According to the online legal dictionary, a lemon is “a car that gives you serious trouble soon after you buy it.” Many states even have lemon laws to protect buyers from being stuck with a defective vehicle but what about bikes? Could a bike be a lemon?
I never really considered this idea myself until hearing about a friend’s issues with a new Giant FS bike. After just two rides my friend’s crank was giving him trouble so he took it back to the shop where he purchased the bike. The shop gladly replaced the crank since it appeared to be defective and my friend took the bike into the parking lot to give it a spin. At this point one of the shifter assemblies exploded. Back to the shop, replace the shifter.
Shortly after receiving the new crank and shifter, I rode with my friend and heard the horrific popping/grinding noise his front derailleur made whenever he applied pressure to the pedals (like on a climb). That’s 3 strikes for the bike in my opinion, especially for one that’s less than a month old with only a few trail rides on its tires.
If it were me I’d ask to exchange the bike to get a fresh start and see if the problems continue. But since I’m a betting man I’d say the odds are the next bike will have the same issues. Why? Well for starters, it will be the same bike model with the same medium quality components and design. Even if my friend decided to upgrade the bike one level, I think he’d still have problems since the same guys who assembled his first bike will assemble this one. In fact assembly error is perhaps the most likely culprit in causing any mechanical issues with a brand new bike. Sure you’ll get a bad part every once in a while but to have an entire bike full of faulty components is rare in the $300+ price range.
So once again, Lance was right–it’s not about the bike–this time it’s probably about the mechanic!
