Hats off to Mapdec, it's content like this that raises standards in the industry. Manufacturer's have been taking the p1ss for far too long now and with the price of bikes and parts these days it's just not acceptable.
Such as shame. Ridley is one of those names that don't get a huge amount of exposure and having you guys championing them would have been massive kudos! I personally have been considering a Kanzo Fast. And, as you say, £1200.00 is a massive chunk of money for an aluminium frame considering you can get a whole bike for that from the usual suspects (Cannondale, Giant etc).
So expensive only because it is a "gravel" frame set. Fashion costs a premium. I purchased a full carbon X-Night for that exact same price, but it is a cx frame set, so not as sexy as a "gravel" one with a couple mm more tyre clearance.
I can't believe that the higher end bike manufacturers, and Ridley specifically in this instance, aren't learning still - they set premium expectations when charging premium prices. Thank you for being straight about this Paul. Ridley had a marvellous opportunity with you for some golden exposure to their target demographic and yet managed to cock that up not once, but twice! Edit - changed 'Matt' to 'Paul'. Oops!
If this frame arrived in this poor of a condition to a shop run by a guy, who they have to know has a well known and followed youtube channel, imagine the garbage and complete lack of quality product they send to a shop or an individual that does not have a large online presence and audience? If I buy a frame from them first they want top dollar, and then I have to pay likely several hundred dollars more to fix problems that in no way, shape, or form should exist? Not happening! Buh bye Ridley, I just drew a nice line through another garbage frameset maker I'll never deal with, nor ever recommend. 🙂
The thing is: nothing ever changes. Very few people will watch this video. And even less owners will notice these defects. "These complaints will be lost in time like tears in rain". Hence manufacturers have no intent to work on quality of their products. PS My friend bought Trek Domane AL bike and it looks like it was welded by a drunk person. Welds form visible S or even Z letter. No butting on a frame either. It weights like an mtb bike. And not a light one.
Hooray, great to hear you're sending it back and not sorting it yourselves. The more frames manufacturers get sent back will hopefully get them to up their QC game :)
Agreed, doing their job for them gives them zero reason to change the ways they do business. Even if they are being billed back for the screw up they still made the sale. If they start getting everything returned and lose 100% of those sales dollars they'll figure out pretty quickly how to do things correctly or they'll fold and go bankrupt as they should.
It would be amazing if you can do this kind of QC review for ALL the newly released framesets! Ridley is def not the only company dropping the ball and it's time we as consumers ream them back for money grabbing us! Be the hero we NEED Mapdec!
Thanks for sharing what is a thorough and comprehensive examination of this Ridley frameset. Im relieved that i didnt buy a Ridley Kanzo Fast from an online retailer, feel as though i dodged one there.
Twelve hundred pounds! F$$$ing hell! That’s crazy money for an aluminium frameset. My experience with Ridley is unfortunately similar to yours… but I was working with them a decade ago. QC was poor, the bikes looked great on the shop floor, but all came back with creaks… We were receiving whole bikes, built up with Ultegra or Force groupsets, so not cheap bikes. Our solution was to completely strip and rebuild them before we sold them! Madness, needless to say the shop is no longer in business…
My brother bought a Trek Amonda AR. The disc brake mount was so far off, they couldn't make it work. The bike shop got Trek to send a new one and it was the same way! I can understand having some bad luck and getting one that slipped through. But one person was sent two bad frames!
This is a Ridley Fenix SLA frameset. I wonder how much it weighs. During Covid I bought one of the last rimbrake 'Fenix A' frames, matte black, because the chainstay of my Helium SLA had snapped and Ridley could not provide a warranty frame before the end of that winter. Although it is heavy at 1760 grams for the frame only (frame passport states that a painted framesize M will typically weigh 1560 up to 1716 grams), the BB was/is good, faced, straight and 'clean', and there also was no overspray anywhere else. Even after 19,000 kilometres in the NL, including winter riding, I haven't had to replace the shimano bb yet. In line with the weight and oversized tubes, it is a solid, stiff yet rather harsh bike to ride. The price (in december 2021) was €700,- , which is bout £600.
No, this is what happens when you move production back to Europe, but keep the same business model. All those "made in China" fails were not because of the cheap labor, but main office not caring for results of said cheap labor.
This is what happens when an industry has been permitted by its customer base to get away with shoddy fabrication of its products for years, yet continued to pay ever increasing prices for those products. Management that does not take pride in their products, but only focuses on their ROI has learned they can increase ROI by raising prices, not maintaining the costs to maintain actual quality and people will still buy their stuff. The US auto industry went through this in the 1970 and 1980's until finally consumers had had enough and they just stopped buying their garbage inferior quality products. This is what happens when an industry develops a business model of pouring money into pro team sponsorships and paying pros to ride disposable frames as a marketing ploy instead of pouring the money into actually building a sound quality product. And consumers have permitted them to get away with it.
Sad to see this. I have a Ridley Fenix AL aluminum frame circa 2016 which had none of these issues: threads were clean, bearing surfaces finished and the paint was beautifully applied. I was able to build it up without any of this drama.
@@KNURKonesur That just means your Sonder is more versatile. Stick road tyres on it and it's a road bike (if that's your thing) . Gravel bikes are better value and a lot more fun when it gets to the rough stuff 👌
I have an old Helium SLA in rim brake. When it was built up I had to pay my bike shop to sort out the bb and the rd hanger exactly as described in this video. That was at least 5 years ago, so they haven’t learned.
This frameset has so many issues that its obvious this was not some one off that accidently got through QC. It's a sign of a manufacturer that simply does not care and that lack of care is built into the way their framesets are fabricated. Scary thing is all these issues are obvious by just looking at the frameset externally with your eyes. I can't imagine the garbage you'd find if you actually did a scan of the welds and joints and assessed both the weld quality, bleed through, and how well or poorly the how the tubes fit together prior to welding. I'd bet good money the fabrication from start to finish is amateurish junk with some nice glossy paint put on top. Lipstick on a pig, only in this instance they even messed up the lipstick.
I love this breakdown. I bought my first bike in 20 years last week. Ribble Enthusiast AL for £799. All the pictures show a Tiagra crankset, nope! Came with a very standard looking FSA. Even though I’m not anyway skilled to look for the flaws this fella sees, thanks to him I can see my bike was £799 for a reason. So many basic no care shown. Very disappointed with my first bike back! Their loss as I’m getting a new bike in summer and that money will not be spent with Ribble.
I love this channel! The attention to detail is second to none. I've reached the point where my trust is unconditional. If Paul says don't buy it then I don't buy it. If Paul says I can buy it then it's bought. What I'd like though, is some content for the poor who can't afford the likes of Time and Look.
