• This topic has 18 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by jonba.
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  • lifetime warranties
  • fingerbang
    Free Member

    ‘scuse my ignorance on this but what are your experiences with ‘lifetime warranties’ in the real world? Its now pretty much an industry standard and I don’t know whether that’s trickled down from the big brands and the boutique/smaller brands have been forced to take it up to compete.

    I know its really ‘lifetime crash replacement’ but my understanding is that if you’re the original owner and anything happens to your bike, outside the initial defect warranty period, such as cracks in a weld or whatever, then you’ll just be ‘looked after’ by the manufacturer and whether that means a free replacement or discounted replacement depends on the brand. This covers all damage. Is this about right?

    Does it depend on which brand and is it a case by case basis? I get the impression each brand is different and a lot can depend on their UK distributors. If that’s the case then surely the strength of its warranty is as important as its leverage ratio or whatevs

    For example, I’ve a mate who cracked his Orange crush on a drop off and got a free replacement, the same guy cracked his Blur and got a free Bronson (arguably an upgrade as Blur was discontinued). As a consequence he’s santa cruz4life now. This might be because he bought all his frames from a renowned LBS that had a good relationship with Orange and Santa Cruz so he got well looked after or it might be cos the brands have got generous warranties I don’t know.

    I know another guy, a BDS racer who cracked his Yeti 303 about 5 times in a race season and got a new frame each time, although I’ve heard stories of Yeti being tight otherwise with warranty replacements
    Am I right in saying that its hit the second hand market for frames as the warranty, which is obviously valuable, can’t be transferred.

    Im wondering if my aluminium frame, which is lifetime warrantied and about 3 years old, will be upgraded/replaced for free if it gets written off – not that im about to go at it with a hammer or anything – lets be absolutely clear about that

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Read the book…
    There are 2 lifetimes one is yours and other is a defined period of time from 3-5 years.
    Crash replacement is normally discretionary after end of warranty. I snapped some chain stays on a 6 year old Enduro when they were 5 year lifetime (before that didn’t include the chain stays) and they would have chucked me a set if they had any for nowt.

    Santa Cruz said it was something like 5 years no questions on the carbon and then discretion after that.

    as for your frame depends what it is

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    I’m not sure the stated length of warranty is the main thing. some manufactureres seem great on this; some seem shit

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    Northwind
    Full Member

    Who was it, Litespeed? The lifetime warranty is for the life of the frame; if your frame’s broken, it’s dead and therefore obviously no warranty 😆

    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    For a lot of brands, “lifetime” is the expected (by the manufacturer) lifetime of the bike – was plenty fuss about one of the big Ti framebuilders (Litespeed or Lynskey, can’t remember which) refusing to honour claims on cracked frames that were more than five years old, as they considered that the expected life.

    Other brands like Specialized can be a lot more generous.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Other brands like Specialized can be a lot more generous.

    It was specialized who defined life as 5 years then dropped it to one for “Suspension Components”which included chain stays – not very generous

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Once you get past the usual consumer rights limits it really comes down to the small print, and sometimes how much the retailer is prepared to fight your corner and how much that retailer is worth to the manufacturer – some massive outfit like CRC will have more clout with manufacturers than one-man-band LBS.

    Some warranties are transferable between owners, but most aren’t.

    Some companies like Fox and Santa Cruz seem very generous with theirs, but you could argue the premium they charge over the equivalent product from their competitors means they can easily afford to be.

    Personally though, I don’t think they’re worth the paper they’re written on – if the manufacturer wants to help, they will, if they don’t want to, they won’t: case in point.

    When I bought my 2006 Spesh Enduro it came with a “lifetime warranty” they said, if it cracks, let us know and you’ll get a brand new frame. A few years later though Spesh changed their mind, now they say if it’s FS the lifetime warranty only covers the front triangle, it’s 2 years for the rear – so when mine did crack, they said I’d have to buy a new one – because their change in policy was retrospective! I believe it’s now 2 years for everything, which again was retrospective.

    Evil Bikes, 3 year limited warranty on their frames, unless of course they decide to stop making your particular type of frame – “oh your super fancy carbon frame cracked, sorry we don’t make those anymore” and that was is, chuck it in the bin.

    Ultimately a Warranty is not a Guarantee, it doesn’t say ‘we guarantee this product will work faultlessly for however long you own it’ it’s an agreement that if they made a mistake making it, they’ll replace it, for a few years at least, until you get the long – 800 word version that lists every conceivable reason for them to get out of it if they want to, you rely on it at your peril and really the only way know if it’s worth it, is to speak to others who’ve had to use it.

    Pawsy_Bear
    Free Member

    18 month old Bronson frame, came to renew bearings one was X threaded. Four weeks later new 2015 frame from US no questions asked. Other bike companies may be different. All done through LBS. they didn’t even have my old frame back by the time the new one arrived. Just took mechanics word for it.

    fingerbang
    Free Member

    thanks for the replies. it think it definitely helps to have a good LBS that will argue your corner and have clout with the brand/distributor

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    On Santa Cruz bearings, I take it to be they’re lifetime replacement based on the lifetime of the frame. So long as it’s still in one piece the they should do the bearings no question (assuming they’re knackered that is).

