Finishing up, here's the not-so-ugly portion of what I learned about ICE trikes and their response to what their findings were. ICE trike frames are not made in the U.K.. Their website never claims that they are. Rather, the trikes are designed, inspected, and assembled in the U.K.. The frames are made in the Republic of China (Taiwan) according to the June 7, 2019 issue of Recumbent News https://www.recumbent.news/2019/06/07/how-are-recumbents-manufactured/ Well heck, I was under the silly assumption they were proudly made by the employee owned ICE trike company. Nope. The reason I bring this up is because this explains the rather disappointing email(s) I received from Patrick Selwood (who doesn't work there anymore) of ICE. I'll just copy and paste a couple of those emails. The first email is a response (to the dealer) to the video and images I took of the damage and how the company would proceed:
I have never seen this type of damage before. We have been building the Sprint X Tour and its predecessors which had similar frame designs for around 20 years and this type of bending has never happened before. I have seen a very small number of bent frames but all of those have bent where the cross part attaches to the main frame, not out at the curve.
I will commit to replacing the frame part under warranty. Would you like to add any other parts to this or are you happy to get this on the way?
Could you please ask George whether there is anything else he can think of which may have caused this issue. I will provide the frame free of charge even if it was some kind of crash, abuse or incident which may have caused this, I just want to understand.
Sounds reasonable except something about those previous bent frames. Of course they would cover it under warranty. The frame was purchased only 4 months earlier. The video clearly shows the frame collapsed over a tiny bump in the road. Crash? Abuse? Incident? Did Mr. Selwood not see the time stamps on the video and images? For those of you who don't know me, I was in the aviation industry for over 22 years. I'm 64.5 years old and comfortably retired. I have experience with metal fatigue and knowledge of NDT for detecting metal fatigue. Please keep this in mind when you read the email discussing their findings:
We have done some further investigation into this frame and everything appears to be up to the specification and standard it should be. We cannot find any material or manufacturing reason for the frame to have failed. We have cut the frame to inspect the tube and run other tests.
The frame is bent not only at the area of the large bend in the middle of the tube but also on both sides of the main frame cross joint and there are the beginnings of bends showing around the same area where the bending is on the left side but on the right. This implies to us that there is not one weak area of the frame but instead that the trike was subject to a very large force coming up through the front wheels.
Thanks
Patrick Selwood
Customer Support and Marketing
Not sure how to interpret this, but it does sound like they don't think there is anything wrong with their frames. It also sounds like my video was somehow not an accurate depiction of what had happened. I guess that means I lied about the whole thing because...? Just curious how they inspected/ tested the defective frame? To do a proper analysis, the equipment would be quite expensive... https://www.robsonforensic.com/articles/bicycle-frame-component-failures-expert-article
I never received a response to this question as it would not be to there best interests to delve deeper into the matter. What's the point? Sure they find the frame was defective...imagine that, a frame made in Taiwan being defective. What are the chances? And coming out and admitting it. HAH! Instead, chop the frame up and hide the evidence. Say we did some tests, blame the customer and get on with our lives.
Okay, I get it. This is how the corporate world works. What happens when this happens again? How do I prevent this from happening again? They replaced the frame with another frame. So? I suggested that maybe front suspension might have prevented the problem. Here's their response:
As we have never seen this issue before and we don’t know the cause for sure I can’t say whether front suspension would have prevented it I am afraid.
From the gist of it, I should just go on my merry way and have complete trust in what they are saying. Would you? Imagine going down a 13 percent grade and the frame decides to take a vacation. You swerve into traffic and you're seriously hurt or killed. There, problem solved. Get another frame and repeat. I went ahead and had a very expensive front suspension installed.
I had to do something. I can't sell this "thing" with a clear conscience. So, I'm throwing good money at a bad thing. My dealer gave me this advice:
I don't think the frame will bend again, but just to be safe, slow down or avoid bumps.
Really? I invested close to $14K for a trike that has to be handled with care? Like it's some kind of delicate instrument? This thing is supposed to be used for touring with heavy loads. I weigh a whopping 83kg. I bet ICE could sell all kinds of trikes using this advice...
Well, that's all I have to say about this for now. I guess it's up to you to decide if you would purchase from ICE. My next trike will be an AZUB. I just hope I live long enough to see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment