Sunday, September 09, 2012

My new bike - updated

On our wedding anniversary weekend just recently, I bought a new bike. My old bike was 25 years old (it was my second bike) and though it still works, it is missing some teeth on the gears and has a bit of rust here and there. I started rebuilding it, but then started weighing what needs to be replaced vs. the cost of a new bike and decided to see what was out there. After spending the day at a lot of different bike shops test ridding and suffering a little in the heat, I decided on a VANMOOF M2 3.7 large frame (the small frame may have been a smarter choice).

photo (C) VANMOOF

As VANMOOF puts it:

we like bikes

and we like you
and the rest of the world
to ride bikes
and like them too


The saddle on the VANMOOF is a little stiff, so I upgraded a week later to the  Selle Royal Becoz eco-saddle. I plan to upgrade the grips to cork, so I liked that the cork in the Becoz will match nicely.

The Becoz is on top and the stock saddle on bottom
  
A nice feature on the Becoz saddle is the etched ruler along the saddle's mounting rail.
I was surprised to find the VANMOOF hardware had a lot of paint chipping already.






This is looking down the tube where the saddle post goes in.
Notice the red flecks along the edge (more on that below).


The first thing you notice about the VANMOOF is the headlight in the frame.
As I brought mine home I realized the taillight did not light up.
Inside the bike I found the crushed wire on the left inside the saddle post tube.
On the right is the other side of that same wire. As you can guess, the
wire somehow got pushed into the tube during assembly and then crushed by the post.



I'm working with VANMOOF support about the wiring mishap. I'm guessing it was the bike shop that made the mistake, but I'll post an update when I hear more.

So what about the bike? The hub shifter is extremely smooth and so far the 7 gears have been enough (I was a little worried about transitioning from a 32 speed). I'm mainly in fifth, sixth, or seventh.

The bike seems like it will be very low maintenance. The chain is fully covered as well as the brakes. As mentioned the gearing is an internal hub (I'm assuming planetary gears).


UPDATE:

So VANMOOF support is awesome. I explained the story above and was told that they would follow up with the place where I purchased the bike to see what's going on there. Then as we discussed the issue with the crimped wire they explained that not only would they send a new wire, but also the plastic seat post clamp since there was the possibility that if I mess up while removing it that I could damage it. I sent some of the pictures above and they said it was clear that the bike had not been assembled correctly. Also, because they understood my reluctance to want to deal with the original dealer, they sent the parts to another local dealer.

It takes a full day of turn around to get a response sometimes because of the timezone difference to the Netherlands, but it was worth it as the response was always understanding and simply good customer service. I had opened my first email to VANMOOF with, I think I bought the right bike at the wrong store, and now I'm convinced that is true.