Ordered an AL1 Capra for my son, arrived on time.
As soon as we opened the box I noticed the Monarch seem to have a fair bit of oil on it. We built it up, he sat on it, the Monarch pee’d oil from the piggyback.
Emailed YT who responded the next day, I could send the shock back to them, they would send it to SRAM Germany to look at, or I can ask my LBS to send it to SRAM UK. Thought the second option would be quicker as we were supposed to be going away riding over half term, so I went to SRAM UK around 14th Oct.
Just found out that they won’t have a replacement until at least 20th November.
I’ve emailed YT again asking if there’s anything they will do, their reply is pretty much “not our problem”.
So just a bit of a heads up to anyone with one on order.

Hopefully someone will be along in a minute to say what did I expect buying a bike from abroad and that I should have bought from the LBS. 🙄

Has made me reconsider about ordering a CF Race Pro for myself though.

I ordered a Reign from Germany and the Pikes were faulty. Choice of posting to German shop or paying LBS to forward to SRAM UK. I went for the latter and in 5 days got a brand new boxed pair of Pikes upgraded from RC to RCT3. I got lucky I guess.

As for your predicament it is unlucky that SRAM UK don’t have any in stock. However it is crap that the bike company do not feel obliged to help get you/your son out on the trail.

Hmmm when my KS dropper needed warrantying it took 3 weeks through the lbs to get out sorted, they did offer me a non dropper post in the meantime tho!

Personally I’d look for a crap old shock on eBay / pinkvike to see him through till the new ones back and sell the other one on

Sram warranty department obviously overwhelmed with reverbs 😉

Despite stories like this, I’m still considering a top spec Capra. I guess for the price and the mail order model, especially from mainland Europe, you take a chance.

Kimbers, I’m serious considering a piece of 3×2 with holes drilled at 222mm, and some washers to make it 66mm wide, make it into a hard tail.
What could possibly go wrong?
Obviously I’d need one made of softwood and one of hardwood for descending and climbing.

I’m serious considering a piece of 3×2 with holes drilled at 222mm

if you’re going to do that make sure the 3×2 is the same length as the shock when sagged, not the full length, HA would be too steep 😉

you want to try waiting over 9 weeks on a set bos forks getting serviced through Jungle due to BOS france being completely incapable of supplying the service centres with seals. Eventually got them back and built the capra back up and sold it and bought the bike I should of bought in the first place…Nomad.

Despite stories like this, I’m still considering a top spec Capra

House mate has the Capra CF Pro, rode it 3 times and the Kirk shock lever is screwed. The shock is now with YT who will send it to BOS.

Crossmax wheels are poor quality, managed to completely trash the rear wheel in 2 runs at BPW 8O, he was running 35psi in the rear. One big dent on one side of the rear rim and 3 smaller ones. Rim is completely out of shape and needs to be thrown away. On top of that you are supposed to rebuild them with new spokes, expensive spokes too! He has now ordered a set of 38mm LB wheels on Hope Hubs.

YT customer service has improved loads, getting replies in under 24hours, so top job to YT for improving!

It is a lovely bike though, he is faster/more confident on the downs and feels more comfortable on it over his Genius LT. For now he’ll be riding the Genius LT as the Capra is in bits waiting parts!

I’d buy a second hand shock to keep me going while they faff about then selling it on afterwards for hopefully a similar price.

Well that didn’t take long.
I’ve designed it with a medium tune, pretty firm compression and rebound

Love that! Well done sir, good work!

I feel for you, I’ve had a few issues with my Capra too but the bike itself is well worth the hype. Not the wonder bike all the mag make out but you’d be hard pressed to find something much better with even double the money. Grab a spare shock from PinkBike for when it goes wrong!

that’d work better with offset mounts and a big reservoir on the main unit

Good thinking Scardeypants.

If I’m going to put this into production I need to keep costs down, so I’ve designed a self attaching piggyback, reckon it’ll work?

I’m probably going to get one, but sell the wheels for some that last. I don’t suppose you can buy them without wheels.

I did hear that you could get BOS serviced in the UK, but I suppose that depends if the service centres get spares………..mmmm. Perhaps the non Boss suspended versions are a safer bet.

Anyway, at the daft price they cost I can buy a back up bike for when its out of action getting serviced 🙂

my nephew was going to buy the same as what the OP has bought. he placed the order and got the email confirmation with instructions on how to make the bank transfer….that never came. he waited for about 1 month and then logged back in to check the status of his order and there was nothing on his account order history. a few emails to YT went ignored then 1 week before the delivery date they got in touch to say the bike was ready, but by this time he had got so fed up of waiting to hear from them he’d built another bike and ended up cancelling the order

I know someone with a YT (Not sure which one) that he’s owned for 2-3 months and been able to ride for less than an hour. BOS forks were loosing travel straight out of the box, they went away for 2 months to be ‘fixed’ and came back just the same, lasting 10 minutes before loosing travel again. They’re away again now and he doesn’t want them back.

Eventually got them back and built the capra back up and sold it and bought the bike I should of bought in the first place…Nomad.

so true

Well done for keeping your sense of humour. 🙂

I too know someone with a Capra. New rear triangle, cos they designed it wrong and eventually a complete new frame after the BB shell cracked. Oh and the fork went back to BOS for months on end and the reverb died (came back ‘fixed’) too.

Still, it was cheap!

The issue with YT direct supply and BOS is that BOS insist any warranty claims on their products fitted to them have to go back to France for them to fix, hence the extended times to fix/replace them, think the same goes for Orbea Bos stuff too.

