Crash damage or warranty? Carbon rim content

£900 carbon wheels from Sixth Element in Urmston, 4/5 months old. Apparently it’s crash damage (I didn’t crash I got unlucky with a flying rock I think) and not covered under warranty so I was offered a crash replacement price for the rim. Had I purchased from China it would have been warrantied without question, going by my friends experience.

I didn’t crash I got unlucky with a flying rock I think

I’m not sure what you’re saying, are you suggesting that that means it should be covered by warranty? 😯

How can you actually expect warranty to cover ‘flying rocks’? 🙄

Dunno I’m just asking for opinions

it seems fair enough I’m afraid. On another note I had no idea that sixth element were actually my local bike shop about a five minute walk from my house 😯

You broke it, a discounted replacement would be a good result.

If it was light bicycle you would have paid postage and customs charge and handling fee and had to sort a rebuild out.

Could just be a sticker?

Definitely not warranty. LB etc may well have replaced it, and if not it’d still have been cheaper. One of those things though sadly.

Warranty covers manufacturing faults not wear and tear. If you ding a an Alu rim by smashing it on a rock you’d not expect a warranty. That’s definitely impact damage.

Some manufacturers may have sufficient profit margin (Oakley) or users who rarely break things that they think it’s worth sending out replacements for crash damage but they’re not under any obligation to.

“Warranty” is usually a manufacturing warranty so covers you for failures or problems due to production of the item.

“Crash damage” is probably a poor name. Damage caused in use – nothing to do with the supplier or the manufacturer.
If you damage stuff whilst using it some companies will help you out, some won’t, it’s their call.

How much do they charge for a crash replacement rim – and does that included rebuilding the wheel?

Doesn’t your household insurance cover you for accidental damage to possessions? There will be an excess but it might be worth asking.

I have warrantied a number of carbon rims – none that looked like that.

They joy of carbon wheels on am MTB.

Household insurance potentially but that is not an manufacturing defect or fault, that is unlucky wear and tear from riding a mountain bike on rocky terrain.

Random double post?

It’s a common misunderstanding. Where does it come from?

I remember buying something like a vacuum cleaner and being told by the sales person some confusing nonsense about having a two year guaranty and a 1 year manufacturing warranty but I really should take out this special extended warranty for a bargain price which covers the goods for another 10 years and means I can get a new one if I break it or drop it down the stairs.

…..so insurance then?

No way that’s a warranty job and I never understand why people expect their LB rims to be replaced either.

Had I purchased from China it would have been warrantied without question, going by my friends experience.

Can you elaborate?

I just got a crash damage discount from Light Bicycle but they were never going to entertain that sort of damage as a manufacturing defect…

LB (and some of their contemporaries) do make some odd decisions and sometimes warranty stuff that is pretty much the exact definition of not warranty at all, like this one.

So it can be quite hit and miss. I’d not want to count on it as a factor in buying LB wheels as opposed to anyone elses.

But then some of them have exactly no supply chain at all, carbon comes in, rims go out to customers. So it’s not difficult or expensive for them to do warranty in the same way as oakley (for example).

They joy of carbon wheels on am MTB.

I bent a spoke on my old Crossmax ST’s by hooking the front onto a tree stump on the second ride out…

I broke a lightbicycle rim, it wasn’t remotely a warranty case and it was out of warranty anyway but they gave me a pretty big discount towards a replacement (actually, I didn’t really think of this at the time because of the price changes, but I’m pretty sure it was more than half what I paid for the rim, a couple of years earlier… That’s bloody good tbh. And I didn’t have to lean on them to get it, I just said “any chance you can help me out”.

People keep saying that the advantage of buying in the UK is customer support but it doesn’t seem to hold up. I didn’t even get a response when I killed a flow ex on my 3rd ride (and I didn’t object to that tbh, it was fair enough)

As others have said, that’s definitely not a warranty case. Riding offroad always carries a risk of things like this happening but we still do it because it’s fun. Take the crash replacement offer and move on.

I bent a spoke on my old Crossmax ST’s by hooking the front onto a tree stump on the second ride out…

Did you try and claim for it under warranty quoting “unlucky tree stump collision”?

not warranty nope, crash replacement (even if no crash has occurred its just the wording for a crash or smash from rocks)

thats sadly the risk with carbon, no way a alloy rim would be like that had a rock flicked up, jus the chance you take with them

the reason i wont go carbon

Crash damage.

If I might hijack the thread briefly. Do I have to pay duty on a warrantied rim from China?

Depends what they declare the value at.

Worst case, full value & you have to prove to C&E you paid duty on the original item & they should refund you.

I would actually try and fix the rim / have it repaired as the damage is clear of the rim bed and sidewalls, the main ‘structural’ areas. Last rims I had from China I only paid £40 tax and duty.

They joy of carbon wheels on am MTB.

I bent a spoke on my old Crossmax ST’s by hooking the front onto a tree stump on the second ride out…

The OP’s wheels cost roughly twice as much though. Much more of a gamble.

Carbon is quite possibly the worst material for MTB wheels (and Bikes). I did 2 carbon rims (no names though) on the rear where the bead blew out, one on a small loamy compression, the other no idea but it had only been in the slop. The blokes were good and warrantied both as i was open with them, but i went to an Alu on the back. I’ve seen this with LB, ENVE and HALO rims, as well as Evil frames, YT frames, SC, YETI and IBIS – most of these people have gone back to Alu frames (except one who’s just odd).

thats sadly the risk with carbon, no way a alloy rim would be like that had a rock flicked up,

alu rims could have suffered a similar fate – I’ve had plenty of gouged rim examples.

It’s just an unlucky event, and certainly not warranty.

Nah, I don’t think many alu rims would have perforated like that, in that strike, alu is strong for that sort of thing, carbon doesn’t like edges so much. (and it does look like a proper axe-blow of a rock strike)

But on the other hand, the blow that killed that Flow Ex I mentioned up the page probably wouldn’t even bruise my LB carbons (based on experience of beating those up just exactly the same)- it folded/squashed with a big flat hit, carbon’s good at that. The 2 materials aren’t just stronger/weaker, they handle differently.

The thing it always comes back to with me is… That LB rim I broke? It’d done an EWS round, half a dozen SES rounds (and 2 glentress sevens and a cyclocross race!), and tons of tons of Just Riding Along. I eventually busted it on the hardtail at BPW, by doing something plain stupid. And it weighed the same as a Stans Olympic. That’s fairly ridiculous.

JRA

Looks like you crashed into a flying rock.