bonvelo Reviews 50

Where do I begin...
stay away from this company! Here is why:

I ordered their Rakede belt drive model, because I was looking for a simple, relatively maintenance free, everyday commuter for a reasonable price. Reasonable price is of course questionable, but let's assume I got that.
The company claims they offer this price, because they cut out the middle man from the supply chain, however the real reason is the absolute lack of quality.
They make their own frame which is alright, however the paintjob is of such awful quality it got chipped, because a bike mechanic scratched it with a plastic zip tie.
The wheelset is incredibly heavy. The rim has extremely sharp edges, so if you need to replace an inner tube, chances are you will cut the new tube open on the edges of the rim, or cut your finger working on it.
The rim is also not suitable for riding with brakes, as the whole surface is covered with the same cheap paintjob as the frame, so you will spend the first few month gradually scraping away the paint where the brakes touch the rim. This has an extremely unpleasant sound and feeling, plus the outcome of your half scratched off rims looks hideous. If the bike is intended to be used with tradional brakes and not disk brakes they normally leave the top edge unpainted.
The hubs, have also very poor quality and start to make some unwelcome noise after a few month.
The biggest issue, however, is the incredible and unacceptable amount of rust buildup after less than a year of usage. Except for the original Gates carbon belt drive parts, every single part is incredibly low quality and probably the cheapest parts to be found on the market. This is the real reason why the bike might come for a "reasonable" price.
My biggest complaints are about the center axis, the pedal screws, the lockring on the cog, the screw to adjust the belt tension, but the list goes on with basically every single part that is from the company Gates.
The rust that appeared in under a year is worse than on my old bicycle, which I have been using everyday for 15 years.
Even though I wanted a low maintenance bike, I was taking good care of it, but this level of rustiness is unacceptable.
Another issue I have is with the saddle, which does not have any rip or hole on it, yet it soaks water in like a sponge. So everytime it rains I can squeeze a good glass full of water out of the saddle. If I don't do this, the water stays in there and gradually makes my pants wet, so I arrive to work with wet pants even if it has not rained in weeks. Not to mention that this way I carry unnecessary extra weight and it probably develops mold and starts to rot inside, which is gross and unhygienic.
Again, completely unacceptable after a few month...
One good thing is, that their customer service is extremely responsive. This is unless you have a complaint. Then they just ghost you and you cannot expect an answer any longer.
Before my purchase I was in touch with them, asking if it was possible to order the bike with a different handlebar style. The answer was no, which is fine, and they even offered to add some longer brake bowdens to the package, so I can mount a wide riser bar which needed longer brake bowdens. This was a cute promise, however I never received it, so I had to buy it myself. Not a big deal, but a shame they promised.
Next time I got in touch with them was when I had enough of all the above mentioned issues, and I chose to use my warranty which was still valid at the time.
So I messaged them with my complaints and my requests to get the bike fixed. They answered, offering to send me one of the several listed parts. So I sent them an other mail clarifying my requests, to which I never got an answer, and they have been ghosting me since.
Since that my bearings in the center axis completely fell apart so I had to get it replaced, as well as several other parts, so I already spent a fortune on repairs. There goes the "reasonable" price...
At this point the one year warranty has expired, however I found out that according to EU laws they are legally required to provide 2 years on any product sold. But this is little help if you can't get in touch with them. Now I'm seeking legal help, to try and hold them accountable. But this kind of behavior is incredible and completely unexpected from a german company and I never would have thought I had to go to such extent over a simple warranty claim.

I hope this serves as a lesson and warning to any future customers.

The build quality is questionable at best, and realistically, it could be life-threatening. Over the last 10 months with the bike, I've encountered far too many build quality problems. Some of the worst include:

- The front gear wheel isn't round; it's shaped more like an egg. This causes the chain to go from being too tight to too loose with a full crank rotation.
- The bolt tightening the stem and front fork is too narrow. Instead of using a fitting bolt, they opted to insert a small spring in the thread. However, the spring isn't fixed, so attempting to tighten the bolt results in unscrewing the spring. This means that the front fork is wiggling in place.
- The bike has a unique seat post clamp due to the frame's water drop shape at the seat post. Unfortunately, this mechanism is subpar, causing the seat post to start twisting over time. Tightening the bolt excessively led to it breaking. It's not an industry-standard part and replacements aren't available from Bonvelo. So if this happens, you’re screwed.
- I had to replace the crank set because it wouldn't stay in place, no matter how tightly screwed.
- The pedal snapped clean completely.
- But by far the worst, and this is really dangerous. The brake cable snapped without any warning! To put this into perspective, the brake pads outlasted the brake cable. This is unheard of and not acceptable.

And last but not least if you are lucky enough that bonvelo answer when you reach out to them, it won’t be the answer you need.

I can’t emphasise this enough, don’t buy bikes from bonvelo!