac-bike/en/home/news-and-info/corrective-actions/voluntary-recall---cx75-disc-brake-calipers.html.
The brake pads in question are these ones: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/e ... -prod55871

seajays

The reviews on that brake pad are really serious - someone could end up in a lot of trouble with those pads!

I would contact the manufacturer, and also your local trading standards department, and show them the reviews the pads are getting, as well as your own experience. More info here:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... standards/

cooldad

Canada is not in the UK.

eresco

Seajays wrote:

The reviews on that brake pad are really serious - someone could end up in a lot of trouble with those pads!

I would contact the manufacturer, and also your local trading standards department, and show them the reviews the pads are getting, as well as your own experience. More info here:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... standards/

Thank you. I live in Canada, but order from chain reaction. I don't know if I can report it with the trading standards from here.

What I find appalling is that chain reaction refused to post my negative review, and they ARE STILL selling them. They said they would launch an investigation back in February, but nothing, the pads are still for sale. I did email clarks, the manufacturer, and no answer. I emailed Bike Radar, posted on twitter, and nothing. I find it very frustrating. Someone might get hurt.