I’ve just found out that my cracked swingarm is going to cost me over £600 to replace – that is, apparently a ‘crash replacement discount’ – even though it wasn’t damaged in a crash. Obviously, it’s my word against the assessment of the distributors, who have looked at photos of the damage. I’m totally powerless in this situation and I find it really frustrating; there is no carbon fibre bicycle frame damage ombudsman. If I don’t cough up the money, I’m left with a un-rideable bike. Even if I felt bloody minded and decided to take the bits off the broken frame and put them onto a new frame, I need to buy a new frame which would cost even more bleedin’ money. I know mountain biking isn’t a cheap hobby and that bike companies are businesses not charities, but.. but… AAAAARRRRGH. Rant over. Thanks.

What frame? Is it an Evil?

No. Yeti. And I am such a sad Yeti fanboy. I’ve always read forum threads that have a pop at Yeti frame reliability and scoffed. Now I feel like a schmuck.

Carbon is often repairable…

Any photos and we can assess?

This is a £2,900 frame, in which case £600 to get it sorted seems fairly reasonable, no? (assuming it is actually crash damage of course)

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Yes, it would be a reasonable amount IF I HAD ACTUALLY DAMAGED IT IN A CRASH.

Sorry for the all caps. I’m bitter.

I’ve thought about repair — I have a good place about 10 miles away and am awaiting a quote. Unless it’s substantially cheaper, I’ll probably just pay up and grumble incessantly.

How did it break?

Just riding along?

No idea. It’s quite an early model so I assumed it was a material failure. It was under a frame protection sticker: when I first noticed it, I thought it was a wrinkle in that sticker. Peeled it off, bingo, cracks.

Feel your pain OP, that’s a fair chunk of money.

In defence of the guys at Silverfish they’re pretty reasonable generally and in our experience tend to go out of their way to try and look after customers. They’re a small distributor so “process” doesn’t tend to get in the way of sorting folk out where they can. Similarly though, they tend to stick to their guns if (they think) they’re right about something.

It’s usually fairly obvious if something has been damaged by impact (“crash damage”) or has just failed (i.e. a crack with no other signs of damage). Does yours not fall into either of these categories, OP? How did it get damaged?

I have no problem with Silverfish; they can only go by what they see. I’m just moaning.

You bought a. Yeti they break and everybody knows it! All bikes break just some more than others, be a man and suck it up!

Oh and how can carbon be repaired properly?carbon is strands of a fiber woven together with a resin they won’t replace those broken strands just put a filler in it. (More resin) I’ve seen repaired carbon frames break as all they are is filled. Carbon can not be repaired properly!

I feel your pain bro.

My first SB66 Swingarm lasted 12 weeks, then that one 6 months. They had multiple cracks on them – I gave up counting at 6 on the first one.

After the 2nd time, I told them I wanted aluminium, which meant whole new hardware, which silverfish supplied, can’t moan about that.

Worst thing is that yeti wanted it back to see it, but don’t give silverfish spares, had a 12 week wait both times.

I wouldn’t buy a yeti carbon again, which going by their current materials available, means I won’t buy a yeti again.

Which Yeti? p20 has a carbon 5 frame with a creak in the downtube but the swing arm is still good. Is looking to sell it.

How old is it? Presumably you are after a warranty replacement but then say it’s an early one.

Well if it’s a lifetime warranty you can go the small claims route.

To say that carbon cannot be repaired is blinkered. In Motorsport CFRP often has repair schemes applied which then go on to complete their rest of their mileage, or sometimes limited mileage. It’s a case of repair with the required expertise applied, which may be expensive due to the rarity of those skills, but likely cheaper than a new frame. Simply filling with additional epoxy is not a valid repair in most cases.

I’m afraid I can’t make any recommendations op, but that’s what I’d look at, although it’s likely to be economical to just get the new triangle.

If you’re down south carbonbikerepair in Leatherhead are good, but not cheap. You’d probably be a good few hundred for a repair. Yo could always drop them an email.

I wouldn’t buy a yeti carbon again

Nope me neither. Went through two ASR5C swingarms before I gave up.

Silverfish were completely OK about it though. Sorry to hear your experience isn’t as good.

Oh and how can carbon be repaired properly?carbon is strands of a fiber woven together with a resin they won’t replace those broken strands just put a filler in it. (More resin) I’ve seen repaired carbon frames break as all they are is filled. Carbon can not be repaired properly!

That’s just crap, sorry. Talk to Rob Hayles at Re-Carb, he’s been repairing high end carbon bikes for year and will sort if out so it’s just as strong.

I’ve spent a lot of time repairing high end radio control gliders that cost more than most high end bike frames. Trust me, carbon can be repaired to be as strong and usually with a minimum weight penalty.
Of course if I was better at flying the bloody things I wouldn’t know this… 😳

Oh and how can carbon be repaired properly?carbon is strands of a fiber woven together with a resin they won’t replace those broken strands just put a filler in it. (More resin) I’ve seen repaired carbon frames break as all they are is filled. Carbon can not be repaired properly!

