Got a minor niggle with the new Whyte, the dropper has some sag when sitting on it, an initial 2-3cm, but after that it doesn’t move (unless i make it). It seems a little picky of me i know, but i guess arguably it should stay exactly where i’ve set it..

I bought from Winstanleys, but they’re a million miles from home, however we have a Whyte dealer in the nearest town, but i don’t know how it works with bikes and warranty. I know with cars, you just take to the nearest compatible dealer and ask them to sort…

Bikes the same ?

If you take it somewhere other than where you bought it then it’s up to the shop how they deal with it. They don’t have to take it at all if they don’t want to. If they are willing to help then expect to pay any postage incurred and for their time.

Contract of sale including warranty between you and original retailer – not the manufacturer/distributor or one of their other authorised retailers.

If the manufacturer/distributor instructs another retailer to take on your problem and compensates them for their costs, that’s a good way to get it solved locally.

We get lots of people buying the brand we sell, but from on line retailers, and walk in expecting a first free service and warranty issues taken care of. We advise them to contact their retailer or charge for our time if they are happy to pay.

Seems strange that car warranties are any dealer, so are motorbikes etc.

Take the bike to a car dealer instead?

If you bought a television from Tesco would you take it to Aldi if it went wrong?

If both aldi and tesco were authorised and franchised type dealers, I can’t see why not.

The relationship between car dealers and the car makers they sell is far more formalised than that between bike manufacturers and thier independent retailers.

During my bike shop days a brand put a clause into their dealer contract compelling their dealers to offer servicing and warranty support on all that brand’s bikes regardless of where they were purchased.

They swiftly lost over half thier UK dealer network (including us) as their LBS dealers were spending all their time working for free on bikes bought from online discounters.

The shop that sold it to you made the profit so it’s them that should look after you if there’s a problem.

In the auto industry every job has standard hours. So anyone on the system, with the right authorisation (usually plugging into the diagnostic port with the right computer will do it!) can do the job and claim back for parts and labour.

Dealer you bought from should be first port of call, you could always ask them to contact the manufacture asking if you can take it to a local dealer.

And I *think* some brands do still do reciprocal service/repair/warranty. But it’s at the shops discretion. So by no means guaranteed.

There is I believe a difference between who has the reponsibility for responding to your statutory rights and those who are obliged to deal with your extended rights that provided by a manufacturer for a specific product.

I’m not sure I want to go back to seller in case they make me take the bike back. I don’t want to lose the bike, even though they have others in stock.

The post issue isn’t a massive problem. Its just a small irritation really. I wonder if I could even sort myself. The barrel adjuster seems set incorrectly. But as its stealth I don’t actually know how it works. If I turn adjuster even 1/2 turn the seat drops when I sit on it. Its only when I set the adjuster all the way it stays locked. So its possible just putting another cable on it would resolve things, but I’ll need a lesson from someone/YouTube as to how to do it.

Its not like I can just whip it out and send off is it?

Sounds like a setup issue not a warranty issue.

Can you not post the dropper back to them? Or even better, ask if they will post you a replacement with a view to sending the old one back on receipt of the new?

Admittedly, I too would buy cheap from an online retailer however things like this are the chance you take for the saving. Guessing the local dealer of which you refer, I’m sure they would be helpful to get it sorted, but doubt very much that it would be a cost free solution.

As a comparison, if you bought a pair of shorts from CRC in their sale for tuppence and they were the wrong size, you wouldnt take them back to a local independent bike shop for a refund. Ok, stretching the point a bit, but bikes are just a commodity and maybe it is just cars which are the exception.

Some brands do have a dealer arrangement that would allow you to take it to the nearest dealer. IIRC GT was one of them.

Some shops may be willing to assist if you are willing to pay for their time.

However your first port of call should always be the retailer that supplied the item.

Possibly a setup issue yes. But I can’t find a useful way of working out. I can’t actually fathom how stealth droppers work yet, like how you can lift and lower the post without it affecting the tension on the cable.

If I post dropper back to them I’m stuffed or needing to buy a 30.9 post for using the bike, my spare posts are only 31.6 or 27.2

I’ve got BPW next Monday, so I don’t really want to be without it for that.

Which seat post is it. Does sound like the cable may be to tight

My LBS warrantied a dropper for me that I hadn’t bought there, but I actually buy stuff in there often. Not a chance I would walk into a local shop I didn’t use and expect them to warranty someone else sale, just cheek IMO.

I’m not sure I want to go back to seller in case they make me take the bike back. I don’t want to lose the bike, even though they have others in stock.

Simple answer, do you have one of these?
(Other models do exist)
Call the shop you got it from, speak to them and work out your options.

orangeboy – Member

Which seat post is it. Does sound like the cable may be to tight

XFusion 125mm stealth Hilo

You could always ask your LBS to sort it in exchange for the cold, hard cash. Means you’ll keep the bike and they’ll get a couple of quid. If it’s as simple a solution as you think it won’t cost you much.

As i bought the bike at a decent price, i’m not against throwing a few quid to my LBS. I’ve emailed Winstanleys to let them know about the problem and will wait to see what they come back with.

