I have a Specailized Allez through the cycle to work scheme got the bike in middle October and have done about 300 mileson it. Riding to work the other day pulled off from a junction did about 5 pedal stroke then a massive endo as the rear mech snapped off into the rear wheel. It has caused a nasty sharp dent in the seat tube, heavily buckled the rear wheel, bent the skewer and the (plastic) rear mech had snapped in 2. My argument is the rear mech has failed and damaged the frame beyond repair. The supplier believes the mech has taken an impact which caused it to fail which has then caused the damage and is not a warrany issue. I except damage on my mountain bike and just replace bits accordingly but only ride to work on the road on this bike and have not takn any impacts on the mech or anywhere else. Sorry bit long winded but any advice on where I stand appreciated?

I think it will be hard to show that the mech failed first. I have had a mech go into the wheel due to something hitting it on the road

There was nothing on the road when I looked round so could not see anyhting that would have hit it, the mech itself sheared in 2 around the the limit screws then as a result went into the whee causiong all the damage.

Is the chain snapped? (Depending on your answer my advice may differ)

Chain did not snap still on

rightly or wrongly from a moral pov, consequential damage isn’t covered by component warranties and seems to be discretionaly / goodwill if the warranty failure is clear-cut.

C2W?

Give it back to your employer 🙂

just a bit irritating that I am going to be paying for this bike for the next 18 months and I cannot use it.

You may not have hit anything, but it could have got a hefty whack in a bike stand by a clumsy oaf

rightly or wrongly from a moral pov, consequential damage isn’t covered by component warrantie

I suspect the OP will not get anywhere with this case

But generally it is possible to claim for consequential loss under SOGA – which this would be rather than a manufacturers warranty

Rear mechs going into spokes is an odd one, obviously it can be down to bent mech/hanger or bad adjustment, sometimes it “just happens” and a cause is impossible to identify.

Bike stands on its own in secure parking at work so can’t have had a knock there, I believe it must be a fairly heavy hit to cause the mech to split straight down the centre of the body. I know it is not a dear bike £530 but really a plastic mech !

IMHO it sounds like the kind of thing that happens when a rear wheel QR hasn’t been tightned sufficiently. Mechs are under virtually no load at all, they don’t just snap.

How would a rear mech snapping cause an endo??

Perhaps the chain got jammed in the rear mech when you were pulling away and dragged the mech round with it. If you were powering away from a junction there would have been quite a lot of torque going through the chain.

have a Specailized Allez through the cycle to work scheme

As you are only renting the bike from your employer, can you not get them to fix it?

bigyinn has it – it’s always the chain catching the spokes that breaks the mech, not the other way round.

Except:

How would a rear mech snapping cause an endo??

Biek brought to quick and unanticipated halt, rider’s bodyweight keeps going, imminent nut/stem incident and possibility of going OTB.

cynic – al, sounds about right but i would normally expect the rear mech hanger to give rather than the mech itself and that way my frame would not have been ruined.

Bigyinn – endo a result of rear wheel jamming me stood up and driving forward.

Just had a customer in with Exactly the same problem. Mindful of this thread we offered an immediate replacement of the rear mech (no other damaged caused, other than a scratched spoke). On inspection the chain, which appeared to be fine, had failed at the shimano joining link, this had jammed in the rear mech, pulling the mech round and into the wheel.

I have total faith that this will be covered under warranty, so OP, inspeact the chain. Is it really OK, or is it snapped, with the snapped bit jammed in the rear mech?

Which mech is it? I thought the entry level Allez had a basic Shimano mech. Which is more likely, the mech having had a bash at some point and you not spotting it, or a part that is probably made in the hundreds of thousands every year suffering catastrophic failure across a point that it wouldn’t normally?

I’ve seen this a few times in the shop, every time caused by either a snapped chain or a bashed mech – but we also did some repairs FOC out of goodwill.

The shop came back to me having spoken to Specialized who are replacing my bike with brand new one, could be 2011 to 😀

specialized warranty rules! 😀

Brilliant result!

My Allez front mech wasn’t fitted too well and the cable of the rear mech was rubbing the frame – all sorted under warranty.

They also replaced my entire wheel set because of some (unknown to me) hub issue.

Lucky you didn’t really hurt yourself!

I like a happy ending.
But both uplink and gonefishin do make valid points.

That’s incredible. Specialized warranty is something else- glad you got it sorted so well!

Just as a point, our club has some road bikes and two of them have had the mech shift into the spokes with <100 miles on them. The shop replaced them for free since it was their set up that would cause this (not dealing with H/L screws properly).

Does the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
cover cycle-to-work bikes?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg291.pdf
“What equipment is covered by the Regulations?
Generally, any equipment which is used by an employee at work is covered, for example hammers, knives, ladders, drilling machines, power presses, circular saws, photocopiers, lifting equipment (including lifts), dumper trucks and motor vehicles. Similarly, if you allow employees to provide their own equipment, it too will be covered by PUWER and you will need to make sure it complies.”