Pace RC104 – Anyone got one yet?

I've ordered myself a shiny RC104, but I'll be waiting until the July shipment for mine to come in. While I wait, has anyone got a frame from the shipment that came in this week? Been out for a first ride? Got any pics of your build? Do you know how much the frame weighs? I can't find any published figures apart from 'about 5 lb' (although my expectation was it would be around the 4.5 lb mark).
Cheers for your help!

You won't get any replies about this you know. They all ride 'On Breads' or 'In One's' or something. (someone's bound to say 'I'd rather pay £xxx.xx for a xxxxxxxxx)
I'd have one if I didn't already have a custom, fillet brazed frame.

Pace Cracking frames Grommet

Good luck with the 2 year warranty all pace stuff has

trout beat me to it. I'll never put another penny in their pockets.

Ditto as above

And me.

🙁

I've had a quick read through your cracking frames thread, and tried to read it with a fairly open mind. I've no reason to dispute what has been said, and I'm not a lifelong Pace fan – I just bought the 104 frame because it looked nice, and I liked the idea of there not being so many of them on the trails as other steel frames.

Its not really possible to draw that many conclusions though. We don't know how many frames are broken and returned to each manufacturer each year for comparison, and what percentage of the total number of bikes sold this works out as. 6 frames in 60 sounds bad, but 6 frames in 1000 sounds like a lot better failure rate. How many frame failures is acceptable? I see people break frames on the trails every so often – Scotts, Gary Fishers, Commencal Meta 5's.

We also don't know what warranty period is offered by other manufacturers – is a 2 year warranty very short compared with other manufacturers? I don't know.

I'm sure that also a lot of people return their bikes to manufacturers with damage caused by doing things on their bikes that they're not designed for (I'm not in any way implying this is the case for the frames in question), and the manufacturer will want to ask a number of questions to eliminate the stupid warranty claims. A friend works for Trek, and he knows people who have seen people returning their frames under warranty because they scratched them! All I am saying is perhaps some scruitiny of warranty returns by manufacturers is not surprising.

From what you are saying, those frames within the warranty period, with proof of purchase were replaced as requested. This seems fair.

I agree that from the photos available the bikes have all failed in the same mode, and that if that number of failures was statistically significant, you could conclude that there was a manufacturing problem.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I'm just trying to look at the information you have provided objectively.

2 years warrantee sounds short to me, when compared to other mftrs offering lifetime warrantees.

Used to be a solid Pace stakeholder, then got shafted hard, twice, on their warranties.

Wrote them a (relatively nice) letter stating I never intend to buy any of their products ever again. They don't value their customer base anymore, it's as simple as that.

2 years warrantee sounds short to me, when compared to other mftrs offering lifetime warrantees.

Well Orange only offer 1 year on some of their frames, Commencal have a two year warranty IIRC, Ibis have 3 years. Just not financially viable for smaller manufacturers it seems.

It's not the length of the warranty that's the issue. It's he really bad attitude towards the customer. As above, we don't know how many from how many have failed. There's a certain arrogance that comes from them and it leaves a very nasty taste whether you get your frame replaced or not.

As regards the OP. It's a difference design an a difference material and Pace don't actually make anything any more. I genuinely hope your frame works out for you and you don't have to experience their "customer service".

Yeti is 5 years.

Trek is lifetime.

I have never heard of a bike company that han't pissed someone off or hasn't had one of their frames brake,

Its bound to come up on this site that as soon as someone orders a frame some chimp will pop with "my mate broke one of them" or "i had one brake" It will happen with every single product in cycling at some point to someone.

Malibu_Babe I had a little ride round on one at the dalby world cup, it was only a short ride but the position felt great to me and if i had a wife that would let me part with £500 i'd order one.

Jealous hope you enjoy it.

