I have to warn others so they don't buy from this con man. Let me start my story at the beginning. I live in a small rural town, and work hard for my money at a fast food restaurant. Let me tell you, it isn't easy running a fryer all day for minimum wage, and when you spend your hard earned money, you expect value for it. Since my social life is kind of lacking, read non-existent, I was looking at bikes to bolster my image with the women. I was looking on the internet and found the Hardknocks. Now I'm 5'4" tall and weigh about 280, so I needed something low to the ground, this fit the bill. I worked all summer to buy this bike and when the day came that I had the money I was elated.
I decided to take the plunge and order one. I called the company to order because there is no dealer close to me and I didn't like the idea of sending my info over the internet. I got a hold of some guy that was king of gruff when they answered the phone. He just answered with "Yeah?" I told him I wanted to order a bike, and he was then all nice and helpful. Well I ordered the bike I wanted and he took my card numbers and ran my card. I asked him if this was fairly easy to put together and he just chuckled and said oh yeah, anyone can do it, and I'm right here to help you every step of the way. That sounded great. My card passed and we were set. I asked him about shipping times, he said soon. I asked if that meant like three or four days, he said, "Sure, whatever." and was laughing as he hung the phone up.
Almost six weeks past and no bike showed up. I called the company and got some guy named Kelly on the phone. I explained, or tried to explain my dilemma, and he cut me short with "What's your problem?" I tried to explain again, and he again cut me off. Then he says, "So your whining about no bike, is that your problem?" I said yes. He said he was backed up and it would ship soon. Well, soon was like two more weeks. Finally got the boxes, and they looked like they fell off the truck a few times on the way here. I asked the Fed Ex guy about it, and he said that was how he received them, and made a note.
Well, at least I had the bike, or so I thought. When I opened the boxes, and took inventory it was not all there. I was missing some key elements. I had no handlebars, and no battery. No problem right, just call Kelly and get the replacement items. I called and this time it went fairly easy to my surprise. I told him what was missing, he asked which engine I ordered, it was the 125, and which bars, I told him I wanted the broomstick type. He said" Got it 125, broomstick bars." Done, they would ship this week. Great, now I started the build process.
I took the frame out of the box, and it had issues. I ordered the chrome frame, and it was rusted in many places. I again called Kelly. I told him it was rusted, and he told me, "That is the new special frame, it is not rust, it is "patina", whatever the heck that is. He then told me that those weren't even in production yet and it was a mistake, but I could keep it with his compliments.
The next issue was the tank and fender. I ordered the blue with white racing stripe. I opened the box and there was a gold tank and red fender. Again I called Kelly. I told him who I was, at this point I felt we were getting to know by name, he asked me, "What now?" I told him about the tank and fenders, I guess you call them tins. He again said his shipping guy had screwed up and sent me the "Limited Edition" tins. Not to tell anyone I got them because then everyone would want them and he only had very few of that combination. I told him I wanted the blue and he said he was out of that color, but as soon as the came in, he would ship them to me and take the others if I didn't use them. I decided to keep these because I didn't want to wait the six months for the blue. As to the battery he said he would ship one.
That was all the issues with the initial order, but the build was another thing. I got it all together with reference material from the forum website as there is no builders manual or instructions included. The forums are interesting, I'll leave it at that.
Now time to start it and test it out. First off I wanted to make sure it would stop once started. I tried the front brakes, and they didn't work. They were locked up. I tried bleeding them and nothing. I put it on my list to ask for tech advice. The rear was an issue also, it didn't engage and stop the wheel. Added to list. Next came the start of the engine. I had to try and kick start it because I hadn't received the battery yet. Add no battery to my list.
During this my shipment came with my missing parts. There was no battery in the box, and there was what appeared to be a wooden dowel about two or three feet long. This had me wondering. I had to call Kelly and make my displeasure known.
I called Kelly and he answered with, "What the hell you want now?" I guess he has caller ID. I told him about my brakes. He told me all the cool bikers don't use a front brake. I told him about my back not working either, he said, "Use your feet." I told him that I needed the battery. He told me to kick start it and "Use your feet." I was getting really pissed at this point with his lack of care and help. I explained that if I could n't start it and couldn't stop it, what was the point, he started laughing. I was frustrated, and explained that if I got all this resolved it still wouldn't go into gear, once again he told me, "Use your feet." At this point I lost it, and started to ask him what the hell the wood dowel was for? He started laughing really hard now and so did the female who was with him, I guess I was on speaker phone. He said I had ordered a broom stick handle bar and that was what I got, a broomstick. AT this point he could hardly breathe he was laughing so hard. He said FU and hung up, or so he thought. I guess he hit the wrong button, and was still on line. I next heard him still laughing and asking his female guess to peel him another grape. I just got pissed and hung up.
I would never buy anything from this self absorbed, megalomaniac if it was the last bike on the planet. Save yourself some grief and buy something else like a Vespa or a Gas Gas. The only up side to my whole ordeal is I did get some really cool limited edition frame and tins.
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