Bowman cycles goes into liquidation
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Feel for the owners of these bikes.
Appears pretty shoddy.
If you do have an earlier good one, it has any shine rubbed off it now it appears.
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Honestly, I believe that for the most part, bikes need to take a lot of abuse before they fail. It is why you can have so many carbon bikes with shoddy workmanship (massive voids, etc) and they still don't break.warthog101 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 06, 2022 1:30 amFeel for the owners of these bikes.
Appears pretty shoddy.
If you do have an earlier good one, it has any shine rubbed off it now it appears.
My issue is not with the bikes, but the so called "journalsim" in the bike industry. It is all a complete and utter joke. They could not tell you the difference between a great bike and a piece of dog poop. It is all what they are paid to shrill on about. We are sheep that listen and do what we are told.
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FWIW I recently stripped my Palace R and gave it a good check over before all this Hambini business, happy to say everything is straight and welds are great, good penetration and tidy inside and out. Headtube was concentric also. It's unfortunate those recent frame batches essentially finished the company off as the older frames were brilliant, especially for the price.
Would be interesting to know where they were made, I'm sure Bowman isn't the only company affected by these manufacturing issues, I'm assuming COVID issues resulted in a lack of skilled labour but the factory still had an order book to get through.
Would be interesting to know where they were made, I'm sure Bowman isn't the only company affected by these manufacturing issues, I'm assuming COVID issues resulted in a lack of skilled labour but the factory still had an order book to get through.
They had videos on You tube of a few times when they visited the place they were made...Taiwan
Here is one of them...note it is 5 years old & even then he talks of QC issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7bCWu5IHt8
Hi all, I have a size 56 Bowman Palace 3. It always felt very twitchy, way more than anything I've ever ridden. Anyway I measured the wheelbase and it came to around 997mm. Now by putting the 56 geo into Bike Geometry Calculator it should come to around 990mm. I can't measure it properly but I think that they may have supplied the 50mm rake fork (meant for a 50cm frame) instead of the 45mm rake fork. That would result in a trail figure of aroud 50mm, which wold help explain the handling and I wouldn't put that mistake past Bowman.
So I'd be grateful if anyone with the same bike and size could please measure the wheelbase.
https://freeimage.host/i/XPi9hx
So I'd be grateful if anyone with the same bike and size could please measure the wheelbase.
https://freeimage.host/i/XPi9hx
PM!ABogle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 7:30 pmHi all, I have a size 56 Bowman Palace 3. It always felt very twitchy, way more than anything I've ever ridden. Anyway I measured the wheelbase and it came to around 997mm. Now by putting the 56 geo into Bike Geometry Calculator it should come to around 990mm. I can't measure it properly but I think that they may have supplied the 50mm rake fork (meant for a 50cm frame) instead of the 45mm rake fork. That would result in a trail figure of aroud 50mm, which wold help explain the handling and I wouldn't put that mistake past Bowman.
So I'd be grateful if anyone with the same bike and size could please measure the wheelbase.
https://freeimage.host/i/XPi9hx
Thought I'd better add my bit to this thread as a long time viewer, first time poster!
I bought an Orange Sherbet Palace Disc Frameset from Bowman early last year, well before there were any rumours of issues, and on the basis of the reviews and threads including this forum. Big step, given I'm in Australia and Bowman are halfway around the world, but I liked the design, colour and the price was admittedly very good.
Built it up with hydraulic Ultegra, Light Bicycle wheels and the works - more as a 'do it all' rather than a lightweight build and it came in at 7.9kg with pedals in the end. First had it on the road in June of last year and was very happy with it - being my first actual fast bike, it did pretty much everything I expected of it and was a bargain at the price.
Ended up taking over 100 KOMs on it over a year, mainly short climbs with me being a) 61kg with an FTP of 270W, and b) an idiot prepared to go deep into the red for maximum internet points.
