Oh dear god mr Specialized...sort it out!

[Tootyred]

Ive just bought a specialized x 3.0 to use as a winter hack. Nothing to get excited about and i wouldn't normally even bother mentioning it, but jeeeeeeez, mr specialized, get a grip of what your turning out!

The bike has done 60 miles....and is basically new. Came from someone i know and trust...hes not a fiddler. Its been back for a crank recall ( more on that later) but the way its been put together is appalling.

Yes, some components are cheap, but thats not the issue, its factory / dealer build quality..or lack of.

So here goes, not sure if this is now typical of modern bikes, but come on! No wonder the industry is in the poo.

1. Both wheels cones so tight they hardly spin. Filled with grease so hard, it could be used on a supertanker prop shaft. Helps also if the grease is actually on the bearings..not inside the hub shell! No wonder he felt the bike was a bit sluggish!

2. Gears "have never been quite right" yes, thats because the cable was 4 inches too long, but instead of cutting it down, they stuffed it onto the downtube in a figure of 8 to get rid of it.

3. No grease in headset....zero.

4. Cranks been back for recall..apparently they didn't torque them correctly and they fall off. Dealer fix....locktight on everything except the bolts! On the spline, bearing surfaces of bottom brakcet, tension bolt....lashed on. Then do up all the bolts to 10 times the required torque...thats not coming off on my watch!

5. Rear brake caliper finger tight.

6. Spoke tensions all over the place and far too loose on front wheel. Not suprised its not true and has wandered out of true on basic road duty.

Is this how things are now? Its been 40 years ish since i worked in a shop, but any of that lot would have got me booted out the door.

What's happened to PDI?! I assume that's long tone too in some money saving scheme.

 

[widowmaker]

That is shocking, not a premium brand but one that you should be able to, dare i say trust!

 

[Takingabreak]

Par for the course I think. No wonder so many bikes get used a few times and then put in the shed. A while ago a did a bit of a service on a friends Specialized hybrid thing that they said didn't work properly and hadn't worked properly since they bought it, despite taking it back for servicing and repair. It was a similar story, it just wasn't assembled, greased and set up properly

 

[clubby]

By no means a die hard Specialized fan boi, but I do currently own two and they’ve came perfect, so those problems are very much down to the supplying shop. Things should be better from factory as well, but it’s up to the dealer to make sure the bike is properly checked before going out the door. The cable issue for instance. The build kits all come with hoses and cables for the biggest sizes. Factory shoves them on all sizes and expect the shop to trim to suitable sizes. Did he buy it mail order? Even then I’d expect a decent dealer to have checked everything first.

Unfortunately it’s a side effect of us, the buying public, wanting everything fast and cheap. Even for an experienced mechanic, it’s at least a half hour job to resize a full set of cables and bleed brakes and index gears. That all eats into profit. On a full price £800 bike, £130 is vat. Takes sale cost to £666. What’s the return? Maybe 10-20%? An hour of mechanics time eats into profit significantly. Everyone wants money off or something thrown in to sweeten the deal. People want C2W, those companies take a cut. I’m not saying it’s right, but I can understand why it happens.

Of my two Spesh, I bought one online (Certini) and one in store (Pedal Power in West Calder). Online I was warned dispatch would take a couple of days as it need a PDI. Came perfect and just needed front wheel and stem attached. In store one was last years model and had been on display for a year. I was asked to come back in an hour as they wanted to give it a final check. As it happens I was stripping the parts off to sell and reusing my old stuff, so said not to bother. Still said they wanted to check the e-bike parts were updated to newest firmware. Checked it over before stripping and all worked perfectly and appropriately greased when I stripped it.

Even my wife’s highly discounted Whyte from Evan’s came remarkably well set up. Only thing was the wee Saturday lad proudly telling me it had been safety tested, while I was looking at the wonky angles the brake levers were set at. The got the fine tooth comb treatment, but that was the only thing to fault.

 

[Woz]

Is this how things are now? Its been 40 years ish since i worked in a shop, but any of that lot would have got me booted out the door.

Shocking but far from unique to Generalized. At one time this went on with BSO, super market bikes, quick sale bikes etc. but have seen it too on higher value bikes like you say. You would think something on Tiagra level was assembled properly but no.