Cycling UK Forum

Madison are a queer bunch; they are shimano's UK agents but they don't stock shimano's entire range and (maddeningly) they don't offer good spare parts support for a whole slew of OEM parts that you might find on new bikes, even though they are commonly used, here and on the continent.

For example years ago, someone at Madison decided they would not import any Nexus four speed hubs. Never mind that thousands and thousands of bikes were imported into the UK with such hubs fitted, Madison never did and never will offer any spare parts support for these hubs, unless it is by accident (i.e. spare parts that are meant for other hub models that also happen to fit N4 hubs).

So when buying some shimano-equipped machine, it is as well to check with madison (assuming their website is working this week) that they have spare parts listed for the equipment in use. It is a fair bet that there will be some support (rather than none) if one of the Madison owned bike brands uses these parts too.

Needless to say within warranty none of this should matter that much; your contract is with the retailer and they should sort you out. However it does give you an inside line on whether the machine is likely to be a viable long-term purchase and also whether the retailer is likely to find extra reasons for giving you the runaround.

cheers

About 4 years ago I opened an account with Madison but took it no further. Their minimum order value was sky high and more crucially the prices for Shimano products were not competitive. Given they are the official Shimano distributors I had to wonder where some retailers who have to take their cut were obtaining their stock?

from manufacturer's 'surplus stock' (ho ho) or from europe. Wholesalers in (say) the Netherlands appear to operate on smaller margins than those in the UK and they also buy better. The result is that the retail cost from some European outlets is often about the same as the trade price that you will get from madison. You can often tell what kind of parts you are getting by how they are packaged.

Wholesalers and retailers have often referred to the UK as 'Treasure Island' because they have for years been able to get away with price gouging on a monumental scale. Whether Brexit will improve matters or not remains to be seen.

cheers

brumster wrote:My experience with Bosch: Shop runs a diagnostic test on the suspect motor and emails a report to Bosch along with Proof of purchase. If Bosch agree the motor is faulty and a genuine warranty claim, a replacement is sent within a matter of days and the faulty one collected and returned to Bosch UK.

It doesn't always work out like that, we had a Bosch drive unit with all sorts of error codes, followed that same procedure and had to wait a good while until Bosch had received and assessed the motor before we were sent a replacement. I wonder if there was a breakdown in procedure or if it was just less clear cut with our motor.

Brucey wrote:from manufacturer's 'surplus stock' (ho ho) or from europe. Wholesalers in (say) the Netherlands appear to operate on smaller margins than those in the UK and they also buy better. The result is that the retail cost from some European outlets is often about the same as the trade price that you will get from madison. You can often tell what kind of parts you are getting by how they are packaged.

Wholesalers and retailers have often referred to the UK as 'Treasure Island' because they have for years been able to get away with price gouging on a monumental scale. Whether Brexit will improve matters or not remains to be seen.

cheers

Obviously Brexit will make it worse. Looks like we'll end up with WTO terms so having to pay import duty on parts from Europe will up their price so reducing competitive pressure on Madison and the like.

I got my ebike back on Thursday. It had the new motor unit in as was needed. They gave it a full wash and service and put a new chain on (although I imagine a new chain would have been a co requisite to the new motor unit). They supposedly also fitted it with new brake pads although I couldn't tell if they hadn't have told me this. The guy said they'll be in touch about the good will compensatory gesture.

I can't blame this bad service on any staff personally, I just had higher expectations of a big company like this.

As for the importer, Madison, I've heard Chickens is just as bad. I would have thought though that a big company like Evans could put pressure on the importer to give them a better service.

Glad it's been resolved without having to resort to more complicated means, hope they make a reasonable goodwill offer.

Update for anyone who's interested;

I mentioned they did a fully service, well, they neglected to check the tyre pressure.

A week after I got the ebike back the 'good will gesture' hasn't materialised.

The speedo isn't set up properly; a route that google maps says is 12.2 miles registers as 20.8 miles on the speedo (my route to work).

mick skinner wrote:The speedo isn't set up properly; a route that google maps says is 12.2 miles registers as 20.8 miles on the speedo (my route to work).

Are you sure it's not in km's? That would almost be correct.

Brucey wrote:from manufacturer's 'surplus stock' (ho ho) or from europe. Wholesalers in (say) the Netherlands appear to operate on smaller margins than those in the UK and they also buy better. The result is that the retail cost from some European outlets is often about the same as the trade price that you will get from madison. You can often tell what kind of parts you are getting by how they are packaged.

Wholesalers and retailers have often referred to the UK as 'Treasure Island' because they have for years been able to get away with price gouging on a monumental scale. Whether Brexit will improve matters or not remains to be seen.

cheers

It's worse than that, the European Shimano distributor will not supply parts directly to UK based companies as Madison hold the distribution rights. Been there, tried that. Not only that but to dial into decent discounts buyers have to buy a lot of product - it's part of the reason Shimano is so dominant - no one can afford to use other brands as well as Shimano. Trek for example did try to break the stranglehold but Shimano put the price of the stuff they did want up so much it wasn't economical.

PH, yes I think that might be it. When I first got the ebike I had to reset it to miles instead of kms and I forgot that it'll be reset to the factory settings so I'm going to have to reset it again!

Google convert says 20.8km miles is 12.92452 miles and google maps says the route that is 13.2 miles is 21.3km. (Correction googler maps says the route is 13.2 miles not 12.2).

Thank goodness for that, I thought I was going to have to take it back to Evans and not see it gain for a couple of months.

PH, It was set to miles, but, I reset it to km then back again to miles and that sorted it out. Weird computer stuff that's beyond my ken.

Update on the good will compensation I mentioned before; it hasn't been paid to me yet.