Chains & Gears Bent derailleur hanger on delivery - Aventon Level StepThrough

[FastEddieB]

We just picked up our Aventon Level StepThrough at FedEx, bought from Best Buy for my wife, Karen.

Assembly was pretty straightforward, but the rear derailleur is at an odd angle, making shifting a bit clunky, especially into the largest sprocket where it wants to ride up and over the sprocket into the motor.

It sure looks like the hangar got bent in somewhere along the line.

Good news is the bike came with a spare hangar. My plan is to call a local bike shop in the Knoxville area that sells Aventons and see if they’ll replace it under warranty. I’m capable of doing it, but am shy of doing it on a brand new bike.

Has anyone else encountered this? Just curious.

 

[CloneWerks]

OUCH.. that looks like a bend in the actual frame/chainstay as well as a bend in the derailleur. I would definitely get that replaced under warranty.
My AddMotor came in a box that looked like it'd been through a war zone and I was really worried about this kind of damage but I got lucky.

The rear derailleur has always been one of the most fragile aspects of a bike and I find it consistently disappointing how casual many manufacturers are about their shipping protection in that area.

 

[FastEddieB]

Thanks for the input. I’m calling my local Aventon dealer shortly and I’ll let you know the outcome.

 

[FastEddieB]

We took the bike to a local bike shop that’s an Aventon dealer - River Sports in Knoxville, TN. Josh, the bike shop mechanic, used a tool like this one to bend the hangar back into alignment:

He also fine-tuned the derailleur and adjusted the rear caliper which was slightly dragging on the rotor. Then test drove the bike. And then turned down any payment.

Let me highly recommend this shop for any possible Aventon purchase or maintenance.

As an aside, the reason we bought from Best Buy was the S/M sized Level Stepthrough was out of stock on the Aventon website and Karen managed to find it at BestBuy via a Google search. It seemed impossible to order it from the Best Buy site, but we were on vacation and the Best Buy in State College, PA was right on our route to Lock Haven and handled the purchase perfectly, with the bike shipped to our home in Lenoir City, TN.

 

[CloneWerks]

Glad to hear you found a quality shop that took care of you. Now when you hit 100 miles or so, GO BACK to them and have them check all your spokes 'cause hub motors like to stretch spokes just a whisker when things are first breaking in and the thicker spokes on the rear are a real challenge to find right now if you let it go and need a replacement down the road.

 

[FastEddieB]

I plan on letting the shop do the first tuneup/checkup, in part in support of them for their help to date.

 

[BTheo1906]

We just picked up our Aventon Level StepThrough at FedEx, bought from Best Buy for my wife, Karen.

Assembly was pretty straightforward, but the rear derailleur is at an odd angle, making shifting a bit clunky, especially into the largest sprocket where it wants to ride up and over the sprocket into the motor.

It sure looks like the hangar got bent in somewhere along the line.

Good news is the bike came with a spare hangar. My plan is to call a local bike shop in the Knoxville area that sells Aventons and see if they’ll replace it under warranty. I’m capable of doing it, but am shy of doing it on a brand new bike.

Has anyone else encountered this? Just curious.

My level came with a bent derailleur cage too. I got it fixed under warranty but it took a month to get it resolved because of the terrible, terrible customer service.

 

[FastEddieB]

That’s a shame. The exemplary service at our LBS fixing the issue at no charge has earned them a loyal customer. Recently bought a KÜAT bike rack from them and it won’t likely be my last purchase from them going forward.