strange I always thought Brants middle name was "Ashley Gungadin handlebar moustache the III" I could be wrong though?

Pace are sticking to their offer of £170 off a new frame that is when they can be bothered to answer my emails . 3 days waiting for a reply to the last one requesting the old frame back as I had a ( failure analyst/fractologist) lined up to have a look at it and also pointing them at this thread.

still makes it a £400 frame though might have been tempted if the offer had been 50% off

Pace have now sent the pile of crap that is their frame back to me
no email no comunication of any sort so I am now left with scrap
and I assume the £170 0ffer off a new frame still stands .

Dilemma time

do I just roll over and take it

do I start a fight and get it analysed go to court and possible lose
throwing good money after bad .

make a vindictive load of posts all over the internet about how not good Pace frames are and their ace customer service

I certainly wont ever buy anything Pace related and will do my best to talk anyone I know out of buying pace stuff .

Get it welded up better than before and make a hack bike from it

to be honest I have lost the will to do any of the above and will probably just move on

Get it welded, it'll cost way less than £400. Then get some decals cut so it doesn't say Pace any more.

Maybe even Plaice, or Dace… (see what I've done?)

Take your pick:

http://www.rhymer.com/RhymingDictionary/pace.html

You might like Disgrace, too!

Edit: I've just learnt a new word:

scapegrace [?ske?p?gre?s]
n
an idle mischievous person
[from scape2 + grace, alluding to a person who lacks God's grace]

bit esoteric for a bike frame though.

Trout, get it welded, with a bit of digging you will find somone who can sort it out that will be a permanent fix, even if you have to get creative by actually welding the seatpost into it… At least your up and running again on it…. untill you snap the head off the seatpost anyhow!!

I'll take your case on Trout. I'm no solicitor, but I have loads of time and I hate injustice.

The only problem is that I live in a miniscule house in almost total darkness.

If only I had a tiny, tiny light that was very powerful… 😉

If a frame has an extended seat-tube, abouve the level of the top tube join, shouldn't the seatpost minimum insert line be below the lower level of the top tube?

So based on the picture on page 1, the min insert mark would appear to have been slightly too high, and above the lowest join between toptube & seat-tube.

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/making-complaint/dealing-with-disputes/

missingfrontalobe, the insertion mark is about 20mm below the tope tube, see pic 3… dont know why they break there but they do.

I think the moral of the story here is to not buy ANYTHING Pace. There is no smoke without fire and it comes as no surprise to me the number of people that have had similar issues with that frame. I remember them first coming into the store I was working in at the time and thinking it would be just another Pace product with a truckload of issues for dealers to sort out. I don't claim to be an expert but that extra metal/welding to join the seat tube and top tube just looks like an afterthought – even if it wasn't and was the plan all along. Working in a Pace dealer I had many dealings with warranty on Pace products, in fact it was a bit of a joke among the staff and we'd do our best to warn people of the 'risk' they were taking buying Pace – partly because we wanted happy customers but also partly because we didn't want to have to spend time/money sorting out the inevitable issues and warranty claims.

This is before I even talk about my personal experiences after a moment of madness buying a set of RC39s. Light yes, but what a pile of shyte. Functional performance dropped off after the first ride, rebound never worked etc etc. Of course it was 'lack of servicing' that was to blame……

What always suprised me is the good reputation that Pace seem have among the UK biking community. In terms of their products, customer service and general running of the business they have in my opinion done NOTHING to deserve that!

I do respect the fact that they are/were involved with projects like Dalby Forest though.

Just to add my 2p's worth.

I also had a 303 – it broke as usual in the same place – seat tube/gusset weld – after 8 months of fairly infrequent riding.

I had a long seatpost on it but Pace had said that the insertion I used (about 1cm below the bottom of the top tube) was ok before I bought it (and I made sure I kept the email while I had the bike!).

Pace replaced it (with a 305) without question and I sold on the replacement since I reckoned exactly the same would happen again.

Shame really as it rode brilliantly.

Anyone seen this happen to a 305? I'm getting a bit nervous now. I hope someone does follow this through with the small claims court. At least we'd all have something to fall back on if/when they go pop. I would say that it puts me off owning anything Pace but that happened a while back when I had issue with the drop out. Some of the worst customer service I've ever come across.

I have to say that looking at the 305 I got as a replacement, I couldn't see any real difference in the way that the gusset was designed so despite loving the way it rode, I sold it on. That said, there don't seem to have been lots of 305s failing in the same way

That's what I was wondering, there's no reason to think it would be any better but haven't the 305s been around long enough for this to be happening if it's going to.

Small claims court. Cost you £50 – its worth that.

Your evidence is the amount of frames that have broken and I'm sure you can get someone knowledgeable to give an opinion on the frame.

Only if you are sure you are absolutely right on the seatpost insertion.

