WARNING : GIANT DS1 WARP 2000 - Don't Buy !!!
nob...@nowwhere.com.au
*** PLEASE DO NOT BUY THE GIANT DS1 WARP ****
I recently made a serious error and chose a mountain bike on looks,
giving little consideration to quality. The new model (2000) Giant DS1
came with both front and rear Disc Brakes that looked really good, and
seemed to do a reasonable job on the 'test ride'.
I bought this bike, but now I am regretting it greatly. The disc
brakes that come on the bike are the Formular MD-1 cable discs. These
brakes I have now found out are very, very, very bad brakes. And worst
still, Giant Australia are passing the buck.
Soon after going for my first ride, these brakes started to squeal
like there was no tomorrow. The brakes could be heard 100m away. I
could put up with this off road, but when I was riding around the
city, you can imagine how good you feel stopping at the intersection
with people crossing at the lights and these breaks are squealing like
pigs.
I did some research on the internet only to discover that these breaks
have major design problems. They are well known for the noisiness of
the pads, not to mention failing on the track ! As far as I am
concerned, these brakes are useless !!! The other problem with this
bike is that it is very HEAVY ..
GIANT have been UNHELPFUL and have tried to pass the buck to the
importer of the brakes and asked me to call them, and then after some
arguments, they then made the fatal error of asking : "Do they stop
you ?", "yes", "well then if you read your warranty card then we are
not responsible for 'noisy breaks'. They have given me the run around.
I have had this bike over a month, and have only been able to use it a
few times cause it's either unrideable, or at the bike shop.
Here is the list of events:
1. Week 1. Rang Giant, told them the problem. They said 'your the
first person to complain', but please call the distributor.
2. I call the distributor, they say they don't sell the brakes to
Giant in Australia, but suggested I get a file and file away some of
the pad and that 'should' fix the problem. I explained that there was
a 'fundamental problem' with the pads and that I didn't think this
would work. I asked what they would do if it didn't and they simply
responded "we'll cross that bridge ...".
3. I take the bike back to the shop and they do the work. I leave with
the bike, go riding later on and the problem is back within 15
minutes.
4. Week 2/3 Ring Giant again. They say now the brakes haven't been
adjusted properly and once they have been, then they will work
perfectly. I am asked to bring the bike back to the shop where the
Giant rep will adjust the pads. This was meant to happen on a Friday,
the parts didn't turn up in time, so I had no bike for the weekend.
The rep was meant to turn up on Monday, but didn't arrive, came on
Tuesday and spent time adjusting everything up.
5. I then take the bike away, the next weekend I go riding and within
15 minutes, the loud squealing comes back.
6. Week 4 . I ring Giant. Tell them that there are fundamental
problems with the brakes and I would like them to do something about
it so I can starting using my bike that I paid A$1,700 to use. They
then admitted that 'one in a few' bikes has this problem and that they
would order me some new pads that would fix the problem. I explained
that I wanted the bike for the weekend (Monday now). I then rang the
bike shop on Wednesday to make sure the pads were arrived, only to
find out that GIANT had not confirmed that the pads were available.
The pads were not going to be available for over a month. Giant
suggested that I just KEEP RIDING THE BIKE !!! and not worry about the
noise.
7. Not being happy with this, I started pushing for a more rapid
response. The bike store (who understands customer service!) offered
to charge wholesale to upgrade the brakes to hydraulic breaks to get
me going. I wanted GIANT to pay for this. Giant refused and said that
they would send to Sydney a new set of (existing) brakes to be
refitted to the bike. I said that the brakes had a fundamental problem
and this wouldn't fix it. They said "This WILL fix the problem". I
said, but what if it doesn't, how will you compensate me for 'beta
testing' your poor quality equipment. They responded by saying that
"they didn't need to worry about that cause the brakes WOULD work".
8. I said that if they were that confident, then they should agree to
offer me something now, before I go without my bike for another two
weeks if it doesn't work. They flatly refused to offer any help, other
than this :
"we will keep sending a new set of brakes until one works"
9. I then explained it was not acceptable that I should be put through
this hassle on a not 'cheap' bike, they then quoted the terms of the
warranty card to me !! At that point I said, fine, and vowed to let
the world know of how they treat their customers.
