Recumbent - Beware of Sun EZ-3

Well we've had the second frame on this bike crack. Same spot, same weld exactly!!
This is obviously a design flaw that they haven,t fixed. The first frame we were out of pocket with warranty $150.00 just for the re&re of the new frame. No it isn't a 300 pound ape pedalling this bike, more like a 150 pound 15 year old with C.P. We e-mailed them a week and a half ago, no reply.

Sorry that happened. That sort of thing can be soooo very frustrating and its very easy to loose patience. Don't beat yourself up about it. Glad to hear that Sun is making things right. Hope everything goes a little smoother from here on out.

It's always good to hear when a manufacturer stands behind their work. Of course, it's best if they don't have to, but I guess even the best frames fail sometimes. Sun has a reputation for sturdy frames, so I hope by now they've identified the problem and fixed it.

That's great that the matter was resolved. I have had an EZ3 for over 10 years and just recently got another. I have a home made trailer with a bionx motor on it that I pull for special occasions. Walt Werruch did an article in ERRC about how he had stacked his two Sun trikes piggy back and I've enjoyed doing that with my son and grandson. It's a good rig to handle snow and ice here in Anchorage.

Sorry to say nothing has been resolved:( After a month of waiting and my son without his ride Sun has not contacted Cambie Cycles in Vancouver with a new frame. We have only recieved the one reply from Sun. We have talked to the dealer weekly expecting some contact between Sun and them but as of yet nothing. Maybe my son will be driving by the time this is resolved!!!!!

I feel your pain. Keep on Cambie, that's about all you can do. My Baron's frame is cracked and I'm waiting for a warranty replacement. There is no dealer. I've been going about a month between communications with Optima, since December. The last response I got was a week ago, saying the US distributor has requested a delay in shipment of the new batch of frames, and that they'd direct-ship me one instead. We'll see.

I suggest you find someone with an oxy-acetylene torch, and get that thing brazed. That'll get your son back on the road while you wait for the new frame.

I do a bit of welding but I think that I would have even more trouble with Sun if I started doing my own invasive repairs. What I did do is make 2 steel plates that sandwich the broken tubing together with 4 bolts. This worked last time, but this time there seems to be more flex in the area of break, and chain keeps falling off, leaving son stranded. IMO these frame designs are destined to fail, there is a huge amount of flex at the rear deraileur, gear cluster mount. If you own one of these bikes look down at gear cluster while pedaling and you will see up too 1/8 inch of lateral movement. Entire cluster and shifter skew forward and to left under even moderate pressure on pedals!!!!!!!

I looked at your photos and if the weld is cracking then this is not a design flaw, but a manufacturing flaw, to be specific. As a builder, I've examined the cheap EZ-3s in the many stores that carry them and they use thick steel and over build everything around that mid-drive. If the weld cracks, that's a bad welding machine or bad welding technique.

If you don't hear anything from Sun call them up again and ask if they will just re-imburse the dealer for welding the frame back together again. Because Cambie Cycles is also a custom recumbent frame builder, I'm sure they have more than enough skill to remount that mid-drive. If they still want to send you a frame but can give no time schedule, point them to this thread, because all manufacturers are worried about public relations.

:)ensen.

The frame is aluminium not steel,and IMO is not in the least overbuilt. The twisting forces put on that
un-gusseted 3/4" x 1" aluminium tubing that the center drive is hung from is way to light, in fact I think it has twisted so badly a simple re-weld will not work. I agree the frame did break at the weld, but this is the second frame to break at the same weld..... same point..... same manner. This can't possibly be isolated to only 2 frames, and only 2 frames we've had, or we must have the worst luck on the planet.

Makes me wonder though, if more frames are having problems if the reason you've not heard anything more is that they may still be trying to resolve the issue.

I hope they do!!

Well it's been a month and a half and no word from Sun Cycle about fixing the broken frame on our trike. The silence has been deafening!! No replies to our repeated requests for some form of dialogue as to weather they will fix it or not. Not a word, nothing, nada. Great customer service!!

