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Permalink Reply by Moc Artsy on July 30, 2011 at 6:32am

Is the frame aluminum or steel? Aluminum will fatigue over time, and can break as a result, but after much more time than a year. I have never heard of any bike being for "weekend riding" only. What, are you expected to believe the bike was built to less exacting specifications to be ridden only on weekends? Raleigh is manufacturing in China now, not even Taiwan, and Chinese manufacturing hasn't yet gained a great deal of experience with bicycles. The new Raleighs like the Clubman and the Port Huron look great and are really well thought-out for their respective intended purposes. I haven't ridden one yet, so I don't know anything about the ride or build. Your wheel problem is another problem altogether, and it sounds like you need to replace the wheel. Either that, or the mechanic who replaced spokes for you didn't correctly tension the wheel. You should take the bike to the shop where you purchased it, find out if it is under any kind of warranty at the shop, and suggest they replace the wheel even if it is not.

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Permalink Reply by Michael A on July 30, 2011 at 6:53am

I would agree the spoke issue is partially mechanic related, but it could also have to do with our lovely streets here in city, or your riding style (if you take the weight off your seat when you hit bumps) and if you have added a rack to carry things.Rule of thumb for me is once you break the second spoke on a wheel, it either needs to be rebuilt or replaced. At $400 you are in the entry level hybrid range and most manufacture's build quality will be comperable. A cracked frame within 6 months is completely unacceptable unless an impact/crash was involved. Hound your shop until they fix the issue.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 30, 2011 at 10:07am

The Raleigh Comfort Bikes like the C40 are bottom-end bike-shop bikes.  While not Wal-mart junk they are really not up to the task of being an everyday commuter for too many years -especially in a city like Chicago which has some of the worst streets in the civilized world due to neglect and a corrupt city machine.

 

The wheels on the bike are machine-built and while they were OK at first will never last a long as a proper hand-built wheel.  If you would have taken the wheel in after a few months of riding on it to a bike mechanic and had them check and tension the spokes while doing a true they probably would have lasted longer but I think that what happened is they loosened up after the initial break-in because the machine-built wheels were never tension-relieved and you rode on them for a year in a too-loose condition until you started breaking spokes.  

 

Once those first couple of spokes were broke the wheel was already telling you that it was well on its way out.  The rest of the spokes probably had serious fatigue issues from riding too loose for a long time.  The spoke that broke was just the weakest link but the rest of the spokes were not that far behind.  Fixing up that wheel at this point got you back on the road again but because of the condition of fatigued spokes was probably 80%+ used up already and nothing could be done to bring it back -only slow down the wear for that last 20% or less of the life.

 

New wheels cost money -nice hand-build wheels cost more than cheap mass-produced machine-built wheels but they will last much longer (especially if they are kept up to correct tension and true.)

 

This is why higher-end bikes cost more money.   You get more.  Most people can't "see" this on the sales floor so that is why the LBS sells the lower-end bikes.  It's either that or lose these customers entirely to the Walmart bikes.  You get what you pay for.   

 

The issue with the broken frame is strange.  The Raleigh USA frames, if anything, are over-built and over-heavy for what they need to carry.  I think the cracked frame was either a fluke or something weird happened to your bike when you weren't there and it was parked in a rack.  I've seen all sorts of bikes bent/smashed/banged up while locked in a rack or to a post.   That could happen to any bike.

 

As far a the Raleigh bikes go they are a pretty good bike at this price point.  The frame is a bit over-built/heavy and the components are mid/lower-end stuff (not as cheap as the walmart crap though) especially the wheelset, derailleurs and brakes.  But they are quite well designed and all the lower-end stuff seems to work surprisingly quite well together.  My wife has an older C30 and while a lot of the parts on it are not the best I'm surprised at how well it runs and holds together.  She doesn't ride it every day though.  I'm sure if she did it'd wear out in a couple of years and need parts being replaced.   Having a Husband who is a mechanic probably might  help because it is always well-tuned and things are not let go until they become a bigger issue.

