Dodgy mama chari wheel?

[PatrickArrow]

Bought a mamachari because of my money situation being rather tight (was originally after a road bike).
Had it for a month only used it for general use (riding 4k's to work, groceries) and one long ride down the arakawa river and back (110 k's). Rear wheel then began to wobble after a ride to the cinema. Had it fixed for free, 3 days later today whilst taking a corner on a perfectly smooth road at no faster than 15pm/h big pop and two spokes were gone and the wobble back. I am a heavy rider (140kg) but I rode a road bike at the same weight for 5 years in australia, riding on 2-3 broken spokes for a month at a time with no wobbling wheel. Only time I ever had a wobble on my road bike in aus was when I was hit by a truck. Curious if its me or the bike.

 

[GrantT]

Seems like the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) sets 65 kg as the rider weight for bicycles. Obviously that is very light, and there are all sorts of Mamachari designed for greater loads, but they probably cost a bunch more cash as well. So to sum up, it is probably not the bike.

 

[PatrickArrow]

Seems like the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) sets 65 kg as the rider weight for bicycles. Obviously that is very light, and there are all sorts of Mamachari designed for greater loads, but they probably cost a bunch more cash as well. So to sum up, it is probably not the bike.

Might get it repaired one more time, ride it without leaning at all, try get another 3 months out of and get rid of it once I get a road bike. Not gonna lie a bit annoyed though, wheels are ridiculously flimsy.

 

[OreoCookie]

In my experience, it is a combination of the two, not either or. When I first came to Japan, I got a mamachari. It took me 4–6 weeks to destroy the bearings for the crank. The shop replaced it dutifully, 3 times, for free. At those prices, the bikes you get are made of extremely cheap components.

At 140 kg, I definitely would not want to ride a mamachari. Wrong choice. I’d go for a (used) mountain bike.

Might get it repaired one more time, ride it without leaning at all, try get another 3 months out of and get rid of it once I get a road bike. Not gonna lie a bit annoyed though, wheels are ridiculously flimsy.

That sounds like a safety risk to me, I personally wouldn’t do that. Spokes shouldn’t come off. On the flip side, AFAIK most engineers will add a 50 % safety margin on components. So if they design something to break at a load of the equivalent of 100 kg, then the design should be beefed up to hold 150 kg. If the official design target is 65 kg, then it might be that the bike is designed to work for people up to 100ish kg. And you are well above that.

 

[PatrickArrow]

In my experience, it is a combination of the two, not either or. When I first came to Japan, I got a mamachari. It took me 4–6 weeks to destroy the bearings for the crank. The shop replaced it dutifully, 3 times, for free. At those prices, the bikes you get are made of extremely cheap components.

At 140 kg, I definitely would not want to ride a mamachari. Wrong choice. I’d go for a (used) mountain bike.

That sounds like a safety risk to me, I personally wouldn’t do that. Spokes shouldn’t come off. On the flip side, AFAIK most engineers will add a 50 % safety margin on components. So if they design something to break at a load of the equivalent of 100 kg, then the design should be beefed up to hold 150 kg. If the official design target is 65 kg, then it might be that the bike is designed to work for people up to 100ish kg. And you are well above that.

Looking into shipping my bike from aus over. Will ride the bike to work for another week until winter holiday starts. Eat plain rice over December/ January so I can afford to ship it over.