I have a Paul Milnes Cycles All Road which is actually a rebadged Ridley Kanzo aluminium frame from a few years back but sold as a Milnes at half the price but with the Ridley Warranty, it’s a great frame and fork finished off beautifully I built it up with no component fitting problems at all and it has and continues to serve me well with no issues whatsoever despite all the off road abuse it gets the Paul Milnes paint job is top notch.
If I had to guess, I would say the best aluminum frames were coming out of Tiawan. I have made this comment here before: I bought a Serotta designed aluminum frame called the Duetti A9. 6069 shot peened aluminum. All surfaces and races were perfect, and it rides beautifully. Again, I would be looking to Tiawan for answers. Cheers. Keep up the good work.
When I've bought frames I've specifically asked for a full frame prep and headset fitted. If they couldn't do that I didn't buy the frame. I'm talking about steel, but aluminium is still metal.
I have got a 2020 X-Night frame set, bought a year ago, and apart from the pf30 bb inside surface being completely oversprayed with paint, the frame is otherwise perfectly fine. I went for a Hambini bb and installed it with no issues.
Sad to see although I would probably just build it until I got to that headset race and then sent It back. Love a metal frame, funny how people think a sweat shop glue around a bag frame is so much better?
Keep pushing, the bike industry as a whole needs a sharp wake up call. The prices they expect us to pay for literally everything are utterly outrageous. I'd be seriously pissed if I had forked that amount of cash and then had to pay yet more money just to get the thing to a point where you can actually start building it up. Not on.
That is the problem. I live in a cycling haven and yet I can't think of a single bike shop near me that I would actually trust to do all the work this guy would have had to do to make this frame correct or the crazy steps he's taken to make other frames correct. My local bike shops would have simply assembled that frameset and sold it to some unlucky customer.
Thanks for this sort of inspection and analysis. I have adored Ridley's good looking frames from afar for many years; it's good to know that up close, where the components meet the frame, it's actually an ugly brand. Disappointing, but good to know. Youve probably saved a few prospective Ridley buyers a lot of headaches. Good on you.
Oh my, that´s really bad! Thank´s for this video. As far as I know, Ridley also sells complete bikes, I am wondering how the frames on these are prepared. I hope they fix all these issues in their workshop and not only throw the components on. I own a Ridley Damocles (13 years old now and 100 k km on it), which I bought as a frameset and did the build by myself; it also had overspray on the bb shell. Otherwise it´s a nice frame.
I've been considering one of the really massively discounted Kanzo A bikes on Wiggle/CRC (£769 in "S" at the moment), kinda puts me off despite much cheapness...I straight up bypassed the press fit Carbon version after watching the video you did on that.... It's pretty poor really!!
There is a firm in the US named Competitive Cyclist, who has had Ridley's offered at large discounts for a while now. I was tempted slightly at one point, but passed given some of the problems I had heard about them in my local cycling community. Glad I passed on them, and this vid just confirms it. I'm seriously thinking about having Mapdec do a new Time bike build for me when I'm ready because I'm confident the job will be done properly with attention to detail from top to bottom and I'm willing to pay for actual quality (not advertising propaganda quality from youtube pretend reviewers like David Arthur) and peace of mind! 🙂
So poor workmanship and no quality control. Well done Ridley. The bike industry as a whole seems in a mess. "Standards" all over the place, lacklustre quality, built in obsolescence, design fashion statements over function and the high cost to the customer with headaches for the bike shops. Then there is the onslaught of E-bikes.
This is insane. So if you want to build a high quality alloy bike, I guess the way to go would be to buy an old Cannondale CAAD 4 or higher and build it up with modern parts... 😅 Would be a lot cheaper, too... Or buy Decathlon. Or maybe rosebikes. A friend of mine has a Rose SL alloy bike from last year and the finishing is superb. The welds are so clean and smooth, you have to take a really close look to see it's not a carbon bike. 999 Euro for a full 105 setup with dt swiss wheels... Can't really get more value than that.
We had a guy take a local CAT 3 crit on a CAAD 4 with an Ultegra triple about 2 months ago. Guy showed up with a triple! Guy was also riding 32 spoke count low profile Mavic Open Pro wheels with Ultegra hubs. He had no power meter on his bike and no computer mounted on his bars and on the final lap he worked his way up towards the front, drafted a guy as a lead out and dropped everyone in the last 100 meters. He was blowing by guys on $10K+ carbon bikes with their cute Princeton, Lightweight, and Zipp CF wheels and I'd say everyone one of them I saw had a power meter and a computer on their bars as well. Just goes to show the better engine will always beat the better poser. 🙂
Such a shame, seems like they are 90 per cent there at delivering a top notch product but manage to mess it up at the paint finishing department. Should be easy to sort out though….if they care. Curious how this will pan out.
If a bike has as many problems as this one did it is pretty obvious they simply do not care. A small mistake can get through anytime under any QC system, but a frameset that literally has issues at the headtube, the seatube, the BB threads and BB shell face, the flat mounts, and the hangar fitting and thru axel threads is not something that randomly got through QC. It's a sign of a complete lack of QC on their part and a good indication they simply do not care. This is a Far East Chinese outsourced product that was outsourced at the very lowest end of the "quality" spectrum, but it's being sold as if it is nearly some artisan fabbed frameset. And who the hell would put stickers inside a seatube that would interfere just by themselves with fitting a seatpost in there? Amateur hour defined for $1,200+, LOL.
@@rcg9573 I meant caring about getting reamed here and possibly losing sales. Seems like knowledgeable and authoritative youtubers like mapdec, luescher and hambini are getting more views and could hopefully influence people’s buying behaviour on a large enough scale to make manufacturers up their game. Might be wishful thinking but I’m actually pretty hopeful.
I think the writing on the top tube says Fenix SLA which is their "classics" bike in aluminum version, not the Helium. I'm riding an older Fenix SL in carbon, never taken it apart, just the BB creaking every once in a while but that's just pressfit.
This year I bought a vintage NOS Principia Ellipse SX III alloy frame with matching Principia carbon fork. Bearing in mind I have not built it up yet. My opinion of the finish is stunning with cool black anodized paintwork and sexy looking facings and bb threads if thats how you like to get worked up. It defo has its quirks in design particularly with the all in one replaceable drop out/mech hanger which I have not seen similar, together with its barreled shaped head tube and BB. But I honestly believe it's a quality thing of welded beauty with a tasty looking carbon fork too. It defo has a visual impact, being light for what it is and far from aero in design which is great. This doesnt help here in your search for quality alloy because obviously this frame ain't made anymore. But it is silly to see these expensive modern frames not being crafted like they used too🤟
Have you had any Ridley Carbon frames in yet, it would be interesting to see a review of one of these as most people will go for a carbon Ridley over a Alloy. If I were to buy another alloy frame it would be from someone like Mason although even they seem to have issues with paint.
