Speedgear Bike, Wausau WI

Discussion in 'Local Bike Shop Reviews' started by mike, Mar 30, 2019.


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  1. mike

    mike iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    Western US
    Name:
    Mike O
    Current Bike:
    HT, FS
    I don’t have the stomach to chronicle a train wreck at this time. I will later.

    For now, please resist any temptation to save a few bucks on your new wheels by using this shop that advertises on PB.

    Yes, in an ideal world I’d build my own. It’s not an ideal world.
     
    UPSed, Mikie, DangerDirtyD and 6 others like this.
  2. SnakeCharmer

    SnakeCharmer iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    Front Range, San Gabes
    Name:
    Mike, aka "Ssnake"
    Current Bike:
    YT Izzo
    It must have been the cheese.
     
    Mikie, DangerDirtyD and Danmtchl like this.
  3. littlewave

    littlewave Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Name:
    Brett
    Current Bike:
    GG Smash (Alu)
  4. strawtarget

    strawtarget Newbie with Hope!

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Name:
    Jeff
    Current Bike:
    Fuji Reveal
    How's your stomach these days? I'd be interested to hear your story.

    I have my own story in the works. I was hoping that Speedgear would resolve it, but Wayne has stopped replying to my emails.
     
    herzalot, Mikie, Cyclotourist and 5 others like this.
  5. DangerDirtyD

    DangerDirtyD iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    CA
    Name:
    Chicken Nugget
    Current Bike:
    2018 Guerrilla Gravity SMASH
    Doood! A cyclist from the Bay Area! 48E801CA-2CE4-4D01-AABD-A29090827568.jpegWord!
     
    herzalot, UPSed, Mikie and 2 others like this.
  6. Faust29

    Faust29 Moderator

    Location:
    irgendwo
    Name:
    B. Bunny
    Current Bike:
    I gots some bikes.
    Uh oh. That doesn't sound like the start of a good story...

    Welcome to the forum and feel free to share your experience. We don't bite. For the most part. :cautious:
     
    herzalot, Mikie, Cyclotourist and 2 others like this.
  7. mike

    mike iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    Western US
    Name:
    Mike O
    Current Bike:
    HT, FS
    Haha, @strawtarget...stomach was getting so much better. But then... Okay, I'll stop being a pussy.

    Initial communication and advice: Excellent
    Estimating cost: Needed to be reminded of specs I had emailed previously which increased cost. Awarded the job to him based on a price that should have included the extra (ratchet upgrade) but didn't. My fault, ultimately, for not catching it before sending $. In the end, set was delivered without the extra (yes, forgotten twice) and had to seek refund for it.
    Delivery: 50% longer than advertised with no communication before I inquired. A few hours later, I'm notified...
    Accuracy: My wheels were built with the wrong rims, then supplier was blamed for the mistake. Suggested I contact said supplier; never seemed to understand how that could be viewed as shirking responsibility. He offered me this (more narrow) wheelset for the price I paid, although initially we had protracted conversation about what, exactly, is the rim width that will work for my needs (and has worked well in the past). He re-ordered rims, re-built the set, I waited again for delivery.

    Later (six weeks ago?): He seemed quite concerned about the existence of this review ("page 1 of Google search"), so he contacted me. Basically to let me know that, and to re-hash the details of the transaction, of which I was already intimately and painfully aware. And to apologize, which he had done previously. Didn't seem truthfully concerned about making it right, more about being right and hoping the review would go away.

    After a little back-and-forth I was finally forced to state it bluntly: You did not put enough attention into my job to get it right. It cost me time and money to fix it. That’s why you got a bad review. It was his attitude in the end that killed it. He could easily have smoothed it over by shipping me the ratchet gratis for my troubles, and I even mentioned that to him as one way he could have avoided the bad review. (I didn't give a F about the $70 at that point, but just illustrated to him how I would have handled the disaster rather than telling a client to contact my supplier.) His reply, paraphrased: I was going to ship it to you for free, especially given the circumstances, but you demanded a refund for it. o_O



    I should be building my own wheels, as my wrench bros will rightfully remind me. But until I'm in a situation where I can really do that (or maybe not), I depend on shops. At this point I feel a little bad my LBS didn't end up with the job. Next time, they will.

    @strawtarget, I hope your woes are fixable without much $ and anguish.
     
    herzalot, Mikie, Cyclotourist and 5 others like this.
  8. mtnbikej

    mtnbikej J-Zilla

    Location:
    Orange
    Name:
    J
    Current Bike:
    SC Chameleon SS, SC Hightower
    That sounds horrible. Customer Service??? What customer service.

    Bait and switch...both product and $$$, slow delivery, lack of accountability.....3 strikes man.
     
    herzalot, Mikie, Cyclotourist and 5 others like this.
  9. Faust29

    Faust29 Moderator

    Location:
    irgendwo
    Name:
    B. Bunny
    Current Bike:
    I gots some bikes.
    F@ck me...