Had a similar issue with a poster on here recently (who is a customer) – he sent us his shock back (was squeaky IIRC) – we checked it out and sure enough it was faulty. We sent him a new shock, and his back to SRAM. Just got a new one back from Germany and its sitting on my desk…. quite a few weeks later. If we’d sent it to SRAM and said ‘wait’ he’d only just be getting his shock back best part of 2 months later. They only stock certain sizes and tunes in the UK, YT Capra is a non-standard length to boot.

I’m not criticising here, but I genuinely don’t understand the policy choice. I can tell you from experience if something goes wrong you are better sending products from stock than waiting as a rule – the amount of paperwork/cost/ill feeling it generates just isn’t worth it. And to be clear, manufacturers (certainly the ones we deal with) are very supportive of this approach. I’ve got various common warranty type parts in my warehouse that have been sent to us by manufacturers so we can pro-actively deal with issues. They like that stuff as it reflects as well on them as it does on us.

Loving mine not missed a beat yet. Had plenty of stick so far to.
Waiting to see how it handles a nice UK winter next ❓
Not BOS version

Surely the problem is to do with buying directly from YT. If you got it from a shop, a decent shop would give you a different shock and send yours off to be fixed, as mentioned above. The shop would also make sure they didn’t sell you a bike with a leaking shop in the first place.

The direct buy model means you get a bike at a fraction of a price, but there are downsides.

Often quicker sending the shock off directly to a dedicated service centre and paying for it to be fixed and tuned for you.

traildog – Member

Surely the problem is to do with buying directly from YT. If you got it from a shop, a decent shop would give you a different shock and send yours off to be fixed, as mentioned above.

I can think of no shops around here that keep a stock of various different sizes of shock for such situations. For me the only advantage of the LBS would be having people to go and moan at.

A lot of the problems in this thread seem to be caused by people buying BOS kit despite their reputation for being absolutely garbage at sorting the problems they frequently have.

I wonder why SRAM UK (Fischers or Raleigh?) didn’t just strip and rebuild it and pop it back in post or haven’t they got capability to do that?.When I first got my Capra the Monarch was DOA and YT were very good with free postage and a door to door turnaround of just over 2 weeks .
I also recall that YT recently said in communication with another BOS owner that there could be a UK warranty center for BOS stuff on the way soon?So fingers crossed for you guys and girls.

When I first got my Capra the Monarch was DOA and YT were very good with free postage and a door to door turnaround of just over 2 weeks .

Interesting, so I’m not the first with a DOA Monarch.
I wonder if they are that snowed under with orders they just throw the bikes together and ship them?

I ordered a small Capra but cancelled to re-order the medium. Can’t work out if this is just the usual level of internet woes coming up due to the popularity of the bikes or if it reflects more serious issues. It does seem to be mainly the BOS suspension that people have issues with and I was going to get the version with Lyriks.

Hmm….

All components especially complicated ones like shocks and forks have a failure rate at or shortly after assembly ,it only takes one out of tolerance O ring or one that’s pinched etc and that’s it.I’m sure SRAM do check and test their products just before sending them out but some slip through the net,and I’m equally sure YT ‘if’ they spot something wrong wouldn’t want to send a broken part out that will cost them time,money and reputation to deal with.Luckily for me I received my bike in mid December 2014 and I have an old mud bike,so although it was frustrating it wasn’t the end of the world .

Order a Bird, going by Ben’s reply above.

A bike’s a bike at the end of the day. Months **** about waiting for someone to fix a shock is not worth it!

I wonder if they are that snowed under with orders they just throw the bikes together and ship them?

I believe YT build and box in the far east, so there’s no way they would be realistically able to check every bike before shipping.

Was chatting to a guy in the car park at Gisburn at the beginning of October who hadn’t ridden the whole summer due to the fact that his forks had to go back not long after he bought it. There are some great prices on the European stuff but its not worth a summer without riding.

They only stock certain sizes and tunes in the UK, YT Capra is a non-standard length to boot.

Is it?

I thought it was 222×66 (for the BOS) and 222×63 for RS Monarch?

The 222×63 is a standard isn’t it?

Fox do a 8.75″x2.5″ Float which is 222×63?

I’ve got a bos kirk shock on my orbea rallon, I was a bit wary about ordering it, but as it happens its been faultless , I’ve had it nearly a year now, so its about to go out of warranty.

I suppose I should send it in for a service round about now. but am reluctant to send to BOS because of the timescales you hear about. So will probably try and find someone else reliable who can service it.

Does anyone in the UK service BOS kirks?

Does anyone in the UK service BOS kirks?

A quick Google suggests

Plush Suspension Tuning do BOS

jungle products also do it and they’ve just had a delivery of bos sus bits. might be worth a phone call to check on timescales though.

222×63 for RS Monarch?

Thats not a stock RockShox Option.

The monarch on the Capra is a standard fast black 222×66 high volume one (not debonair)

The BOS kirk is 222×70.

Wow, plush suspension are rather pricey for servicing a Kirk, around £145 inc post both ways! Why does it cost £40 more to do a Kirk than it does a stoy/void/vipr?

The monarch on the Capra is a non-standard fast black 222×66 high volume one (not debonair)

Fixed it for you 😉

By non-standard of course I mean its not a standard, run of the mill size that RS make for the aftermarket, which is why Fisher’s wont keep them in stock by default. They do stock some of the more popular weird variants (like Specialized sizes) but not the 222 off the Capra. Interestingly the Vivid is stock in 222 but only at the 70mm stroke. I wonder if they designed it for a vivid…..

The monarch on the Capra is a standard fast black 222×66 high volume one (not debonair)

The BOS kirk is 222×70.

Is it? Fair enough.