Bike warranties

Warranties are a tricky thing as most bike manufacturers will try and get out of it unless clearly at fault. As for second hand carbon i'd be cautous. If it were steel ti or even Aluminium not so bad but carbon does have a limited life, so you'd wana make sure how much use it's had and if it's been in any accidents. Haveing said that a good carbon frame should last years. You should find out as much info on any second hand bike your looking at.

Thanks - yeah I've already asked the standard "any crashes" question, and whilst I haven't sighted the Noah yet, I assume any crash will be pretty easy to spot. I just need to be prepared to walk away a that point - unfortunately probably also the point that I've just fallen in love! But provided it hasn't had a ding, perhaps it is worth the risk... sigh.

Steel/Ti - yeah I understand the advantage in terms of resiliance, hence the relatively expensive steel frame on the list. Ideally I'd find a 2nd hand steel frame, but being 189cm tall, and needing a 60cm top tube, I've all but given up (been looking for 6 months).

Cheers,
Dim

The major manfacturer's written warranties generally only cover defects in manufacturing materials and workmanship. The ones I've seen exclude damage due to crashes, abuse, fatigue and "wear and tear". In other words, they don't cover a frame that wears out and breaks due to heavy useage or "fair wear and tear". The local dealers have told me they may be able provide more liberal coverage than this, particularly if the frame is fairly new, but the manufacturer isn't bound to do so.

Wouldn't really worry about differences in frame materials. Instead, pick a frame that's designed for your size, weight and intended useage. Pound for pound, ti, aluminum and CF have strength and durability advantages over steel, but of course that advantage has been used to market lighter, not stronger and more durable equipment. If like me you weigh 85kg, do club rides on bumpy, potholed roads, and want your frame and fork to last "forever", ultralight anything isn't the best choice.

Make sure you thoroughly look over a carbon bike before you buy because warranties are hard to get filled. I bought a 2009 bianchi c2c this summer and within the first two weeks found that the front fork was splitting. It was obviously manufacture error and the bike shop I bought from agreed. Bianchi made me send the fork to them and they said they would replace it. 5 months later and lots of calls and complaints to my bike shop they sent a fork. When i went to pick it up it was a completely different fork (worse than the original/a different color). Bianchi would not give me a service rep number. Luckily one of my friends is a lawyer and when he called and threatened a civil suit they sent one out to replace it. (still not the same fork that came with the bike but it worked). It took 6 months all said and done. All I'm saying make sure you know your warranty rights before you buy and make sure you ask about even the littlest blemish in the bike because it could potentially be a defect and its not worth the effort to try to replace it.

Thanks Buckeyes - makes me feel that getting a 2nd hand bike isn't a problem because the warranty won't actually be worth anything.

dhk2 - Fair point, although if something breaks when riding on normal roads, surely that is due to a fault. Its not like my mate is big, or a rough rider (he rides track and road). Re weight, yes I'm around the 83kg mark. Here's where the attractiveness of the custom steel frame comes in, but its hard to justify the cash, and the 5 month wait!

Cheers,
Dim

colebatchd said:

Hi All,

I'm a bit of a lurker and am currently looking to replace my loyal steed, a 1999 Avanti Giro on which I've replaced just about everything on bar the frame. So, this post is focused around frames. I'm considering just about everything, including (in rough order of price):
- New bike, probably carbon (Oppy C6)
- Custom steel frame (Baum)
- 2nd hand bike, probably carbon (Ridley Noah)
- 2nd hand steel frame (Merckx)
- Taiwan carbon frame

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on the question of warranty. Specifically, if I lok at the above, only the first two options will come with warranties. However, the bottom three are much cheaper, and so there's an argument in my head that says "you're not paying as much, so you can carry the risk of no warranty". The counter argument around carbon is "you can't see if there's something wrong, and if it goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way".

A couple of specific questions:

1. Have you considered a 2nd hand bike as your #1 bike? If so, has the lack of warranty bothered you?

2. Have you had problems with a new bike where the warranty hasn't been honoured (I have a mate who had Cannondale tell him he must have hit a pot hole to cause frame failure - not the bump that he's personally showed me).

3. How would you suggest I weigh up the cost/benefit of the above?

Be grateful for any help anyone can give.

Cheers,
Dim

Get the Merckx................

All but one of my bikes are second and even third hand. A second hand Raleigh aluminum bike is my daily ride. I have never had a warranty issue and the lack of a warranty is really of no concern to me. I have always felt that if there were a warranty issue, it would have been taken care of by the original owner. Of course, you need to pay special attention to the condition of a second hand bike. I would be very leery aout buying a second hand CF bike because like Scotttri said, the life of a CF bike is supposedly shorter than other materials. IMHO CF is too fragile too. If it were me, I would get the Merckx or the Baum, or maybe splurge a bit more and get a custom Ti frame.

kdelong said:

If it were me, I would get the Merckx or the Baum, or maybe splurge a bit more and get a custom Ti frame.

A custom Ti Baum would be fantastic, I reckon my next bike will be a Baum 😄