Old 04-20-10, 11:29 AM
  #5  
AdamDZ
Bike addict, dreamer
 
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My Draft started literally falling apart from the first ride from the LBS: the wheel reflectors came off. Then one pedal broke. Then I started popping spokes weekly, spokes would pop even when the bike wasn't moving, wheels were never true, then bottom bracket and freewheel fell apart - all within weeks. The bottom bracket was something non-standard, by the way. SE denied having any problems with these bikes. Even the LBS warned me that I will need to replace the wheels on this thing, all their customers did. I ended up replacing everything on this bike except for the frame, the fork, the handlebar and the seatpost. It was a total piece of junk, the saddle and the pedals were garbage. I wanted to keep it though, because I liked the frame, it was steel and made by Fuji and even after replacing the parts it was still not that bad of a deal: pain $200 and spent another $200-250 on upgrades.

BTW, I wanted to return it but the next one up was like $600 and the LBS guys advised me to keep it and gradually replace the parts so I'll actually end up with a better bike and they did the upgrades without charging me for labor so the final bike turned to be pretty good.

So the bottom line: it was a good frame but crappy, cheap parts. If you can find a used Draft for $100 get it for the frame, strip it down and install your own parts, just keep in mind the BB is non-standard, I forgot what it was but it needed some kind of adapter.

After the upgrades it took a beating for two years without a single problem.

Last edited by AdamDZ; 04-20-10 at 11:36 AM.
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