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Bowman bikes - what is your experience with them?

Hi all. I recently bought a fully built Bowman Weald from Bowman Cycles. Initially the bike came with paint damage on the frame and wrong size chainrings/cranks. Then I received a brand new bike (hopefully!) with correct size cranks but the bike felt too heavy. I weighed the Noble branded wheels which came with the bike and I realized that the wheels were much heavier than advertised on Bowman's website. After a few attempts to get an answer on this from Bowman without any success, I reached out to Noble Wheels and they told me they stopped supplying wheels to Bowman a year ago.  Anyway I am extremely disappointed to find out that the wheels which came with my bike (which carry Noble Wheels stickers on the rims and the hubs) are not genuine Noble Wheels. They have not been built by Noble Wheels (this is confirmed by Noble Wheels) and the wheels are also not consistent with the specs listed on their website. I am very disappointed that Bowman Cycles fraudulently claimed the wheels on my bike are Noble wheels. And they are now not answering any emails or phone calls. Does anyone know if they are still in business? And what has been your experience with Bowman bikes - in terms of frame quality and durability?  

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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29 comments

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sparrowlegs | 2 years ago
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I managed to find a nearly new Weald frame on eBay a few weeks ago. Arrived and all looked good. No marks at all.

Then fitted the headset put the forks in the frame. I noticed the ring you fit that compresses against the steerer slid straight down and didn't protrude above the headset bearing. Weird. Then I fitted a stem, usually they need a bit of force to get them on but it slid on easily and straight down. So did another 4 stems I tried. I measured the steerer against one of my other bikes and it was 0.4mm smaller. Might not sound a lot but in volume terms it meant the sides of the stem where the the bolts go through ended up touching and after that the stem was out of shape.

It looks like the steerer was out of round and then made round with a machine after manufacture which then decreased the steerer size.

Original owner was great and refunded my money. He'd had it built by a shop that should have spotted this and Bowman would have replaced them but due to their current status they aren't answering any emails.

I therefore retract my earlier statement of support for Bowman. This should have been sortable, should have been spotted by Bowman and possibly shouldn't have even left the factory in that state.

I'm now waiting on a Mason Definition frame. It's cost a lot more but hopefully this will be reflected in the quality of the product. 

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pagik | 2 years ago
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I ordered my Palace 3 C in July 2020. Was given an October 2020 delivery date. Frame eventually turned up day before Xmas Eve. To be fair to Bowman they did give me 100 quid off the price. But, as seems to be the way in world of bike producers the customer communication was shocking.

I had to chase every step of the way, it seems once bike companies have our money we're just expected to put up with the fact they can't get in touch with us. It needs to change because it's endemic across the sector. If I treated my customers like this I'd be out of a job in a month

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patz | 2 years ago
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Sad to hear this. I have a Bowman pilgrim disc and it's a superb bike. Bought the frameset pre Covid and it's a joy to ride. No issues. Sounds like things at Bowman have gone downhill since Covid struck.  Have a couple of Farilight bikes too but have had issues with a secan frame which had more rust internally than the angle of the north! Had to chase out the threads when building it! I personally believe in supporting small British brands so it's sad to see Bowman in this situation. Selling fake wheels is inexcusable as is shoddy customer service. 

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mdavidford replied to patz | 2 years ago
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patz wrote:

 the angle of the north!

Is that related to the Mull of Kintyre test?

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nos | 2 years ago
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Heya, I have to admit seeing this post has bought back memories of issues I had with bowman in June although I think I've been extremely lucky with my situation.

The bike arrived very very badly packed.

cranks had been scratched.

A paint chip on the frame and stem, scratches on the wheels.

The brake hose had been cut too long so when the bike was turned left and then re-centered the hose looped over the stem bolt and the bike was unable to turn right (as you can imagine if I hadn't had caught this it would have proved extremely costly).

The bolt used on the front mech clamp was very long and was about .5mm away from the tire, potentially with some deflection this would have worn a groove into the tire.

The inside of the frame wasn't finished properly and a burr scratched the seat post!!

so the luck part!!! lol. I guess I was fortunate that bowman answered my calls and emails within the week the bike arrived.

I was reluctant to return the bike to them better package than I had received it, also with the shortage of parts I wasn't sure when I would get it back.

so I accepted a discount/refund from the cost of the bike and they also picked up the cost to have the hose/bar tape re-done by my lbs.

All in all the time between ordering the bike and receiving wasn't great(part shortages and wheels) and the list of problems above for sure isn't great reading. but at the time couldn't fault bowman for the way they handled the situation.

