Hi David; thanks for the forward.

I don't have an account with that forum, so it won't let me post.

The problem he's describing isn't quality, it's caused by a very hard smack on the end of the drum which causes one of the inner bearing shoulders to snap off, which allows the drum to migrate to one side and the inner shoulder then rattles around inside the drum as he's described. It's very rare, I've only had to warranty a few dozen over the 20 years of producing this design but if there is a common handling condition (shipping, the user, etc) which allows the roller to be abused like that, it could happen more than once. We are happy to replace these damaged drums for the lifetime of the product.

We are the largest volume roller manufacturer in the world, we started by making the Nashbar brand of rollers 20 years ago, our brand, CycleOps (which we've been making for almost 17 years), Planet X (europe) and now Feedback Sports. We have made countless thousands of drums for rollers, the Omnium trainer, and trike trainers, all using the same design that we continue to evolve with quality enhancements. Many of our rollers are still in use after 20 years, and many have thousands of miles. We know how long belts last, because customers will contact us after almost exactly 10 years of hard use for a new belt. With a lifetime warranty and a reputation to protect with our private label customers, we can't afford poor quality.

But, we also can't afford to make everything completely bomb-proof for the few time it may see abuse outside of normal handling. Bicycles and wheels are no different; to be performance machines, their design margins are very skinny, and will fail if the rider is too heavy, roads too harsh, etc. Aluminum bikes made by the top manufacturers will fatigue if you use them in a trainer because the rear triangle can't tolerate the fatigue twisting load of being clamped in (I've seen several bikes by Giant and Cannondale that have failed from trainer use).

And unfortunately, like all manufacturers, we get caught with random bad material.. over the years we've suffered thru some small batches of bad bearings, bad end cap material (contaminated) and bad axle end cuts. These have caused patches of failures that we've covered without question around the world. But each time we investigate the root causes and take advance measures. Bearings are now single-sourced to one factory with our own controlled specs on ball roundness and race dimensions. End caps are molded locally, and we only buy material from a single validated source. Axles are now lazer-cut rather than sheared, etc. The quest for the best quality never ceases.

I appreciate your support, and your sharing. I am hopeful that we can continue to earn your support and look forward to knowing what we can do to earn it.


Pete Colan