Thanks for the unintentional heads-up about a line of Sun trike service. I have the other Sun trike - Tad- which also went through frame problems. Mine never did, but going through replacement problems over a month would frustrate me no end! It is 5 years old, weighs 110# (210# + with me on it) so if it cracked - no loss! Recyclers would enjoy that much weight.

I rode one of these things exactly for half a block, lets just say that was enough.
My biggest problem with the thing was the poor twitchy steering, seemed to me like it was all over the road and the pedal-stering effect made it very twitchy, every time I pedaled it moved the bike around a lot.

As for the welding, this one looked solid enough, glad I did not buy one for the wife and decided to build her one myself.

Nelson

It looks like Sun's way of dealing with a problem is to just ignore it and hope it just goes away. All contact with Sun has been through my wifes e-mail address. With only one reply from a Gary Mendenhall at Sun I decided to try a test e-mail from my address. I wrote up a generic non specific request for a frame repair, not letting on who I really was. Guess what....... a reply!!:notamused:So I e-mailed him to let him know the jig is up. Hard to believe with the economy the way it is and the communication at peoples finger tips that they would play these stupid games!!

Really disturbing and disappointing to hear of a company that treats it's customers so poorly.
I recall you mentioning your son has CP. Have you looked at the Americruiser website? They aren't really fancy, but they can build for special needs without costing a fortune.
http://www.americruiser.com/

Sun has been making the EZ-1 and EZ-3 bikes for many years. And they are carried by several reputable LBSs, so I'm inclined to believe that this is not a wide-scale problem.

Their customer service has always been spotty, IMHO. It's low-rent district company, most of their bikes are amongst the lowest priced in their respective categories. I'd be surprised if they had a lot of employees.

My experience with their customer service was when I contacted them when the seat fabric wore out on my Sun EZ-Rider after 500 miles. I thought that was WAY too early. Their response was along the lines of, 'Too bad for you. We will gladly sell you a replacement cover at list price.' To which my response was, "Why would I want to buy it from you, given that I already know that it is a low quality product?" Never heard from them again.

Otherwise the quality of my Sun bent has been very good.

We own two Sun 'bents, an '07 EZ Sport with 1300 miles on it and a new X-1 with only 25 miles on it. Neither bike has presented any problems (yet) and I don't really expect any as the bikes seem to be fairly well made.

As to the Sun service dept., I did contact them through e-mail in regards to some touch-up paint for my wife's new X-1 (there wasn't any supplied with the bike). I recieved a response within about a week and they did send me two plastic vials of paint a couple weeks later.

Though the company address is in Miami, I wondered about where the e-mail actually went to as the text in the answers I recieved was very abrupt and to the point, not discourteous, just very text conservative if you know what I mean.

I do hope you're able to get some satisfactory resolution to your EZ-3 issue.

This turns out to be a bit of a detective story.

The website www.sunbicycles.com has an e-mail link that goes to suninfo@jbimporters.com.

The website for J&B Importers is www.jbi.cc/web and it lists the company headquarters as being in Miami. A tracert to either www.sunbicycles.com or www.jbi.cc goes to the IP address 74.8.32.141 which is in Miami.

Detailed contact information for J&B Importers is listed at http://www.jbi.cc/web/contact_us.php

Hope this helps.

Thanks Barry

Our single reply came from a Gary at suninfo@jbimporters.com

No problem with mine at all (it is molded into that green shell in my avatar) almost 5 years, but if it is not sellable, it is not sellable!!!

I DO weigh 250lbs, 6'1", and have a used 06 EZ-3 that was rode hard by it's first owner.
Absolutely no complaints about the trike. It rides great at 1/4 the price of some nicer,
faster trikes. I'm 51 and enjoy riding the trike, even my 70+ mother likes riding the EZ-3.
I'm considering getting an X-3 so we don't have to share.:rolleyes:

Having read all the posts, looking at the damage, just wondering if someone didn't try to
hop on the rear frame to ride along, My 250+ weight would put much more constant load
on the frame than your son's weight, and I don't ride it very "gentle" at all, (I swear I hit
every pothole and curb there is on the way to the bike trails...

Shoot, in the archives here there are numerous posts from a guy well over the 300lb range
that was riding a EZ-3 SX (and 300lbs is the max weight limit in the manual).