    Last time I just handed over the linkages to LBS to do it. Pay for labour but not the bearings (handy as there’s 8 of them).

    Pawsy_Bear
    Free Member

    yup bearings life time. I get LBS to do it.

    At the same time I had my Pike in to TF Tuned for service. They found a warranty issue (felt fine to me just a bit of top out movement), all they wanted was the receipt and the LBS got a new set of Pikes back from SRAM. Had the same with reverb. Felt a bit loose after couple years sent to importers for service by LBS (£25). Got a complete new reverb back.

    Bikes like new 😀

    Pawsy_Bear
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t buy a bike on its warranty but it certainly worth considering. I’m happy to get good service, yes you pay for a good service such as TF but it comes with its benefits.

    I have a 2010 Zesty as well. Forks and shock are serviced regularly and after 6 years still going strong.

    Look after your kit and it will look after you.

    mccraque
    Full Member

    I snapped a 2009 Zesty at the chainstay after 5 years. Was replaced and rebuilt FOC by Evans.

    Snapped 2 Boardman Pro MTB’s in exactly the same place (where seat tube meets top tube). The first one in warranty and the replacement, out of warranty. Halfords replaced with no issues whatsoever.

    Maybe I have been lucky in terms of the service. But it means I’d buy from them again, and write nice things on STW!

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Some manufacturers offer a transferable warranty subject to an inspection (e.g. Van Nicolas)

    gray
    Full Member

    This is the crucial bit that most people don’t get:

    Ultimately a Warranty is not a Guarantee, it doesn’t say ‘we guarantee this product will work faultlessly for however long you own it’ it’s an agreement that if they made a mistake making it, they’ll replace it, for a few years at least, until you get the long – 800 word version that lists every conceivable reason for them to get out of it if they want to, you rely on it at your peril and really the only way know if it’s worth it, is to speak to others who’ve had to use it.

    Even a life (of owner) warranty doesn’t necessarily mean replacement if something fails. It typically just means that if there was a manufacturing flaw that came to light later, it would be covered. If you design and make e.g. a lightweight aluminium racing hardtail, then you can design and make it perfectly, but it’s simply not specced to survive 20 years of hard use. It could fail perfectly reasonably after time. People think it’s weasel wording to say “lifetime = 5 years”, but really what that means is “realistically if it breaks after 5 years then we won’t replace it, because we only designed it to last at least 5 years, and if we’d messed up making it then it’d have broken before then”.

    1 year warranties are a bit dodgy though, and retrospective changes to warranties are also not exactly playing fair in my opinion!

    Northwind
    Full Member

    mccraque – Member

    Snapped 2 Boardman Pro MTB’s in exactly the same place (where seat tube meets top tube). The first one in warranty and the replacement, out of warranty. Halfords replaced with no issues whatsoever.

    I think there’s a big slice of luck with Halfords tbh; they’re a big enough company to be comfortable basically giving away money but also big enough to be pretty erratic.

    They gave me probably my best customer service ever- I bought a used bike, out of warranty. The freehub broke (cheap formula hub) so I went into Halfords with just the wheel and went “This is one of yours, how much will it cost to fix it”. Taps computer “Ah the part will take a while… Do you need it this weekend” “Um, yeah” “OK no worries, we’ll get you a wheel”. Walked out 10 minutes later with a brand new wheel out of a display bike 😆 No questions asked, and all offered without hesitation. Fab really.

    bigblackshed
    Full Member

    One of the Ti frame builders are infamous for “lifetime warranty” which translates to “the life of the frame was up until 1 nano second before it broke”.

    IME Orange were worse than useless. I ripped both rear dropouts out of a P7 frame on a 12″ drop off, I was using it “for purposes for which it was not intended”. What. Like mountain biking?

    wrecker
    Free Member

    It says good things about a product to me. It says “we made this and we think it’s very good. As a result we’ll stand by it if it ****s up”.
    There are numerous manufacturers who I wouldn’t touch, no matter how good their stuff is because of stories of poor warranty support. I can see that firms like these stories kept out of the media/forums because they really do damage sales.
    Given two similar products with similar prices, I’d choose the one with a lifetime warranty over the one with a five year every time.

    jonba
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t put any value on them. I had a similar experience with specialized. Cracked swingarm after a few years. LBS actually got me a new one but initially didn’t get anywhere. Good companies don’t publicize lifetime warranties but will “see you right” should you have any problems that are unexpected. People like Hope as an example. Bell have also been generous with their crash replacement scheme on a helmet bout at a ridiculous price in a clearance sale and slightly too old for the scheme normally. Even helped out when I was fussy about the colour and upgraded to one where they had in stock for a small extra.

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