Unfortunately the Warranty is as much for the manufacturers benefit as well as the customers and it totally limits their liability, even if it turned out there was a defect in the frame when originally sold. If they’ve done something for you outside of warranty its ex-gratia (a defined legal term) and is not an admission of anything – simply a good will gesture at their discretion, nothing more, nothing less. I’m afraid you would have got nowhere if you had tried to push harder especially if you started accusing it of being not fit for purpose. How would you ever begin to prove that? Certainly not from the opinion of a frame builder, no matter how well respected.

Could you imagine if everyone with a car that is out of warranty that has broken down approached the manufacturer demanding a new car, or free repair, claiming the car was not fit for purpose? You wouldn’t get very far.

A point well made wobbliscott and perfectly logical.

I appeciate there is no way they could say the design didn’t suit the material as it it could potentially open a real can of worms.

I would however like to think if I had a small company making a product with my name essentially on it I would at least take a look to satisfy my own curisoty that everything was as it should be. It’s not as if they are sending out tens of thousands of frames a year

To be fair I did point out early on in ownership I was concerned with how tight the seat clamp lever had to be done up to stop the seat post slipping. I was advised that was normal for that model and to use a carbon grip paste which I did. I tried 3 diffrent posts and with paste it still had to be so tight you could just about close it with all of them and I’m not the weakest of fellows.

I suppose I could be a coincidence that is the spot the crack developed and I did send them copies of the original emai concerns when I offered to pay return carriage for them to take a look at the damage.