My Trek Boone has a 6 inch crack in the top tube(!). It’s been back to Trek who’ve said (1) it’s just a paint crack and (2) it’s your fault anyway so no warranty.

I had it ultrasound and thermographically scanned today and its definitively cracked though is repairable.

Issues ‘re. Blame and warranty aside has anyone here had experience of having a carbon frame repaired?

It’s going to cost £240 for the repair then upto £150 to paint depending on choice of just a black patch through to matching existing paint.

A car body shop nearby do Porsche etc repainting and have done carbon bikes before. They’ll do a full repaint frame and forks for £150.

I’d really appreciate any received wisdom or advice here. I guess the other option is a new frame and to sack off the Boone…

£240 seems expensive to me compared to what friends have paid recently (£100-150 for completely snapped seat stay)
I wouldn’t worry in the slightest about riding it once repaired, but you’d probably struggle ever selling it on, so bear in mind that with the cost of repair & paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qsLYlVWkbQ
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qsLYlVWkbQ[/video]

Repair it and have the black patch as a badge of honour. My mate’s Colnago C60 looks rather good with the same finish. I assume bars hit the top tube?

Funnily enough no. It’s too far back. Roof rack is a front fork clamp so it leaves workstand but I always use the saddle to clamp on and I genuinely believe both bike mechanic and shop when they say they’ve not used one on top tube.
Not crashed. I do have a habit of sitting on the top tube at traffic lights but struggle to believe that’s the cause.

Repair. Get more quotes.

Either njee^^, or Planet X has a couple of frame bargains

I’d keep on at Trek tbh, unless it’s obvious crash damage.

Mate of mine had the steerer fail on a 700 quid trek road bike – only frame is lifetime warranty.

After much emails, they gave him a 1200 quid replacement and paid his dental bills to fix his mashed teeth, and also his flights back from Prague to get said work done as he was on a work secondment.

I was astounded tbh, the reason the thinv failed was cos he kept it on a balcony at his flat in all conditions, was a rusty mess.

Try hq fibre products in Norwich, i asked about a repair last year as I had heard good things locally. I think the quote was £60+vat for a repair on a main tube.

I’ll call hq fibre tomorrow. I’ve also sent an email to the Trek dealers expressing my sadness ‘re Treks opinion.

Sadness plus exposure to risk if you’ve proof they diagnosed a crack as paint only?

I’ve expressed a few issues to Trek. As I see it:

1. They said the frame is safe to ride and its just a paint stress. Scans have said the frame is ‘structurally unsafe’
– as the rider here I was left wondering who to trust. Now that now the bike has been properly scanned, I am sure it is broken.

2. Trek have refused a warranty (on a lifetime warrantied frame) on the grounds that its not broken and that its my fault anyway.
– thing is it is broken and Trek have not been taken the time to ask how I have used the bike. They made their decision rather arbitrarily it seems.

Im going to see what they say today before I get properly worked up but the more I have been thinking about the concept ‘lifetime warranty’ the more cynical I am about Treks response. It seems that as a manufacturer you can offer anything you like because ultimately you get to make the decision about what you consider warranty anyway:
Me: “Hi Trek. My bike is broken”
Trek: “No its not. Your fault anyway”
Me: “Here is scan. Bike is broken. I didn’t use a frame clamp or bike rack clamp on the top tube and the frame has clearly not been crashed (its in pretty great condition)”
Trek: “Nope. Liar.”

.. thats how it feels at the moment.

This is in total contrast to Cervelo – I have an S3 which I recently put wider rims in. This showed a wonky back end with the rim sitting closer to drive side stays despite perfect dish. Cervelo put an alignment tool to the frame, said sorry and replaced the frame.

[Quote]’lifetime warranty'[/Quote]

If I recall correctly, one of the manufactures lifetime warranty was for the ‘lifetime of the frame’ which made me chuckle, as the wording implied that once the frame had failed its lifetime was over, hence no warranty, ever.

It may have even been Trek….

sobriety – thats exactly what I seem to be discovering. The manufacturer decides what lifetime should be!!

Equally they get to tell me that I damaged the frame and at the same time I am expected to trust them that the frame I buy from them is free from manufacturing defects. The trust here seems to have to work one way only..!

A friend of mine has a carbon fibre frame with a crack in the top tube (from the bars) and has been happily riding it with no problem.

The crack is in the top of the top-tube, so it’s in compression and doesn’t seem to be getting any worse.

I had some (minor) gripes about a new Trek. In the leaflet that came with the bike, there was some generic blurb about how John Burke himself really cares that you’re happy. I wasn’t so I emailed it without expecting much (I’ll admit it really was a bit of a minor gripe).

