Now I have another folding bike!!!

[JamesW]

Yesterday on the way home, my converted Raleigh Venture (with no suspension) decided to become a folding bike as I was crossing the dual carriageway! The frame snapped in clean off at 2 point near the head set tube. Luckily I was crossing the road from a standing start and only going a maximum of 3-5 mph at the point of snap when the handlebars carried on and I ended up on the tarmac in the middle of the road.

The frame is less that 5 years old, the conversion kit is less than 18months and my bike insurance will not cover failure due to metal fatigue - nor will the Raleigh warrantee cover me for a conversion on the frame.

Needless to same I am thanking God that this happened at low speed going across the road rather than 15 mph + going with the traffic or I would have been in intensive care today.

I am obviously loathe to get a second hand bike after that and also loathe to get one without a good frame warranty.

My previous kit had a frog battery and I carry 10-20kg of stuff (clothes, lunch, water tools & occasionally laptop) in panniers on a daily basis but I think I would like a MTB to be able to go off road and have fun when I don't have the panniers fitted for commuting. I also believe I'm looking to move the battery and the centre of gravity forwards.
I did have 29er wheels and have snow tyres and puncture marathon pluses. I will be commuting every day (distance depends on physical exhaustion and liability to get ill rather than weather).
I would prefer to be able to wire in lights to the system and would prefer disc brakes, but Suspension and a good electrical and frame warranty are a must for me this time.

(I don't have loads of cash but this is my "car" so I can possibly get to the 2k mark if pushed, not sure about cycle to work yet from my employers perspective.)

(I have thought about a steel frame, but I'm not sure where you get a steel frame MTB now and so I'm leaning towards prebuilt bike from new.)

Suggestions on a bike please...

- Will post picture of "folder" soon when have access to picture as well as 'tinterweb

 

[Croxden]

Hercules honoured their 50 years guaranty when my bike frame broke. It was a few years back, before electricity I think.

 

[JamesW]

I will admit to being told by the Raleigh dealer from whom I bought the bike that if I fitted a conversion kit, the (10yr) frame warranty would become void - and he knows I did as I take it in for regular servicing!

 

[selrahc1992]

I will admit to being told by the Raleigh dealer from whom I bought the bike that if I fitted a conversion kit, the (10yr) frame warranty would become void - and he knows I did as I take it in for regular servicing!

I was astonished to hear that Brompton(I have one) only guarantee their frames up to 125kg, god knows what happens after that. I always thought bicycle frames were indestructible, happy you survived.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

I don't think you'll find any brand that will honour a warranty, after its been converted, I'm afraid.

 

[Alan Quay]

Second hand steel framed mountain bikes are available on EBay, and good ones are nearly indestructible. My current favourite is anything from GT.

Also, most quality aluminium MTB frames from the likes of Trek, Spec, GT (and others) will stand up to a lot of abuse.

I've not broken any of those, and I've abused them with front/rear motors, big batteries, towing a child, and using rough country tracks. All with 120kg of me on top.

 

[JamesW]

Hmmm, not sue what happened to image I posted last night.

I think people might be misunderstanding me in the frame/bike dept. Im not lokking to convert agaon!
As I don't want to die due to frame failure, I'm looking for a long instance commuting bike that is ready built and has a decent frame warranty. I'd love it even more if I could find a prebuilt e-MTB that would take my 95kg + 10-30kg luggage on a pannier rack fitted on the back.


I think my choices are limited to a haibike trekking bike the Raleigh moths or any KTM / Kalkhoff that I haven't seen yet just from myy specs.

Any thoughts?

(The trip is 20 hilly miles each way and would ideally be done each working day - I haven't had the bike reliability with the conversion kit to do that or the fitness.)

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Frame breakage is pretty rare and nothing to do with fitting a conversion kit to ypur bike. The welds broke because either it wasn't welded properly or, more likely, they didn't heat treat it properly afterwards. In all the time I've been on this forum (5 years), I'-ve only heard of three frame breakages: a Haibike, a Raleigh (yours) and a cheap chinese bike. It seems strange that both Raleigh and Haibikes are on your list.

