My honest review and opinion on CW Bikes
So I bought a Stomp Z125 Road legal from CW Bikes on 31th October 2013 for £1583 (including delivery and extras (£60 or so)).
Extras: Road Legal Tyres, 17 - 37 sprocket set, Monster graphics, green fuel cap, green grips, 1L of Oil.
It arrived on the 3rd of November, took it off the wooden pallet, propped it up and put the front wheel on. I got it insured on the 6th and rode it that day, filled it up took it back home.
So first things I noticed was the poor attempt at putting the Monster stickers on the plastics, I assume they were not made for CRF70 plastics as none of the holes lined up and they bubbled within the fist week. I ignored this as a new set was £35 which I bought and put on which are still good as of 07/02/14.
After 5 or so days of owning the bike the speedo started messing up, was freezing, turning off and on, getting stuck at 22mph, etc. So I messaged Callan, he told me to adjust the sensor which I done, no luck. After a few days of listening to Callans advice on how to fix the problem he instructed me to send the speedo back to check if it was faulty and potentially get a replacement, so around the 12th I shipped the speedo back, two weeks later I called them and then they decided they needed the clip that goes from the speedo to the bundle of cables, so I sent that down to them, so after a month of numerous calls, being told that the speedo was faulty and its being fixed I finally got a response.
But this wasn't because they had got me a replacement, it was because my clutch cable had snapped, it had completely snapped off at the top by the lever. I called Callan and he said it's £10 for a replacement so I sent that and he told me that the speedo would be sent with the clutch cable. So I paid for the clutch cable on the 17/12/2013 and it wasn't shipped till the 24/12/2013 after I sent a few emails explaining my frustration, I received the speedo and cable on the 4/01/14 and straight away a problem.
The speedo was turning off when I revved the bike and also when I turned the lights off, Callan told me I needed a cr7hsa spark plug to fix this and he would send me one, after a few days I gave in and bought one myself, his arrived a week or so later.
24/01/14: I was riding to college, turning into the car park (leads onto the college car park) bike swung sideways and came to a stop, got off, looked at the back and the chain had come off, understandable as the chain is Chinese and stretches 3cm+ every week, it was so loose I could put it back on with my hands, so I did, got back on the bike and started the ride off, that's when it made crunching sounds, got off and walked it the rest of the way. Called my grandad to pick me up with the trailer, done my lesson, come out, strapped the bike in the trailer and got it home, first thoughts were the spindle snapped, but I took the rear wheel off, out falls a few ball bearings, mangled up plastic and mangled up metal, the remains of the bearings and oil seals.
To cut it short I took the other remaining bearing and oil seal to a local shop, got a replacement for and fitted them fine, now I'm waiting on the front ones to go, but I'll get on to that.
01/02/14: Leaving to get to work, clutch cable snaps, again, replaced it, got to work, on my way home, back brake wasn't feeling right, took wheel off, checked pads and one side had almost crumbled completely off, now I forgot to say earlier but the front brake disc was bent from when I got it and it jolted when I used the front brake and every time It caused the rear wheel to lock up in wet weather. New pads and disc was ordered and arrived on 05/02/14 and work fine.
Stuff I've missed: All terminals for lights like the rear number plate light, front brake lever light, have all corroded and gone rusty and no longer work, tried filing them down, will need to solder them to fix it.
All through this I kept Callan updated and all he could say was that I didn't return within the 1 month warranty, yes 1 month on a £1500 bike, and that it was wear and tear.
So let me go over this, here is the price of parts.
Prices:
Clutch Cable x3 : £20
Brake Pads: £5
Front Disc: £8
Wheel Bearings and Oil Seals: £40
Plastics + Stickers: £35
Postage to return parts: £15
What's next to be fixed/replaced
Chain: £25
Sprocket Set: £30
Tyres (not that soon): £70
Toal Price So Far
= £1706
Summary of CW Bikes
Callan refuses the accept he is in the wrong, he hasn't offered to send free replacements as he sees all of this as wear and tear as it's out of warranty and every time I call he's hostile and trys to make you feel like you're in the wrong unless you're spending money. They ignore emails, don't call back when promised and act like they're doing something when really they have no intention of helping you, this is my honest review of Callan/CW Bikes as all I see here is people saying how much they liked X product and service.
This isn't a review on the Stomp bikes as what Callan advertised on the website and ebay was completely different to what I got, supposedly YX120, Start in gear, fold back levers when In reality it was a SR120, non SIG and standard levers, so I assume he strips the bikes and replaces with cheaper parts to profit even more.
A bike shouldn't be on its last legs after 500 miles and 4 months of owning it, I live in the city so it occasionally gets to 40mph but it's mainly 20mph and 30, none of these problems should have occurred if the bikes were checked before being sent there is something going wrong when the bikes are being built by CW Bikes, they must cut corners wherever possible.
I will try and update this thread when more stuff goes wrong, if you're going to reply make sure its worth reading and not just you trying to defend CW Bikes, thanks for reading.
Pictures
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What I supposedly bought.... what I really bought: SR120-C Engine, Non SIG, No Foldback Levers... somethings not right here....
Final Update - 11/02/14
Quote:
I'm just going to put this all out there, this will very possibly be one of the last things I say on the matter.
Callan offered me £800 then £1000 to bring the bike back to him in the condition described, as I didn't get a definite answer from Callan I doubt I will take this route.
I live 100 or so miles away and anyone in their right mind would not like to take it that far to bring it all the way back, now as Callan has demonstrated before he's not very honest when doing business, so when I turn up with the bike it would give him the opportunity to negotiate a lower buy back price probably in the region of £600-£700.
That isn't something I intend on doing as in my opinion his word means nothing, I would rather take my chances with TS and get all my money back.
I bought the bike based off what I've read on the forums about his company and the bikes build quality, I guess no ones brave enough to express their opinion on the forums as I don't doubt another 17 year old with L Plates hasn't made the same mistake.... It's a mistake you make once in a lifetime... So I don't intend on doing it again, got to hope work can give me enough hours to try and buy another bike quickly as this is my only transport and I can't see it living 6 months.
As it's not a satisfactory quality I can already see what TS has to say on the matter. Nor is it fit for it's purpose... No hard feelings Callan but your word isn't going to cut it.
Thank you everyone who's replied, I hope this thread will stop others doing what I done.
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- Josh
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