Just a small point but I don't think that's a Helium. I think they're only available in carbon. You've got a Fenix SLA. It says on the frame at 1:29. I should say I had a problem with a (carbon) Fenix SLX a few years ago cracking across the bottom bracket shell after a couple of hundred kms. Was not impressed but Ridley replaced it with a Noah Fast in the end. Been happy with that... so far!
What aluminium frames would you recommend besides Mason. I'm currently looking at the Trek Domane Al 5 Gen 4 but honestly have no clue what their frames are like.
Hello realised you may have mistaken the frame @0:24. you mention it as a helium frame however Ridley does not produce alloy frame under the Helium umbrella
They forgot to bang up the BB shell then paint it ala 2010 Trek. My crappy bike history Here's my experience with frame problems. I I've stripped my childhood bikes, 2010 Trek, head tube was not flush at the back towards the down tube, during install the cup did not want to go in straight, as the head tube was not 100% round. But a bit of tapping with an hammer and it went in. It sat flush, seemed to be straight, sat against whole circle, until I looked closely on the side. Just one spot, the head tube shamfered off to the downtube. 🤦Was too late for warranty as it was bought in 2011. 2010 Trek 3900 disc, bottom BB shell was banged up, then painted over, looked like sb took a sledgehammer to with a rock sculpting pick to it. I even installed Chris King headset as an emergency solution to have a bike I could ride, cus I've had issue with all of my Trek bikes. Headtube was damaged by the Chris King headset after riding it creating a aluminium buildup inside. 🤦It went in easy it looked well, but after riding it a bit it looked like sb took a sledge hammer to it. 🤔 Weird. These bikes are too small for me anyway, but atleast the frame stiffness was on point. Even 86kg fully kitted. Even squeezing 2.3 tyre in with bare minimum clearnace it worked. But one flaw at the rear of the 3900 was rack mount threads failed on one side. Weird it was right side only at the seat stay. Other ppls crappy bikes: But I've seen worse bb showed by Trek shown by Hambini, it was so bad he could not fix it, it too was threaded bb, but they did shotty welding, deformed the BB shell, did things in wrong order, a bb could not even be installed. 🤦 But I've also seen plenty of cracket bikes from spesific models. Like chainstay rear near the welds at the green Slash, a dude replaced 4 chain stays as they all cracked. Even with Trek honoring the warranty this is crazy. In my case 2014 Trek Fuel EX, bent seat stays, bent Rd hanger after every ride, pushing bearings back into the rocker link, as the flex caused the bearings to get pushed out, rocker link cracked. I was never offered a newer frame for free, I had two of same bike. Same issues. When dealing with one shop they Sendt me parts for one frame. New chainstay and rocker link. After a week I think bearing got pushed out of ABP pivot. I guess cus nut loosened, but even so this is due to this design. Also bb92, I had to get new cranks only thing I could get my hands on fast was Raceface turbine with 30mm axle, but that meant crappy Raceface bb 92, with regular bearings, tiny balls, it wasn't angular contact. So wór wout in about 4 months. Left side went first as bike flexed more to the left I guess. 🤔 But atleast their newer fuel ex bikes ar e uch stiffer. But I'm not a fan of the push the bearings out of rocker link design, stiffening up everything helps, but still a bad idea Imo. I've seen their new road bikes with weird seat post fail too, it snaps off. 🤦 But i recently saw a Haibike e bike it's alu, top of seat tube failed, cracked around weld and rears, so barely hanging on. That was with dropper post inserted way below reccomend depth so not the cause. Seen BMC bb was horrible on a carbon road bike. Just remembered a guy broke two trek Slash Carbon frames at the head tube, fork came out, saw second frame snap on video. It was few years ago maybe 2 or 3. Ive seen people hav issues with Propain bikes, a German dude had issue sieth loose headset in the headtube of Propain Rage carbon, so got warranty replacement with same issue, few runs and jumps and headset rocked back and forth. 🤦He got a refund and gave up. But this year I saw a review of the Enduro bike, where a guy mentioned other issues with Enduro bike people had. BB shell insert count out of bb shell. Shock clearnace issue son new Rockshox rear shock, but they fixed that, or atleast the guy did not have tha tissue on his. But some ha issues with the adjustment knob touching the downtube. 🤦 It came with that shock. 🤦So avoid Propain. That dude seems to have done the research after buying his bike, but wa lucky with his frame.
I saw in one of the other comments that these are welded in China but painted in Belgium. Maybe Ridley should move everything offshore, they might have better quality and could drop the price. I don't know why you guys decided to sell Ridley alongside Time and Look, doesn't it dilute the perception of your business? Lots of other brands if you want to offer a value option. I know it's comparing apples and oranges, but my Ragley Big Al frame is Taiwanese alu and costs around a third of the Ridley. I built up that frame myself, not a touch of overspray and the welds are something beautiful to behold.
This is a big call out! I hope Ridley don’t take this as personal and take it as constructive criticism and good feedback. I’ve always wanted a helium but after seeing your disappointment I wouldn’t now. I hope Ridley can sort this out
Sheesh. I've seen Apollo Slants from Halfords finished better than that. This isn't nit picking, it's fundamentally not fit for purpose. I wonder who you guys will find to source a quality frame from next?
@@Mapdec They do also make steel frames but actually most of their more performance oriented road and gravel bikes are aluminum. Their Kreissage and Kettensage models are worth checking out. At over 1300 GBP for the top end model they do run a steeper price tag though.
Buen video, es una pena que una marca como Ridley no controle esos detalles, si ese cuadro va directo a un particular no lo podría montar y si lo hace seguramente lo haría mal, con el riesgo de dañarlo.
The factory probably pumps those out for 100 to 150 Landed cost of that frame is probably about 350 to 400 they probably sell it to you for about 700 to 800 and then you sell it to the consumer for 1200... so its not supprising its shit... its a 150 quid frame.
What I don't understand is why they send an unfinished frame.. and if they do, they could pay the shop/customer an hour of work to finish it. At least ut would be clear that it is a semi finished product.
For a $1200 frame, I'd expect better! I faced my BSA bb with a file and machinists bluing after the lbs didn't have this basic tool. The latest bike didn't come from that shop!
I personally found this video very interesting. I have an old helium sl 2015 frameset and it's quality is amazing. Honestly, among the best I've ever seen. Comparing it against the newer helium slx. The quality of the slx is terrible. It's full of voids and even signs of over glue within the frame. This was a former ex pro bike too.
