Hi


Today, I was riding my Windsor The Hour I got from Bikesdirect recently and completely bent my chainring in half. I was at a stoplight, and when it turned green, I stood up and pedaled, and the bolts snapped out of the crank and the chain bent the chainring in half. I know about the disclaimer about tightening all nuts and bolts, and I even had my LBS go over the bike to make sure everything is in order, so I have no idea how it separated. I ended up spending $92.52 for a nearby bike shop to fix it.





Bikedirect's response:

"I'm sorry you had a problem with your chainring but it sounds like you didn't have the bolts tightened so it's not considered a warranty issue. This is clearly stated on the sales listing:
Assembly tips:
PLEASE TIGHTEN YOUR CHAINRING BOLTS, LOCKRINGS, CRANKS, PEDALS ETC BEFORE AND AFTER EVERY RIDE
Stripped threads, cranks, pedals etc are due to those parts not being tightened properly by the rider. Not covered by warranty

If you had contacted us immediately we could have sold you a new chainring at a discount because we can get parts cheaper than your bike shop sold them to you. We do not reimburse people for parts they bought elsewhere at retail."


any advice?

JC

Thanks for the Pics.
35,000 miles I have not checked my crank bolts before a ride.

Good ole Chinese quality.

Did you shear the bolts or did they just fall out?

This is odd
it does look like two bolts feel out and then the ring bent under force of pedaling

of course, we need to be notified of bike claims and issues before someone hires a bike shop to replace something
then we can help

we often send people new parts for free
and in your case that should have been done

however, if you paid a bike shop to go over this bike before you road it; I am very concerned that they skipped tightening your crank bolts; once crank bolts are tighten they do not frequently back out by themselves

I had a loose chain bolt fall off my BD bike. That f'n little tightening tool seems to actually serve a purpose. Looks like you had two loosening bolts and applied the "perfect storm" of pressure. I think you're out the cash.

Intersting question
but I can not dream the bolts were sheared
they must have just fallen out

and it would not surprise me if they fell out before this happened
and are a mile or two up the road

I live in Manhattan, on 3rd street, and my bike broke down on 95th. I had to get home somehow, and a bike shop was nearby.

Unless you tightened the bolts with a torque wrench, it sounds like bikedirect isn't going to do anything...

Edit: not that I'm saying they have to, really if anything you depended on the bike shop to check the bike...

I've had that happen before, hadn't checked my stack bolts in like a year or two on my old commuter/beater.

Must have been riding with one missing for a while, once the second one worked loose, the chainring flopped over like soggy pancake while taking off from a stoplight.

Now, I do a 15 second check before I ride (wheels, chain, chainring, brakes) .

Right, it doesn't make sense for two bolts to shear, but not the other 3.

Spend $5 on one of those chainring tightening tools. They actually work. I tried every method of sticking them in there for good, but none of the methods worked for more than a week until I finally bought one of those little tools. Like this:

I would have bent the chain ring back into shape and saved a hundo.

I wonder why its so hard for BD to just tighten the bolts and such before they ship it? I mean come on...

Because BD probably doesn't even open the boxes.

This. They are a building full of boxes. They are a distributor, not a bike expert.

But that looks like some low quality stuff. I really dont think my Sugino Messenger would bend if the same thing happened to it. 95$ is a really expensive fix but for on the fly what can you do. Good news is you probably broke the weakest component on that bike so the rest may last.

wow, thats a tough break. fortunately, (hopefully) the lbs probably set you up with a good quality chainring and some good [locktite'd] chainring bolts, as long as you didnt get hurt, i would consider it a nice upgrade and leave it at that.

(i'm going to go check my chainring bolts right now!)

Seems to me that the general consensus is that the bolts weren't tight enough. I'm not worried about the $93, as I am just glad that I got home safely and that the mishap didn't happen during the hard sprints I was doing earlier, 30 miles away from NYC.

Tighten your bolts/nuts/screws!

exact thing happened to a friend's hour. i have pics too.

Everyone should tighten, regrease, replace(if needed) your chainring bolts now.

Seems like BD's custom service is getting worse and worse, we might need to stop pushing newbies to BD if more of this is consistent.

Also, if any of you have had issues with BD stuff, please post it here with pictures so we can warn the others before they get a bike from BD.

I always use a drop of blue loctite (medium strength) whenever I install new chainring bolts and crank them real tight. I've never had one loosen since I started dong that.

Hope the OP got the crankset he was after for that bike as an upgrade. $ 93 and that should be the last crankset that bike should need for a long time. I don't feel too bad now with my Vilano needing a $ 21 installed Dicta freewheel SS installed.