This is one of very few decent pictures I have of it, and was taken to confirm that yes, I was on a bike. And stop the guy I just took three KOMs off from flagging me again. It didn't work because he was a petulant manchild who then randomly flagged another seven of my rides, but you get the idea.
So I was happy, and then a few pictures of broken chainstays came up. Then Bowman went bust, which wasn't a huge surprise from what I'd seen with their ability to deliver orders. Then the Hambini video. Things were adding up a bit at this stage, but I had a good look at my welds (excellent) and alignment, checked the chainstays and reasoned that it was probably largely a quality control issue rather than a general design or manufacturing issue, and I'd presumably got lucky.
The Bowman remained faultless. Just light enough, sharp handling, though with a propensity to snap shifter cables at 2,500km which was a bit annoying with the internal cabling. I generally do most of my own servicing, but didn't want to risk the disc brake pad change for the first time (though it looks easy enough) so dropped it off at my local bike shop for a checkover and pad change.
Glad I did, and didn't find this over 70km/hr down the back of Mt Cootha:
Both chainstays were cracked through on the underside, the other side is much the same. This is on a bike that otherwise looked immaculate and had just under 9000km on it, and wasn't exactly subjected to huge forces under a 61kg climber. If I had kept on riding it I hate to think what would have happened.
The moral of the story here is that this is not a quality control issue. So don't think you got lucky because your Bowman looks fine and has survived the initial ownership period. This is a point of engineering failure - there are stresses running through this area of the chainstay which, and I don't say this lightly, will almost certainly break it.
I actually don't harbour any enmity towards Bowman for this, I think this was a bit of an unpredictable outcome. But I would advise anyone currently riding a Bowman Palace or Weald to 'not'.
Anyway, my local bike shop have sourced me a cheap new old stock Focus Izalco Max disc frameset, so hopefully this one will end happily. It'll be a lot lighter at least, though I will miss the orange.
Looking forward to adding more to this forum at some stage and hopefully one day do a sub 6kg rim brake build! Still trying to convince my wife that 'but this is the same bike with a different frameset' so that may take some time.
I bought an Orange Sherbet Palace Disc Frameset from Bowman early last year, well before there were any rumours of issues, and on the basis of the reviews and threads including this forum. Big step, given I'm in Australia and Bowman are halfway around the world, but I liked the design, colour and the price was admittedly very good.
Built it up with hydraulic Ultegra, Light Bicycle wheels and the works - more as a 'do it all' rather than a lightweight build and it came in at 7.9kg with pedals in the end. First had it on the road in June of last year and was very happy with it - being my first actual fast bike, it did pretty much everything I expected of it and was a bargain at the price.
Ended up taking over 100 KOMs on it over a year, mainly short climbs with me being a) 61kg with an FTP of 270W, and b) an idiot prepared to go deep into the red for maximum internet points.
This is one of very few decent pictures I have of it, and was taken to confirm that yes, I was on a bike. And stop the guy I just took three KOMs off from flagging me again. It didn't work because he was a petulant manchild who then randomly flagged another seven of my rides, but you get the idea.
So I was happy, and then a few pictures of broken chainstays came up. Then Bowman went bust, which wasn't a huge surprise from what I'd seen with their ability to deliver orders. Then the Hambini video. Things were adding up a bit at this stage, but I had a good look at my welds (excellent) and alignment, checked the chainstays and reasoned that it was probably largely a quality control issue rather than a general design or manufacturing issue, and I'd presumably got lucky.
The Bowman remained faultless. Just light enough, sharp handling, though with a propensity to snap shifter cables at 2,500km which was a bit annoying with the internal cabling. I generally do most of my own servicing, but didn't want to risk the disc brake pad change for the first time (though it looks easy enough) so dropped it off at my local bike shop for a checkover and pad change.
Glad I did, and didn't find this over 70km/hr down the back of Mt Cootha:
Both chainstays were cracked through on the underside, the other side is much the same. This is on a bike that otherwise looked immaculate and had just under 9000km on it, and wasn't exactly subjected to huge forces under a 61kg climber. If I had kept on riding it I hate to think what would have happened.