@@user-bj8kk8ni5f Most likely the factory standards did not drop, but what did drop was the outsourcing contract which lead to cheaper fabrication. Very likely the same thing occurred where the frameset was painted and "supposedly" went through QC in Belgium. If a firm is willing to lower the quality of their fabrication outsourcing contract to cut costs you better believe they will also have no problem cutting the quality of their final paint and QC costs and thus quality of those functions regardless of what nation those activities take place in.
Thanks for the "reaming" 😎 Bike brands should know all of these Quality Control - We, the consumer are paying hard earned cash for these CRAP - Shame on you for charging us so much money without a care in the world. 💯
Welp, Belgium🤷♂ I think one should start a monastic order, built around bikes. Because it is apparently the only way to make an excellent product there.
I can only repeat what I said on the last vid. You’d expect this from a 300 quid Planet X, or some home brand, but for 1200 it frankly takes the piss. Ugly paint jobs and awkward looking tube shapes don’t make for a compelling buy.
Certain brands like Specialized, BMC, Open, Ridley, Cervelo, Giant, Bianchi, Cannondale, TTT, Canyon, etc..... I would not touch with a 10 foot pole and the prices they are asking for these shoddy framesets are an absolute joke. The quality is so poor so often if these firms were in most other industries they would be out of business in under 6 months. If you tried to pawn off garbage like this in the semi conductor industry for example, the very moment industry word got out what you were doing you would be finished as a business. There would be no coming back from it because no vendor further down the supply chain would do biz with you.
@@Mapdec You may be small, but you are growing and provide a benefit to your viewers. All GCN has left to offer are stupid aero vs climbing and old vs modern bike comparisons.
Blimey thats not very good! Could it be the case that when the raw painted frames are passed on through the production process at Ridley’s factory some of those problems would be fixed before assembly? I have a Ridley Carbon frame that I built up and didn’t encounter any of these issues, it’s a great bike. Maybe QC standards have dropped? Would think twice before buying another having seen this though.
Is it just the case that these frames are being mass produced and pumped out the factory as quickly as possible so certain brands are doing the minimum prep because they know most people won't see these issues?
I'd like to say you're just being fussy, but clearly you're not. I mean, come on, how hard is it for a manufacturer to finish a frame perfectly. In this day and age where everything is carbon, you'd think an aluminium frame could be turned out in their sleep.
Well I remember back in my youth working in a shop everything you talk about was a normal thing needed to be done on every frame that came in. Every frame had to get faced and chased all of them no matter the brand or what you spent. Now on this frame should never buy an aluminum frame that expensive. Heck custom aluminum is not much more. Heck plenty of off the peg Ti bikes can be had for that price in the US. Heck the Uk has plenty of great companies building frames and outsourcing designs to be made in east just like ridley does. I really don't understand the pricing on that one or the need for a road bike from a cx brand.
Bikes being rushed through QC in China and when back with the supplier (a blind eye being turned), to meet unprecendented demand over the pandemic is annoying but provides some rationale as to the poor quality in 2020/21 and beyond frames. Brand QC reps couldn't travel as one of the reasons. The frames should be at a minimum QC'ed when back with manufactor. You would expect this trend to improve by now, around 2 years post pandamic but sadley not.
The frame isnt made by Ridley. Its made in a Chinese factor that makes pretty much every other brand as well. It just has Ridley stickers on it. The frames are pulled out on huge racks when the factory is making "Ridley" on say monday and what ever other brand on Tuesday. This is something that also needs to be explained to consumers in depth. Please do so
This nothing new. Back in the steel frame days, just about all frames from the famous builders came to the shops in similar condition. The shop was to prep the fame before building the bike, including checking the alignment. The American builders had more pride in their work and the frames came in already to build.
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Hats off to Mapdec, it's content like this that raises standards in the industry. Manufacturer's have been taking the p1ss for far too long now and with the price of bikes and parts these days it's just not acceptable.
Thank you
No one else is doing this. Build quality is so important to me, so it’s great to have this content available. Thank you!
Would be cool if you did that kind of analysis on popular budget brand framesets like Sonder, Planet X etc.
Quite a few planetx frames are carbonda.. the qc is not great, but at least you didn't pay as much.
Such as shame. Ridley is one of those names that don't get a huge amount of exposure and having you guys championing them would have been massive kudos! I personally have been considering a Kanzo Fast.
And, as you say, £1200.00 is a massive chunk of money for an aluminium frame considering you can get a whole bike for that from the usual suspects (Cannondale, Giant etc).
So expensive only because it is a "gravel" frame set. Fashion costs a premium. I purchased a full carbon X-Night for that exact same price, but it is a cx frame set, so not as sexy as a "gravel" one with a couple mm more tyre clearance.
I can't believe that the higher end bike manufacturers, and Ridley specifically in this instance, aren't learning still - they set premium expectations when charging premium prices. Thank you for being straight about this Paul.
Ridley had a marvellous opportunity with you for some golden exposure to their target demographic and yet managed to cock that up not once, but twice!
Edit - changed 'Matt' to 'Paul'. Oops!
If this frame arrived in this poor of a condition to a shop run by a guy, who they have to know has a well known and followed youtube channel, imagine the garbage and complete lack of quality product they send to a shop or an individual that does not have a large online presence and audience?
If I buy a frame from them first they want top dollar, and then I have to pay likely several hundred dollars more to fix problems that in no way, shape, or form should exist? Not happening! Buh bye Ridley, I just drew a nice line through another garbage frameset maker I'll never deal with, nor ever recommend. 🙂
@@rcg9573 Agreed. Nuts eh?
The thing is: nothing ever changes. Very few people will watch this video. And even less owners will notice these defects. "These complaints will be lost in time like tears in rain". Hence manufacturers have no intent to work on quality of their products.
PS My friend bought Trek Domane AL bike and it looks like it was welded by a drunk person. Welds form visible S or even Z letter. No butting on a frame either. It weights like an mtb bike. And not a light one.
@@Robutube1 Totally nuts. I'm amazed so many bike makers have been able to get away with this stuff for so long.
Hooray, great to hear you're sending it back and not sorting it yourselves. The more frames manufacturers get sent back will hopefully get them to up their QC game :)
Agreed, doing their job for them gives them zero reason to change the ways they do business. Even if they are being billed back for the screw up they still made the sale. If they start getting everything returned and lose 100% of those sales dollars they'll figure out pretty quickly how to do things correctly or they'll fold and go bankrupt as they should.
It would be amazing if you can do this kind of QC review for ALL the newly released framesets! Ridley is def not the only company dropping the ball and it's time we as consumers ream them back for money grabbing us! Be the hero we NEED Mapdec!
