He was nevertheless seriously injured from the same impact. It was therefore clearly a pretty big impact that no XC race frame could be expected to cope with, and that very very few frames would be warranties for.
I don't see it that way - you can fall awkwardly and really hurt yourself without it being a "big" fall...and a "big" impact does not imply a big fall necessarily either.
The frame is designed for riding around flat fields. I guess the rider must have hit a rock hard cow pat. I'd blame the farmer.
Hard to see from the pics, but our EUCC man Tom has snapped 2. This one went at the top tube-seat tube weld:
Not both were Scandiums, one was a steel frame. He also snapped a Marin, possibly confirming that Tom isn't the smoothest rider in the world, but seemed happy enough to take another scandium frame to france for the summer. I loved my original so much I bought a second one. James Ochterloney races one full time, Gareth Montgomerie has one as a winterbike. Etc etc etc. Race bikes are meant for smooth riding, not ramming into things, including roots etc.
Just my tuppence - I would like to say how strong the Kula frames are, at least the scandium one I had. Rode it as my only bike for about 3 years, did all the Welsh trail centres on it etc. Oh and I'm a 15 stone whippet - lol
I would certainly not worry about getting another.
As for bending it like christ knows what happened !
I reckon based on how it was purchased etc it seems like a reasonable deal to be offered a rash replacement.
