I purchased a Formula Solution XL complete. A very sought after BMX racer. I believed the hype but since I have had nothing but problems with this bike. The rear has been nothing but headaches. Coming from the days of old school BMX, they don't build things as solid as they used to. Now everything is very picky and fragile.

First off here is a list of problems I have ran into:

1. Half link form-co chain: This technology is rather new and I don't have any chain repair tools yet. The chain came assembled very tightly on the bike, about a .25" vertical slop in the chain. It stretched after a few rides. I pulled back the tension of the chain and re-tightened. The alignment was very difficult but eventually I got the rear wheel tight on the dropouts and straight. The chain has a few tight kinks in it which bent the chain wheel a bit. Now the chain hops from tight to loose. The grooved axle nuts dug into the frame with a solid bite leaving grooves which had to be worn even. Ive never seen such soft aluminum on a bike!

2. The sun rhynolite rim/form-co rear cassette: The wheel came perfectly true but spokes seemed loose. After just a few hours of riding casually it was knocked out of true. I purchased a spoke wrench and adjusted accordingly getting it to run more true. Just a few mm wobble in it now. With the wobble the sound of the freewheel pitch (Sound of the ratcheting) is going up and down in sync with the wobble. ZING ZING ZING ZING ZING up and down it sounds like a bent circular saw, most annoying sound in the world. The slight resistance the wobble puts on the cassette is throwing off the sound of the ratchet. The cassette hub relationship to the roundness and horizontal wobble is very sensitive and even the slightest imperfection is throwing off the spin of the wheel. If there is one thing I need in my racer, its the best possible spin out of my wheels. This is very difficult!

3. Rear dropouts of the frame: They have about an 1/8" gap between the inside of the hub and the outside of the dropouts. So when I tighten down the axle to the dropouts it has to squeeze together. Is this common?

Anyway there is my situation. If anyone has any advice to give me I would appreciate it. Local bike shops pretty much want to sell me a new rear cassette, chain wheel and chain... Even though Formula Bicycles claims all bikes are race ready. Mine is obviously not ready. The warranty is only on the frame... So im stuck to do the dirty work.

Thanks,
BMX Reborn