stein_alex

Hey folks, I'm new on here so treat me nicely!

I ordered a Raleigh AT10 bike, new, from eBay and received it yesterday.

Once built, I noticed both front and back wheels were buckled and hit the breaks at certain points in a rotation. Upset and confused, I messaged the seller and stated the above problem, to which their response was "go to a local dealer and get the problem fixed, and we will take £20 off the cost of the repair".

Now, should I kick up a fuss and demand a replacement/refund or get it fixed? (Not sure if I have the patience to send the old one back and wait for a new one!)

Advice?

Thanks in advance

jsharr

Buckled, and out of true are very different things. Wheels go out of true and in most cases, can be brought back to true very easily and inexpensively by an experienced bicycle mechanic or wheelsmith. I would do as the seller requested and take the bike to a good, reputable bike shop wiht a well trained mechanic and let them give you an opinion and estimate to true the wheels and then I would respond accordingly to the seller.

Airburst

How much did the bike cost? I'm not familiar with your model, but if it's a really cheap one (I suspect it is if the wheels are out of true from new), a replacement is likely to have something else that doesn't work properly on it.

How badly out of true are they?

stein_alex

Apologies, my post stated the A10 rather than the AT10 (damn typos!) Here's the link if you're interested: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RALEIGH-FR...60506010389%26

They are rather badly out of true, fronts worse than back... You can defiantly notice it when the wheel is spun or the bike is rode

Airburst

Hmmm, that's not as low-end as I thought, it's still fairly cheap, but it's not on the level of something like a Tescos bike that I could understand coming with the wheels out of true.

"Rather badly" is a subjective term, how far are we talking here? Are they far enough out of true to rub on the brake pads?

stein_alex

Yup, seems to rub against the brake pads at certain points of the rim...

Airburst

Well, I'd say that's an issue. Is it just at one point on each rim, with the rest fairly true? That could suggest that it's shipping damage. If the wheels are just out of true in general, I'd say the bike probably counts as "defective", although what that means for your dispute with the eBay seller, I don't know.

stein_alex

I believe it's at different points of the rim, however one section is worse than the others... Maybe it is shipping damage, however a replacement could bring the same result! Maybe I'll just take it into a bike shop and see what they think... Thanks so much for your advice!

Bill Kapaun

Until you say HOW MUCH, we really have no clue how bad they are.

0.1mm is out of true, but meaningless.

fietsbob

Bike shops take care of their customers after the sale.
they did agree to compensate you , at least...
bring it by the Shop, they at least can see what you are talking about, I can't.

stein_alex

Not sure how bad the true is in terms of mm... It's easily visible I know that much. Spinning the wheel displays at least a 5-6mm displacement, but that's looking at the tire rather than the rim

jsharr

You cannot judge trueness for rim by watching the tire. You really need to just take the bike to a bike shop and get an estimate to have the wheels trued, spokes brought to even tension and then make your decision on how much to ask back from seller or whether to return the bike.

Shopping at a brick and mortar store offers advantages, such as a RL person to speak with when you have a problem, the ability to test the bike prior to purchase, have issues addressed before purchase, etc.

FBinNY 

Wheels on low to medium priced wheels are often out of true when the bike is received out of the box. Touch-up truing of wheels, along with other thinks like brake and gear adjustments are part of the normal dealer prep when bikes are bought at a shop.

When bought on the net and shipped in the box, this responsibility falls to the buyer, but of course it's a matter of degree. I suggest you accept the offer and have the wheels aligned. Also, depending on your own skill level, you might consider paying the shop to review the rest of the assembly and adjustments so this bike is brought up to snuff.

Scooper

You've gotten good advice. Most low end production wheels are tensioned by machine with the expectation that a dealer will check the spoke tension and trueness of the wheels and make the necessary adjustments before delivery to the customer.

I would suggest your first step would be to loosen the quick release on each wheel, ensure the axles are firmly seated in the dropouts, and then secure the quick releases again. This would eliminate the possibility that what appears to be a wheel truing problem may be that the wheels simply aren't seated in the dropouts. Next, with the wheel off of the floor and a pencil held against a fork blade (front) or chainstay (rear) and the eraser end of the pencil a millimeter or two from the rim (to simulate the position of a brake pad) spin the wheel and note the maximum and minimum distances from the eraser to the rim as the wheel rotates. Most wheelbuilders shoot for a maximum of 1 mm variation both vertically (hop) and laterally (side-to-side wobble) at the rim for the wheel to be considered true, although some perfectionists shoot for 0.5 mm.

If your wheels are more than a millimeter out in either plane, get an experienced wheelbuilder to properly tension the spokes and true the wheels.

FBinNY 

From both the text and tone of the original post, I assume that the OP is fairly new to this, and repeat the advice to let a pro bring the bike up to snuff, using the sellers offer of a rebate partly finance the bill.

Later the OP can learn bike repair, step by step, starting with the simple, and developing skills over time. But to throw this together DIY with the help of tutorials where needed is to take a risk because the OP has no way of knowing what else he doesn't know, some of which might matter.

Scooper

Good points.

stein_alex

Hey guys, I took my bike into my local bike shop today and, as guessed by you lot, the spokes were out and needed truing. It cost £20 to repair so at least I'm not out of pocket

Thank you all so much for your advice, so glad I came across this forum! Can't wait to ride my bike which I've waited for so long! Thanks again