Was contacted by phone by an after sales person in Trek who actively sought to sort out the issue.

Might be worth a punt in your case. Essentially, as I see it, the big issue is they’ve said cosmetic only but the frame is actually broken. If you ride that and it does break, then lawyer up and take them to the cleaners. Send him a copy of the scan result and a copy of the reply from their warranty dept and explain how shocked you are. I’d be surprised if they don’t come back to work something out for you.

If you do go down the fixing route, search for ‘target composites ltd’ on Facebook. They’re always putting photos of their work up and looks to a good a very good standard.

Its not cracked but if it is its your fault! Not good enough really especially if you now know its cracked.

Enjoyed the vid of the Aussie frame repair guy, put me off buying carbon though.

It may have even been Trek….

Cannondale were infamous for that.

Trek do honour the warranty, but are very very ‘by the book’, if there’s even the slightest ambiguity they tend to decline the warranty replacement. Bit shit really.

orangespyderman +1.

If you don’t get anywhere with the response that’s coming, I’d escalate as above. If you still don’t get anywhere, I’d be going a bit more public about it, these folks don’t like negative PR on their social media pages.

But that would be a last resort.

Enjoyed the vid of the Aussie frame repair guy, put me off buying carbon though.

I wouldn’t base such decisions on one video, these guys can skew things to show what they want, remember the Santa Cruz carbon one? completely the opposite view. I’d say the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

A brief update:

John Burke tweeted a pic of him and his bike in the alps this morning saying he was looking forward to a ride. I replied saying that I’d like to ride but couldn’t as my Trek was broken etc.

Later today I got tweeted by Trek asking me to email them direct and I had an email conversation with the marketing department in the USA who have forwarded my details etc to head of Trek Europe customer services. He has replied and I have given him details including scan pictures. He is taking things forward so I am currently waiting to hear more.

I’ll update more when I hear more.

Excellent, sounds good.

Nice move infidel.

Todays update:

I received an email this morning from Trek who are going to replace the frame! They are going to chop the old one up to compare the discordant findings with the actual appearance of the carbon lay up.

So it has all ended well. I must confess I was not optimistic that contacting Trek directly would come to much but I am pleased it did. Kudos to Trek for being willing to reassess their stance and accept a difference of opinion.

Glad to hear it. It seemed to make a difference on my much smaller issue so like I’d said, I really would have been surprised if they gave you the brush off after your experience.

Congratulations! Sounds like a right palaver though, kudos for sticking with it!

I broke my carbon frame last week, but it’s not under warranty and was accidental:

Friday night… dammit that’s not right
Saturday morning… pictures taken insurance form filled in
Monday afternoon… phone call asking for bank details
Wednesday morning… money in my account

Basically I’m glad I pay £10? a month for insurance!!

Nice result in the end, not possibly related to bringing up the issue on social media, potentially hurting future sales. 😉

@paton Thanks for the video – interesting watch

I think that the crux of it stemmed from 2 things:

1. They said the frame was fit to ride when it was shown not to be which I suspect made them worry about holding risk if I was injured as a result of frame failure.

2. The net cost to them to replace the frame is really small and as pointed out several times here the good will value alone is huge.

nathb – who do you use for insurance?

I think that the crux of it stemmed from 2 things:

1. They said the frame was fit to ride when it was shown not to be which I suspect made them worry about holding risk if I was injured as a result of frame failure.

2. The net cost to them to replace the frame is really small and as pointed out several times here the good will value alone is huge.

nathb – who do you use for insurance?

…It’s been back to Trek who’ve said (1) it’s just a paint crack and…

…I had it ultrasound and thermographically scanned today and its definitively cracked…

I’d be taking your own evidence back to Trek and asking them how exactly they determined it was a paint blemish, and why they are so comfortable risking their customers safety?

@infidel Bikmo: Bikmo (That link will give you 5% discount + a £10 Bikmo kit voucher)

They’re underwritten by Hiscox.

cookeaa – thats sort of what I said to them – I expressed concern as the what to do with the bike given to very opposite views. To mis-quote Can “I just didn’t understand the crack. I just want to ask Trek about the crack”

To be fair to Trek they clearly took this seriously as once I sent them the scan pictures they took hours few to decide to replace the frame.

Just had my focus mares repaired by the guy in the vid, he did a bloody good job, very well re-detailed also. Quote for a new frame from focus was $3000 AUD, the repair was about $700 AUD and the frame is no heavier and seems as good as the original.