 

[JamesW]

Hmmm, I knew frame breaks were rare and tyhast figure sounbfds about right or people wouldn't feel safe cycling. I guess it looks like the heat treatment was faulty.
Still trying to upload a pic. What bike would you be recommending looking at then Dave?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Anything but a Raleigh Venture. The ideal bike has a frame with a triangle and disc brakes. The rest depends on what you like.

 

[JamesW]

Ideally I'd prefer an MTB, which I could then use as such on the weekends with the option of fixing/removing a pannier rack onto it - I'm thinking hardtail.

I was wondering if I could mount 1 of these to carry my Ortleib back roller classics on an MTB and free me up to look at MTB style bikes (instead of being limited to trekking bikes like the Motus or SX trekking):
http://www.cyclesurgery.com/pws/UniqueProductKey.ice?ProductID=CTHU0032SS&gclid=CNb19JqyycYCFe7KtAodZ3oHLw&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'd want a warranty that lasts 5yrs or so on the frame
2yrs on the electrics
and the bike prebuilt.

Not too heavy.

Frame larger than smaller - my inside leg is 33inches so my previous frame size was 21inch.

20kg approx. or lighter

Ability to run lights off battery would be a major bonus

Range needs to be large to take me + my stuff to work/home (trip is 20miles each way but I can charge each end)

Battery frame mounted - forward not over the rear wheel.

Wheels 700c / 29er - will allow reuse of existing stuff

Brakes - would prefer disc brakes.

range 60miles + (120kg over 20miles + weather + battery fade gets me to this sort of requirement.)

Any ideas - pointers would be greatly appreciated

- I'm NOT going to do a home build this time someone else is going to be liable for my injuries in the event of a bike failure so my family can get so sort of liability (I don't expect this to happen - I will sell the bike at about 4.5 years).

Bosch motor was ok on Motus, but bike was much heavier than I wanted. (currently used to front hub motor and a throttle, but can get used to other if required)

Where are all the dealers trying to flog me their stuff?

 

[trex]

I don't think you could squeeze the lot into 20 kgs.

 

[JamesW]

I don't think you could squeeze the lot into 20 kgs.

Well the bike that just broke was 19.8 on the work scales - with lights, pannier rack and battery (36V10AH) , so allow for a bit of extra weight due to actually having suspension on the bike, and a bit more for a bigger battery and 20kg is the target. the 25kg Motus was substantially heavier than what I was used to - but that would be as the weight increase is another 25%!

I did say aiming for that spec - not convinced I can necessarily get it. but 20/21kg before rack would be good.

 

[JamesW]

basically wondering if the above pannier rack allows me to look at things like:

Cube Reaction
KTM Macina Cross/Action
Haibike SDURO HardSeven

any other MTB that comes with a good warranty might be recommended by long term forum members (I know who I'm thinking of)

 

[flecc]

Any e-bike maker should be able to quote a sensible frame warranty period, Wisper for example had a 6 year frame warranty on that brand name of e-bike.

I could list a number of brands that have had broken frames, but there's no point, since any make can have the odd failure for various reasons, mistakes happen even to the best.

For example, a member bought one of the oldest established brands models, wheeled it out of the store and started using it. The frame felt strangely spongy, not surprising since he found the down tube had never been welded to the bottom bracket shell so his weight opened up a gap as soon as he got on board. Of course he was promptly given a new one, fully welded this time!
.

 

[JamesW]

but Wisper batteries are all located behind the seatpost - and they don't do an MTB.

any other pointers?

(I've looked and the Ezee offering (Raptor) and didn't like the asthetics of it)

 

[Alan Quay]

Have you looked at the Kudos bikes?

 

[JamesW]

Have you looked at the Kudos bikes?

Not until just now, but with a specified max rider weight of 100kg, that makes them unsuitable straight away as they don't meet the required carry capacity.
Thanks for the reminder though Mike

 

[Alan Quay]

You are 95 kilos, under the 100k rider weight limit.

 

[JamesW]

But I'm going to add 20-30 kg of weight that is not me that the bike would not be designed to carry! Need to cover myself against overloading and use beyond reasonable expectations - if I can get a bike that will take 120kg of rider, then they can't really argue if some oif that weight is shifted onto a pannier!