Tune users. Rant.

Discuss light weight issues concerning mountain bikes & parts.

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qwerqz
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:10 am

by qwerqz

*edit
not to give the wrong impression. my front mig-70 after Approx 10100+ miles, no jumping or off roading is still 'as new' going strong. A truly amazing hub! (7 1/2, years approx 4 miles a day average.)
The rear mag is also just as impressive, but of course takes more of a beating and will wear out first.
my complaint is how difficult it is to get new bearings installed in the UK, not the hub itself so much.>

original post.>
Tune hubs = look great, very lightweight,amazing ride, best component on my bike; but eventually (after many miles) creak, click, squeak,due to the bearings, right? Ever happened to you?

When this happens you should be able to send your wheel/hub in for service and have new bearings fitted. No fuss, no weird phone call sh*t with someone trying to push a new unit onto you like a 'new' mag 170 after you have already likely spent 1000's on your wheels and looked after them, right!!?

When going to bike meetings, if you noticed lots of cyclists riding around with old tune hubs that still work after 7-10 years,nice and smooth, no creaking, would you be impressed? I would.

At a cycle meeting, if someone said:

"This is a mag190 from 2005, it still works, I had to have the bearings changed once or twice, x amount of Euro's for a service. but the hub still works wonderfully : ) "

Imagine how many other people would then go and buy a 'new' mag170 knowing they will make a solid investment with great serviceability.

But it is not like this, not in the UK for sure.

I have an old hub, it lasted many years, very few problems because I ride on the road and look after my wheels.(low mileage) but now my hub needs the bearings replaced. It is modular, I paid allot of money knowing that I could change the bearings later on, the parts are available, 6802's and a xot tune bearing, I believe.

But ring the UK service centre, you get this:

PB: Oooh I don't know ? thats an old hub the 190, might not be able to get the bearings for that. send it in and i'll have a look"

He wanted me to send it in, with zero confidence, so I informed him I would be without a wheel during this period. (< important to note) I then said: So can you get the bearings or not? Are you capable of servicing my hub?.

PB: Blah blah, we have been doing services for 25 years.

ME: Then why can you 'not' tell me if you can get the bearings before I send you the wheel? Surly you should know?

PB: where did you get this wheel?

ME: Starbike.

PB: Well, we haven't made a penny from that then.

ME: What are you talking about? You are tunes service center of the UK, i am after some service, i am prepared to pay!!! What is the max price for replacing all the bearings and fitting them?

PB: The max price is a new hub!

Disgusting.

The guy doesn't want to get his hands oily for the amount of money he will receive for a service. Obviously he would rather sell a new hub and make money that way.

So this is wrong!!

I once rang Posh Bikes for a new freehub and they said I may as well buy a new hub!! > Yes, I may as well buy a new Hub!!!< after a long wait via email and telephone conversations, the guy would not give me his name. In the end I had to buy a new freehub from starbike all the way from germany. Disgusting. ( star bike are awesome)

These Tune hubs should be looked upon as a 'great investment', and an advertisement to other riders that they are worth buying; that it is easy to replace bearings and change the freeehubs and maintain the hub. Not a piece of junk to throw away when it starts to click or creak. Right?!

I am now having to send my hub to Tune.de in Germany, overseas shipping costs. To avoid using posh bikes UK.

I am really pissed off to pay three times the amount in postage, not exactly green and environmentally friendly either.

I will be without a wheel for? I do not know how long?! I still have no idea how much it will be to replace all the bearings? Why not? Why have tune not told me? I can understand there may be other issues with the hub ( although I do not jump or abuse my bike), At least throw me a bone and give me a general idea.


is this just a UK issue?
am i wrong?
does anyone else have any thoughts?

thanks
Last edited by qwerqz on Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

by Weenie


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DanW
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Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 5:39 pm
Location: Here, there and everywhere

by DanW

A reasonable rant. Maybe 7/10 :D

OK, more seriously, Posh Bikes have an awful reputation in the UK. Why companies continue to use them as their distributor I don't know. I have little personal experience myself besides a website that was a few years out of date when I was looking to buy some parts and very vague disinterested replies about availability. The consensus of online grievances with the company seems to be that if you spend an absolute fortune with them they'll bend over backwards but they don't seem too interested in "only" a few hundred pounds of sales.