At the time of writing, I am having these poor quality brakes taken
off and replaced with another brand at MY expense.
I strongly suggest you DON'T buy this bike, and warn all of your
friends / bike shops of this problem. I would also suggest you think
twice about buying a bike from GIANT, as they are clearly not
interested in helping their customers. I have read the reviews of last
years DS1 model. It was highly criticized as well. These guys keep
going from strength to strength .........
Marc
price the componentry would be extremely second rate. For the price of
around $1800 what would you expect from a dual suspension bike with disk
brakes, if it sounds just a little bit unbelievable, then it generally is.
As soon as the guy at the LBS told me that the new DS1 came with disks, I
was extremely suspicious and dropped the whole idea of buying it.
In the end I paid more and picked up a GT XCR2000.
As for slagging off the rest of the Giant range and service, I'm afraid I
can't agree with you there I know people who have gone for their hard tails
and said they are great value for money. So the moral of the story is
research every aspect of a potential bike purchase. I did most of my
research through the consumer reviews site www.mtbr.com, which has literally
thousands of reviews about every component, bike, frame etc.
Regards,
Marc
Bill Chant
Vbrakes and their shim kits.........
Judys and their cartridges.......
Judys and their preload adjusters ....
ESP and their snapping derailliers......
the list goes on.....
gotta love the bicycle industry ....
gets people to pay them to test new products :)
bye
from
a
tad
cynical
bill who has had many months without a functoning bike due to bad quality
new expensive equipment
Alex, Jill, Tim & Caroline Wardrop
Unfortunately, at that price point disc brakes are a gimmick, and
probably are worse than Vs in terms of performance. Warps are aimed at
people who are more into the image of owning a bike that looks really
good to the average person who knows nothing about bikes. When asked why
they chose to make Warps URTs, a guy from Giant said something to the
effect that it was a marketing decision.
From what you say, and your disappointment at not being able to ride,
you don't seem to be that kind of person. $1700 is a lot of money, but
it won't buy you a reasonable disc equipped duallie.
Cheers,
Tim
nob...@nowwhere.com.au
wrote:
>I too thought about buying the 2000 DS1, but soon realised that the for that
>price the componentry would be extremely second rate. For the price of
>around $1800 what would you expect from a dual suspension bike with disk
>brakes, if it sounds just a little bit unbelievable, then it generally is.
>As soon as the guy at the LBS told me that the new DS1 came with disks, I
>was extremely suspicious and dropped the whole idea of buying it.
>
>In the end I paid more and picked up a GT XCR2000.
>
>As for slagging off the rest of the Giant range and service, I'm afraid I
>can't agree with you there I know people who have gone for their hard tails
>and said they are great value for money.
I am not suggesting that all Giant Bikes are bad, I am warning of the
poor customer service that Giant displays when a customer has a more
difficult problem. The relationship is all fine, just until you need
their support on something challenging.
nob...@nowwhere.com.au
The problem is however, that you can buy dual suspension brakes now
days for around $800-$900. Obviously these are going to be of
questionable quality. However, (I have only been into MTB for 6
months, but have done much research), for a relative novice, I would
have expected that given reasonable quality hard tails were selling in
the A$1,300's (Giant 970), then the full suspension and disc brakes
for A$1,700's would have been acceptable, especially given the STX-RC
grade components rather than the LX on the 970.
The bottom line however is that Giant are selling a product that
people like me would consider reasonable from a price point to be of
good quality. They know about this problem (Giant admitted it), yet
they still continue to sell the product to unsuspecting customers.
They then do as little as possible to rectify the problem, asking me
to 'put up with it'.
My experience with companies would indicate that if they have dealt
with me in this manner, then chances are, they deal with all similar
problems (on all their products) in a similar manner. Up until the
days of the internet, the consumer had little ability to voice his
experience to other unsuspecting buyers.
I also feel sorry for the bike shops. In my case, they have gone out
of their way to help me. The amount of time they have spent trying
Giant's 'you beaut' solutions has been considerable. They can only
rely on the advice of the importer at the end of the day, in this case
it was wrong....
I will not buy any product fromt Giant again ...