I was debating asking them for a non-stealth Reverb in exchange as they’re less money than the X Fusion, so may have worked. But the Whyte doesn’t have any frame routing for external cables at all, whilst i know there are stick on things you can get, i don’t really want to go down that route.

I’ve also watched a few videos and it seems not as complex to remove as i first thought to adjust/replace the cable, so depending on what Winstanleys say, i may remove it and adjust at the cable end.

Weeksy, car and motorcycle dealers generally look after warranty claims if they aren’t the supplying dealer because the manufacturer pays them for their time (usually at about half their normal workshop rate). Pretty sure cycle manufacturers don’t pay their dealers to process claims, so there is no monetary incentive for them to do so…

Pretty sure cycle manufacturers don’t pay their dealers to process claims, so there is no monetary incentive for them to do so…

UK ones certainly don’t – in fact we often have to do the work for free and pay for the return postage. Some German manufacturers I’m a dealer for do pay for workshop time.

Ben,
Do you think it’s something that would be a good idea then ? You bill Whyte/CUBE/Whoever for warranty stuff and they pay you a (probably lower i admit) hourly rate for the workshop time.

Obviously these days the internet is mostly King for purchasing and often things are purchased a longish distance from the buyer…

Oh yes, theoretically it’s a good idea – but it involves organising a lot of dealers, distributors and manufacturers, and organising anyone in the bike industry is like herding cats 😉

I sell bikes to people a long way away all the time – sending a bike to Alaska tomorrow – and what I do is just work with the local bike shop if there’s an issue, either pay them directly for their time, or pay the customer back. But I can afford to do that because it happens so rarely with the kind of bikes I sell.

Problem is that with the bike industry it’ll be very easy to take the piss and charge 2 hours labor when it only takes half an hour to do the job. You only need a couple of shops to do that and the whole thing comes down.

Auto industry has huge workshops where people actually DO the job, and work out a precise time, parts list, operation lists. So if some one charges too many hours they are either incompetent, or crooked. So they get investigated and/or not paid.

The bike industry simply doesn’t have that level of sophistication (or enough money/legal clout/decent contracts) plus some shops don’t have dedicated workshops/mechanics, so who knows how long the job took, lets just bill them for the three hours the bike was on the stand and the mechanic was also fixing punctures and selling a kiddie bike…….

And the fact that the mechanic at Specialised (probably one of the few that could afford to do something like that) with a huge rack of extremely expensive tools in a clean workshop, a brand new bike and the absolutely correct parts can do the job in 24 minutes doesn’t translate well to some of the horrendous dumps i’ve seen with barely mechanically literate “mechanics” and a bike that needs a 30 minute clean before you can even see the problem, which is under 10 mm of rust…….

As an aside, when i google for “Chaotic bicycle workshops” why do i get 50 pictures of absolutely immaculate workshops where you could eat your dinner off the floor? Has the meaning of chaos changed since i moved away from an English as a first language country?

You can’t buy cheap off the internet then expect LBS service. Astonishing.

To be perfectly honest, buying expensive from an LBS doesn’t actually guarantee you good service. Just a lighter wallet.

jmatlock – Member

You can’t buy cheap off the internet then expect LBS service. Astonishing.

I didn’t think it was that far fetched in honesty…

I can tell you didn’t. Which is even more amazing. In real life, I would assume your options are thus:

– Return to the place you bought it.
– By a reverb front CRC, send yours to be repaired and sell when it’s returned to recoup costs.
– Take post to local shop and pay to have it fixed/set up/serviced

Scott used to imply this.

In reality you never ever got paid and you stopped stocking the brand to make the people expecting it go away.

Think id still spend the £3.00 on a new inner cable or if there is enough cable left at the seat post end just slacken it off just a little and see if that fixes it. If the cables to tight it won’t let the post lock into place. Got to be easier to try first before shipping a whole bike back

To remove the post from the bike you just need to feed the cable casing into the frame as you pull the post out , you may need to remove the remote from the bars to have enough slack.

Thanks for that Orange 🙂 I was still wondering about that part, but yeah that makes sense. 🙂

As mentioned in your other thread, those X-Fusion posts are shite. Send it back to Winstanleys, buy a better dropped and sell the X-fusion when you get it back. Simples.

if there is too much cable tension. Have you moved the seatpost up without feeding more outer into the frame.

if there is too much cable tension. Have you moved the seatpost up without feeding more outer into the frame.

Hmmmm. Yes, possibly i guess. I think i raised the post about 3-4cm from the supplied position, so possibly you could be onto something there, certainly worth a try when i get back from work tonight.

lawman91 – Member

As mentioned in your other thread, those X-Fusion posts are shite. Send it back to Winstanleys, buy a better dropped and sell the X-fusion when you get it back. Simples.

Apart from the minor sag issue, i quite like the post, works well and nice and smooth etc.

Its the decision you make when buying online, and I guess the decision a retailer makes when selling online.

I have had very positive outcomes when buying from PedalOn. They said I could receive a part and take it to a local retailer to have fitted and they would pay the bill, or would send me the part and I could fit it.