In fairness to them I think it is reasonably normal for a part to have to be sent to the service centre in the country where it was purchased. You saved money initially buying from a site based abroad and I think it's pretty normal to be asked to send it abroad- possibly related to it being the correct place if the the part could be fixed under warranty, I'm not sure. Poshbikes certainly didn't sound helpful though and to say they won't touch the hub because they didn't make money on the initial sale is poor form for sure.

As for Tune hubs... well they have always sounded like too much faff for minimal weight reduction over the competition IMO. Yes, they might be perfect but from varying online reports of problems the hubs sound like a potential PITA too. Tune as a company have been very helpful in the past and seem to look after customers pretty well so it's more of a UK/ Poshbikes problem IMO.

Personally, I would chalk learning of Poshbikes "customer service" up to experience and send the wheel to someone more prepared and competent in the UK. Legs11 has a good reputation on WW and offerred to sort it for you in another thread so that would be my preferred option.

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michel2
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by michel2

Dirty basterds ! I had two sets of tune hubs around 2002, mtb disc and road. Neither of them made me happy );
Up to this day i still wonder where tune got there reputation from. Apart from tune's quality.
One would think that in the age of internetional internet sales, shops would service anything while getting paid, its the only time when a shop can show there value.
However maybe these are aware of the problems they might run into and prefer to sell a new hub because tune = can of worms a d the can ptovide factory warenty on new hubs?
I say fck tune i spend roughly 1500 guilders back then abd got shit for it, i got a set of 2002 chorus hubs i still running smooth as, no noises no cracks, 120 something gram heavier but they still work fine. Last year i bought a set of chris king hubs. For me thats the max i wanted to pay for light fancy hubs, they havent let me down so far ! My old tune hubs, i flogged them of and never looked back, im failing you pain !

LionelB
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Location: Aix en Provence

by LionelB

Tune hubs are terrible, at least the rear one. Mine had constant issues. I'm glad it's gone and I won't get another one ever.

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cerro
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by cerro

Working at the norwegian distributor for Tune and not so many problems. And never any problems to fix the hubs. Normal bearings, except for the old XOT in the freehub

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yourdaguy
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by yourdaguy

Tune or someone should put a video up on youtube on how to service their hubs. Most hubs can be serviced by most bike shops and most adventurous cyclists can do their own too.
For certain parts stiffer is more important than lighter.

skyfire1202
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by skyfire1202

I found a manual in pdf somewhere, can't remember, for Prince and Princess hubs when I tried to replace my Princess Skyline and Dezibel hub bearing with ceramic ones. I do have the right tools, so I risked opening the Dezibel hubs without a manual because Tune couldn't supply one for the Dezibel because they said they haven't sold the Dezibel to the public. :( Nevertheless, I was successful in changing the bearings. The Extralite hubs are so much easier to disassemble for maintenance.

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Ramjm_2000
Posts: 524
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by Ramjm_2000

Hated my Tunes...CK, Hope and WI for me.

xnavalav8r
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by xnavalav8r

I bought bearing presses and service my own hubs. Try VXB bearings. ( http://www.vxb.com/ ) They stock all sizes. Self-service may invalidate the warranty, but you see what warranty service gets you anyway. I have NEVER had an issue with any of the bearings I've replaced or hubs I have serviced.

Oswald
Posts: 794
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2004 10:11 pm

by Oswald

I've been thinking of getting a new road wheelset with either Tune or DT hubs. I know the DT hubs are very good, because I used to do XC and marathon racing on DT hubs and never had any problems with them, and I was definately NOT easy on equipment... But the lower weight of the Tune hubs is very attractive.