So is anyone aware of the situation with them currently? I have tried to contact them to get a new bolt/nut for my seat post clamp but no reply from the emails that I sent weeks ago or from my phone calls.

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rwoofer replied to nos | 2 years ago
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Across lots of different forums, no-one has heard a peep from them, so I fear the worst has happened. Seat post clamp bolt should be fairly generic and therefore easy to source.

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strype replied to nos | 2 years ago
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Can I ask if you ordered the Noble wheels they advertised on their website? And if so, did they fit that description?

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nos replied to strype | 2 years ago
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my wheels for sure came with no decals.

mine came with the 24al wheels on the order, even though the website has noble wheel pictures everywhere mine had not been listed as that.

as you can see on their website now they are listed as

https://bowman-cycles.com/products/wealdultegrar8000disc

UK HANDBUILT BOWMAN WHEELS AL:24 FULL SPEC

RIM DEPTH

INTERNAL RIM WIDTH

FREEHUB

FRONT AXLE

REAR AXLE

SPOKE COUNT

WHEEL WEIGHT

TUBELESS

24 MM

20mm

Aluminium /w steel bite guard

100mm x 12mm

142mm x 12mm

24/28

Aluminium 24mm - 1535g

Tubeless ready rims and tape

paired with a nice picture of noble liveried wheels, although the photo does not say for illustrative purposes only.

I think there is maybe an assumption they will be noble wheels?

 

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strype replied to nos | 2 years ago
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Yes. Might be worth contacting Noble to check if they are actually what you thought you were buying; and looking at web archive for the page around the time you bought. The website description has changed over 2021 and now does not mention Noble. But it did.

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rwoofer | 2 years ago
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I put a full deposit down for a Palace 3C back in Feb and out of the blue got a refund. Emailed, called and left messages for the last month and got no response. There are clearly issues at the moment, but who can tell whether they are terminal or not. Lack of response means I've lost confidence in buying from them now, so they would really need to come clean for me to change my mind.

As an owner of a Secan I can speak very highly of Fairlight cycles. They had a batch of fork issues, which included my bike and they communicated well, did the right thing to ensure I was not out of pocket with a replacement fork. Small companies can still do the customer service thing...

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Yavuz replied to rwoofer | 2 years ago
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You are lucky you had your refund from Bowman. And I did hear that Fairlight is a real company unlike Bowman. 

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rwoofer replied to Yavuz | 2 years ago
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Yavuz wrote:

You are lucky you had your refund from Bowman. And I did hear that Fairlight is a real company unlike Bowman. 

I have a theory why I got my refund which isn't down to luck, but don't want to speculate publicly, just in case I'm wrong.

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kil0ran replied to Yavuz | 2 years ago
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Fairlight are excellent. Near bespoke levels of service, I don't know how they do it. Biggest issue with them is long lead times. In the MTB/gravel world Pipedream are also mega 

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WeLoveHills | 2 years ago
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I bought a Weald frameset in the summer. Very happy with it. I emailed them with a query regarding building the bike and they answered straight away. Something must have obviously changed more recently, which is a shame as they seemed to be a good company.

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Rapha Nadal | 2 years ago
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I'd really, really, really like to buy a Weald as it's the EXACT winter bike I've been seeking and the price is bloody excellent.

However, this seems to be an impossibility.  Phones go unanswered, emails trails go dead, and quote requests for C2W via their website go unanswered (I've submitted more than one).

If a company cannot get even the most basic of communication right then there's no confidence from me that they'll do anything else right.  Like others; I'll be going elsewhere.

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AfterPeak | 2 years ago
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I brought a Palace R frameset a couple of years back and it still looks like new. Rock solid (too solid if anything) and I ride all year around on it. They were very good on the phone and it arrived quickly from memory. But companies change so can't say if they are still as good as they were. One thing I did get told was that my headset bearing was undersized by my LBS when I could not get rid of a knock I kept hearing no matter what I did. Weirdly that headset bearing was with a token headset kit that came with the bike (in its own box).

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sparrowlegs | 2 years ago
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I emailed Bowman about Weald frame restock dates and they said end of Sep/start of October. That was mid sep.

I have the first gen Pilgrims disc (QR dropouts, daft 3D printed brake bridge, pressfit BB) and was assured by Neil that the BB wouldn't be an issue. It's creaked from day one until I fitted a Wheels Manufacturing screw-together BB. The brake bridge is crap but I can live with it as it's only for the mudguards and doesn't move once fitted (needs tape on the frame or else it rubs the paint off). The QR dropouts are as a result of different standards at the time so they erred on QR.

