Downtube Nova folding bike
09-15-23, 08:03 AM
#1
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Downtube Nova folding bike
Do Not Buy this bike
guarantee is worthless
I’ve owned several downtube nova’s, Yan has been helpful and friendly in the past, but something has changed. I purchased a new one, and after putting it together I had a very hard time folding and unfolding it. I was ready to return it. Yan said not to return it, he would send me new latch mechanism, it would be easy to put on, and this would solve problem. Also that he would ‘certainly’ take it back if this didn’t work. It took several weeks for the new mechanism to arrive. It was not so easy to put it on bike, but I figured it out, and it was a bit better, not as good as my older bike. I then took the bike on a short trip, folded it to put into someones car and then could not open the latch to open the bike. I got many people to try to help me, and finally had to go to a hardware store and buy a screwdriver to pry it open. Then it would not close until I had to push very hard. I called Yan, and said I’d like to either return the bike as he promised I could, with him paying shipping, or take it to a bike store and let him pay for repairs. He said he would do neither! He blamed the problem on ‘user’ error, saying somehow I had bent both latches. Once again, I’ve owned several of these bikes, all with same latch, and have never had this problem before. We argued for a long time, and ended the call with him not offering any solution. I thought I was stuck with a $600+ bike that I could not fold. So I took it to my local bike store, which after some work figured out that the frame was poorly made so the latch mechanism, including the spring, would not work. We solved the problem by filing the holes a bit bigger and removing the spring. Now it works, but without the spring so I have to pull it open a bit. Better than having a folding bike that does not fold.
So again, DO NOT BUY this bike.
guarantee is worthless
I’ve owned several downtube nova’s, Yan has been helpful and friendly in the past, but something has changed. I purchased a new one, and after putting it together I had a very hard time folding and unfolding it. I was ready to return it. Yan said not to return it, he would send me new latch mechanism, it would be easy to put on, and this would solve problem. Also that he would ‘certainly’ take it back if this didn’t work. It took several weeks for the new mechanism to arrive. It was not so easy to put it on bike, but I figured it out, and it was a bit better, not as good as my older bike. I then took the bike on a short trip, folded it to put into someones car and then could not open the latch to open the bike. I got many people to try to help me, and finally had to go to a hardware store and buy a screwdriver to pry it open. Then it would not close until I had to push very hard. I called Yan, and said I’d like to either return the bike as he promised I could, with him paying shipping, or take it to a bike store and let him pay for repairs. He said he would do neither! He blamed the problem on ‘user’ error, saying somehow I had bent both latches. Once again, I’ve owned several of these bikes, all with same latch, and have never had this problem before. We argued for a long time, and ended the call with him not offering any solution. I thought I was stuck with a $600+ bike that I could not fold. So I took it to my local bike store, which after some work figured out that the frame was poorly made so the latch mechanism, including the spring, would not work. We solved the problem by filing the holes a bit bigger and removing the spring. Now it works, but without the spring so I have to pull it open a bit. Better than having a folding bike that does not fold.
So again, DO NOT BUY this bike.
09-16-23, 10:06 AM
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Ok guy-who-made-account-just-to-trash-Downtube
Your posts without pictures is certainly reliable and without bias.
Thank you for your days of service here.
Your posts without pictures is certainly reliable and without bias.
Thank you for your days of service here.
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09-16-23, 10:40 AM
#3
Clark W. Griswold
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It is a under $500 bike that folds I wouldn't expect much from it. For that price you are getting a super crappy hybrid that doesn't fold, I would have no expectations of quality of something that folds at that price. I don't want anything that could fail horrifically at such a cheap initial price. At least with Brompton or Tern I can trust it is less likely to fail as it is tried and true design of quality, they aren't just trying to pump out the cheapest thing.
