Zaphod Beeblebrox 

So I put my only modern bike, A 2007 Raleigh One-Way, back together for Winter Commuting Duty. I say put back together, but really All it needed was the Fenders, Pedals, Saddle and Lights to go back on. I've been using it since last Thursday.

Today was the last straw. In the 3 years i've been commuting This bike has stranded me at work and required me to mooch a ride home at least half a dozen times. In the same time frame I've had vintage bikes strand me a total of once.

So today's ride in on the One-Way...after 5+ miles of constant pedaling (its very flat here) I let up for a second and hear PING! Another spoke gone. That's #5 since I bought it new.
Start back up pedaling and I hear the familiar click click of whatever mystery sound has been plaguing this bike since the day I got it. The Bike shop thought it was the chainring bolts, I thought it was the BB....it never got resolved...

So go to mount up for the ride home and I go about 50 feet and notice my Drive Side pedal feels funny. Not loose necessarily, but not right. Stop to check it and pedal is cocked off at a funny angle. Um not good. Thats either the pedal or the crankset and I LOVE these pedals (big honkin late 80's SR Touring pedals). Needless to say I'm not gonna ride it like that so I go mooch a ride home.

Home now and have looked at it... the pedal threads are fine. Threads in the Crankset though are trashed. I don't really understand it as the pedals were screwed in properly....the non-drive-side pedal is fine...Now I'm remembering. When I'd hear the click click that never got resolved I'd sometimes feel it in my foot on the drive side. Maybe the drive-side arm's pedal threads have been messed up this entire time and the click clicking all this time has been the threads dying.

Sucks that its the Drive Side, Thats a toasted crankset.

So thats the last straw for me. I stripp the frame tonight and I'm gonna ebay it as a frameset with a headset, stem, BB and seatpost. Its a nice frameset, would make a great commuter for someone. Just not me apparently

That's all she wrote for modern bikes for me. The youngest Keeper is now a 1984....and the Team Panasonic is moving up to Winter Commuter Status. It looks good with fenders.

nlerner

Bummer about the problems, but couldn't you just build it up with better parts?

Neal

4Rings6Stars

+1. Sounds like shoddy wheels and crankset to me...

My modern bike (also a Raleigh I might add) has stranded me exactly zero times and that includes commuting, light touring, 100 mile dirt road rando, cyclocross, singletrack and casual riding. I've never trued the wheels or even had a flat! (knocks on wood...and thanks is pasela TGs)

ColonelJLloyd 

Newb.

Velognome 

Too bad about your One-Way. Raleigh had a problem with spokes or wheel building and honored a complete rebuild under warranty, in my case anyway, 1/2 dozen boken spokes in a months time. Since then, several thousand miles without a problem. Don't get too soured on the modern stuff, its going to be vintage someday too.

531phile 

Don't hate on modern bikes. Sounds like the bike was never built properly in the first place. Find a better shop or a really good mechanic to work on your next bike. or stay a retro grouch. More modern bikes for me. Muhahhahahahahhahah

gerv 

Maybe that's what they call the model One-Way. Next time you should get the RoundTrip.

Seriously...It does look like a reasonable bicycle. Suntour crank.

Though I am always suspicious of a spoke spec that does not name the manufacturer.

I have a low-end hybrid I bought in 2005 that I've managed to upgrade to a useful winter bike, but I ended up replacing the wheels, crank and a few other things.

Grim

Drive side is easily fixed. Most autoparts stores will have a helicoil kit that will fix it up possibly better then new. Its the reverse thread non drive side like the Campy cranks I have that sucks because that's a special order deal.

To bad you are so far away. I have a drive side I need to fix and most of the kits come with enough coils to do about 10 repairs.

I hear that peddle washers help prevent that from happening. https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...l-washers.html

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Certainly could but I take that in stride with a Vintage bike. With a Modern Bike I expect(ed) it to work for a while before I had to start worrying about rebuilding it. If the advantage over Vintage was supposed to be reliability it failed. To be honest I'm still not sure what its advantage over a vintage bike is.

Suntour Crank indeed.

I would have thought that was a good thing too, but the crank's pedal threads came out. Never happened to me with a 35 year old Sugino.
Its a cheapo crank. Its not worth repairing. If you want to add it to your pile of stripped cranks you can have it.

