[Yavuz]

Hi all. I recently bought a fully built Bowman Weald from Bowman Cycles. Initially the bike came with paint damage on the frame and wrong size chainrings/cranks. Then I received a brand new bike (hopefully!) with correct size cranks but the bike felt too heavy. I weighed the Noble branded wheels which came with the bike and I realized that the wheels were much heavier than advertised on Bowman’s website. After a few attempts to get an answer on this from Bowman without any success, I reached out to Noble Wheels and they told me they stopped supplying wheels to Bowman a year ago.  Anyway I am extremely disappointed to find out that the wheels which came with my bike (which carry Noble Wheels stickers on the rims and the hubs) are not genuine Noble Wheels. They have not been built by Noble Wheels (this is confirmed by Noble Wheels) and the wheels are also not consistent with the specs listed on their website. I am very disappointed that Bowman Cycles fraudulently claimed the wheels on my bike are Noble wheels. And they are now not answering any emails or phone calls. Does anyone know if they are still in business? And what has been your experience with Bowman bikes – in terms of frame quality and durability?  

Topic

[Anonymous]

I managed to find a nearly

I managed to find a nearly new Weald frame on eBay a few weeks ago. Arrived and all looked good. No marks at all.

Then fitted the headset put the forks in the frame. I noticed the ring you fit that compresses against the steerer slid straight down and didn’t protrude above the headset bearing. Weird. Then I fitted a stem, usually they need a bit of force to get them on but it slid on easily and straight down. So did another 4 stems I tried. I measured the steerer against one of my other bikes and it was 0.4mm smaller. Might not sound a lot but in volume terms it meant the sides of the stem where the the bolts go through ended up touching and after that the stem was out of shape.

It looks like the steerer was out of round and then made round with a machine after manufacture which then decreased the steerer size.

Original owner was great and refunded my money. He’d had it built by a shop that should have spotted this and Bowman would have replaced them but due to their current status they aren’t answering any emails.

I therefore retract my earlier statement of support for Bowman. This should have been sortable, should have been spotted by Bowman and possibly shouldn’t have even left the factory in that state.

I’m now waiting on a Mason Definition frame. It’s cost a lot more but hopefully this will be reflected in the quality of the product. 

[pagik]

I ordered my Palace 3 C in
I ordered my Palace 3 C in July 2020. Was given an October 2020 delivery date. Frame eventually turned up day before Xmas Eve. To be fair to Bowman they did give me 100 quid off the price. But, as seems to be the way in world of bike producers the customer communication was shocking.

I had to chase every step of the way, it seems once bike companies have our money we’re just expected to put up with the fact they can’t get in touch with us. It needs to change because it’s endemic across the sector. If I treated my customers like this I’d be out of a job in a month

[mdavidford]

patz wrote:

 the angle of the north!

Is that related to the Mull of Kintyre test?

[patz]

Sad to hear this. I have a

Sad to hear this. I have a Bowman pilgrim disc and it’s a superb bike. Bought the frameset pre Covid and it’s a joy to ride. No issues. Sounds like things at Bowman have gone downhill since Covid struck.  Have a couple of Farilight bikes too but have had issues with a secan frame which had more rust internally than the angle of the north! Had to chase out the threads when building it! I personally believe in supporting small British brands so it’s sad to see Bowman in this situation. Selling fake wheels is inexcusable as is shoddy customer service. 

[strype]

Yes. Might be worth

Yes. Might be worth contacting Noble to check if they are actually what you thought you were buying; and looking at web archive for the page around the time you bought. The website description has changed over 2021 and now does not mention Noble. But it did.

[nos]

my wheels for sure came with

my wheels for sure came with no decals.

mine came with the 24al wheels on the order, even though the website has noble wheel pictures everywhere mine had not been listed as that.

as you can see on their website now they are listed as

https://bowman-cycles.com/products/wealdultegrar8000disc

UK HANDBUILT BOWMAN WHEELS AL:24 FULL SPEC

RIM DEPTH

INTERNAL RIM WIDTH

FREEHUB

FRONT AXLE

REAR AXLE

SPOKE COUNT

WHEEL WEIGHT

TUBELESS

24 MM

20mm

Aluminium /w steel bite guard

100mm x 12mm

142mm x 12mm

24/28

Aluminium 24mm – 1535g

Tubeless ready rims and tape

paired with a nice picture of noble liveried wheels, although the photo does not say for illustrative purposes only.

