Street Machine - a Cautionary Tale

Peter Grange wrote:

Perhaps the USA is what HP consider their main market to be, so the
bike is kitted out for what is common over there.

But then again perhaps it isn't... look at the dealer database for the
US and then Germany, and note how the latter is much, much bigger. And
that's just Germany, not Europe as a whole.

A quick, not
statistically valid, search on google.fr does suggest that hubs are
available in France with 32 or 36 options though. Of course what's
available on google is a bit different from what's available in rural
France.

Rural France isn't actually /that/ far away from at least some or other
bit of urban France...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:49:13 +0100, Peter Clinch
wrote:


Rural France isn't actually /that/ far away from at least some or other
bit of urban France...

Had the thing broken 10km from Bordeaux, and I'd pushed it back there,
I'm sure things would have been very different. I'd have been able to
get at the internet and verify or otherwise what I was being told,
even get on to HP. If it had broken the week before in Windsor Great
Park and I'd pushed it home then things would have been even easier.
It didn't however. It broke when I was on tour, and the fact that that
the only mechanic in a small town didn't know what it was is an issue.
The secondary issue of 32 vs 36 spoke hubs should not have arisen in
the first place.
Pete, you go cycle touring. I had just pushed a laden SM 10km in 30
deg in the sun. I had spent the night before on the EBE down to
Bordeaux, so had had little sleep. I had to find a hotel (I got the
last room in the only hotel in town, the patron turned down a phone
request for a room whilst I was checking in). Perhaps I didn't use my
analytical skills to the full, and left the bike with the mechanic.
That is a very different situation from that of sitting in front of an
internet connected PC. At the risk of repeating myself, touring bikes
should have readily available components wherever possible. That
applies even more so to the transmission, an obvious point of failure.
I bought the transmission upgrade, so the derailleur system is
Shimano. The hub isn't (or wasn't, it is now). Nor incidentally is the
crankset which appears to be of dubious Taiwanese parentage, but at
least that hasn't broken.
You mentioned the rear shock earlier. I bought the upgrade for that
too. The one I have is a standard part I have seen on other bikes and
has a name on it which is orderable. With the disk brake system I paid
something like UKP2500 for this machine. I am disappointed that when
it broke it was not easy to find the part to fix it. That is why I
posted this as "a cautionary tale".

Pete

On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:28:36 -0500, Tom Sherman
wrote:


Here in the "colonies", [1] mountain bikes with 32-spoke disc brake
wheels are quite common.

[1] As Mr. Larrington likes to write.

Don't know about the "colonies". I met an American who said he had an
English friend who had lived in the USA for years. He celebrated the
4th July with everyone else, but always referred to it as
"Purification Of The Empire Day". :-)

Pete

Peter Grange wrote:

Had the thing broken 10km from Bordeaux, and I'd pushed it back there,
I'm sure things would have been very different. I'd have been able to
get at the internet and verify or otherwise what I was being told,
even get on to HP. If it had broken the week before in Windsor Great
Park and I'd pushed it home then things would have been even easier.
It didn't however. It broke when I was on tour, and the fact that that
the only mechanic in a small town didn't know what it was is an issue.
The secondary issue of 32 vs 36 spoke hubs should not have arisen in
the first place.

I'm not saying you didn't have pain, I'm saying with what we've heard
about your pain so far it is not yet cut and dried that the problem
arises from HPVel using bargain basement parts.

The 32/36 thing... look at the SON dynohub, something targeted at the
European market more than anywhere else, certainly not the US, and
available as standard with 32 or 26 spoke mountings including disc
compatibility. Look at the Shimano equivalent and that /only/ comes in
32 hole. The "36 is normal" so far has one claimant, your mechanic.
That you were forced to rely on him does not actually make him right...

Pete, you go cycle touring. I had just pushed a laden SM 10km in 30
deg in the sun. I had spent the night before on the EBE down to
Bordeaux, so had had little sleep. I had to find a hotel (I got the
last room in the only hotel in town, the patron turned down a phone
request for a room whilst I was checking in). Perhaps I didn't use my
analytical skills to the full, and left the bike with the mechanic.
That is a very different situation from that of sitting in front of an
internet connected PC. At the risk of repeating myself, touring bikes
should have readily available components wherever possible.

The point I'm making is you have yet to demonstrate that that is not the
case with the Streetmachine. I'm not saying it /can't/ be demonstrated,
just that you have yet to do so. But you have claimed that the company
are guilty of using bargain basement non standard bits despite the fact
it is yet to be cut and dried.

With the disk brake system I paid
something like UKP2500 for this machine. I am disappointed that when
it broke it was not easy to find the part to fix it. That is why I
posted this as "a cautionary tale".

Though until further investigation throws more light, it /could/ be the
case that the problem is that it was left with someone who just didn't
know what he was on about. AFAICT that does appear to be the case with
the spoke count, so can we really take his word on the rear hub too? We
don't know, one way or the other.

As well as HPVel themselves I'd have words with Bikefix and Kinetics who
sell most of the ones that go in the UK and so they have considerable
knowledge of how they're put together and set up. As an owner of a
Streetmachine that goes touring I'd be interested to know too.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/