[Closed] Any high end FS frames that don't have any issues

Ibis?

Edit: not saying anything 😉

Cotic? Nukeproof? Saracen?

Fives

Pivot Mach 429 carbon.

I think it's all down to the name really. If the name of the bike can be altered to include a form of break age then you here about those failing. I.e. snapierre, cracknfail and some others I can't think of right now......

My 2005 Orange five is still going strong so that must mean all Oranges are good right?

Santa Cruz seem OK, mostly good reports.

Ventana.
They are quite substantially built.
I did see a pic of a failed one on here, but I took the couple I've had to Radness of Gnar level 7.
Which is quite high.

Everything breaks....

Older Spec Enduros at the chain stays (2 versions)

In general if you want to avoid problems then the later versions of a model (The 06ish enduro style got some tougher chain stays added, SC Changed the design of the pivot that was cracking)

My 2005 Orange five is still going strong so that must mean all Oranges are good right?

Anything that is less than a year old I wouldn't trust as it's not been out enough to be tested properly, if it's had issues and a re-design then it's probably good and if it's made 2 years with nothing serious then go for it.

Just make sure you don't go for anything less than a 5 year warranty.

Santa Cruz seem OK, mostly good reports.

My '08 Enduro S-Works carbon is still going strong - didn't have any issues with the '06 Expert either

kiwijohn - Member
Santa Cruz seem OK, mostly good reports.

Yep. Nope.

didn't have any issues with the '06 Expert either

You snapped a Turner? My DW link 5 spot looks like it would survive an attack by a hungry T Rex. But then I've never snapped a frame

Knolly, some of the older endorphins had a few issues with swing arms but everything else they've made is pretty much bomb proof, I'm on my third one after owning the last two (v-tach, delirium now a chilcotin) for 3 years each and haven't even had to replace so much as a bearing on any of them.

Everything breaks.The title should be "Which brand has the best after sales care?".In which case Turner (if you don't go through Sliverfilth) or Nicolai.

I think the w in Whyte stands for warranty (they have very good aftersales service)

The Whyte 146 later models have a cross brace to fix any earlier issues.

As long as you are the original owner you get a warranty to cover any defects. The problems come when people do massive drop offs, are not lightweight and land badly and wonder why the bike has broken or you have bought it 2nd hand and have no come back.

I guess that's one reason why the new frames cost so much

OP, what have you heard about your ASR-5? I don't think I've heard of many problems. I have one and I'm not aware of any issues.

Best bet is to buy a frame that has had many iterations, so all the problems have been sorted out.

I'll say a Turner Burner. (New frame, but its had the original burner, flux, spot, sultan, rfx to base issues on, and Turner have nailed any of the issues when they came up. I don't think I've heard of a 2011+ frame dying).

How about Transition?

I'm very happy with my Bandit. Haven't read any complaints about that at all.

Transition (I have a covert) I've not heard of any issues. Nukeproof seem very durable and they are great value

Anything can and will break, so get something with both a good warranty and good service of that warranty (it's not use having a good warranty if it takes months to replace the bike, no idea why people seem to accept that)

Commencal sorted out the Meta issues when the new style Metas were launched in 2012, not heard any bad reports since

Transition, heard from somewhere that only 14 frames have been warranted

kiwijohn - Member
Yep. Nope.

You mean "[i]yeah, nah[/i]"? 🙂

Nukeproof seem very durable and they are great value

Like travo said, knolly. Been reading up on them for months and haven't come across any reports of breaks in their bikes for a few years! Can't wait to get my warden!

A decade working in bikes shops and I haven't yet come across a brand that I haven't seen ANY issues with... As said before, go with whoever has best aftersales.

The commencal designer told me they have seen zero issues with the new meta, I believe him given how the rest of the conversation was I.e. very frank and non corporate. I'm still trying to break my cove GSpot which is quite impressive given how much use it has. Almost every single component has broken but not the frame!

I weigh 250lbs and am a much crappier and more clumsy rider than the OP - that is a dead cert. My Turner Sultan could take a beating from 2 of me for the rest of my life and still kick my backside.
Someone has something good and someone has something bad to say about every brand of everything in the world.

Since when have Nukeproof, Specialized & Commençal been high end, no offence to owners of them.

Knolly, Nicolai, Liteville etc are high end

The commencal designer told me they have seen zero issues with the new meta, I believe him given how the rest of the conversation was I.e. very frank and non corporate.

Remember when they had a load of issues? They've been overbuilding since I think. Subsequently fairly heavy bikes, nowt else wrong with them though.

That is it JCL. The conversation about breakages came about after I had mentioned that the bikes weren´t the lightest!

In the last three years I can think of the following snapped frames with the guys I ride with. Not sure if you would class them as high end frames but all between £1.K-£3.5K for the full bikes to buy.

Cube AMS x 2
Cube Stereo
Specialized Epic Carbon...( 3 times frame replaced)
Trek Remedy.

The Remedy was just before Christmas.

All of these were sorted under warranty without much fuss, by the LBS's they were bought from.

A few things have occurred to me about this.

It would take a brave design team to say to their managers "do you know what lets, just tweak last years design, instead of designing a new bike"

New bike designs are being Beta tested by the owners.

Do the really big boys sell so many bikes that just sit in sheds and garages un-ridden, that they are happy to fix the few that are ridden hard.

I am happy with my Five.

I'd rather have a bike that didn't break than one that needs a warranty. Getting a new bike every year or so via a warranty sounds good but having done it the warranty process is almost always a total pain (although my last two {Ragley and Whyte} were relatively painless... partly because I always have 2+ bikes these days 🙄 ).

I know of three Nicolai's with issues. One of those was caused by the owner not servicing the bushings when they needed it; riding the bike hard with loose bushings wore the frame; but the dealer was very good and sorted him with another frame, and I believe the damaged frame was repaired and is with a new owner. The second is the secondhand/demo frame story off here which again involved loose bushings; I can't remember how that finished. The third is a frame with a damaged bottom bracket shell from a bike being ridden with a poorly fitting or damaged bottom bracket. Nicolai offered to repair this at cost, but BETD were cheaper, and I think the frame was sold cheaply as damaged repairable.

OK... so I'm a bit of a Nicolai fanboi but I've been riding Nicolai's for 10 years and not broken one (first I had for 6+ years and My Helius AM for nearly 4 years)... which with my history of breaking bikes is impressive (my AM has outlasted two hardtail frames... and the AM is the bike I use for the big stuff 😯 ).

I think I need to buy a Nicolai hardtail next time 😉

Liteville Mk11?

I've never heard of any problems with them.

Although a 0.1% failure rate on something that sells 10,000 or 100,000 units is likely to get far more attention than a 0.1% failure rate on something that sells less than 500 (yes, I understand that 0.1% of 500 is less than 1 and that's rather the point I'm making).

^^ This - I did quite a bit of Googling before i bought my s/h Mk8 and could find no reports of any failures. Didn't search any German websites mind you but I've never heard of any issues. Maybe that's why they're happy to offer a 10m year transferrable warranty.

Don't hear much on the 'vine about broken Ibis's (Ibese?)

Pivot make a good frame.

Don't hear much on the 'vine about broken Ibis's (Ibese?)

Read plenty on MTBR several years ago about broken swingarms. Good aftersales though from all accounts.

My Ghost AMR had a stay snap before I owned it. Replaced on warranty.

Already mentioned but worth repeating - Nicolai.

Yup, Nicolai. Look after the bushings (easy) and you'll have no problems.