Jarrett2

In your experience, what companies are good about warranty claims and what companies are bad about them?

I'm looking at buying a new steel or titanium road bike and I'm wondering about how well each company backs up their warranties.

I've heard Lynskey is very good about. I've heard Litespeed is not as good. I just read in another thread that Gunnar/Waterford is not so good about warranty claims. I haven't heard anything at all about Ritchey.

Anyone have any good knowledge/experience to share? Are there other steel/titanium builders out there that are outstanding about their warranties?

rms13

I'll go back to the thread about BD warranties and say there is a 99% chance you'll never have a warranty claim on a frame. There just are not many factory defects on frames that would require a replacement. In fact I don't know a single person that has ever had a warranty claim on a frame and I know a lot of people that ride and have been riding for a long time

dtrain

No first hand experience with those brands. Fuji/Performance were good to me on a frame replacement. One guy I know is working with Cervelo, which will be interesting to watch. Bianchi has a rather limited five year warranty.

rpenmanparker 

Uh, not so much. My Trek needed to have the fork replaced after about a year due to cracking at the crown. Then the same bike had the full frame and fork replaced again due to aluminum salt corrosion on the bottom bracket from dripping sweat. Due to a good LBS managing the job Trek was very cooperative.

rms13

Steel or Ti?

dr_lha

I've heard good things about Ritchey. They had some issues with the bolts on their C260 stems and sent people replacements quickly, some of the early Road Logic frames got sent out with the wrong cable bosses on them, the injured parties got new frames quickly. I don't have any direct experience with them myself, but I did a lot of research before buying my frame and did not find any horror stories. Their sales rep posts regularly on RBR, and seems to respond to email as well. I doubt you'd have much of an issues, although as @rms13 says, the chance of a warranty replacement of a frame would likely be slim, especially as I gather they're not exactly selling their frames by the thousands!

tarwheel 

First, the odds are very high that you will never have a warranty claim on frame/fork.

Second, I wouldn't base your opinions of Gunnar/Waterford warranties based on what someone said in a thread on these forums. Gunnar/Waterford sells their frames through bike shops all over the country and have been making custom frames perhaps longer than any other US company. I don't think they would have survived that long if they were treating customers badly. If someone claims to have had problems with Gunnar/Waterford honoring a warranty, I would want to hear the other side of the story. I have owned two Gunnars and one Waterford, and have visited their factory twice and given a tour. I would not hesitate to buy a frame or fork from them.

Jarrett2

I haven't been riding that long at all and I know several people that have had frames warrantied. Granted, they were all carbon frames.

rms13

I would not base purchase on warranty and I wouldn't buy a bike that I couldn't afford to replace if needed

dr_lha

I have a friend who got their Cannondale aluminum frame replaced. It cracked at the bottom bracket, a fairly common place for aluminum frames to break.

Jarrett2

What's RBR? I'd like to talk to that guy.

Inpd

I'd really like a warranty to be for the entire bike. Does any manufacturer (or perhaps shop) offer such warranties. A component failure is more likely due to poor installation rather than a frame failure.

dr_lha

Road Bike Review.

Ritchey

EDIT: Interestingly a recent post on there he states that the Road Logic frame comes with the BB shell already chased and faced. I guess that's why it looked so clean.

tarwheel 

Components have separate warranties, depending on the manufacturer. I've had several expensive parts replaced under warranty through the dealers that I bought them through. In one case, a Campy Chorus rear hub cracked a few months short of the 3-year warranty. I bought the bike from Excel Sports and they replaced the entire wheel at no cost to me (including shipping). I've had two sets of Shimano Dura-Ace shifters (STI and bar-ends) break during the warranty period, and in both cases they were replaced through my bike shop, although I did have to pay some labor costs.

Jarrett2

Awesome, thanks!

CliffordK

I presume: Road Bike, Cycling Forums

I don't know the individuals that were mentioned.

I buy most of my bikes and frames used... so I never think about a warranty.

I agree, a warranty issue is probably quite rare, although they seem to come up regularly on the internet forums. Even so, that may be a minority of riders.

Anyway, I'd rather pay half price for a used bike/frame without warranty than full price with the warranty.

My thoughts too...
But, I also don't buy $5000 bikes.

FrozenK

If everybody knows how good a brand is about replacing defective frames/parts, that usually means that brand has a lot of defective frames/parts. Crank Brothers and Gary Fisher come to mind.

The other thing to consider, on the forums you are more likely to hear about negative experiences. People will post saying that xxxxxx warranty suck because they wouldn't warranty their second hand, out of warranty period frame that cracked after a crash. But not everybody will post when their issue is solved quickly and efficiently.

As for not buying a frame you can't afford to replace, there is some logic to that. But you can always replace your expensive frame with some thing cheaper, so it doesn't really apply.

CliffordK

I think I remember reading about one brand that had defective front derailleur mounts, with a good replacement policy, and a new and improved mount installed on the warranted frame.

But, for any specific brand, one could probably look up both good stories and horror stories, then weigh the differences.

Frame models are upgraded so quickly that by the time warranty issues start showing up on one model, the company is often 2 models ahead, and often will replace the old frames with new models.

Few riders have bad enough luck to require warranty frame repairs on multiple different bikes and brands allowing them to do a good comparison. Perhaps LBS owners get a bit different perspective.

FrozenK

And that brings up another issue: frame availability and parts compatibility. In these days, chances are that by the time you need that warranty your replacement frame will use a different BB, seat post, headset, front derailleur, etc... or that model will be discontinued. (Happened to a few people I know with Gary Fisher bikes. One needed a replacement FS frame, no longer made in 26 inches. Another ended up needing new post and headset) Or they will warranty it but they will take weeks to find an available frame, and there goes the season (happened to me)

PAnd another thing to consider: labor to transfer parts and shipping are often not covered. So you can easily be looking at $200-300 or more on a warranty. Which is why I focus on buying a frame that won't fail, rather than how easy it would be to deal with the manufacturer if the need arises.

Wingsprint

Yup... you are only getting one side of the story. In most cases this is very biased information coming from a customer who did not get what they wanted.

Jed19

TREK!

Never had a warranty claim on a frame, but a guy I know had Trek replace his frame three times after owning his original frame for a long time. And each subsequent replacement frame was an upgrade over the last one.

I was really impressed with Trek after seeing this.