Hi,
here's Steve's email, which I have no probem in adding here. To be fair, this 'latest development' happened at 10pm on Sunday, and Robin emailed me at 07:55 on Monday. That's not a lot of time. Although it is certainly true that I've avoided Steve's earlier email, for reasons which I've told the Thorn guys.
This afternoon I bought a new frame, which I intend to shift all the shift-able components over to. I'll then return the original frame, and hope that the refund happens before my credit card bill appears! I think the 'off-menu' thing is a bit odd, as the bike is (I assume) covered by the distance selling rules (you get 14 days to return the product from the date you receive it).
I think John (even before I decided which frame to buy) has done nothing but criticise and has contributed not a single positive thing to this whole thread. Fair enough, that's the downside of brand-evangelists. However, most people have come up with positive contributions, whether suggestions or encouragement to persevere. For which, I am really thankful.
I did persevere, and yesterdays long ride proved that this was a frame I wanted. Despite all the hassle so far, I've gone a bought another frame. I mean, can you believe that? I actually just paid £500 for a new frame, on top of already paying £1600 for the bike! I didn't get all difficult and demand that Thorn take the financial risk on this one, I just went ahead and put the money down. That's how good the frame is. And that's what I've consistently said, the frame feels smooth and the reach is perfect. It's untrue to say that I've been 100% negative about the bike.
I think Steve's email is quite cool. But the cut steerer, hmm..
"Hi Doug,
Thank you for your email. Sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with your new Club Tour. I would like to take the time to address the points you made in your review on line and try to help you rectify some, if not all of the problems you are experiencing.
Can I first of start off by saying you do have a full 14 day money back guarantee with our bike so if you do not get on with it after 13 days let us know on the 14th day and you can return the bike for a full refund minus postage – there is no limit to the number of miles you ride during this time J.
If the position is not perfect then we are able to ship you a few different stems to have some final adjustment to get the perfect set up. This will allow you to ride the bike for a few days and then make a decision as to how you would like to adjust your position. The saddle being a Brooks will always be slippery initially and it may be helpful to angle it slightyl up or down to help compensate the sliding on the saddle. Also, you could try adjusting the saddle forwards and backwards to stop yourself from pushing back on the saddle.
With the forks, yes, we did cut the steerer as we feel this is something that has to be done so that most of our customers (who aren’t all mechanically minded) can simply take the bike out of the box and ride it straight away. As I say, not all customers are mechaniaclly inclined and would not be able to do this themselves. If the handlebars are too low there is an easy fix for this and this is to take your fitted stem and flip it over 180 degrees and refit it to the bike. This will raise the height of the bar and make you more relaxed. If this is not enough we can ship you a higher angled stem if need be, or we would simply send a new fork if we got it that far out. We take extra time and care to measure customers properly in the first place, so there is usually only ever small changes required which can almost always be taken up in the stem if need be.
The handlebar tape is wrapped close to the centre of the bar to keep the cable routing tidy. If the tape goes too far to the centre of the bar, then we feel it is easier to trim it than it is to redo the whole bar tape. If it is ripped then that would have been done in transit and we can happily supply a new set of tape as this should not be like that.
The brakes require bedding in and will improve over time and you will find their efficiency will increase massively too. With regards to the brake levers we have not heard them rattle before, do they both do it or is it just one?
The gear levers are not in our brochure or menu options and this is somehting you specifically asked for. They are “old school tech” that does work well but with modern improvement in design we would recommend bar end shifter or STI levers for almost all users. We do not know of any higher quality 10 speed down tube shifters but if you can find any please send them back and we can refund you for the levers and this will allow you to find a set you like more.
The gears rubbing in certain chainrings can easily be resolved by moving the front mech shifter (friction) by a couple of degrees to allow the chain to run through without rubbing on the mech cage. The idea of friction shifters is to allow you that slightest bit of adjustment to stop the chain from rubbing. If we had fitted STI levers there is this trim position that stops the rubbing, but you requested a down tube shifter which does not have the option of a trim position, due to its friction. The rear mech is controlled by an indexed shifter and this helps to aid basic shifting through the rear cassette.
Most anatomic drop bars come back further thatn the headtube of the bike now and only a compact bar would stop at the head tube but if you do find you are hitting your knees then we could look at swapping the bar out to a compact version of the handlebar. Her is a link to a copmact shaped bar on our site.
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/shimano-pro-lt-compact-drop-handlebars-318-mm-black-prod29863/ We have not heard that our fork can be too springy before and this may have been down to the road condition but we are unable to say without riding the same spec of bike on the same stretch of road. You do mention that you rode it on a smooth road and it did not occour again but this could be a new style of fork that you need to get used to.
The spare spokes that were provided loose could potentially make it difficult to know wich is which spoke so we take this under out belt and we will look at labeling our spare spokes for future customers to make it easier. The long spokes you have are for the front wheel and the shortest spoke is for the drive side of the rear wheel and the middle size is for the non drive side of the rear wheel.
Once again, I do wish to point out that you have a full 14 day money back guarantee for the Club Tour (minus postage of delivery and collection) so please do continue to ride it over the next few days and if you would like to change any parts please give us a call on 01278 441505 and we can discuss any issues you may still have."