I think there is maybe an assumption they will be noble wheels?

 

[strype]

Can I ask if you ordered the

Can I ask if you ordered the Noble wheels they advertised on their website? And if so, did they fit that description?

[rwoofer]

Across lots of different

Across lots of different forums, no-one has heard a peep from them, so I fear the worst has happened. Seat post clamp bolt should be fairly generic and therefore easy to source.

[nos]

Heya, I have to admit seeing

Heya, I have to admit seeing this post has bought back memories of issues I had with bowman in June although I think I’ve been extremely lucky with my situation.

The bike arrived very very badly packed.

cranks had been scratched.

A paint chip on the frame and stem, scratches on the wheels.

The brake hose had been cut too long so when the bike was turned left and then re-centered the hose looped over the stem bolt and the bike was unable to turn right (as you can imagine if I hadn’t had caught this it would have proved extremely costly).

The bolt used on the front mech clamp was very long and was about .5mm away from the tire, potentially with some deflection this would have worn a groove into the tire.

The inside of the frame wasn’t finished properly and a burr scratched the seat post!!

so the luck part!!! lol. I guess I was fortunate that bowman answered my calls and emails within the week the bike arrived.

I was reluctant to return the bike to them better package than I had received it, also with the shortage of parts I wasn’t sure when I would get it back.

so I accepted a discount/refund from the cost of the bike and they also picked up the cost to have the hose/bar tape re-done by my lbs.

All in all the time between ordering the bike and receiving wasn’t great(part shortages and wheels) and the list of problems above for sure isn’t great reading. but at the time couldn’t fault bowman for the way they handled the situation.

So is anyone aware of the situation with them currently? I have tried to contact them to get a new bolt/nut for my seat post clamp but no reply from the emails that I sent weeks ago or from my phone calls.

[IanEdward]

I started that thread on STW 

I started that thread on STW 

Real shame as I’ll be in the market for a light(ish) rim brake road frame in the next year or so and they are now few and far between.

Don’t really fancy carbon but depending on how my first Rourke custom build experience goes I might just *have* to invest in a 953 road build as well, hard times!

Shame though, the Palace 3C looked ideal, I even liked the lemon sherbert paint job

edit: actually having said that the new Basso Venta looks pretty lovely in the blue colour, could persuade me to go carbon after all!

[kaza456]

lol. I agree with you I love

lol. I agree with you I love those bikes and found many great reviews. I will prob buy that cause I love doing road trips. that would be my first bike to drive on. if I will have any problem I have an uncle that has a bike locksmith that repairs all bikes. 

[kil0ran]

Fairlight are excellent. Near

Fairlight are excellent. Near bespoke levels of service, I don’t know how they do it. Biggest issue with them is long lead times. In the MTB/gravel world Pipedream are also mega 

[rwoofer]

Yavuz wrote:

You are lucky you had your refund from Bowman. And I did hear that Fairlight is a real company unlike Bowman. 

I have a theory why I got my refund which isn’t down to luck, but don’t want to speculate publicly, just in case I’m wrong.

[Yavuz]

You are lucky you had your

You are lucky you had your refund from Bowman. And I did hear that Fairlight is a real company unlike Bowman. 

[rwoofer]

I put a full deposit down for

I put a full deposit down for a Palace 3C back in Feb and out of the blue got a refund. Emailed, called and left messages for the last month and got no response. There are clearly issues at the moment, but who can tell whether they are terminal or not. Lack of response means I’ve lost confidence in buying from them now, so they would really need to come clean for me to change my mind.

As an owner of a Secan I can speak very highly of Fairlight cycles. They had a batch of fork issues, which included my bike and they communicated well, did the right thing to ensure I was not out of pocket with a replacement fork. Small companies can still do the customer service thing…

[Author]

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