Thanks for sharing what is a thorough and comprehensive examination of this Ridley frameset. Im relieved that i didnt buy a Ridley Kanzo Fast from an online retailer, feel as though i dodged one there.
Twelve hundred pounds! F$$$ing hell! That’s crazy money for an aluminium frameset.
My experience with Ridley is unfortunately similar to yours… but I was working with them a decade ago.
QC was poor, the bikes looked great on the shop floor, but all came back with creaks… We were receiving whole bikes, built up with Ultegra or Force groupsets, so not cheap bikes.
Our solution was to completely strip and rebuild them before we sold them! Madness, needless to say the shop is no longer in business…
My brother bought a Trek Amonda AR. The disc brake mount was so far off, they couldn't make it work. The bike shop got Trek to send a new one and it was the same way! I can understand having some bad luck and getting one that slipped through. But one person was sent two bad frames!
This is a Ridley Fenix SLA frameset. I wonder how much it weighs. During Covid I bought one of the last rimbrake 'Fenix A' frames, matte black, because the chainstay of my Helium SLA had snapped and Ridley could not provide a warranty frame before the end of that winter. Although it is heavy at 1760 grams for the frame only (frame passport states that a painted framesize M will typically weigh 1560 up to 1716 grams), the BB was/is good, faced, straight and 'clean', and there also was no overspray anywhere else. Even after 19,000 kilometres in the NL, including winter riding, I haven't had to replace the shimano bb yet. In line with the weight and oversized tubes, it is a solid, stiff yet rather harsh bike to ride. The price (in december 2021) was €700,- , which is bout £600.
This is what happens when companies outsource to China to keep costs down but keep prices high and with poor QC
These are actually painted and WC in Belgium. Welded in China.
Almost every bike out there is made in China tho
No, this is what happens when you move production back to Europe, but keep the same business model. All those "made in China" fails were not because of the cheap labor, but main office not caring for results of said cheap labor.
This is what happens when an industry has been permitted by its customer base to get away with shoddy fabrication of its products for years, yet continued to pay ever increasing prices for those products. Management that does not take pride in their products, but only focuses on their ROI has learned they can increase ROI by raising prices, not maintaining the costs to maintain actual quality and people will still buy their stuff. The US auto industry went through this in the 1970 and 1980's until finally consumers had had enough and they just stopped buying their garbage inferior quality products.
This is what happens when an industry develops a business model of pouring money into pro team sponsorships and paying pros to ride disposable frames as a marketing ploy instead of pouring the money into actually building a sound quality product. And consumers have permitted them to get away with it.
Your 100% correct at £1200 that's a very top end price for alloy thank you for a very informative video .
Very welcome
Sad to see this. I have a Ridley Fenix AL aluminum frame circa 2016 which had none of these issues: threads were clean, bearing surfaces finished and the paint was beautifully applied. I was able to build it up without any of this drama.
You're absolutely right on sending Ridley back.
1200 ??! for Alu with this much slackness...
Maybe Ridley should supply a facing kit with every frame ?>
I'm quite sure my Sonder Camino frameset had none of those issues and it cost £500, granted it's a gravel frameset, not a road one, but still...
@@KNURKonesur That just means your Sonder is more versatile. Stick road tyres on it and it's a road bike (if that's your thing) . Gravel bikes are better value and a lot more fun when it gets to the rough stuff 👌
I have an old Helium SLA in rim brake. When it was built up I had to pay my bike shop to sort out the bb and the rd hanger exactly as described in this video. That was at least 5 years ago, so they haven’t learned.
Bonkers.
This frameset has so many issues that its obvious this was not some one off that accidently got through QC. It's a sign of a manufacturer that simply does not care and that lack of care is built into the way their framesets are fabricated. Scary thing is all these issues are obvious by just looking at the frameset externally with your eyes. I can't imagine the garbage you'd find if you actually did a scan of the welds and joints and assessed both the weld quality, bleed through, and how well or poorly the how the tubes fit together prior to welding. I'd bet good money the fabrication from start to finish is amateurish junk with some nice glossy paint put on top.
Lipstick on a pig, only in this instance they even messed up the lipstick.
I love this breakdown. I bought my first bike in 20 years last week. Ribble Enthusiast AL for £799. All the pictures show a Tiagra crankset, nope! Came with a very standard looking FSA. Even though I’m not anyway skilled to look for the flaws this fella sees, thanks to him I can see my bike was £799 for a reason. So many basic no care shown. Very disappointed with my first bike back! Their loss as I’m getting a new bike in summer and that money will not be spent with Ribble.
Glad we helped. I think.
@@Mapdec 100% helped! At least now when, not if things go wrong with it I’ll have a good idea why that is.
I love this channel! The attention to detail is second to none. I've reached the point where my trust is unconditional. If Paul says don't buy it then I don't buy it. If Paul says I can buy it then it's bought. What I'd like though, is some content for the poor who can't afford the likes of Time and Look.
Thank you. There are vids with other good brands on the channel. They don’t get as much attention though.
@@Mapdec I love the one on the value Alu where you get into the Trek Emonda frame. Saving for one! And the Ryot44 wheels for my canyon. Almost there!
I have a Paul Milnes Cycles All Road which is actually a rebadged Ridley Kanzo aluminium frame from a few years back but sold as a Milnes at half the price but with the Ridley Warranty, it’s a great frame and fork finished off beautifully I built it up with no component fitting problems at all and it has and continues to serve me well with no issues whatsoever despite all the off road abuse it gets the Paul Milnes paint job is top notch.
If I had to guess, I would say the best aluminum frames were coming out of Tiawan. I have made this comment here before: I bought a Serotta designed aluminum frame called the Duetti A9. 6069 shot peened aluminum. All surfaces and races were perfect, and it rides beautifully. Again, I would be looking to Tiawan for answers. Cheers. Keep up the good work.
Thank you.
When I've bought frames I've specifically asked for a full frame prep and headset fitted. If they couldn't do that I didn't buy the frame. I'm talking about steel, but aluminium is still metal.
I have got a 2020 X-Night frame set, bought a year ago, and apart from the pf30 bb inside surface being completely oversprayed with paint, the frame is otherwise perfectly fine. I went for a Hambini bb and installed it with no issues.
At some point it doesn't come as a surprise that some bike shops start to manufacture their own framesets. More common in Japan.
Sad to see although I would probably just build it until I got to that headset race and then sent It back.
Love a metal frame, funny how people think a sweat shop glue around a bag frame is so much better?
Condor make great steel frames.. maybe the aluminium to 😊😃🚴🏻🚴🏻🥇 Pete
Glad to hear your audio issues have cleared up 👍
Me too!