    Wayne may or may not be aware, but most of us know mike quite well through the forum. Some of us have had the pleasure to ride (or try to...) with him in real life. mike knows his Sh!t... We may not be the biggest forum around, but we're located in a pretty big market, and we trust the opinions and experiences of our members. Bad move, Wayne!



    Edit: The "you really don't know what width you want" is probably the "funniest" part of the whole exchange... F@ck me- again! :confused:
     
    herzalot, Mikie, Cyclotourist and 5 others like this.
  10. strawtarget

    strawtarget Newbie with Hope!

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Name:
    Jeff
    Current Bike:
    Fuji Reveal
    mike; your story sounds very familiar.

    I just sent a last-ditch-effort email to Wayne to see if we can resolve this thing. I'll give him a few days to respond, and I'll let y'all know what happens. Hopefully the story will have a happy ending!
     
    Mikie, mike, herzalot and 2 others like this.
  11. herzalot

    herzalot iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    Laguna Beach
    Name:
    Chris
    Current Bike:
    2020 Revel Rail,Yeti SB 130 LR
    Hey there @strawtarget - seems like you got here through some interesting means, but feel free to jump in and stay a while! We may be SoCal, but we're OK. :thumbsup: Hope you get your Wisconsin woes sorted out.
     
  12. NinjaDon

    NinjaDon Member

    Location:
    West Covina
    Name:
    Don
    Current Bike:
    2018 Honzo
    Sorry to hear about your bad experiences guys. After reading a few good reviews I bought a wheelset from Speedgear Bike in March of this year without any problems. Wayne was quick to reply to my emails & shipped it on time. I hope you guys are able to get the problem resolved though.
     
    Faust29, herzalot, mike and 3 others like this.
  13. strawtarget

    strawtarget Newbie with Hope!

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Name:
    Jeff
    Current Bike:
    Fuji Reveal
    After being ghosted for over a month, I finally got a response from Wayne. He's not willing to work with me, and I guess I'm stuck with the wheels. He says "If you don't like the way we did the work, I'd suggest selling them." Awesome.

    So, here's what happened:

    Wayne was initially very responsive and helpful. After some initial conversation about the spec, I placed my road/gravel wheelset order with Speedgear Bike in late March: Pacenti Forza rims, DT 350s straight-pull hubs, & CX-Ray spokes.

    I received the wheels in a little less than a month. Out of the box, the front wheel looked freakin' awesome. The rear wheel spokes had really long butted ends, though. The bladed portion of the spoke started around 3cm from the end of the nipple vs. 1cm for the front wheel spokes. This made the rear wheel look clunky & chunky to me, especially compared to the svelte & sexy front wheel.

    long_butts.png

    Though I'd never seen a wheel built with such long-butted spokes before, I realized it was probably on me if I wanted a change for aesthetic reasons. So, I asked how much it would cost to have the rear wheel rebuilt with factory-length spokes instead of long-butted blanks. Wayne said he would get back to me, but I got no response when I checked in a few weeks later.

    I gave up waiting and started planning to just re-lace the rear wheel myself. I removed the rim tape so I could see what everything looked like. I noticed that the spoke ends protruded a little farther past the nipple head than I would expect. I'm not sure how close to bottoming out the threads they are, but it made me curious about how the front wheel was built.

    I removed the front wheel rim tape, and found that half of the spokes were too short. This sketched me out because the wheels were built with aluminum nipples, and I've heard that correct spoke length is very important for durability. If I had not removed the rim tape, I would have never known about this significant defect.

    too_short.png

    I again contacted Wayne, and he offered to rebuild the wheels with the correct spoke lengths. I shipped them back for a rebuild in May and I got them back in July.

    More problems:

    * The front wheel was rebuilt using long-butted spokes!! :bang:
    I could not have been more clear in my communication and desires here. Totally maddening.

    * The front wheel was rebuilt without interlacing the spokes.
    Standard interlacing is called out in DT Swiss manuals, and mentioned twice as "important" in their wheel building video. They interlace the spokes on their own factory wheels, as I would do if I built the wheel. Wayne originally delivered the front wheel with interlaced spokes, so I have no idea why it was rebuilt without.

    What a frustrating waste of time and money.
     
    NinjaDon, rossage, herzalot and 3 others like this.
  14. mtnbikej

    mtnbikej J-Zilla

    Location:
    Orange
    Name:
    J
    Current Bike:
    SC Chameleon SS, SC Hightower
    Open a dispute with your CC company. He obviously did not deliver what you ordered.
     
    NinjaDon, rossage, mike and 2 others like this.
  15. mike

    mike iMTB Hooligan

    Location:
    Western US
    Name:
    Mike O
    Current Bike:
    HT, FS
    Good lord, that makes the issues I had seem trivial. I'm bummed you had/have to deal with it, but thanks for posting up what happened.

    A common theme here: Hot out of the gate, lack of attention to detail in the build leading to, ultimately, lack of ownership of said lack of attention.
     
    NinjaDon, mtnbikej and rossage like this.
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As a former Amazon Associate I continue to get screwed trying to stay qualified as an Amazon Affiliate. So I quit!


Want to donate to imtbtrails?