Veloria

Sadly, there are few if any quality modern commuter bikes for under $1,000. And while it is certainly possible to build up the "budget" ones with better components, by the time you are done they will reach that price tag as well. Might as well salvage a vintage bike, have the frame powder coated your favourite colour, fit it with new components, and enjoy a better "new" bike than you ever could get store-bought for the price.

DVC45

The bike lived up to its name.

tomio

"like"

rat fink

kergin

The Kona ***** Tonk fits the bill. It's only downfalls are the crappier than crap stock headset and fork, which somehow weighs a tonne.

Bianchigirll 

I think you classic are sabatoging it overnight

Kobe 

I just find it kind of interestining that your newest bike is your winter\beater bike. Shows where you priorities are.

BigPolishJimmy

Don't forget to check for recalls on the cranks, it's not just huffys that the pedals fall off of.

Veloria

those are pretty significant downfalls in my book;
the fork isn't just some minor accessory

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

I agree completely Veloria, Minor stuff is Saddle choice, Bar Tape and Pedals. Fork, Headset, Wheels....those aren't so minor when you just shelled out 500 bux on a new bike and expect it to work like...well, new.
It was the first bike I bought...and the only modern one...and its been the most trouble. I've held on to it thinking the frame might make a great IGH build, but I've got more interesting stuff and I'm tired of looking at this failed Raleigh.

I didn't want to mess up any of my vintage bikes riding in the slop
Plus I had some kind of misguided logic going where I thought that the Modern bike might prove to be a bit more reliable in the weather with its Sealed BB and Headset and supremely hip single speed drivetrain.

Something is telling me that's only the case when the manufacturer uses good quality parts to build it.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Anyhow, aside from a fender adjustment or two this was a joy to ride this morning.

Bianchigirll 

I used to get some odd looks in '90i when I refered to my cannondale 3.0 as "OH it OK for a commuter and beater" my Bianchi seldome saw rain when I had that beast LOL

Grand Bois

Your posts are almost unitelligible today.

tashi

One of the advantages of new bikes is that good shops and brands will warranty them if they fail. Your spoke issue seems to be a known issue on this model, and the the shop is aware of the crank issue - what are they going to do for you? This seems like the kind of thing that my LBS would take care of in a jiffy, at no expense to me.

Did you ever have the bike tuned up by the shop after it was broken in? Most shops that I deal with offer free tune-ups for a year after purchase - retensioning the wheels is included in the build of any new wheel and the initial tune-up of a new bike and likely would have taken care of your broken spoke issue before so many broke.

RobbieTunes

PM sent.
Two different cranksets, yours for the shipping.
Fix the bike and get someone on it.

'Tis almost the season....

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

By comparison I was a babe in the woods when I bought this bike and the Bike Shop I bought it from, unbeknownst to me at the time, is ripoff central. Terrible service, the owner is a major jerk and I spoke to Raleigh Customer service about my wheels and the clicking problem and they told me it was basically up to the discretion of the Dealer i bought it from. I asked what my recourse was if the Dealer was uncooperative, and they said I could try another dealer but they wouldn't be obligated to help me. Next Nearest Raleigh dealer is nowhere close to me. I held this bike shop to repairing it for the first Year I owned it and pestered them constantly about the wheels and clicking noise...long story short after the "1 Year free maintenance" they "gave" me with the purchase I simply ran out of steam for chasing them for repairs...my time and sanity is worth more than the effort I was putting in to fight these guys so I threw in the towel and put the bike aside for occasional riding.

Now that its sat another year and is well out of the Warranty and still plagued with problems Its time to cut bait. The way I look at it, I ate a Sh*t sandwich on this one. It happens. What I'm NOT gonna do now that said sandwich has *ahem* --passed-- is pull it out of the can, put it on some fresh bread and eat it again.

If anyone wants to helicoil this garbage crankset you're more than welcome to have it for the cost of Shipping.

Fixing the bike properly would also involve rebuilding the rear wheel. Its snapped 5 spokes already, I've replaced all 5 but If its gonna be ridden it needs to be rebuilt otherwise it will just keep snapping spokes.

Its going on ebay in about an hour. if anyone wants the Frame before that PM me.