If you had specific requirements, you should have put those in writing to the dealer when ordering, and you should not have accepted delivery of the bike without checking if it was built to the required spec. If I buy a new car and tell the dealer I want it in blue, I am not going to accept being supplied with a yellow one.
The whole bike turnt out to be a mash together with a dozen problems (some dealer aware-but-unsaid to customer), with as most ridiculous one being a 5 mm offcenter chainline on a fixie.
As example, I had a specific requirement: a 1/8" drivetrain. The chainring turnt out to be 3/32". I discovered it when I was trying to figure out why the drivetrain of a 4300 euro bike wore down after 5-6 weeks while those on my 1000 euro earlier fixies held it out a 6-9 months. See, you're right, I should have checked (read: measure everything) but I just didn't expect such plain lies. That chainline issue I only discovered after a whole year, when chain parts hung 45° tilted, the dealer still jesting surprise and no idea at all, and me ceasing to believe the jest. It a question on a forum to receive that explanation, some learning (how to measure chainline) and a reference to the explanation, to finally force the dealers admittance, and still then, insinuating unawareness by answering that he had followed my measurements and that they appeared to be correct.
To finally reveil it all as a single big lie, since during the production phase of the bike, the dealer had once mailed me this:
(a Google translate):
Day <myname>,
just a final update regarding your bike.
This is completely ready at Santos and looks, it seems, great. Only the chain line is not one hundred percent straight. This is caused by the fact that the rear sprocket is too close inwards. This is not a problem in itself and we could deliver the bike. Only a slanted chain line results in faster wear and we want to avoid that as much as possible. We could adjust the chain line with a smaller rear sprocket and chainring in the front so that we can place the latter more inwards. As a result, fewer teeth so faster wear. Again a compromise that we do not want to make.
However, in consultation with Hajo van Santos, we have decided to make a final extra effort to really get the bike right. I started looking again and we have found a solution where the rear sprocket comes out a lot more and we can maintain the sprocket ratio.
Everything will be delivered to Santos within a day or ten. So please wait and apologize for the delay.
Never thought that the most 'simple' Santos would become such an educational challenge and quest. I look forward to it with you and I am convinced that we have made something beautiful out of it.
As requested, once I finish the bike, I make an overview of the parts and components used.
He said they've found a solution for a chainline that is not 100% perfect straight, to me, this implies a solution that makes a 100% perfect straight (let's consider < 1% as perfect haha).
However, post that "solution" execution, the chainline was 5 mm wrong.
If that "rear sprocket comes out A LOT MORE" had been really true, then the bikes original (pre-"solution") chainline must have been how much wrong?
10 mm?
15 mm?
25 mm?
...?
This stability issue must also have a specific cause - the behavior difference is just as remarkable as that 45° tilted chain caused by 5 mm wrong chainline.
Only for me much less problematic, since I pack some kilo's on top of the rack as a default luggage.
What I'm at the moment pestered most with, is the chains tension variation. It's now less than halve as worse as it has been (1 cause identified and solved) but a second one (likely chainsets spider offcenter) still there. Spending bucks on yet another chainset (by elimination as last cause identified, or it should be due to the eccentric chain tensioner which would be hard to explain), with hope as sole insurance, I don't consider an option right now. The tension variation causes a noisy drivetrain (some creaking, some clicking) as background music.
