HammeredUrchin
New Member
Bought from Evans - £849 (through price match)
Hi all, just thought I would share with you the problems Ive been having with my Whyte Charing Cross Cyclocross bike.
Just for background, I commute daily from Tottenham Hale Station to Millbank (Houses of Parliament), about nine miles each way, the route is all road work. I had been doing the journey on a Brompton M6, which was just about coping with the trip, so i decided to invest in a new bike capable of doing the trip, aswell as some weekend work, I researched the web and found that a cyclocross bike would be the better option to take the strains of daily commuting.
I finally settled on the Whyte Charing Cross, had a test ride, it felt smooth, quick the riding position felt comfortable, it was the bike for me! Whyte were also bold in advertising that the bike was aimed at the commuter market!. Ive had the bike about 5 weeks now, initially I had no problems, the daily commute was a joy (apart from the bloody rain), it was comfortable, the Tiagra gearing worked like a dream, the disk brakes were very responsive in the wet. Then came the two punctures on the back wheel in a week, first a ripped tyre, I replaced the tyre with a Specialized Armadillo, three days later another puncture on the same back wheel, but hey ho thats bad luck.
Then last week, I get a broken spoke on the back wheel, the wheel became really distorted and unridable, which surprised me, a Cyclocross bike should have wheels able to cope with the terrible London roads. Took the bike back to Evans who replaced the spoke and trued the wheel, at no cost, I thought fair enough no problem. On Tuesday, Im cycling along the Embankment, look down, another spoke has broken on the back wheel, another distorted wheel, straight back into Evans, who replaced the broken spoke and re-tensioned the rest. No Cost once again. Then Wednesday evening on the Embankment once again, I hear "twang", guess what, another broken spoke on the back wheel, the third in a week, I limp the bike back to Evans (Victoria), who throughout this espisode have been great. Somewhat surprised at seeing me again, they check the wheel strength and its fine, they then deduce that the problem must be with the quality of spokes used by Whyte, its pointed out that if they go back to Whyte for a replacement wheel, you are just replacing like with like, so to Evans credit they are going to replace all the spokes with stronger ones and hand build the wheel for me at no cost. Hopefully the end to the saga.
I am somewhat surprised that a bike aimed at the commuter market, and also a Cyclocross bike is unable to cope with rigours of road work only. Thanks for listening to me spout on about my problems, but thought I would share them and bring to your attention some of the quality issues my Whyte Charing Cross is having, and hopefully make people aware of potential issues, if considering to buy this bike in the future.
I of course will keep you updated on any further issues.
Regards
Hammered
Hi all, just thought I would share with you the problems Ive been having with my Whyte Charing Cross Cyclocross bike.
Just for background, I commute daily from Tottenham Hale Station to Millbank (Houses of Parliament), about nine miles each way, the route is all road work. I had been doing the journey on a Brompton M6, which was just about coping with the trip, so i decided to invest in a new bike capable of doing the trip, aswell as some weekend work, I researched the web and found that a cyclocross bike would be the better option to take the strains of daily commuting.
I finally settled on the Whyte Charing Cross, had a test ride, it felt smooth, quick the riding position felt comfortable, it was the bike for me! Whyte were also bold in advertising that the bike was aimed at the commuter market!. Ive had the bike about 5 weeks now, initially I had no problems, the daily commute was a joy (apart from the bloody rain), it was comfortable, the Tiagra gearing worked like a dream, the disk brakes were very responsive in the wet. Then came the two punctures on the back wheel in a week, first a ripped tyre, I replaced the tyre with a Specialized Armadillo, three days later another puncture on the same back wheel, but hey ho thats bad luck.
Then last week, I get a broken spoke on the back wheel, the wheel became really distorted and unridable, which surprised me, a Cyclocross bike should have wheels able to cope with the terrible London roads. Took the bike back to Evans who replaced the spoke and trued the wheel, at no cost, I thought fair enough no problem. On Tuesday, Im cycling along the Embankment, look down, another spoke has broken on the back wheel, another distorted wheel, straight back into Evans, who replaced the broken spoke and re-tensioned the rest. No Cost once again. Then Wednesday evening on the Embankment once again, I hear "twang", guess what, another broken spoke on the back wheel, the third in a week, I limp the bike back to Evans (Victoria), who throughout this espisode have been great. Somewhat surprised at seeing me again, they check the wheel strength and its fine, they then deduce that the problem must be with the quality of spokes used by Whyte, its pointed out that if they go back to Whyte for a replacement wheel, you are just replacing like with like, so to Evans credit they are going to replace all the spokes with stronger ones and hand build the wheel for me at no cost. Hopefully the end to the saga.
I am somewhat surprised that a bike aimed at the commuter market, and also a Cyclocross bike is unable to cope with rigours of road work only. Thanks for listening to me spout on about my problems, but thought I would share them and bring to your attention some of the quality issues my Whyte Charing Cross is having, and hopefully make people aware of potential issues, if considering to buy this bike in the future.
I of course will keep you updated on any further issues.
Regards
Hammered