The frame itself is well made but the best thing is the geometry. Confident in any situation and with a slack head angle it flies. It also matches my Colnago pretty much mm for mm.

I'd buy a Weald tomorrow if they had any in stock as I think the core product is superb. It sounds like they've been bitten by the shortage and taken the wrong option by claiming the wheels are genuine Noble ones.

By the sounds of it I'll have to start looking for other options to replace the Pilgrims with. 

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open_roads | 2 years ago
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I read something somewhere else in the last month or so that asked if they were still trading - same issues, don't answer the phone or reply to email.

The ltd company for Bowman is called B B Velo (see companies house) and appears to still be a going concern albeit with a share issue a few months back.

 

edit: here goes:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bowman-bikes/

 

 

 

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Yavuz replied to open_roads | 2 years ago
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Thanks a lot very useful 

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kil0ran replied to open_roads | 2 years ago
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They did go quiet for a bit a couple of years ago, between the first successful batch of bikes (Palace/Layhams/Footscray) before relaunching the website. They are very small, margins must be tight, which means that they're not really insulated from supply chain issues. Hope they're still going. 

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kaza456 replied to open_roads | 2 years ago
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lol. I agree with you I love those bikes and found many great reviews. I will prob buy that cause I love doing road trips. that would be my first bike to drive on. if I will have any problem I have an uncle that has a bike locksmith that repairs all bikes. 

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IanEdward replied to open_roads | 2 years ago
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I started that thread on STW 

Real shame as I'll be in the market for a light(ish) rim brake road frame in the next year or so and they are now few and far between.

Don't really fancy carbon but depending on how my first Rourke custom build experience goes I might just *have* to invest in a 953 road build as well, hard times!

Shame though, the Palace 3C looked ideal, I even liked the lemon sherbert paint job

edit: actually having said that the new Basso Venta looks pretty lovely in the blue colour, could persuade me to go carbon after all!

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kil0ran | 2 years ago
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I had a Layhams for a while which I loved. I bought the frame secondhand and it had small paint defects on the fork crown. Not quite the premium experience sold by the website at the time. Whilst I couldn't fault the bike or the build quality - very neat welds and it rode beautifully they're a very small team and in my experience small enthusiastic teams aren't necessarily brilliant at the customer service side of things. I know they recruited people to help with customer service during the pandemic. It is possible for small teams to get this right (Pipedream & Fairlight both spring to mind) but in my experience Bowman didn't quite reach those high standards.

Clearly if true though the wheels thing is a breach of consumer protection law. Is it perhaps possible it's a question of using up old stock given how hard it is to get hold of parts at the moment?

Hopefully you purchased it on a credit card, if so you have additional protection and can request the credit card company to intervene.

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Yavuz replied to kil0ran | 2 years ago
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Thanks for the feedback. very useful. And re the wheels unfortunately the wheel builder says these are not wheels built by them - rims are different rims, overall wheelset has a substantially higher weight compared to the claimed weight, stickers on hubs facing the wrong direction and stickers on rims not the original stickers used by the original wheel builder. I am always a supporter of small enthusiastic companies trying to do something good (that's why I bought the bike) but only if they are honest and if they do not breach brand/intellectual property rights.   

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strype replied to Yavuz | 2 years ago
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Hi, I now realise (thanks to this threat) that I have had a similar experience. I ordered thinking I was getting Noble wheels (as it was advertised on their website), and I didn't appreciate until now that what I've received aren't Noble wheels. I have asked Bowman about this but not heard back.  I wonder if anyone else out there has had this experience? 

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PpPete replied to kil0ran | 2 years ago
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They were still claiming to be kitting their bikes out with Noble wheels when I spoke to them in the summer, and test-rode a Weald, although I was planning to buy frameset only.  Unfortunately they couldn't offer the model & size /colour wanted until year end so I went elsewhere. 

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Yavuz replied to PpPete | 2 years ago
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Well done. What did you buy in the end? 

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check12 | 2 years ago
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I'd ring them and tell them you want the wheels collecting and a refund for the value of the wheels the same price as to buy them from Nobel or you'll be raising a case with trading standards and noble are interested too.

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Yavuz replied to check12 | 2 years ago
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Thanks for the suggestion. Yes I am filing a formal complaint today. But Bowman cycles does not answer calls or emails for some time. I am afraid they went out of business. 

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