AMD quietly removes mountain bikes from store after health risks found in Gamers Nexus review

[Vishera]

Summary

After Steve Burke from Gamers Nexus criticized AMD's "AMD Custom Mountain Bike" for it's price,cheap quality and health hazards,AMD quietly removed the product page from it's store.

Spoiler

 

My thoughts

I think that those bikes should be recalled since their quality is so cheap that in Steve's review the frame of the bike cracked under use - posing a major risk to the rider and the bike's integrity.

Quietly removing the bike from the store without informing customers of the dangerous product they bought and hiding it from the media is disgusting and shady.

 

Sources

Original product page: https://amdfanstore.com/amd-custom-mountain-bike/

Product page from Google cache:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3bKYtXfYwxIJ:https://amdfanstore.com/amd-custom-mountain-bike/

Gamers Nexus review:

 

[AndreiArgeanu]

Well according to AMD it sold out, so that's probably a big reason to why it isn't there anymore. Also I doubt a little bit that AMD would do this as a result of the GN video, these bikes are widely known for being really cheap and unsafe for mountain biking, a sticker on the suspension itself or even the manual will probably mention that this bike is unsuitable for actual mountain biking. I'd imagine the bike was chosen by someone with no basic knowledge of bikes to be honest and after feedback they stopped making/ordering any more of them.

[givingtnt]

Why is this news ?

It's literally weeks old.

[Doobeedoo]

Hah i mean it's really cheap. Looks really good, but yeah wouldn't tust it for some mountain biking and jumps. 

[Guest]

It's a cheap rebrand. 

[dizmo]

Haha, while health risks is technically not wrong, it's not really what you'd say. It'd be safety concerns. Health risks would generally be used for something that can affect you by ingestion or just being around it.

 

I think AMD should have taken this off the market as soon as they saw Steve's video. They probably don't have anyone that would test it internally (be that because they don't have anyone that rides, or the people there that do ride wouldn't have bothered), and a review like that is pretty damning. He wasn't even riding it that hard.

 

5 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Well according to AMD it sold out, so that's probably a big reason to why it isn't there anymore. Also I doubt a little bit that AMD would do this as a result of the GN video, these bikes are widely known for being really cheap and unsafe for mountain biking, a sticker on the suspension itself or even the manual will probably mention that this bike is unsuitable for actual mountain biking. I'd imagine the bike was chosen by someone with no basic knowledge of bikes to be honest and after feedback they stopped making/ordering any more of them.

You can't market something as a "mountain bike" and expect people not to use it as such. That's not how that works.

[Bitter]

I say if they could market those Bulldozer CPUs as being 8 core they can market these bikes as mountain bikes.

[AndreiArgeanu]

11 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You can't market something as a "mountain bike" and expect people not to use it as such. That's not how that works.

You can, it's been done a long time before this, and is still being done to this day.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

You can, it's been done a long time before this, and is still being done to this day.

You mean like how car manufacturers market SUVs as off road capable even though they'll ground out almost immediately on any basic trail? Yea... these scumb...

[Vishera]

1 hour ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

You mean like how car manufacturers market SUVs as off road capable even though they'll ground out almost immediately on any basic trail? Yea... these scumb...

Well,SUVs can go off-road to some extent so it's not false but rather misleading.

But those bikes just break when used as mountain bikes so that's the main difference,

It's also possible that they break under average use as well considering how little force was required to break them.

 

I wonder if AMD has a warranty program for those... Probably not 

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Well,SUVs can go off-road to some extent so it's not false but rather misleading.

Almost all cars can go "off-road to some extent", that doesn't make it a good idea

[Vishera]

Just now, Sauron said:

Almost all cars can go "off-road to some extent", that doesn't make it a good idea

At least they are not marketed as jeeps or mountain bikes 

[poochyena]

That headline is really problematic. While yes, that headline is technically true, it implies that there is a connection to the two events, which there isn't evidence for.

Actually, the headline might actually be wrong, its entirely possible it wasn't "removed", they could have just sold out.

[Dutch_Master]

I saw the GN video, pretty damning, as well as the following news video shortly after where Steve mentioned it had been pulled from the AMD store. So no, it's not a coincidence AMD removed this bike from their store. In fact, it should never have been there in the first place, firstly for being inherently unsafe, but also given the damage the AMD brand now has endured by putting up this utter cr@p. Remember, Steve exposed the greed by "upmarketing" a basic, cheap $150 Walmart bike by adding some AMD branding and selling at premium prices ($350-400 IIRC). Unless AMD redeems themselves PDQ by offering a decent, real mountain-bike for not a lot more then normal MSRP of the same, but non-AMD-branded model, Intel will make sure the web won't forget AMD's bad lack of judgement.

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Dutch_Master said:

I saw the GN video, pretty damning, as well as the following news video shortly after where Steve mentioned it had been pulled from the AMD store. So no, it's not a coincidence AMD removed this bike from their store. In fact, it should never have been there in the first place, firstly for being inherently unsafe, but also given the damage the AMD brand now has endured by putting up this utter cr@p. Remember, Steve exposed the greed by "upmarketing" a basic, cheap $150 Walmart bike by adding some AMD branding and selling at premium prices ($350-400 IIRC). Unless AMD redeems themselves PDQ by offering a decent, real mountain-bike for not a lot more then normal MSRP of the same, but non-AMD-branded model, Intel will make sure the web won't forget AMD's bad lack of judgement.

