Following on from complaints about the after sales support from Orange in another thread, I wonder which manufacturer is best at supporting its customers in the long term. Say you were going to buy a new bike now and you expected it to last at least five (and maybe ten) years. Who would you trust most to look after you?

Turner!

Turner. End of thread.

😀

Hope

Don’t know about 10 years but I’ve been impressed with Cotic. Especially considering I don’t even have a warranty, and I keep saying things like “So, I was practicing for a downhill race at fort william and FOR NO REASON AT ALL a bit broke!”.

Specialized’s warranty is the gold standard though… Lifetime frame warranty, new-for-old replacement.

Hope… Bit hard to get older parts now isn’t it? Remember people having trouble with Bulb consumables. I’m on the fence, they were always quick to replace my broken pro 2 axles but not at all quick to fix the actual defect, I ended up having to pay to “upgrade” to a design that works.

Yep, as above – For bikes, Spesh are teh shizzle. Giant are excellent, too.

Bits? Hope and Oakley really set the standard for others to follow, IMO.

Orange every time. All I ever hear is good stuff about their support, and my own experience over 13 years bears this out 100%.

Specialized would be right up there.

I like what Van Nicholas have to say too.

If I’m honest I felt a little let down by Cotic which I was surprised about at the time going on their reputation. To be fair to them I do accept my frame was 4 months out of warranty though so they had every right to do nothing – which they didn’t.

Not Spesh IMO, their OEM hubs are so bad as to be ridiculous, to their credit tey fixed it FOC but it broke again a few rides later, fixed again and then went in the shed.

Dare I suggest Marin and Whyte or rather brands supported by these http://www.atb-sales.co.uk/.

Buy Specialized and you’ll certainly need that customer support, unless you only ever ride towpaths in deserts. Maybe they look good on paper, but press-fit BBs, own-brand forks, pile-of-sh*te hubs – they’re mechanicals waiting to happen. That’s why retailers love ’em. Kerching.

+1 Hope, Recently had a problem with a cracked freehub body, sent it back (more in hope that expectation) and they replaced it FOC. Three day turn around.

Park Tools, – really good service when I snapped a well used crank extractor. Dispite being based in America I had a replacement part delivered within the week.

I’m a HOPE fan, ive not had any reason to test them properly yet but i rate their stuff, for me it works,

ENDURA, simple, post it back explain your problem and wait for replacement, mostly stitching issues due to being worn thro with grit and sand on undercarriage of shorts rubbing seat,

SANTA CRUZ, faultless……….. End Of “For Me” ! i bent the rear triangle on a Bullit 10 years ago and got a new one, COMPLETE Frame !
Just warrantied a Butcher that replaced my ageing Bullit and got a Mk2 Nomad in Tennis Yellow with 142 Thro Axle and Stealth Dropper routing and a Kashima CTD shock !
The Butcher was nearly 3 years old so i cant really complain about their warranty replacement.
I was given the option to pay some funds towards a Carbon frame but declined as i’m yet to propel myself into carbon territory and tubelss strange wheel sizes.

Thats only MY opinion others will vary.

To be fair to them I do accept my frame was 4 months out of warranty though so they had every right to do nothing – which they didn’t.

So they did something?

Wow, that’s pretty impressive from Santa Cruz.

Thorn were nice to me, one of the eccentric bolt-inserts snapped off my Ex’s frame around the weld.

I emailed them while still in Oz, they tried to replicate it and discovered that the design should prevent it [weld>torsional strength of bolt]. Meanwhile we got a whole frame and forks sent to Cornwall for our return from Oz, and I got it welded for completing the remainder of the trip.

Rohloff – similar story. A bungie wrapped around my hub at speed. The fully loaded bike and I were travelling at about 30 and the tension on the bungie was so great it expanded into the sprocket seal and burst it. Sent it off to Rohloff Australia explaining that it was my fault, and they fixed it and posted it back FOC.

Turner without a doubt, ive spoken to Mr turner himself on a number of occasions when i have questions that NEEDED answering. apart form that,. The NHS, they have always been attentive to my needs when they arose 🙂

turneround – Member
Turner without a doubt, ive spoken to Mr turner

you talk to yourself ? 🙂

I like the turner ethos (assume it still applies) that their bike should be enjoyed by whoever is its keeper, rather than just the original buyer, so the warranty is transferable

Not owned one of their bikes, though if I was buying a posh frame I would definitely consider them

Spesh have always been pretty good; when I worked in a shop I remember them helping out owners of second hand frames.

Windwave have always been good in my experience…replacing Z150 stanchions, ATA cartris etc. The other good thing about Marzocci is that you can still get buts for really old forks. There’s not many companies that you can get stuff for 15 year old stuff.

Hope warranty is legendary and I’ve never had any issues getting stuff for the many Bulbs that I’ve had / have in the garage. Some parts are getting harder to source now though.

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member

To be fair to them I do accept my frame was 4 months out of warranty though so they had every right to do nothing – which they didn’t.

So they did something?

I do want to be fair to Cotic and yes they have done something, an offer of a discount off of a new frame.

I suppose my main disappointment is with the frame itself. It was a lot of money and can honestly say it’s had very little use in the four years I have owned it, never crashed and never abused.

It’s now been out lived by the shimano hollow tech bottom bracket, chain, cassette and chainset that all went onto the frame from new. These were transferred over from the previous frame I had before , so not even new at the time of fitting and bar the chain which simply wasn’t long enough are all still going strong on my Turner.

I suppose I am disappointed for a few reasons. It sat in a box for a year prior to cracking (not Cotic’s fault I know).
6 months into ownership I queried the seat clamp needing excessive force to stop the post slipping and was advised it was normal on a Soda and to use carbon paste which I did. It’s now cracked on the seat tube slot which seems like a bit of a coincidence, and I thought being who they are they might want to have it back out of interest to have a look.

If I had decided to rebuild it last summer it would have cracked within warranty. If it had had the millage the average bike on here gets it would have cracked a lot sooner than that.

It’s been out lived by a hollow tech bottom bracket for goodness sake! Not chris king, not hope stainless steel but by a blooming shimano one with condom thick seals!

I know at the end of the day it’s out of warranty – end of, and I appreciate Cotic can only take my word for the amount of use its had. But with me knowing the amount and type of use and without a professional inspection I can only conclude I got a duff frame. It’s my fault for not using it more so it would have failed within the warranty period, such is life.

Sorry to the op and Cotic, I didn’t intend to turn this into a rant and I’d thought I’d laid this to rest in my mind!

It seems not! Reasonable to be peeved though…