Originally Posted by
Technician
What I think is worrying a couple of years on is firstly, we still don't know what caused the welds to break. ok rubbish welding but why was it bad. Wrong welding heat, incorrect rods used, frame pre heating not carried out properly or maybe not at all who knows.
Secondly although many bikes were recalled there must still be a great deal more on the road, not every cyclist is an enthusiast who reads bike forums and keeps up with all the latest news & gossip. There could be many more accidents just waiting to happen.
That's often the case with recalls. Many people don't hear about them. My mother had a dangerous Hotpoint dishwasher (made by Bosch) and despite buying it new and being at the same address she never received any letters regarding it. It was only when she wanted to sell it and I went online to see its value for her did the recall information come up. Many companies are forced to do a recall because of the large number of units that are failing but clearly it is hugely expensive for that company and they are resistant to being proactive when doing so costs them a large amount of money.
Mountain bikes are difficult to recall because manufacturers claim they may be damaged in use with excessive drops and abuse but still when Decathlon's Rockriders were failing often only weeks after purchase in large numbers they were forced to recall them.
It seems like Tern don't really manufacture the bike themselves. They buy in the frames and components. It's a bit like Walmart, they do an order to factory #A but when they want to order again factory #B is cheaper but maybe factory #B can't produce all the quantity they need, so they buy from factory #C but then it turns out factory #C is a bit crap and they go back to factory #A who have always made a decent frame but cost 30 cents extra per unit. Later factory #C tenders again with a lower price after making improvements in manufacturing. It's pretty much a lottery with regard quality when a brand isn't really a manufacturer themselves and buy from multiple factories. There are brands that don't manufacture themselves but have an exclusive single factory arrangement like Birdy. In fact many of the improvements in Birdy bikes seems to have been instigated by Pacific Cycles of Taiwan the manufacturer.
My last comment is simply that innovation is not a friend of product quality. When you have a car model that has reached the end of its life, at that point its probably at its best possible quality and reliability. When the new model comes in there is the long process of discovering design problems and correcting them.
There is a lot to be said for the slow evolution of a bike design rather than radically refreshing the model range regularly with all the quality problems that entails in my opinion.
Here's a Dahon with a simple fix for a broken frame.
This Tern broke with a child rider of only 43kg although admittedly its the hinge so rider weight may not be the main factor.
Another one here caught before breaking.