@@Mapdec out of curiosity, and you may have a video I have missed, could you give your top 3 recommendations for bike brands with the best QC.
Keep pushing, the bike industry as a whole needs a sharp wake up call. The prices they expect us to pay for literally everything are utterly outrageous. I'd be seriously pissed if I had forked that amount of cash and then had to pay yet more money just to get the thing to a point where you can actually start building it up. Not on.
I honestly doubt my local bike shop would offer those services, or even own those tools.
Wow
That is the problem. I live in a cycling haven and yet I can't think of a single bike shop near me that I would actually trust to do all the work this guy would have had to do to make this frame correct or the crazy steps he's taken to make other frames correct. My local bike shops would have simply assembled that frameset and sold it to some unlucky customer.
Thanks for this sort of inspection and analysis. I have adored Ridley's good looking frames from afar for many years; it's good to know that up close, where the components meet the frame, it's actually an ugly brand. Disappointing, but good to know. Youve probably saved a few prospective Ridley buyers a lot of headaches. Good on you.
Thanks! Think ill buy the condor now then 😂😂
Oh my, that´s really bad! Thank´s for this video. As far as I know, Ridley also sells complete bikes, I am wondering how the frames on these are prepared. I hope they fix all these issues in their workshop and not only throw the components on. I own a Ridley Damocles (13 years old now and 100 k km on it), which I bought as a frameset and did the build by myself; it also had overspray on the bb shell. Otherwise it´s a nice frame.
Sadly they don’t. They just force everything together. We have been making some shorts on them.
@@Mapdec Damn, that´s a real shame. Thank you for answering!
Raw titanium is one of the choices in my personal opinion. It’s not for everyone and price is steep
I've been considering one of the really massively discounted Kanzo A bikes on Wiggle/CRC (£769 in "S" at the moment), kinda puts me off despite much cheapness...I straight up bypassed the press fit Carbon version after watching the video you did on that.... It's pretty poor really!!
There is a firm in the US named Competitive Cyclist, who has had Ridley's offered at large discounts for a while now. I was tempted slightly at one point, but passed given some of the problems I had heard about them in my local cycling community. Glad I passed on them, and this vid just confirms it.
I'm seriously thinking about having Mapdec do a new Time bike build for me when I'm ready because I'm confident the job will be done properly with attention to detail from top to bottom and I'm willing to pay for actual quality (not advertising propaganda quality from youtube pretend reviewers like David Arthur) and peace of mind! 🙂
Itll be the Look ill be going for then!!
Chuckle Bros were ere sticker - always the hallmark of quality i find.
So poor workmanship and no quality control. Well done Ridley. The bike industry as a whole seems in a mess. "Standards" all over the place, lacklustre quality, built in obsolescence, design fashion statements over function and the high cost to the customer with headaches for the bike shops. Then there is the onslaught of E-bikes.
This is insane. So if you want to build a high quality alloy bike, I guess the way to go would be to buy an old Cannondale CAAD 4 or higher and build it up with modern parts... 😅 Would be a lot cheaper, too... Or buy Decathlon. Or maybe rosebikes. A friend of mine has a Rose SL alloy bike from last year and the finishing is superb. The welds are so clean and smooth, you have to take a really close look to see it's not a carbon bike. 999 Euro for a full 105 setup with dt swiss wheels... Can't really get more value than that.
The CAAD4 was ace. Had the aero one. Insanely stiff
We had a guy take a local CAT 3 crit on a CAAD 4 with an Ultegra triple about 2 months ago. Guy showed up with a triple! Guy was also riding 32 spoke count low profile Mavic Open Pro wheels with Ultegra hubs. He had no power meter on his bike and no computer mounted on his bars and on the final lap he worked his way up towards the front, drafted a guy as a lead out and dropped everyone in the last 100 meters. He was blowing by guys on $10K+ carbon bikes with their cute Princeton, Lightweight, and Zipp CF wheels and I'd say everyone one of them I saw had a power meter and a computer on their bars as well. Just goes to show the better engine will always beat the better poser. 🙂
@@rcg9573 awesome
Sending a frame to a detail oriented youtube mechanic/bike shop. Should we do a final check? Naaaa it will be fine
😂
Such a shame, seems like they are 90 per cent there at delivering a top notch product but manage to mess it up at the paint finishing department. Should be easy to sort out though….if they care. Curious how this will pan out.
If a bike has as many problems as this one did it is pretty obvious they simply do not care. A small mistake can get through anytime under any QC system, but a frameset that literally has issues at the headtube, the seatube, the BB threads and BB shell face, the flat mounts, and the hangar fitting and thru axel threads is not something that randomly got through QC. It's a sign of a complete lack of QC on their part and a good indication they simply do not care. This is a Far East Chinese outsourced product that was outsourced at the very lowest end of the "quality" spectrum, but it's being sold as if it is nearly some artisan fabbed frameset. And who the hell would put stickers inside a seatube that would interfere just by themselves with fitting a seatpost in there? Amateur hour defined for $1,200+, LOL.
@@rcg9573 I meant caring about getting reamed here and possibly losing sales. Seems like knowledgeable and authoritative youtubers like mapdec, luescher and hambini are getting more views and could hopefully influence people’s buying behaviour on a large enough scale to make manufacturers up their game. Might be wishful thinking but I’m actually pretty hopeful.
I think the writing on the top tube says Fenix SLA which is their "classics" bike in aluminum version, not the Helium. I'm riding an older Fenix SL in carbon, never taken it apart, just the BB creaking every once in a while but that's just pressfit.
This year I bought a vintage NOS Principia Ellipse SX III alloy frame with matching Principia carbon fork. Bearing in mind I have not built it up yet. My opinion of the finish is stunning with cool black anodized paintwork and sexy looking facings and bb threads if thats how you like to get worked up. It defo has its quirks in design particularly with the all in one replaceable drop out/mech hanger which I have not seen similar, together with its barreled shaped head tube and BB. But I honestly believe it's a quality thing of welded beauty with a tasty looking carbon fork too. It defo has a visual impact, being light for what it is and far from aero in design which is great. This doesnt help here in your search for quality alloy because obviously this frame ain't made anymore. But it is silly to see these expensive modern frames not being crafted like they used too🤟
Have you had any Ridley Carbon frames in yet, it would be interesting to see a review of one of these as most people will go for a carbon Ridley over a Alloy. If I were to buy another alloy frame it would be from someone like Mason although even they seem to have issues with paint.
We have had a few. Some good, some poor. There are some shorts on a few.
Just a small point but I don't think that's a Helium. I think they're only available in carbon. You've got a Fenix SLA. It says on the frame at 1:29. I should say I had a problem with a (carbon) Fenix SLX a few years ago cracking across the bottom bracket shell after a couple of hundred kms. Was not impressed but Ridley replaced it with a Noah Fast in the end. Been happy with that... so far!