Fair comments Malibu

as you see I only posted the link for your info and did not post any comments
I can only go on my dealings with pace and imho they are arrogant and living in the past when they had a good reputation

In all probability your new frame will be good and serve you well ( I Hope )
and if it fails within the short warranty period you will get a replacement
I have in the past been a pace fan but not any more they wont get another penny from me ever and I will do my best to present the facts on my broken frame to all and sundry

Never had a Pace frame but had their forks for years & always had fantastic service from them. They still get my vote & I'd have a 104 if I needed a new frame.

A little story for you all to compare how Trek deals with warranty claims compared to Pace.

A few years ago a customer brought an old Gary Fisher frame into the shop to place a warranty claim. The frame was over 10 years old, in fact the frame had been built a few years before Trek had bought Gary Fisher.

I called up Trek to see what the deal was with sorting this out. To be honest I didn't hope for much as pre-Trek buy out Gary Fisher frames only had a 5 year warranty. Anyhow, Trek asked me to look for crash damage. I checked the frame over and told them that the frame looked OK apart from the failed weld on the chainstay.

Trek sent a new frame and it turned up the next day.

Without wading into this too much and looking like I'm defending Pace, I would suggest that it's a little unfair to compare their capacity to dish out replacement frames to Trek's. As a relatively tiny outfit – especially now they've sold off the fork division, which I would guess was their biggest product line – they aren't going to have the profit buffer to be able to absorb the cost of providing replacement frames so easily.

This is certainly something I'm aware of with small conpanies – that there are times when it's quite reasonable to have to accept they simply won't have the resources to act the same as Trek or Specialized or whoever. That's the price you – quite literally – sometimes have to pay with small outfits. But on the flipside there isn't really an particularly equatable frame to the 305/303/325.5 in either Trek or Specialized's ranges – its smaller companies that are inclined to produce frames that are – especially internationally – less popular and make less profit. So it's swings and roundabouts really – frame you want isnt as popular > wont make so much money for the company > company will be smaller > won't be able to offer same warranty replacement as bigger richer companies.

Having said all that, and as a someone who has had a few Pace forks and frames, I do think they've a real problem with their customer service. And this I think is more where people's beef with them lies – if they answered their phone/email more often and were really interested, friendly, forthcoming and fair with their responses then I think everyone would be more inclined to recognise them as decent people making basically good things with which occasionally there are problems with. And it'd be nice to hear them be apologetic or seem genuinely concerned when they ought to be. But its true that this doesnt seem to be the case – a lot of the time they're dismissive, rude, unhelpful, and beligerant.

But… I think the 104 looks lovely and I wouldn't be concerned about it because it's a traditional steel frame so there's little to go wrong. Unlike the 303/305/325 which obviously has – or had – some design issues from the extended seat tube and gusset thing – which, in fairness, have also affected other brands with that design from time to time… although it does seem Pace have built a design flaw and botched dealing with the consequence of its failings out in the real world.

It's not just manufacturers that have issues with customer service, a friend currently has issue with a frame (not Pace) and the shop dealing with the claim have been nothing short of useless on the contact/keeping him informed front.
For what it's worth I have a Pace 405 and whilst Trouts thread and the stories within don't fill me with confidence should the worst happen I didn't buy it with the expectation that it WILL fail and I have no reason to believe it will. It appears that they just have/had a problem with that one style of frame that is no longer in production. The OP clearly is very excited about their forthcoming purchase and so they should be, it's a great looking frame.

Id rather take my chances on an Apollo than pace and that's saying something!

Id rather take my chances on an Apollo than pace and that's saying something!

🙄

Id rather take my chances on an Apollo than pace and that's saying something!

That you work for Halfords?

yup :), no idea what it weighs, more than my Soda did, less than my Merlin Malt, no pictures yet, but I got it pretty muddy at the Marin rough ride at the weekend. So far I'm happy with it, handles nicely, more stable than the Soda was, but a little slower to turn perhaps. Hope to try it on some tight and twisty local singletrack this weekend. oh yeah and it's real purdy……

mate has one….surprisingly heavy for a SS

Bump… I’m interested if anyone else has tried one since this last post 9 months ago.