 

The modern Raleigh-USA bikes are not the same as the older Raleigh bikes from the 60's and before that were made in Nottingham England.  Those were meant to last a lifetime of everyday riing while the ones built  today by the company that bought the name Raleigh  (Raleigh-USA) are made to last a few years if taken decent care of.  They still are better than the disposable junk made for Walmart.  Most every part on the Raleigh USA bikes can be replaced by higher-end components while many of the disposable walmart parts can't even be taken apart.  Things like the front crankset and chainwheels are welded together and have to be replaced as a whole assembly when a chainwheel wears out. The Walmart bikes are put together almost entirely out of such parts and working on them gets really expensive.  At least the Raleigh has normal parts (if lower end) that can be easily replaced part by part with higher-end stuff as it eventually wears out.  

 

If one wants to buy a bike that is going to last for everyday commuting for a decade or so one is going to have to pay upwards of 2-3 times as much for a sturdier Bike-shop bike with higher-end components that are going to be able to last.   Either that or buy a heavy-duty vintage bike from the days when bikes were built to last and that was more important than them weighing under 20lbs or being under $200.

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Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on July 30, 2011 at 9:33pm

I inherited a Walmart aluminum bike with very crappy components, but I liked the frame and handlebar so much that I replaced everything except for the frame. 1 and 1/2 years later and 13000 miles on the frame, and no sign of fatigue...knock on wood;) it's heavy though, that's for sure, but i love this bike now.

 

this is the bike:

http://common2.csnimages.com/lf/47/hash/2135/3641565/1/Paver+700C+M...

 

the raleigh was probably defective when it was tic welded.

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 31, 2011 at 9:24am

Perhaps unacceptable, but not completely untrue. 

h333 said:

...that "meant for weekend riding" comment is completely unacceptable.  

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 31, 2011 at 12:12pm

How is that unacceptable?  A lot of low end bikes are built for just that and simply will not hold the rigors of daily use. What should the shop have done, lied to her?  Told her the bike would hold up great and just let her keep dumping money into it?

 

Should we expect more for 400 bucks?  Yes, and if you shop around you can find a good bike for that money but many times a 400 dollar bike that has not been properly built is going to be nothing but a money pit.

h333 said:

I imagine if you haven't yet named the shop, you're not going to, but that "meant for weekend riding" comment is completely unacceptable.  I'd encourage you to at least leave some feedback here, for the benefit of your local cycling community:

http://chicagobikeshops.info

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 31, 2011 at 12:57pm

Lower end components don't just wear out faster -but they don't stay "in tune" as well as they age.  This means that little fiddling things like the derailleur indexing doesn't want to stay right for more than a hundred miles or so past the last LBS tune-up or the brakes just can't seem to stay centered correctly.  For a home mechanic these things aren't a big deal and cheaper components can be replaced with take-offs off of other bikes or deals found online.  Or they can be babied along with more frequent repairs and adjustments that higher-end components don't really suffer.

 

For someone paying LBS labor rates to constantly tune up a low-end bike that doesn't hold the tune it's going to nickle and dime them to death.  These entry-level bikes have their places though, as the LBS has to have bikes to sell to those customers who are just not ready to buy a higher-quality bike or can't justify the extra money it takes to get into one.  If the LBS didn't have the lower-end models they'd be much more likely to walk out and go to walmart and buy a BSO.

 

Such is life.  While it's not always true that you get what you pay for -there is a strong correlation.   Spend $300-400 on a new bike and you're probably going to get a $300-400 bike -and not a $600-1000 one...

notoriousDUG said:

How is that unacceptable?  A lot of low end bikes are built for just that and simply will not hold the rigors of daily use. What should the shop have done, lied to her?  Told her the bike would hold up great and just let her keep dumping money into it?

 

Should we expect more for 400 bucks?  Yes, and if you shop around you can find a good bike for that money but many times a 400 dollar bike that has not been properly built is going to be nothing but a money pit.

h333 said:

I imagine if you haven't yet named the shop, you're not going to, but that "meant for weekend riding" comment is completely unacceptable.  I'd encourage you to at least leave some feedback here, for the benefit of your local cycling community:

http://chicagobikeshops.info

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