Hadn’t realised I misspoke. Sorry.
If there is any consolation, Ridley is lucky to have not have Hambini reviewing the quality control of these framesets.
hahahaha, the pen may have run out of ink
AFAIK Hambini hasn't done a lot of Alu frames, mostly carbon.
What aluminium frames would you recommend besides Mason. I'm currently looking at the Trek Domane Al 5 Gen 4 but honestly have no clue what their frames are like.
Great work Paul
Thank you
Hello realised you may have mistaken the frame @0:24. you mention it as a helium frame however Ridley does not produce alloy frame under the Helium umbrella
They forgot to bang up the BB shell then paint it ala 2010 Trek.
My crappy bike history
Here's my experience with frame problems.
I I've stripped my childhood bikes,
2010 Trek, head tube was not flush at the back towards the down tube, during install the cup did not want to go in straight, as the head tube was not 100% round. But a bit of tapping with an hammer and it went in. It sat flush, seemed to be straight, sat against whole circle, until I looked closely on the side. Just one spot, the head tube shamfered off to the downtube. 🤦Was too late for warranty as it was bought in 2011. 2010 Trek 3900 disc, bottom BB shell was banged up, then painted over, looked like sb took a sledgehammer to with a rock sculpting pick to it.
I even installed Chris King headset as an emergency solution to have a bike I could ride, cus I've had issue with all of my Trek bikes. Headtube was damaged by the Chris King headset after riding it creating a aluminium buildup inside. 🤦It went in easy it looked well, but after riding it a bit it looked like sb took a sledge hammer to it. 🤔 Weird.
These bikes are too small for me anyway, but atleast the frame stiffness was on point. Even 86kg fully kitted. Even squeezing 2.3 tyre in with bare minimum clearnace it worked.
But one flaw at the rear of the 3900 was rack mount threads failed on one side. Weird it was right side only at the seat stay.
Other ppls crappy bikes:
But I've seen worse bb showed by Trek shown by Hambini, it was so bad he could not fix it, it too was threaded bb, but they did shotty welding, deformed the BB shell, did things in wrong order, a bb could not even be installed. 🤦
But I've also seen plenty of cracket bikes from spesific models.
Like chainstay rear near the welds at the green Slash, a dude replaced 4 chain stays as they all cracked. Even with Trek honoring the warranty this is crazy.
In my case 2014 Trek Fuel EX, bent seat stays, bent Rd hanger after every ride, pushing bearings back into the rocker link, as the flex caused the bearings to get pushed out, rocker link cracked.
I was never offered a newer frame for free, I had two of same bike. Same issues. When dealing with one shop they Sendt me parts for one frame. New chainstay and rocker link. After a week I think bearing got pushed out of ABP pivot. I guess cus nut loosened, but even so this is due to this design.
Also bb92, I had to get new cranks only thing I could get my hands on fast was Raceface turbine with 30mm axle, but that meant crappy Raceface bb 92, with regular bearings, tiny balls, it wasn't angular contact. So wór wout in about 4 months. Left side went first as bike flexed more to the left I guess. 🤔 But atleast their newer fuel ex bikes ar e uch stiffer. But I'm not a fan of the push the bearings out of rocker link design, stiffening up everything helps, but still a bad idea Imo.
I've seen their new road bikes with weird seat post fail too, it snaps off. 🤦
But i recently saw a Haibike e bike it's alu, top of seat tube failed, cracked around weld and rears, so barely hanging on. That was with dropper post inserted way below reccomend depth so not the cause.
Seen BMC bb was horrible on a carbon road bike.
Just remembered a guy broke two trek Slash Carbon frames at the head tube, fork came out, saw second frame snap on video.
It was few years ago maybe 2 or 3.
Ive seen people hav issues with Propain bikes, a German dude had issue sieth loose headset in the headtube of Propain Rage carbon, so got warranty replacement with same issue, few runs and jumps and headset rocked back and forth. 🤦He got a refund and gave up. But this year I saw a review of the Enduro bike, where a guy mentioned other issues with Enduro bike people had. BB shell insert count out of bb shell. Shock clearnace issue son new Rockshox rear shock, but they fixed that, or atleast the guy did not have tha tissue on his. But some ha issues with the adjustment knob touching the downtube. 🤦 It came with that shock. 🤦So avoid Propain. That dude seems to have done the research after buying his bike, but wa lucky with his frame.
Appreciate this video, the truth hurts but it’s not looking good for Ridley especially when Team Lotto is ditching them for Orbea now
Oh no. Ive just bought a Helium SLA rim brake. Hopefully I won't have any of these problems 🤞
I saw in one of the other comments that these are welded in China but painted in Belgium. Maybe Ridley should move everything offshore, they might have better quality and could drop the price. I don't know why you guys decided to sell Ridley alongside Time and Look, doesn't it dilute the perception of your business? Lots of other brands if you want to offer a value option.
I know it's comparing apples and oranges, but my Ragley Big Al frame is Taiwanese alu and costs around a third of the Ridley. I built up that frame myself, not a touch of overspray and the welds are something beautiful to behold.
I just really wanted a good alu frame offer. Not interested in the Ridley Carbon stuff.
This is a big call out! I hope Ridley don’t take this as personal and take it as constructive criticism and good feedback. I’ve always wanted a helium but after seeing your disappointment I wouldn’t now. I hope Ridley can sort this out
Sheesh. I've seen Apollo Slants from Halfords finished better than that. This isn't nit picking, it's fundamentally not fit for purpose. I wonder who you guys will find to source a quality frame from next?
STANDERT are some some of the best aluminium bikes I have seen so far.
Oh. I though they were just steel
@@Mapdec They do also make steel frames but actually most of their more performance oriented road and gravel bikes are aluminum. Their Kreissage and Kettensage models are worth checking out. At over 1300 GBP for the top end model they do run a steeper price tag though.
Buen video, es una pena que una marca como Ridley no controle esos detalles, si ese cuadro va directo a un particular no lo podría montar y si lo hace seguramente lo haría mal, con el riesgo de dañarlo.
Cannondale still makes great aluminum bikes. But they are expensive and not sold as framesets.
The factory probably pumps those out for 100 to 150 Landed cost of that frame is probably about 350 to 400 they probably sell it to you for about 700 to 800 and then you sell it to the consumer for 1200... so its not supprising its shit... its a 150 quid frame.
Confirming what I have heard from others.
What I don't understand is why they send an unfinished frame.. and if they do, they could pay the shop/customer an hour of work to finish it.
At least ut would be clear that it is a semi finished product.
