A while back the subject of this online retailer came up because another member here and myself each had bought two 68 spoke wheel sets, and all had bad hubs which squeaked and vibrated when braking. Mine was a 20" set I had forgotten about and a 26" set I was working on.
The owner, Gary, did try to make things right, and after about a month of emails he was to send some hub replacement parts and a video that was to explain how to fix the problem. I got the package today and the replacement parts were missing, and the video was worthless. It just showed some guy rebuilding a hub and not dealing with the squeaky brakes or vibration problem. I talked to him on the phone and his only defense was along the lines of "I packed it myself", which doesn't do me or the person I was giving the bike to a darn bit of good. It was a really disappointing experience.
I threw the rear wheel from the 20" wheel set on the back of a bike, and if it worked I would have been more than happy to switch out the hubs, even if it meant replacing two 68 spoke wheels and eating the cost of the bad set. The only problem was this hub was even worse, and under slight braking pressure, or at a mild speed, this thing sounded like a cow on steroids being shot out of a cannon at a Motely Crue concert-MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!. The vibrations were so bad it shook the handlebars at the front of the bike.
Gary did try to help me out, because the wheels were well past their return time before I discovered the problem. I was incredibly sick when building the bike with the 26" wheels and I abandoned the build with the 20 inchers due to frame size and geometry. But for me it comes down to this: 4 people with 4 wheels with the exact same problem. It is only a suspicion, but I think he is knowingly selling bad wheels.
So do business with bicycledesigner.com if you want to, I think the site also has the lovelylowrider.com URL, but whatever you do, DO NOT buy the 68 spoke wheel sets or rear wheels.
The owner, Gary, did try to make things right, and after about a month of emails he was to send some hub replacement parts and a video that was to explain how to fix the problem. I got the package today and the replacement parts were missing, and the video was worthless. It just showed some guy rebuilding a hub and not dealing with the squeaky brakes or vibration problem. I talked to him on the phone and his only defense was along the lines of "I packed it myself", which doesn't do me or the person I was giving the bike to a darn bit of good. It was a really disappointing experience.
I threw the rear wheel from the 20" wheel set on the back of a bike, and if it worked I would have been more than happy to switch out the hubs, even if it meant replacing two 68 spoke wheels and eating the cost of the bad set. The only problem was this hub was even worse, and under slight braking pressure, or at a mild speed, this thing sounded like a cow on steroids being shot out of a cannon at a Motely Crue concert-MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!. The vibrations were so bad it shook the handlebars at the front of the bike.
Gary did try to help me out, because the wheels were well past their return time before I discovered the problem. I was incredibly sick when building the bike with the 26" wheels and I abandoned the build with the 20 inchers due to frame size and geometry. But for me it comes down to this: 4 people with 4 wheels with the exact same problem. It is only a suspicion, but I think he is knowingly selling bad wheels.
So do business with bicycledesigner.com if you want to, I think the site also has the lovelylowrider.com URL, but whatever you do, DO NOT buy the 68 spoke wheel sets or rear wheels.