The moral of the story here is that this is not a quality control issue. So don't think you got lucky because your Bowman looks fine and has survived the initial ownership period. This is a point of engineering failure - there are stresses running through this area of the chainstay which, and I don't say this lightly, will almost certainly break it.
I actually don't harbour any enmity towards Bowman for this, I think this was a bit of an unpredictable outcome. But I would advise anyone currently riding a Bowman Palace or Weald to 'not'.
Anyway, my local bike shop have sourced me a cheap new old stock Focus Izalco Max disc frameset, so hopefully this one will end happily. It'll be a lot lighter at least, though I will miss the orange.
Looking forward to adding more to this forum at some stage and hopefully one day do a sub 6kg rim brake build! Still trying to convince my wife that 'but this is the same bike with a different frameset' so that may take some time.
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So pleased I ditched mine as soon as all this stuff came out. I had a friend who worked in a LBS about a mile away from Bowman's HQ who said he had several Bowman's come in with chainstay damage. He personally had a couple of Bowman frames and immediately stopped riding them.
Sad the hear the orange sherbet has gone.
But I have a broader question to the group: can anyone tell me if this is just a QC and or a design thing for the gen 3 bikes?
Has there been anyone that have experienced issues with pre-COVID; gen 1 or gen2 models?
I have a Palace:R and love it ......, despite the fact that it is the cheapest bike in my stable
But I have a broader question to the group: can anyone tell me if this is just a QC and or a design thing for the gen 3 bikes?
Has there been anyone that have experienced issues with pre-COVID; gen 1 or gen2 models?
I have a Palace:R and love it ......, despite the fact that it is the cheapest bike in my stable
I'd point more towards the design, as if you look at where Mr Purples (hiya) chainstays cracked, that's little to do with the welds.Gary71 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:06 pmSad the hear the orange sherbet has gone.
But I have a broader question to the group: can anyone tell me if this is just a QC and or a design thing for the gen 3 bikes?
Has there been anyone that have experienced issues with pre-COVID; gen 1 or gen2 models?
I have a Palace:R and love it ......, despite the fact that it is the cheapest bike in my stable
It's both, that's why I was caught out.Gary71 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:06 pmSad the hear the orange sherbet has gone.
But I have a broader question to the group: can anyone tell me if this is just a QC and or a design thing for the gen 3 bikes?
Has there been anyone that have experienced issues with pre-COVID; gen 1 or gen2 models?
I have a Palace:R and love it ......, despite the fact that it is the cheapest bike in my stable
I also assumed it was mainly a QC issue with a company going slowly bankrupt and not paying due care and attention to consistency. But there were no obvious manufacturing issues with mine and it still cracked at exactly the same place a lot of the others have.
I honestly think if I managed to crack a good one that they're all going to crack at some stage. I'm light and am not putting out big power, and it still didn't quite last 9000km. I am vaguely wondering if someone at Bowman had worked this out prior to declaring bankruptcy, but that's probably a bit unfair.
My advice would be to budget for a new frameset if you're currently riding one. I was at least mentally prepared for when it happened, though didn't notice it!
Plenty of stories of older generations cracking as well albeit less than the latest gen.Gary71 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:06 pmSad the hear the orange sherbet has gone.
But I have a broader question to the group: can anyone tell me if this is just a QC and or a design thing for the gen 3 bikes?
Has there been anyone that have experienced issues with pre-COVID; gen 1 or gen2 models?
I have a Palace:R and love it ......, despite the fact that it is the cheapest bike in my stable
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www.starbike.com
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G'day Mr Purple and MichaelB.
The new goer is going to be lighter and faster. Looking forward to seeing how many KOMs will be accumulated then
The new goer is going to be lighter and faster. Looking forward to seeing how many KOMs will be accumulated then