New Bike - Damage

AndyJ88
AndyJ88 Posts: 15
edited April 2016 in Road beginners
Hi guys,

I recently bought a new bike from Evans, I am very happy with the bike itself. Unfortunately the gears aren't tuned properly, as a result the chain is occasionally slipping off.

Today, the chain slipped off the real derailleur and onto the frame, and caused the below damage (I believe on inspection it's purely cosmetic).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkdogs3l5ki34 ... 5.JPG?dl=0

I feel Evans should have tuned the gears properly, what do you guys think?

Andy

Comments

  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,524
    well, yes they should, but it sounds like you carried on riding knowing that the chain was coming off, so you can't really blame evans for that

    it looks like there're a few scratches, if so that's, fortunately, just cosmetic, you could touch them up with paint or a black marker pen

    you can go back to evans, but it'd be faster/better to learn to adjust the limit screws etc.

    the park tool website has lots of useful guides on this type of thing...

    http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... adjustment

    ...btw before adjusting, make sure the wheel is fully seated in the dropouts (undo qr, put weight on saddle, do up qr)
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • ForumNewbie
    ForumNewbie Posts: 1,664
    It's happened to me before on a new bike but didn't even do any cosmetic damage, and I just needed to adjust the limit screw. It looks like it the chain has really been forced hard against the frame after slipping off to scrape the paint like that.

    I know it's annoying on a brand new bike but I doubt Evans will be able to do anything. At least it is just cosmetic.
  • Mantas
    Mantas Posts: 33
    Just go to Evans to adjust your gears. They supposed to do it for free
  • flasher
    flasher Posts: 1,734
    You knew there was a problem and carried on regardless, sorry but take some responsibility, it's no one else's fault but yours, thankfully only cosmetic damage, learn to 'tune' your own gears, there are loads of videos on youtube etc. really quite simple.
  • crankycrank
    crankycrank Posts: 1,830
    Yes, the bike should come properly adjusted but mistakes happen by everyone. Very annoying for sure but you should have taken it in right away. They may still be willing to make it right for you but don't be too hard on them at this point. As mentioned this is something you could learn to do on your own and will certainly come in handy at some point when you have no access to a shop and need to adjust/fix your bike.
  • lpretro1
    lpretro1 Posts: 237
    It is quite normal for a new bike to have the gears go slightly out of alignment after a little amount of use as everything settles in- that's why most good bike shops will offer a free 6 week tune-up. The damage in the photos is just cosmetic - annoying yes - but perhaps a learning not to continue to ride if something isn't right
  • ForumNewbie
    ForumNewbie Posts: 1,664
    lpretro1 wrote:
    It is quite normal for a new bike to have the gears go slightly out of alignment after a little amount of use as everything settles in- that's why most good bike shops will offer a free 6 week tune-up. The damage in the photos is just cosmetic - annoying yes - but perhaps a learning not to continue to ride if something isn't right
    I agree he shouldn't have continued riding after the chain came off the first time, and the gears need adjusting after a few weeks, but if the limit screws had been set properly by the shop mechanic the chain shouldn't have come off.
  • AndyJ88
    AndyJ88 Posts: 15
    Thanks for all the feedback. To be clear I am not looking for Evans to accept liability, even if I believe the bike should have been tuned correctly on leaving the store.

    Regarding continuing to cycle, the chain was regularly slipping at the front, with the rear slippage I was mid stroke then suddenly heard an almighty clunk, I stopped after this.

    Being a beginner (this is after all, the beginners forum) I wasn't aware that if the chain slips at all I should stop riding. However, agreed this is a lesson learnt.

    I will work on finding a cheap work stand so I can tune the gears, and trying to persuade the girlfriend to buy some gothic black nail varnish...
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Battle scar.

    Very annoying on a new bike, but just earn from it and move (ride) on :wink:
  • ForumNewbie
    ForumNewbie Posts: 1,664
    AndyJ88 wrote:
    Thanks for all the feedback. To be clear I am not looking for Evans to accept liability, even if I believe the bike should have been tuned correctly on leaving the store.

    Regarding continuing to cycle, the chain was regularly slipping at the front, with the rear slippage I was mid stroke then suddenly heard an almighty clunk, I stopped after this.

    Being a beginner (this is after all, the beginners forum) I wasn't aware that if the chain slips at all I should stop riding. However, agreed this is a lesson learnt.
    I thought that you had meant the chain slipped off the sprockets into the frame a few times and each time you put the chain back on and started riding again.

    The main thing that stops the chain coming off at either end is the low and high limit screws on the rear mech, and they should have been set properly by the bike shop mechanic. It also sounds like the gears need indexing again so that they move smoothly between sprockets. You can learn this on internet videos, but can sometimes be a bit fiddly to get the gears changing smoothly. It is worth learning for future, but initially I would take the bike back to the shop and ask them to reindex the gears and set the limit screws correctly.
  • AK_jnr
    AK_jnr Posts: 717
    Yeah I can understand the gears not being indexed properly but not having the limit screws set is sh1te from Evans.

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