In a recent post on the subject of "which hubs" or? similar, I said something on the lines of "whatever you do, don't buy e13 hubs!" I then provided a bit of a rant, and some evidence including a picture of rusted pawls and disintegrated pawl springs.
I was contacted on the thread by the head of customer support in the USA. He simply expressed surprise and asked for more information. I responded with a full report. The wheelset I bought, who from, when, what happened, times dates, mileage to failure, copies of the warranty claims, pictures, the full account. There was one front bearing failure quite quickly, that never recurred, but the four other failures were all of the rear hub at roughly 700-800 mile intervals, each time except the last one, the wheel was gone for three weeks. I had to return the wheel to the retailer, Chain Reaction Cycles (CRC) at their HQ in Northern Ireland "for inspection". They then sent it to the e13 agent (Silverfish) in the UK, who fixed it and returned it to CRC, who then sent it to me. What a run around, no wonder it took 3 weeks. Nothing I said could short cut that.
The third hub failure happened while I was selling the bike and the potential customer was on board at the time! The scale of the hub repairs had been escalating each time, and this time the complete hub along with the latest design of seals were replaced. Once the wheel had been returned, my buyer still bought the bike, but 3-4 months later he rang me up to tell me that the hub had failed again (the 4th rear hub failure out of five total). I offered to replace the hub again, but he said, "Don't bother I will replace the hub and spokes myself, I'll keep the rims though." I'm not surprised, they were Scandium alloy!)
Quite a disaster I think that you may agree. I bought that wheelset in Oct'14 and over the next two years and a few months all of the above happened. Upon receipt of my report the e13 guy was suitably appalled and assured me that their hub design had moved on since then. I told him that, at the time, it was their 5-year warranty that convinced me that the wheelset was of some quality, but it proved not to be the case, quite rapidly too. He assured me that their product range was all good stuff (my words, I can't be arsed to check back on what he actually said). What could he do to make it up to me, he asked? He invited me to check the e13 product range to see if there was something I liked. I did so but told him that I was about to buy a new bike so there was nothing I needed. To be honest I thought that whatever I pointed at he would just offer me a discount. Anyway, the only things that I could genuinely say that were of interest and of possible immediate use was a pair of e13 Plus flat pedals alloy (105x105), but there would have to be some incentive for me to switch away from the two pairs of DMR Vault pedals that I have had for the last 14 and 16 years. But one had a suspect bent axle.
To my complete surprise he sent me, free of charge, a pair of the alloy Plus pedals in black and a pair of their Base pedals which are resin, in red (see pics). I was very surprised at this genuine offer from e13. I really was expecting nothing. There were no strings, like "withdraw your report", or "send us a user report", write something kind..... nothing at all.
Thanks.
The black pedals will go on my new bike. If they do as well as the DMR Vaults, I will be delighted.
I was contacted on the thread by the head of customer support in the USA. He simply expressed surprise and asked for more information. I responded with a full report. The wheelset I bought, who from, when, what happened, times dates, mileage to failure, copies of the warranty claims, pictures, the full account. There was one front bearing failure quite quickly, that never recurred, but the four other failures were all of the rear hub at roughly 700-800 mile intervals, each time except the last one, the wheel was gone for three weeks. I had to return the wheel to the retailer, Chain Reaction Cycles (CRC) at their HQ in Northern Ireland "for inspection". They then sent it to the e13 agent (Silverfish) in the UK, who fixed it and returned it to CRC, who then sent it to me. What a run around, no wonder it took 3 weeks. Nothing I said could short cut that.
The third hub failure happened while I was selling the bike and the potential customer was on board at the time! The scale of the hub repairs had been escalating each time, and this time the complete hub along with the latest design of seals were replaced. Once the wheel had been returned, my buyer still bought the bike, but 3-4 months later he rang me up to tell me that the hub had failed again (the 4th rear hub failure out of five total). I offered to replace the hub again, but he said, "Don't bother I will replace the hub and spokes myself, I'll keep the rims though." I'm not surprised, they were Scandium alloy!)
Quite a disaster I think that you may agree. I bought that wheelset in Oct'14 and over the next two years and a few months all of the above happened. Upon receipt of my report the e13 guy was suitably appalled and assured me that their hub design had moved on since then. I told him that, at the time, it was their 5-year warranty that convinced me that the wheelset was of some quality, but it proved not to be the case, quite rapidly too. He assured me that their product range was all good stuff (my words, I can't be arsed to check back on what he actually said). What could he do to make it up to me, he asked? He invited me to check the e13 product range to see if there was something I liked. I did so but told him that I was about to buy a new bike so there was nothing I needed. To be honest I thought that whatever I pointed at he would just offer me a discount. Anyway, the only things that I could genuinely say that were of interest and of possible immediate use was a pair of e13 Plus flat pedals alloy (105x105), but there would have to be some incentive for me to switch away from the two pairs of DMR Vault pedals that I have had for the last 14 and 16 years. But one had a suspect bent axle.
To my complete surprise he sent me, free of charge, a pair of the alloy Plus pedals in black and a pair of their Base pedals which are resin, in red (see pics). I was very surprised at this genuine offer from e13. I really was expecting nothing. There were no strings, like "withdraw your report", or "send us a user report", write something kind..... nothing at all.
Thanks. The black pedals will go on my new bike. If they do as well as the DMR Vaults, I will be delighted.
