Hiya.

I want to buy a pair of the adjustable 130 – 160 Pikes for a 26″ bike and I have seen a few good prices on the web. I phoned up my LBS who have a “Price Beat Guarantee” because I’d rather deal with local guys and keep local businesses going. They told me though that lots of the online deals are either:

> Unboxed OEM forks
> Sent from abroad an unlikely to covered by UK warranty

If I discount the Euro sites (1 of which is plainly selling OEM) then there is a UK site stating “Boxed, with shock pump and manual”. Could there still be issues?

The retail price is apparently only 20 quid above wholesale so they won’t match the price. I’m not bothered about being an arse to try and force them to match the price, they are not in the same league as CRC or someone like that but am I likely to be hit by any comeback from this on the warranty side if I go ahead an purchase?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Ade

Your warranty is with the shop, so if the break, the shop has to replace them.

In my experience the warranty issues have been resolved by the distributor and not the shop. They have just sent them off.

If the ‘boxed forks with seal kit’ are from Merlin which I assume they are, you’ll be fine warranty service from them is excellent. Anything rockshox or that might need warranty id buy from Merlin or bike-discount.de.

thanks guys – other option was alltricks.com

In my experience the warranty issues have been resolved by the distributor and not the shop. They have just sent them off.

Two different things. As you say, the shop will likely just return things to a distributor for warranty work, but if they’ve sourced parts through dodgy channels they are obliged to repair/replace under warranty. That’s not your problem, you have no contract with Fisher (as RS distributor), your contract is with the retailer.

I have a set of piles from alltricks. They’re clearly OE, but for just less than 400 notes, I have plenty in the back to fix them. Feed back from others seems that alltricks are pretty pucker anyway.

I have a set of piles from alltricks

I wouldn’t be happy with that if I was after some Pikes 😀

I wouldn’t be happy with that if I was after some Pikes

Sour grapes?

The sourest!
I wouldn’t be able to sit down I’d be so mad!

I have a set of piles from alltricks

Ouch…are they very good on the (w)hole?

SRAM’s warranty is global so any issues should be dealt with where you are, roughly. I’ve done this with forks bought in the UK but repaired under warranty in Sweden.

See this post from a similar, older thread (possible that some details may have changed):

SRAM offer an international warranty, but only when the item is purchased through an authorised SRAM dealer (ie NOT ebay!). SRAM also have their own warranty and tech centre in the UK, now, so no potential issues about Fishers (SRAM UK agent) grumbling they’ve not imported the item, as they won’t be handling it.

Edit: come to think of it the forks I had work done on were almost certainly from Merlins big box of grey-import/OEM mystery. No one has ever asked me whether a part I’m wanting work done on is OEM or not.

Have bought quite a few forks boxed and unboxed but always from the big boys. Have not had any issues & Merlin in particular have an exceptionally good attitude.

But for £20 I’d go with the lbs everytime

Unboxed OEM forks
Sent from abroad an unlikely to covered by UK warranty

Unsure about warranty for all- I bought German Shimano brakes/Fisher sorted me out.

TBH though post is just as quick from here to Germany and vice versa. Infact contact (I found) is more efficient.

As for OEM? Rubbish.

Lol you lot. Perfect typo!

I always buy local to me where possible. The thing is the local shops aren’t great fullstop.

I’ll support people who are good; my indie local car tyre place, local garage, local food etc.

I wont support a place that bad-mouths competitors, or think a customer thinking of his wallet is a bad thing.

I see the 2014 forks are discounted now that the 2015 forks are available – Does anyone know what the differences are?

I take stuff back to my lbs and they sort the warranty regardless of where I have bought it from.

Is anywhere doing any any good deal on 160mm 26″ pikes?
I think I missed the boat on the pikey online ones

Cheers guys. Hope to not pick up piles in the process.

Great to hear there is a UK SRAM service centre.

LBS are saying they can’t (don’t want to) get close and want to charge an extra £100… so ruling themselves out effectively.

leeroybrown – best prices I’ve seen are: Alltricks, bike-discount & merlin.

Good luck.