So this thread is very informative for me. Will probably stick to DT hubs knowing that there are issues with Tune's durability.

barsook77
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:17 pm

by barsook77

While they "look cool" they certainly are full of PROBLEMS!!!

I would never buy TUNE hubs or any product from them again.

qwerqz
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:10 am

by qwerqz

Although I have had problems with obtaining support for my rear mag; only because the service center wants to shift new units. Otherwise my mag would still be o.k with new bearings.

regarding my front mig 70>

I must have done 4 miles a day on average(easy) on the road for the past 7 1/2 years, and my mig 70 is still perfect, no servicing at all.

Approx 10950+ miles no jumping or off roading, just on the road and a few curb jumps here n there.

it still spins like a new hub, no grit or looseness.

the hubs are awesome. That is why I say they are the best component on my bike, The service center is the issue.
I have now had to de-lace my wheel and post the hub to Germany. tune.de seem to be happy to help.

FireSpitter
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:19 am

by FireSpitter

My rant now....

Bought a Tune Gum Gum to reduce some grams off & the bike shop (Who sold me the Gum Gum) was nice enough to install this for me. However few days later, it was creaking a little but the headset was also wobbly. Went back to the shop to let them have a look. Retightened and off I went. Same problem came back several times & the shop was nice enough to take a look at it, retighten it and the problem will go away for a few days. This went on for 8-9 times. I got sick and tired of going the the bike shop and told them to show me how it is done so that I could tighten it every few days instead of going back to the shop again. (The price I'd pay just to save me few grams!!). That was a mistake. I overtorqued it and the bolt got worn and here comes the REAL problem...

I wrote Tune an email to ask about buying a replacement bolt. They quoted me the price of the entire GUM GUM in their reply. I explained that I needed just the bolt and their next reply was alright. I agreed to it instantly and asked for payment modes. No mention... so I told them that I was sending them a payment via Paypal (Before they shipped the bolt). I received the bolt a week or two later after paying them via Paypal.

Here comes the bad news... a month later, they sent me an annoying email to say that I have not paid them yet (Why does a company send products out when payment is not made?). After some checking, I gave them reference to Paypal payment made. Few weeks later, another email came asking for payment. After much hoo-har, they told me that they do not accept Paypal! I sent them my email correspondances with their sales staff to show that I did mention paying by Paypal and that there was no mention that they did not accept it. Now they got nasty... they DEMANDED payment via bank transfer. My reply was that firstly the payment mode offered was never rejected by them and secondly by asking me to transfer an amount less than 10 euros but incurring an additional bank charge of approx 15 Euros is outright ridiculous. My last email to them was an offer for me to transfer the funds owed to them via bank transfer but only if they agreed to pay for the bank charges.

Sorry but that was a very bad experience with Tune. I'm not buying anymore of their stuff. Not from them direct, not from retailers.
Please visit my blogs:-

I'm a MILF - er blog (Help raise awareness!) http://firespitter38.blogspot.com

True tales from the dark side http://truetalesfromthedarkside.blogspot.com

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Benno
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by Benno

How could this make your headset loose? It is held together by the stem, not the top cap. You only need a tiny bit of squeezing force from the cap to adjust bearing preload..... In fact you can remove the top cap/gum gum assembly all together once you clamp the stem. Now that is weight savin's. Just hope you don't have to make an adjustment on the trail :wink:

FireSpitter
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:19 am

by FireSpitter

Sure I can totally understand what you're saying. The shop removed the stem bolts and retorqued it everytime he addresses the issues Gum Gum gives us. I do the same too for myself. We couldn't understand why. After the Gum Gum was ditched into my dustbin (I now use Extralite Ultrastar), I have had no issues with changing stems, handlebars & even headsets (Done by either myself or the shop). To add to the statistics, I have no such problem with all other starnuts prior to the Gum Gum.
Please visit my blogs:-

I'm a MILF - er blog (Help raise awareness!) http://firespitter38.blogspot.com

True tales from the dark side http://truetalesfromthedarkside.blogspot.com

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



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