Dynacraft Industries Inc. will have to pay the piper for delaying to report problems with its mountain bikes, agreeing last week to pay $1.4 million to settle allegations that they incompletely and belatedly informed the Consumer Product Safety Commission about issues with the problems.
The company issued a number of recalls between 2000 and 2002 affecting about 267,000 bicycles. According to the CSPC, Dynacraft imported nearly 250,000 bikes between July 1999 and March 2001, and all were made with forks that could break and separate from the front wheel. The problems caused riders to lose control of the bike, resulting injuries to several riders. More than a fifth of the bikes also had pedals that could come loose and fall off.
In early 2000, Dynacraft recalled roughly 19,000 bikes after reports that forks broke on some of its Vertical XL2 models. The CPSC alleged that Dynacraft waited until July of that year to report additional accidents with the forks. The company later expanded the recall to an additional 25,000 Vertical XL2 and Magna Electroshock bikes which caused more than three dozen incidents. Recalls were also later issued for the companys Next Shockzone, Magna Equator and Next Ultra Shock product.