For a $1200 frame, I'd expect better! I faced my BSA bb with a file and machinists bluing after the lbs didn't have this basic tool. The latest bike didn't come from that shop!
What bike shop doesn’t have a facing tool!!!
Add Ridley to the 'Competence Crisis' chart.
I personally found this video very interesting. I have an old helium sl 2015 frameset and it's quality is amazing. Honestly, among the best I've ever seen. Comparing it against the newer helium slx. The quality of the slx is terrible. It's full of voids and even signs of over glue within the frame. This was a former ex pro bike too.
Both framesets manufactured in China. I wonder if the standards in this factory had dropped significantly over the last few years.
Thanks for sharing!
@@user-bj8kk8ni5f Most likely the factory standards did not drop, but what did drop was the outsourcing contract which lead to cheaper fabrication. Very likely the same thing occurred where the frameset was painted and "supposedly" went through QC in Belgium. If a firm is willing to lower the quality of their fabrication outsourcing contract to cut costs you better believe they will also have no problem cutting the quality of their final paint and QC costs and thus quality of those functions regardless of what nation those activities take place in.
Oops - spent all the money on marketing again.
Thanks for the "reaming" 😎 Bike brands should know all of these Quality Control - We, the consumer are paying hard earned cash for these CRAP - Shame on you for charging us so much money without a care in the world. 💯
Welp, Belgium🤷♂ I think one should start a monastic order, built around bikes. Because it is apparently the only way to make an excellent product there.
I can only repeat what I said on the last vid. You’d expect this from a 300 quid Planet X, or some home brand, but for 1200 it frankly takes the piss. Ugly paint jobs and awkward looking tube shapes don’t make for a compelling buy.
Certain brands like Specialized, BMC, Open, Ridley, Cervelo, Giant, Bianchi, Cannondale, TTT, Canyon, etc..... I would not touch with a 10 foot pole and the prices they are asking for these shoddy framesets are an absolute joke. The quality is so poor so often if these firms were in most other industries they would be out of business in under 6 months. If you tried to pawn off garbage like this in the semi conductor industry for example, the very moment industry word got out what you were doing you would be finished as a business. There would be no coming back from it because no vendor further down the supply chain would do biz with you.
We are trying. Just a very small voice compared to GCN.
@@Mapdec You may be small, but you are growing and provide a benefit to your viewers. All GCN has left to offer are stupid aero vs climbing and old vs modern bike comparisons.
a pounds worth of masking tape would have sorted most of those issues.
Blimey thats not very good! Could it be the case that when the raw painted frames are passed on through the production process at Ridley’s factory some of those problems would be fixed before assembly?
I have a Ridley Carbon frame that I built up and didn’t encounter any of these issues, it’s a great bike. Maybe QC standards have dropped?
Would think twice before buying another having seen this though.
Maybe they just forgot to tell you that they had relocated their quality control function to you..
Haha. They would be out of business in the month
Wow, not sure if I've seen much worse. Seems like Ridley went wrong in almost every possible way.
Wich bike would you recommend when i have a budget of 3000 euro for a full bike? Thanks!
Oh. The latest 2 podcast upload will help with that question.
Shame. Another company that just doesn't care, for both the customer and the retailer. Marketing and fanboys are keeping them alive.
The issue is the price of the frame. These kind of problems would be maybe acceptable if the price would be GBP 400-500. But it's 1200
You can't get by with that headset, maybe we need threaded headsets cause bike industry can't make a round hole of specific size
Is it just the case that these frames are being mass produced and pumped out the factory as quickly as possible so certain brands are doing the minimum prep because they know most people won't see these issues?
I'd like to say you're just being fussy, but clearly you're not. I mean, come on, how hard is it for a manufacturer to finish a frame perfectly. In this day and age where everything is carbon, you'd think an aluminium frame could be turned out in their sleep.
Well I remember back in my youth working in a shop everything you talk about was a normal thing needed to be done on every frame that came in. Every frame had to get faced and chased all of them no matter the brand or what you spent.
Now on this frame should never buy an aluminum frame that expensive. Heck custom aluminum is not much more. Heck plenty of off the peg Ti bikes can be had for that price in the US. Heck the Uk has plenty of great companies building frames and outsourcing designs to be made in east just like ridley does. I really don't understand the pricing on that one or the need for a road bike from a cx brand.
It just looks like they don't care. That's a lot to pay for unfinished product.
Send it back and blunt their tools. It's absurd that you can't buy a quality product!!
Bikes being rushed through QC in China and when back with the supplier (a blind eye being turned), to meet unprecendented demand over the pandemic is annoying but provides some rationale as to the poor quality in 2020/21 and beyond frames. Brand QC reps couldn't travel as one of the reasons. The frames should be at a minimum QC'ed when back with manufactor. You would expect this trend to improve by now, around 2 years post pandamic but sadley not.
Ridley drama...
I think they fired their painters cuz they hiring new painters atm 😝
Really??
Just get on with it. More concerned with structural integrity than over painting.
Have you got any experience analysing canyon frames?
Yes. We have a few vids on canyon
Makes you wonder why Team Lotto/Dstny dropped them as their frame sponsor
The frame isnt made by Ridley. Its made in a Chinese factor that makes pretty much every other brand as well. It just has Ridley stickers on it. The frames are pulled out on huge racks when the factory is making "Ridley" on say monday and what ever other brand on Tuesday.
This is something that also needs to be explained to consumers in depth. Please do so
Maybe. We don’t know for sure all the details. These are supposedly painted, QC and built in Belgium. Just the welding and tube making done in China.
@Mapdec probably better to discuss that more on a public platform then. However there should be more transparency for consumers.
Look for the "Made in Vietnam" sticker. Actually, I have one and it looks better than this. Ridley has a lots to answer for.
If you slowed down your enthusiasm and get your facts straight it’s not the Helium it’s the entry level Finix.
When did I say Helium?
@@Mapdec25 seconds into the video
35 seconds in
@@mphillips24 doh 🤦♂️
Do you have a facing tool?
Yes. Lots of them. 👍
Shame, would love to support a European company and have been tempted by a carbon Grifn but maybe I should invest elswhere?
This nothing new. Back in the steel frame days, just about all frames from the famous builders came to the shops in similar condition. The shop was to prep the fame before building the bike, including checking the alignment. The American builders had more pride in their work and the frames came in already to build.
Good to know, Ridley is garbage. It makes you wonder if they do any kind of QA
you might think that if they send a frame to a youtuber, they would go the extra mile. but no...
Madness
Ridley have probably never seen the frame
acceptable*
🤦♂️
£1200 for rubbish.
This is the basic stuff which they have just skipped over. my mtb frame came better prepared than this.