Do Not Buy A Zumbi Cycles Frame!!!

https://www.pinkbike.com/u/oliverody/album/Zumbi-F-11-Custom-Scrap-Metal/

I was very excited at the prospect of a custom geo frame designed to my specifications from the ground up, the deal Zumbi offer is certainly enticing for 100 euros extra, however it was an experience I will not forget.

The guys were helpful and quick to respond to any question right up to the point where they took my money and that's is where it all fell apart. They charged me for the paypal charges the merchant should incur for selling a product via paypal as this is their only method of payment, its an expense down to them. Up until then they were helpful so I eventually agreed to pay it on the promise that they would get the frame to my door in the 4 weeks they said it would take to build and also to send shock bushings suitable for a ccdb cs air shock and 2 additional mech hangers, needless to say they didn't arrive with the frame.

They said it would take 4-6 weeks to arrive, it took 10! After frequent emails to find out the status of the frame it started getting longer for each reply. No courtesy and very frustrating.

So when the frame eventually arrived and I unboxed it the real problems came to life. First of all the shocking paint job! There was different colour paint particles underneath the top coat, I went for a fluoro yellow and there was blue, orange and black paint particles on it as well as small hairs and fluff stuck under the top coat too. Just poor.

Then immediately the state of the internal routing holes had literally been punched and wiggled after the frame had been painted so there was cracks and white stress marks in the paint surrounding the holes. The holes where unsymmetrical and had not been filed smooth so would slice straight through a brake or reverb hose. They didn't even do enough holes for me to put gear, brake and reverb hoses through anyway! I specifically asked for the frame to come with rubber grommets to prevent dirt and water entering the frame via these holes but no such luck with that!

By now I've just taken all the packaging off, good start eh! And the biggest problem of all arises, the frame is pissed undeniably pissed. I compress the swingarm and one rocker link hits the seat tube one side and is 3-4mm clear the other! I flipped the frame and looked up through the shock basket and the bolts don't align the frame has been welded wonky. Later down the line Zumbi argued that the frame was damaged in transit as there was small damage to the TOP of the box and not the SIDE. There was no stress marks around any of the rocker links or damage to the paint to suggest any lateral impact which caused the lateral misalignment. I have 10 years experience as a bike mechanic and worked on a whole spectrum of different quality bikes and I have seen supermarket bikes with better quality than this thing. I took the frame to 2 separate shops who both laughed at the quality of the frame one of whom I quote "are you joking!" Both agreeing it had been welded incorrectly.

Amongst this I see the through axle has a great gouge half way along it (top notch QC!) enough to bend a fingernail on. They hadn't supplied the hangers and bushings I asked for and was promised and it appears they don't have their own bearing press or if they do don't know how to use it as there was more gouge marks where they attempted to press in the bearings...

After this I emailed Zumbi stating my disgust at the quality and how it was bent they repeatedly assured me it wasn't and begged me to build the bike, as I was genuinely excited before it arrived I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Mistake. Bolting the mech onto the hanger became immediately obvious that it was never going to work as with the mechs stop against the stop on the hanger it rotated the mech nearly 90 degrees clockwise so the mech hit the cassette as it shifted up! As well as that it took me near enough 20 mins trying to face the frame down to get rid of the mass of excess paint to even get the shock close to fitting into the mounts! Once it was bolted in my suspicions were confirmed where the shock didn't sit square in the mounts, the frame is wonky.

This is where I gave up and requested a full refund for the frame as I had lost all trust in the product and the customer service as Zumbi admitted there was something wrong from the first photos I sent and they still told me to build it up. This meant I wasted more time and money trying to build it and fitted a headset I now couldn't get refunded as essentially been fitted and used and almost soiled a £490 shock and £30 of bushings. If they admitted fault in the first placed and apologised for the extremely poor quality I may have been tempted to let them have another crack at the bike but after all that no chance!

This is where Zumbi didn't begin to understand that I wanted my money back not a warranty job, I mean it took near enough 10 emails to get the picture across that I didn't want anything more to do with them just my money back with me being as polite as possbile. Instead of honouring the law refusing me a refund resulting in me going through paypal to pursue my refund. Eventually it was granted in my favour and I received my money back thankfully, however there was still the £70 return postage that Zumbi by law owe the customer for returning a refunded product which they have failed to repay me over several months ago. Unfortunately I have little leverage on them over this and don't expect to ever see that money again.

I am writing this so people do not make the same mistake I did in purchasing a frame from Zumbi Cycles. I have made a photo album with all of the photos from the frame to show how poor this company is. They gave the excuse that it cant be perfect as its handmade, in my experience handmade frame have always been super high quality as the builder should be rectifying any problem along the way and have pride in their product. Obviously something Zumbi doesn't have.

This isn't a petty dig at Zumbi just because I got a raw deal, this is an educated warning to anyone who is looking to spend money with this cowboy company as it is something you will sorely regret, believe me.