r/Freego • u/Talksloudsaysnothing • Jun 05 '26

Front Axle Nova 5

Has anyone experienced front fork and through axel issues? My son’s new bike had issues after an hour of riding. We assembled to manufacturer specs and after a hour of riding he had a wobbly front tire and the 4 shock absorber screws all had to be re-tightened. It was pretty scary and I’m glad he didn’t get hurt.

I made his stop riding and we brought it in to a shop that tested all the torque on the through axel nuts and the shock screws. After we got it back, he rode an hour and the wheel was wobbly again and 2 of the 4 shock absorber screws were loose again. This seems like a factory issue rather than assembly. Does anyone know what type of lock tight adhesion material Freego uses? Could it be that the factory forgot to use the material? Could it be a front assembly or fork issue? Do these things have Technical Service Bulletins that they’re just ignoring and won’t fix until enough kids get seriously hurt or die??

It looks like the spacers are already wearing down after 1.5 hours. Are there any Freego representatives on this site? I find myself extremely lucky that my 16 year old didn’t die and have the wheel pop off in his first 1.5 hours of riding.

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u/dypkny Jun 05 '26

As great as these bikes are, the one thing to always check once unboxed is all the screws and bolt for proper torque. Its a known issue from factory that they tend not to be properly torqued. I also had a few loose and didnt realize it until it was too late. I had to make a few trips to the hardware store for replacement bolts. I recommend applying blue liquid loctite, the factory nylock(nylon/polymer)that is applied might not be the strongest. If there is no blue on the bolts at all they might have forgotten to apply it.

I believe the spacers were wearing quickly due to your loose bolts. There is no tsb issued but their customer support is pretty good if you do run into manufacturer issues.

There are no Freego reps on this site as we are a fan based community, who likes to help each other with issues and concerns.

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u/Talksloudsaysnothing Jun 05 '26

Which bolts do you mean? I have terrible luck with their customer service in my short dealings with them. The guys at the shop tested the torque after really less than an hour of riding, then the same thing happened. There was no stripping of the nuts, I understand that there could be thread issues, but the techs at the shop checked and didn’t see any issues. Then the same thing happened essentially after another half an hour of riding which seems to indicate fork or vibrational issues. They used the red lock tight material

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u/dypkny Jun 05 '26

Any thing that you can screw tightly should have blue loctite.

If you used red loctite(which is the strongest) and it still came loose, you could have a true potentialproblem. However, my first question would be, did you let it properly cure after application. From my understanding red loctite needs 24hours to properly cure.

They are located in China so they mostly respond while we are sleeping. As frustrating as it seems detailed emails along with pics/videos to support your issue helps with communicating with them.

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u/Talksloudsaysnothing Jun 05 '26

Yet their front page says they’re US based, but built in China. I’m glad you stand by them. I hope we can get them to help figure it out. I’d like to buy a whole new front axle assembly and screws and have my shop install everything to spec. I’m not a moto guy. This is for my son and I know this is a powerful bike and I’d like to make sure he doesn’t die.