😀

In 2009 I had the ultimate tour of McLaren’s F1 plant. Got there just as the cars were rolled back in from the Barcelona GP. Got to sit in Senna’s old car that was being set up ready for Button to drive at Goodwood FoS. and got to sit in the simulator and walk around in the wind tunnel. Anyway, we got to look and handle the tubs for the current season’s car. They look so mint from the outside but the CF tub was so cut and shut with repairs and modifications it was untrue. If CF repair is good enough for F1, it’s good enough for a push bike. It might not always look pretty but it can be done.

how can carbon be repaired properly?carbon is strands of a fiber woven together with a resin they won’t replace those broken strands just put a filler in it. (More resin) I’ve seen repaired carbon frames break as all they are is filled. Carbon can not be repaired properly!

Two things spring to mind here, contact Yeti direct on their Face Tube page. I got a good result doing this with Thomson in the states who agreed to sort out my dropper post under warranty when the uk distributer refused. Second I had a carbon road frame repaired by Carbonbikerepairs mentioned above. The rear chain stay was snapped in two in a road race and it was internally repaired and from the outside you couldn’t tell it was repaired.That was 6 yn’tears ago and the bikes still going strong with 1000’s of miles on the clock! It may cost you £250 to repair but worth it. If anything it will be stronger given the extra material

Reading your post again, is the frame still in warranty period? If so, and you didn’t crash, I’d be by-passing silverfish.

If only ever advocate this as a last option, but I’d be all over yeti on Facebook and Twitter.

Riding buddy had an issue with DVO forks, I won’t go into detail with distributor, but went straight to DVO and got sorted immediately.

I bought a kit like this to repair the swing arm on my zesty.

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/starter-kits/carbon-fibre-rapid-repair-kit.html

Was still fine after 18 months (now just another un – loved 26″ frame)

It’s a 2015 Yeti SB5c. Carbon Bike Repair are only half an hour away from me and I have sent them an enquiry form and pictures. The process between bike shop (which are being helpful, but are 60 miles away from me), Silverfish and Yeti in the US has now been going on for 6 weeks. I just want my bike back, working.

is a 2015 bike considered an early model???!!

i just bought a 2016 yeti ascr.I was aware of historical cracking but thought they had fixed the issue?

give the well known history of them snapping i’m surprised that they claim it must hacve been crashed unless its very obvious. you’d think that they’d give you the benefit of the doubt on a 2 year old frame

any pics?

So Carbon Fibre Repair in Leatherhead (Surrey) have quoted a total of £324 to repair and repaint the swingarm. Almost half the price of the new one… but… and I know this is illogical… it’ll always be ion the back of my head that’s it’s been repaired and isn’t new part… Think I’m just going to have to suck it up. Even though the delivery estimate is 4 weeks!

Given the propensity of Yeti’s to self destruct I’d feel happier with a repaired (and almost certainly stronger) swingarm.

Given the propensity of Yeti’s to self destruct I’d feel happier with a repaired (and almost certainly stronger) swingarm.

This, most definitely. Seen a lot of their work on road bikes, I’d be straight off to them for any repair. And you probably have a better warranty than a replacement swingarm!

here

Count yourself lucky. I’ve now been waiting 6 weeks fie Wiggle the bianchi to assess a broken chainstay. Apparantly its “because they are italian”. If id have used the outfit above whoch i had a quote from id have been riding it from the beginning of feb.

Expect a What course of action thread in here very soon.

Hello All

Rhayter – I’m sorry you feel so aggrieved by the response/offer you have received. I hope I can address some of your concerns.

The Crash Replacement price you have received is a zero margin price that we offer to try and assist riders unlucky enough to damage their frames and to help getting them back out on the trails.
Whilst we call it a Crash Replacement policy it covers ALL damage that occurs outside of a warranty failure NOT just a crash.*

You state that the damage on your frame wasn’t caused by a crash, and personally I have no reason to question that, but you must recognise that the damaged area is scratched, shows signs of a sharp, strong, impact and the network of cracks are clustered around this area of impact.

How this damage occurred isn’t actually relevant to us, we’re happy to support you with the heavily reduced price regardless.
What is relevant is that the damage is clearly not a material or workmanship failure and hence not a warranty failure.

In these instances we feel that the price you have been quoted is more than fair.

If you want to discuss it further please feel free to contact me. I’m happy to chat.
richie @ silverfish – uk .com (remove the spaces)

*we even covered a bike under crash replacement once where a guys wife had reversed over it! That probably wasn’t a great afternoon in their house….

He says It was under a frame protection sticker: when I first noticed it

SF says the damaged area is scratched, shows signs of a sharp, strong, impact

That doesn’t add up… Yeti carbon frames are too damn expensive anyway.

we even covered a bike under crash replacement once where a guys wife had reversed over it! That probably wasn’t a great afternoon in their house….

Well in this case it was clearly crashed into her car …….. 😉

Trading Standards?

Before y’all break out the pitchforks and flaming torches the OP has already posted-

I have no problem with Silverfish; they can only go by what they see. I’m just moaning.

No, I don’t work for SF.

I was hoping richiethesilverfish would show up soon so we could see the other side of the story.