Was my second Hand Thorn purchase a good one? or very bad

[gepabu]

Hi I am new to Thorn bikes and bikes in general. I recently paid £400 for a mk3 (13) Thorn Audax and having taken it to a cycle shop have been billed £170 for parts and labour. This is for a new crank set, chain and cassette. My question for you good people is, assuming once this is done the bike is otherwise good for a few years, was it a good deal? My second question is the ad for the bike said 'excellent condition' and recent service for 150£. It came to light that the 'service' was just changing the wires and very worn chain and teeth were not looked at. So I bought on the assumption that the Bike would not need anything urgent which hasnt been the case. DO you think this is wrong and I have a claim to money back? Or, because the frame is in excellent condition and this is wear and tear, he's done nothing wrong, especially for the price? Cheers

[PH]

It's a shame that you've had to spend money that you weren't expecting to.   Bike shops have a hard time, a lot of the cost is in time spent, If I have a worn part that I can change myself, I might think I'll leave it for a bit and only do so if it gives trouble, if a bike shop did that you'd rightly be back there complaining.  As a result they play it cautious and will sometimes replace something a home mechanic wouldn't have.  Also - as with your chainset, a home mechanic might have just replaced the rings rather than the whole lot,  that's not a criticism of the shop, the parts would have been half the price but the labour would have doubled and your bill would be the same.  It's possible the seller genuinely thought they were fine for another few thousand miles, if you feel you've been miss sold, contact them and make the case, but I wouldn't go in guns blazing.
As for value - if it's the right bike for you that's outstanding value. For £570 you have a bike where all the components that normally wear are new, for about a third of the price of a new bike.  Apart from the odd tweak you shouldn't have to spend much for a long time.  When you do it might be worthwhile learning to do it yourself, there are not many jobs that are technically hard, there's plenty of online information (I like the Park Tools videos) it's satisfying, plus it takes the worry out of something going wrong if you already know home to fix it.
Hope you enjoy your new bike, now show us some photos 

[gepabu]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.
That's great to hear and very reassuring to me at this moment in time!
I am keen to build a good knowledge and do most of the maintenance myself but struggled most in finding the correct spec chain set. Unfortunately, the whole thing needed changing because I destroyed the threading(i am ashamed to say). Obviously this wasn't the seller fault so  I would only claim for a chain and rings as the chain was slipping when really drilled.
Was a pleasure to ride before it was sent to the shop a part from that.

[leftpoole]

Looks like a very nice bicycle!
John

[gepabu]

Thanks!
Good buy considering? 

[leftpoole]

Thanks!
Good buy considering?

Not expensive at all.

[ZeroBike]

Its up to you, excellent means excellent and it clearly wast.. but even with the cost of repairs you haven't overpaid at all for it.

They are nice bikes!

[gepabu]

Just picked up the bike from the shop!

Exactly: I am torn cos I dont think I have been ripped off but yes it was described misleadingly.

Just messaged him saying what we needed changing and how i dont think this fits with the description. See what he says

[Danneaux]

It is possible the original owner was/is truthful and simply relied on the bike shop he used to catch any and all problems. If he is not a mechanically savvy owner, he may have asked them to look at it and figured the 150£ bill caught all the problems. It is also possible he wanted to make the bike just good enough for sale and so selected the bare minimum from a range of available repair options offered by the shop. 

I ran into something like this when I purchased a used rental bike from a reputable pawn shop. The description said it had also been "fully serviced" but everything aside from the frame was just shot -- even the brake pads had worn to the point where the mounting studs had deeply scored the rims. No matter to me as all I wanted was the frame and the price was low for even just the frame so all good and it built into a fine bike, one of my favorites once I fitted it with a Thorn Sherpa Mk2 fork from SJS Cycles. However, the pawn shop had no idea about bikes to the extent the frame was listed as a "girls bike" because the top tube sloped slightly! It happens.

Given the overall cost and the make/model of the bike, my opinion is you received good value overall for a fully serviced/serviceable bike going forward. However, I can see the apparent deception still bothers you, so I think you were wise to contact the seller to see what he says. Ultimately, it might fall under eBay's classification for "Not as described -- wrong condition", but the ideal time to make a claim would have been after receipt but before paying for repairs, basing your claim on a written estimate of work needed before splashing out for repairs. If you were to receive a refund for the bike via eBay, it is likely you would be compensated only for the purchase price and not the additional repairs made. It might be helpful to consult eBay's UK policies (they vary by country): https://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay-money-back-guarantee/index.html Each situation varies. Perhaps the seller would be willing to compensate you in part or full for the unexpected repairs.

Best of luck, looking forward to any new developments.

Dan.

[lewis noble]

I think an additional thing to bear in mind is that unless one is very experienced as a bike mechanic, you often don't realise how worn things are until someone points it out, or you get it repaired and notice the difference - the "Gosh!! That's better!!  Why didn't I notice how bad it was!!" feeling is familiar to us all. 

You've ended up with a class leading bike, at, in total, a fair price.  In any case the most crucial thing about any bike is . . . . Does it fit? Do you like it?  So my view would be leave it and enjoy riding - but we all have to decide what we are comfortable with.

Lewis

[gepabu]

Thanks guys.

Update: seller responded and immediately refunded £90. Really happy with this outcome as it covers the parts that needed replacing.

He certainly knows a lot about bikes and has just admitted he knew the chainrings needed changing. In any case, ebay descriptions are sacrosanct, forming part of the contract. I bought relying on what he said to my detriment so i think this is a fair outcome.

But yes, now all said and done I am really happy with my bike 

[Danneaux]

Yay! What a nice, happy ending. Sure glad things worked out as the did for you.

Now, happy riding!

Best,

Dan.

[ZeroBike]

Good stuff.

Always better if you feel good about the purchase otherwise you never really love it as much!

They are really good bikes.. personally I wouldnt use it as a touring bike, but for a nice road bike they are fantastic!.

Real shame to see Thorn have discontinued the mk3 /mk3r as I dont think the mk4 is the same.. much more bolt on and designed around having disc brakes... its probably very good but personally I do prefer the mk3. 

[gepabu]

True!

It is interesting that you say you wouldn't use it for a touring bike.. how come? Cannot carry enough?

The website has a couple of mk3s left and lots of frame, maybe stock up!

[PH]

Great result, wishing you many happy miles together.