Seems like AMD didn't know that bikes need quality assurance and proper components for the intended use - just like a noob that picks the most beautiful cheap PC only to find out it's painfully slow.

[justpoet]

It is a rebrand from a common OEM of bikes for other companies and stores (such as Walmart and Target).  To say they can't be sold is ridiculous.  To say they aren't safe depends entirely on level of use.  If you're average Joe getting something to go back and forth to work on the side of the road or sidewalk with, this will be fine so long as you make sure the chain stays on…which is unfortunately par for the course on most bikes that aren't either a boutique/custom build or a major name like Specialized.

 

Been there, done that.  I road stuff like that hard for a long time when I was younger, because I couldn't afford better.  I bent or snapped multiple bikes (forks, frames, seat posts, handlebars, and even cracked a bottom bracket) from trail riding and hitting some fairly tame jumps.  Once I could buy a real bike (low end Specialized), I started doing things like cliff drops and more extreme riding…that held up perfectly until it was stolen 15ish years later.  Now I don't ride extreme anymore, though I have the bikes to properly handle doing so.

[Bombastinator]

I recall GNSteve musing about the possibility that that the only reason the bike was even put up for sale in the first place was specifically to kill him.  If that failed there would be little reason to keep it on sale. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Jet_ski]

I’ve stopped listening to GN ever since that guy lectured people on “consumerism” when people were upset about bots+scalpers getting all of the Nvidia 3000 series cards. He lectured them on consumerism mentality AFTER an entire month of hyping the product. Just wow.

[Blue4130]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

Haha, while health risks is technically not wrong, it's not really what you'd say. It'd be safety concerns. Health risks would generally be used for something that can affect you by ingestion or just being around it.

 

I think AMD should have taken this off the market as soon as they saw Steve's video. They probably don't have anyone that would test it internally (be that because they don't have anyone that rides, or the people there that do ride wouldn't have bothered), and a review like that is pretty damning. He wasn't even riding it that hard.

 

You can't market something as a "mountain bike" and expect people not to use it as such. That's not how that works.

Hmmm, are bulldozer cpu's only for heavy equipment use?

[JediFragger]

This was always just a crazy crazy stunt, wtf were they *thinking*???

[RejZoR]

Tho in all honesty, Steve doesn't seem like average user. Him doing downhills, most usual mountain bikes would go bad eventually.

[Curufinwe_wins]

5 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Tho in all honesty, Steve doesn't seem like average user. Him doing downhills, most usual mountain bikes would go bad eventually.

Reminder though that this was a 100 dollar bike being upsold as a 350 dollar bike. Few bad products only bad prices. 

 

At the 350 dollar range it's an absolute travesty. All for a (really low quality) sticker.

[RejZoR]

1 minute ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Reminder though that this was a 100 dollar bike being upsold as a 350 dollar bike. Few bad products only bad prices. 

 

At the 350 dollar range it's an absolute travesty. All for a (really low quality) sticker.

Is 350 bucks suppose to be a lot? Mine was 1200€ and while it's electric hybrid, it's nothing special as is. Electric components probably for around 400€ out of the total price My dad bought a regular one, a bit upmarket one, but ultimately nothing too fancy. Aluminium frame, hydraulic disc brakes front and back, Deore XT shifters and it was around 1000€ too. If you want anything half decent you're instantly in the 4 digits zone. Anything less is very much questionable. For regular use on roads and gravel, sure it'll be fine. For anything a bit more abusive, I wouldn't trust anything below this. Everyone upsells stuff like crazy...

[Bombastinator]

22 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Is 350 bucks suppose to be a lot? Mine was 1200€ and while it's electric hybrid, it's nothing special as is. Electric components probably for around 400€ out of the total price My dad bought a regular one, a bit upmarket one, but ultimately nothing too fancy. Aluminium frame, hydraulic disc brakes front and back, Deore XT shifters and it was around 1000€ too. If you want anything half decent you're instantly in the 4 digits zone. Anything less is very much questionable. For regular use on roads and gravel, sure it'll be fine. For anything a bit more abusive, I wouldn't trust anything below this. Everyone upsells stuff like crazy...

*has a brazed chrome molly steel frame and clamp brakes.  Still gets to the store*

 

”decent” is pretty use dependent.

[Curufinwe_wins]

21 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Is 350 bucks suppose to be a lot? Mine was 1200€ and while it's electric hybrid, it's nothing special as is. Electric components probably for around 400€ out of the total price My dad bought a regular one, a bit upmarket one, but ultimately nothing too fancy. Aluminium frame, hydraulic disc brakes front and back, Deore XT shifters and it was around 1000€ too. If you want anything half decent you're instantly in the 4 digits zone. Anything less is very much questionable. For regular use on roads and gravel, sure it'll be fine. For anything a bit more abusive, I wouldn't trust anything below this. Everyone upsells stuff like crazy...

I have a canyon spectral similarly that was around 1700 dollars, but yes. When in the US you walk into Walmart and buy a bike for 100 dollars, and AMD wants to sell the same bike (with probably even less QC work) for 3.5x the price we should call them out on it. (In normal times) you can get ludicrously better and safer bikes for this price point new (ignoring used).

 

Yes upselling isn't uncommon, but I think that isn't an excuse to not call it out. If AMD can't do the work to make the bike even remotely safe (it wasn't safe for road riding even before they brought it into a shop), they shouldn't be selling the things.