Get enough people and class action their arse.*

*I am not a fancy city lawyer.

TJ yes I did think about small claims court and I am 100% sure on the seatpost insertion .

Truth is I cant be arsed with the hastle I have just paid £5 to have it welded by a nice guy in the village now to ream it out and think about what to do with it

I dont want it I dont want to see it again or ride on it

so if anyone wants to make me an offer for a hack frame it is here waiting

I also have some Pace RC41 forks which are leaking oil was going to send them in for a service but will now put the money to some none Pace forks to fit on the MMMbop Pace will not get another penny from me or anyone I talk too .

Give you £20 for the frame Trout.

Maybe hold on to it in case someone needs a frame to have tested when they need to claim on theirs.

Carefull jamie I may accept

Gonna sleep on it before and decisions

fill it with C4 and send it back

fill it with C4 and send it back

after that bloke getting jailed for a twitter joke along similar lines I'd be careful how you phrase things!

fill it with C4 wee and send it back

Fixed that for you.

Maybe Pace have been bought out by Cannondale?

My 303 broke in the same place as everybody elses at about the the same time as Clubbers i believe. I think we e-mailed each other a couple of times about it. Pace replaced mine FOC with a 305 but it took ages to sort out.
I kept mine, and still ride it regularly as its my only bike and it rides SO well. But would i ever buy anything else by Pace?

NO

Right that is decided dont need to sleep on it

Jamie If you were serious its yours for the £20 plus postage .
I really dont want to see it again . blood pressure is rising just talking bout it .

I'm also in the once bitten twice shy club. Not great people to deal with. Wonder if they ever search the web to measure public opinion?

I'll never buy one on the strength of this thread alone. There's just too much competition offering great service to bother with them.

well they know about this thread cos I told them it was here .
I just wish I could change the title

Trout, just had my RC41's serviced at Fork English. Excellent and fast service.

Neilb67

Who where and how much as long as no money goes to Pace .

Edit just found them thanks

Speak to Tim on 01751 476815. He's in Pickering and used to work for Pace I think but has set up on his own. Sent them on Monday, got a phonecall on the Tuesday afternoon telling me what was needed and advising me on stuff that needed doing. Agreed the work and received them back first thing Thursday. I think it was about £85 or £90 and that was with £30 worth of outer seals, a new top bush, oil and the service and return postage.

Pace products are the biggest pile of poop I've used – will never buy pace again – appauling customer service. With a bit of luck they'll go bump and make way for some new blood in the Market

Yup Fork English are brilliant. Tim worked at Pace for many many years. He always did all my old race forks for me. A true miracle worker that guy as he managed to unsnap my snapped RC150 even though they had not made parts for it for some 10 years or so lol.

I am actually shocked about people comments on Pace customer service as they where always great with me. I have dealt with thin from the beginning until they sold the fork side off to DT Swiss. Though I was local so all I did was walk in if I had a issue. Perhaps they have changed these days.

Trout, you should hold your head high that you have stood by your laurels…getting rid of your pace products and warning others is very cool…

big up…

My other memory about Pace customer service has just resurfaced. On one of my first rides on my RC303 I managed to bend the mech hanger/driveside dropout. I phoned up Pace and ordered a new one. It cost £25, which seemed a bit steep. When it arrived I discovered that my card had been billed for £25 + P&P, not just £25. When I queried this they said "everyone charges P&P, what's your problem?" Well my problem was that my card was charged more than I was told it was going to be charged, but though it annoyed me a lot it was essentially a small amount of money so I didn't persue it.

The next time I needed a new mech hanger for the RC303 I ordered it through a LBS. It cost me less than £25, oddly.

Sorry to hear about that troutie,Theres obviously an issue with these frames,I also know of a 303 with a crack around the seat tube and will try and get a photo to add weight to your claim. 😉

After riding one of there frames on the recent Keswick Mountain festival weekend, I must say it was a great bike to ride, and some of my friends in the Tuesday night club are seriously considering buying one.I will send them a link to this thread so they can make a more informed descision. 😯

[gloat]I'd just like to mention that I noticed a crack on one of my Whyte frames (I've had it since 2005) on Monday morning, I stripped the frame took it into my LBS and the replacement arrived at lunchtime today, (its now built up, in my garage and ready to ride).[/gloat]
My LBS stopped dealing with Pace several years ago due to the awful customer service (especially when "Mrs Pace" answered the phone).

Just to back up Dibbs ( not something I make a habbit of ) Whyte / Marin service is legendary and Ralphies are brilliant

I have had dealings with Pace and Orange for warrentee, talk about pissing into the wind

Never again

I am very calm now the demons have been exorcised ( or it could be the red wine )

Thanks for all the posts they helped lots cepting Dibbs 😉 I too have had great service from Marin and Hope with out of warranty stuff in the past .