Wheels Motorcycles
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Buy from Wheels Peterborough at your discretion!
This is a slightly odd, but very long review because, from what was a very pleasant purchase of a new Aprilia RSV4 RF in April 2019 from Wheels, it sadly, at my expense turned into an extremely unpleasant and costly experience recently, as a result as I see, as gross misconduct from the mechanics of Wheels Peterborough, and the assembly of & sale/ aftersales of the bike I bought from them. In short, what was blatantly a build error by Wheels mechanics, unfortunately took 5 years to manifest itself. The rear hub (which the rear sprocket is bolted to and should be suitably torqued to), of my RSV4 was not suitably assembled or torqued. This RSV4 was pampered by me and was rarely ridden in my current 5+ year ownership, and to date, has only covered 2,300 miles. As I live in SE London, taking it to Wheels in Peterborough for servicing wasn’t practical, especially when I tried to book the first 600-mile service with them and was told I had to wait 4 weeks for a booking, in July/ August 2019. Wheels offer a lifetime warranty on their new bikes sold, as long as you have them fully maintained in-house. In hindsight, a 4-week wait would have ultimately saved me over £2000 this year. So, my bike was regularly serviced during its 5-year life by a well-known Aprilia Main Dealer in Croydon, and, a key point here, given its 2300 mile life in these years, it is still on its original rear tyre. This means that the rear wheel has never needed to have been removed, in any of the 500-mile, 1600-mile and 1900-mile services it has received in my 5 years of ownership. So recently, I lost all drive to the rear wheel, which was a result of the hub bolts not having suitably tightened and torque-marked, unlike every other main fixing on the bike. Every bolt still shows the painted torque mark from when built new, but the 10 hub bolts cannot be seen, as they are hidden behind the rear sprocket. This resulted in 7 of the 10 bolts completely coming undone from their nuts, leaving the remaining three, under the torque generated by the engine under load, to elongate the wheel bolt apertures, ultimately shearing and destroying the wheel. A replacement wheel assembly cost me £1,500, notwithstanding the labour cost from another very well known and respected Aprilia dealer, who verified the above malpractice in build/ sales of a new vehicle. Once I contacted Wheels on this matter, the formal response from Darren Doig, Wheels Sales Manager was; “Good Afternoon Mr Benedetti, Thank you for your e-mail dated 14th June 2024 detailed below. I am sorry to read you have had an issue with your Aprilia you purchased from us. I have looked into the points you have raised. I do not agree that Wheels Peterborough is responsible for the failure the bike has suffered for the following reasons:- • We have not seen the bike since you purchased it over 5 years ago and have had it serviced and maintained elsewhere. • As we have not serviced or maintained the bike, we cannot be responsible for the failure after it has been worked on by a 3rd party. • If the bolts were not correctly torqued at purchase, they would have failed before now. I would suggest you refer your complaint to Moto Croydon who have carried out the service & maintenance on the bike.” Please look at all the attached photos, observing yellow paint torque marks (and lack of), and make your own mind up about buying a bike from Wheels, Peterborough. On a final note, when I spoke to Phil Wilcox (who sold me the bike), before I officially lodged my complaint, he said it would have to be taken up with Aprilia UK. I asked him to quantify this, as the issue clearly lay with Wheels mechanics, and he replied that all complaints have to go through Aprilia UK. Let’s hope Aprilia UK read this review and take it up with the management at Wheels Peterborough. Buy from, and have your bike maintained by, Wheels Peterborough, at your absolute discretion!! The photos speak for themselves but moreover, the vehicle build quality control at Wheels Peterborough!