Webskipper Dave,
06 Sun EZ-3 SX
Giant Cypress
Casual cruzer

I don't know what models are standing up better. Ours is the alluminium frame with the rear canted wheels. As said before our son is only 150 lbs, has never had anybody doubled(not sure how you would do that).Hitting potholes and curbs wouldn't effect where the frame broke because it isn't suspension related. The frame broke where it broke from torque applied to the pedals. I have made the bike rideable with a couple of steel plates sandwiching the break, and to lesten the torque on the weak frame I made up a link to the rear with a turnbuckle and metal strap!! I'll post pics. It"s great that others aren't having these problems, Maybe the steel frames are better.

Really disturbing and disappointing to hear of a company that treats it's customers so poorly.
I recall you mentioning your son has CP. Have you looked at the Americruiser website? They aren't really fancy, but they can build for special needs without costing a fortune.
http://www.americruiser.com/

This bike was quite rideable for our son before the frame problems. He had geat fun with the trike and lots of feedback from fellow riders and the public. He was very proud of his "SWEET RIDE"!! Then the frame broke :( Then the second frame broke :notamused:

Aluminum? I didn't even know Sun made aluminum frames. And that changes everything. Highly likely that it broke from fatigue failure. Remember that the pedal stroke puts in a power pulse twice each revolution, so I wouldn't be surprised if the mid drive was being flexed 1/16" each time.... and that definitely puts it into the realm of an engineering problem. (My error initially regarding mfg defect since I believed the frame was steel). They should just send a steel version. The weight differential is not that much, if any.

:)ensen.

So this is how you make a Sun EZ3-AX work when Sun won't "Man Up" and fix an issue with their frames!

Parts required - 2 2x2 by 1/4 inch steel plates
4 1/4x2 inch machine bolts
1 eye bolt
1 small turnbuckle
1 piece of strapping sized to suit

Maybe Sun Should just supply these parts with all their EZ3-AX's;)

I rode one of these things exactly for half a block, lets just say that was enough.


Better to build them youself. You can make them any size to fit you, and as heavy duty as you think they need to be. Nelson just finished a tadpole for his wife, which turned out really nice, as is the delta trike he built for himself.
Also, the thing about aluminum is if it breaks, there's no warning, and if post heat treatment isn't done properly, the weld and the surrounding metal are subject to breaking. Judging from the pics, it looks like the metal around the weld gave out.

Ah HA, My Sun EZ-3 is the SX (Steel Frame), and BadBike's is the AX (Aluminum frame), seems they have a few models that were either SX or AX (besides the USX ones....<G>) So I can see where my 250lb might not break a steel frame, but could wear out an aluminum version. I was looking at the newer X-3 AX as an upgrade, but might check out the heftier rated models.
I am NOT a builder, just a rider....<G> Hope your fix is the permanent fix and your son is happy again!

Ah HA, My Sun EZ-3 is the SX (Steel Frame), and BadBike's is the AX (Aluminum frame), seems they have a few models that were either SX or AX (besides the USX ones....<G>) So I can see where my 250lb might not break a steel frame, but could wear out an aluminum version. I was looking at the newer X-3 AX as an upgrade, but might check out the heftier rated models.
I am NOT a builder, just a rider....<G> Hope your fix is the permanent fix and your son is happy again!

The repair is working for the time being, and my kids riding and happy!! I just hope he isn't left stranded if it goes.
Without the fix the rear chain won't stay on the drive.

I wonder if the area can be repaired by using multiple layers of carbon fiber? It's what I would try, anyway. The clamps look like a good *temporary* fix, maybe even extra support for a more permanent solution; bit I don't think I'd rely on them alone for long-term. It sux that Sun doesn't even acknowledge the problem.

:)

What it looks like from the first picture is that whomever/whatever welded the area "overwelded" it. In other words the torch burned too deep and didn't leave enough material there for the weld to hold. It just left the thin layer that the weld material left when finished. A proper weld is supposed to melt two separate pieces into one using the fill to make up for any gap between the two. That weld obviously didn't do that.