SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20241006-13913-2147336120. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: CTY 2.1 bike CTY 2.1 (REI CTY 2.1 bike (serial number C5HD6856)). Incident: A common brand of bikes made by REI have a defective stem presenting a serious injury risk. I purchased a CTY 2.1 bike from REI in January 2023 (serial number C5HD6856) at their Virginia Beach, VA store. On 9/28/24 an REI mechanic at their Virginia Beach store advised that he could not properly tighten the stem and advised that I replace the entire structure. A loose stem means the handlebars are also loose and could potentially result in the handlebars coming off while riding. REIs website claims that this model has a shock absorbing fork for potholed filled road. As for your quastion of how the product was used, I rode the bike on multi use paths and streets, which are the activities REI says it is designed for. I stopped riding to avoid serious injury with the handlebars coming off. The CPSC should investigate why a 1.5 year old bike has failed structurally after routine use. The metallurgy of the stem is likely defective. There are thousands of other bikes with the possible same defect. Sadly REI management has shown no interest in protecting consumers by investigating why the stem failed on mine. The repair shop manager blamed a likely metallurgic fault on my riding the bike frequently, which is exactly what REI advertises the bike is capable of. He also seemed to believe that the metallurgy of a stem should be expected to fail after 2 replacements of the bike chain. I contacted REIs 800 number and they did nothing. I would hope that your agency shows a greater interest in why the metal is failing on a new bike and investigate REI. Thank you. REI management refused my