Clare Foss-Smith
New Member
We bought 2 Raleigh Captus bikes about 3 months ago from our local bike shop in Dorset, UK. After about 6 weeks and a couple of hundred miles, my husband's bike suddenly locked up in the pedals at a busy junction - pretty scary but he was able to wheel the bike onto the side of the road (much tooting and angry gestures from motorists....). He rides his bike 8 miles to work every day.....well, he did but not now. After inspection he discovered that the motor cover clips had snapped and the cover had become entangled with the pedal cranks. He removed the cover so he could get to work but this in itself was a risk as the chain was now exposed and he was wearing ordinary clothing which could have become caught. Raleigh informed our bike dealer that the wait time for a new cover was two months - we unhappily accepted this. Lo and behold just 2 weeks later I was riding with my husband on a busy road when my pedals did exactly the same and locked up with absolutely no warning. After inspection by my husband (who happens to be a mechanical engineer!) the problem was identical to that as on his bike. This was a seriously frightening experience. After taking Raleigh to task (their comment: "this has never happened before") they miraculously found two new covers immediately, sent them to our dealer who fitted them and off we went. End of story? No! Off we went on New Years Eve on the road and just 50 metres from home my pedals locked again but, even worse, the casing separated down the centre and the chain guard cap detached and jammed in the crank. We put the bike onto the carrier and drove it today to our dealer who is pretty horrified. He has been in touch with Raleigh again - guess what! Raleigh says again "this has never happened before" and are dealing with it but without apology. We have since discovered through online research that this HAS happened to someone else and is on an open online forum - exactly the same problem as ours. My question is after this rather protracted story has this happened to anyone else?
