Putting this post up in the hope that it will prevent anyone else buying a CBR Red Rock bike (available from Littlewoods catalogue) as, IMHO, it could well be a deathtrap.
Dan (aged nearly 13) was in need of a new bike and because I couldn’t afford to go out and buy one outright I ordered the CBR Redrock mountain bike from the Littlewoods catalogue. Bike arrived but was faulty – the disc brake pads on the front were sticking out too far for me to actually mount the front wheel on the forks. So bike went back and another was ordered. This one was much easier to put together and everything about it seemed fine. Dan loved it and spent a couple of weeks riding it.
Last night he came home in floods of tears. He had gone to brake but the front brake lever had locked up and then literally sheared off in his hand. The plastic bracket that attached the brake lever to the handlebars simply snapped off. Luckily Dan was only riding slowly and on the pavement at the time. If he had been going fast, or was in traffic, then the result could have been catastrophic.
I’ve now phoned Littlewoods to ask them to collect this deathtrap of a bike and remove it from my account, and we will be going to a proper bike shop at the weekend and buying a proper bike that is going to be durable and safe and fit for purpose.
So …. if you’re looking for info on the CBR Redrock mountain bike my advice would be to steer well clear of it, it’s not well built and it’s not fit for purpose. In fact, it has design faults that make it downright dangerous. My lad could have had a serious accident on this bike. I’d hate to think it could happen to anyone else.
UPDATE: Littlewoods assessed the bike and claimed that the front wheel had been put in the wrong way round which is why the bike failed. That’s complete rubbish ….. this bike had disc brakes, in other words there re calipers on one side of the forks and a disk on one side of te front wheel and the wheel has to be mounted so that the disc sits in between the brake pads. If you put the wheel on the wrong way round you’d have the brake pads on one side of the wheel and the brake disc on the other side! So I know the wheel was correctly mounted … otherwise how would the brakes have locked up, there’d have been nothing to lock up on!!
Anyway, Littlewoods did deign to give me a full refund despite denying any responsibility for the bike’s failure. Interestingly, they no longer stock it …
Cycles should never be sold to the general public to assemble themselves, it sounds more like the brake caliper initially jammed as it had not been commisioned properly for the road. Cycles as any other form of transport used on the highway should be sold fully assembled and tested by a supplying dealer, not supplied by mail order, supermarkets or internet sales in a box to be built by people who have little or no mechanical knowledge. When will the UK government act to stop this highly dangerous practice, cars and Motorbikes need to pass stringent checks before they are allowed on the road, why on earth are cycles exempt from some kind of “fit for purpose test” by a qualified cycle technician I will never know, as serious road accidents can happen on cycles as well as cars and motorbikes, and parents more than anyone should be more responsible in ensuring their children are as safe as possible on their cycles.
R. Harman
UK road safety
Agree completely …. I was quite shocked when the bike turned up and needed to be assembled, as I was expecting it to have been put together by someone who knew what they were doing!
I agree with the above comments about home assembly, but have to disagree on the view of this bike, I’ve done a lot of miles on mine and not had a problem!
Glad you’ve had good use from yours. The bike looked fantastic but the brakes did look very brittle and not particularly sturdy – maybe we just had a bad one.