Long story short...
Bought a bike from a shop. Bike came with 'lifetime' warranty on the frame.
3 years in, found the chainstay to have cranked. Spoke to shop, they were no longer a dealer for said manufacturer but said no problem, they'd handle the warranty claim. No quibbles, manufacturer replaced the chainstay.
I fitted it. Bit of faff getting the back wheel back in but it's always been a bit awkward due to the concentric pivot/axle/dropout so didn't give it much thought.
2 months later, seems very much that the chainstay is bent. The dropouts aren't aligned (one higher than the other). Spent quite a long time looking at it and it's definitely not straight.
Given how badly is misaligned I'm struggling to see any explanation other than it wasn't welded straight. Given that it's alloy, I Can't see that it would be possible to bend it out of shape to the extent that is. Particularly when the rear axle would have been clamping it together.
Anyway, I did say this was a short version...
Manufacturer won't deal with me as a retail customer. Have to take it to a dealer. Found a place locally who said they'd handle a claim on my behalf.
Manufacturer has now come back and offered a replacement part with a crash replacement discount that looks to be about 50% off.
Am I right to be a bit miffed being made to pay for a replacement if the original warranty replacement wasn't built properly?
Manufacturer hasn't asked for the part back to inspect it. They've just offered a replacement with a discount.
Do we reckon it's worth arguing? If I could deal with the manufacturer directly, I'd argue it but it feels like the new shop are kind of doing me a favour by handling the claim (I know handling stuff like that is part of being a distributor).
Do I just suck it up and pay? Write an email to the manufacturer and ask the shop to pass it on?
They've got me over a barrel really as the part is dealer only and I know if I buy it through another dealer that it's knocking on for £500. I'm leaning towards coughing up, complaining to myself whilst muttering about it under my breath for the next few months but at least I can ride the bike to cheer myself up about the whole thing.
Hang on, are you saying (just) an alloy chainstay is ~£500. Or is it a whole rear triangle/linkages?
And why did you fit it rather than the shop who dealt with the warranty?
I think you've created this problem by yourself by not getting the LBS to fit the chainstay as, presumably, they'd have immediately spotted the replacement was duff from the factory...
So, I have some sympathy for the manufacturer but not if they are a large megacorp 😉
I saw a post elsewhere where someone had bought a second hand bike (same model) and been quoted £475 for a replacement part. Chainstay only. It's not just a single stay, both stays with the drop out/ bearings included.
Still, £475 is a shocking amount.
Original shop would have been paid £50 to swap it over. Its not a 5 minute job being an ebike and didn't seem fair to make him do it to be honest.
I also wanted to run a new gear and dropper cable and replace the bearings while it was all apart. The rear brake line needed to be replaced and I wanted the new stay covered with invisiframe when it was fitted. Seeing as I already had all the parts and am happy stripping it and reassembling it, I figured I'd do it all in one go.
I'm not bashing the manufacturer. I've had a few issues with the bike and it's been a very positive experience with them so far. Just curious whether everyone would be happy at having to pay for a replacement.
I get what you mean though.
Did you notice the issue after 2 months' use, or did you not really use the bike for 2 months after fitting the replacement? Because if the replacement part isn't right then you'd want to have got back to them quicker probably. Is it possible the issue isn't with the chainstay?
I rode it twice in the 2 months. Probably 70 miles in total.
I spent a long time in the garage trying to forgive out what was wrong. Symptoms being when removing the rear wheel, the whole rear triangle would pop apart as though the hole thing was under tension.
I can't see how it's anything other than the chainstay assembly to be honest.
The dropouts are not aligned and the rear axle appears to not to be parallel to the crank axle.
Not the best pictures... Garage was a bit of a mess!
This is with a piece of threaded bar through the cranks. Assuming thats pretty close to horizontal, I'd say the suspension pivots and the rear axle should be parallel to the threaded bar. You can see the angle that the axle sits is miles away .
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You can see that with the axle threaded into the dropout, the other end isn't central to the bearing. I know it's a bike and not precision engineering but given how stiff the stays are , I can't see that it's meant to be that far off?
I did think maybe it could be a collapsed bearing at the main pivot or possibly even the axle which runs on that pivot had snapped but they were all okay.
If it was steel, I could accept that maybe I'd bent it but given that it's alloy, I don't think it could have deformed that much to have set itself so badly skewed without cracking or at least showing stress in the paint.
I can be a belligerent **** if I feel I've been wronged so maybe don't follow my advice.
If I was 100% certain that it was a manufacturing fault, I would write to the company record delivery explaining that I wasn't going to pay £500 for a chain stay, but would use that money to pay for an independent engineering report which would then form the basis of my small claims proceeding and that the letter, sent recorded delivery should be considered as notice before action. Give them a dragline by which to respond before you start the process.i dispose injustice. However, you have to balance that with taking it on the chin if you're wrong.
Yep, that is bent. The origin of the bend is the issue. Have you sent the photos to the manufacturer?
Which manufacturer? Just for future reference on who to avoid.
I think I’ve been wronged
But your best bet is to suck it up and post £250 in my opinion
Even if you had a legal case it’s now a minefield. Yes it’s bent, but when did it bend? Are you qualified to do the work. Why didn’t you notify them when you first installed