sbskates

what is the longest you have rode a high end alu race frame. for mainly training rides no races.

sbskates

what is the most years if care for and not race djust training rides has anyone gotten from a top line alu race frame

Az B

I know someone that recently tried to get his Bianchi frame replaced after it cracked, and Bianchi told him they only warranty aluminum frames for 5 years. Steel is lifetime, and I think Carbon is too.

Az

Retro Grouch 

Everything has a failure rate but there's a good chance you won't live long enough to find out what it is. You might die before the frame does. Almost surely you'll grow bored with it and want something else before it gives up the ghost. I've never had a bike frame that didn't last longer than I wanted it to last.

Jerseysbest

I'd imagine you'd screw something up while working on it, like stripping some threads, before anything else.

mx_599

when i bought my schwinn homegrown, i could have sworn it was lifetime on the frame. i'd have to dig out paper work. i'd like to know how the heck they'd honor it now!

Eatadonut

Carbon with a lifetime warranty? I dunno.


It really depends on how you ride, how often you ride, what you ride. I've had a frame bent from wear in less than a year, and my pinarello is about 4 years old and still feels like new. No experience with older aluminum, though I know cromo will last for at least 20 years

HillRider

My '92 Trek 1420 (bonded Al frame) and my son's '96 Trek 1220 (same frame) and '04 Trek 2000 (welded Al frame) all have lifetime warranties.

spider-man

No offense, but a lifetime warranty doesn't mean that the frame is expected to last that long. It's a marketing scheme intended to imply as much.

mx_599

how long do they cover it?

Rev.Chuck

threads merged. Rev. Chuck


I have a 1994 Cannondale M800 beast, That has been commuter/race bike, then a trials bike, then my fun trail bike, and is now my urban fun bike. The only original parts are the frame fork and headset. The headset is pretty beat tho.

zonatandem

There is a finite life to all bikes . . . eventually it will fail.
Have had a steel tandem frame break after 50,000 miles.
Most frames have a limited warranty . . . and lifetime does not mean *your* lifetime!
Most US c/f frames have a 15 to 25 year warranty, depending on the builder.

spider-man

The manufacturers may cover it for a lifetime, but they know full well that the overwhelming majority of owners are not going to keep a bike for a lifetime.

Rev.Chuck

Not sure about the Schwinn stuff, but a customer contacted Pacific about his busted GT I-Drive and they sent him a new one. Pacific seems to have gotten the stock pile of warranty stuff when they bought the Schwinn and Gt names.

Rev.Chuck

Usually by the time you break a frame, all the components are pretty ragged. So you end up with a new frame with some tatty stuff on it. If you get a whole new group, you often find it cheaper to get a complete bike. Then you end up with a spare frame.

genericbikedude

OT: but I wonder if pacific will ever revive the paramount, given current market trends...

spider-man

I get they impression they are perfectly happy to churn out el-cheapo department store bikes. I don't see how Paramount would fit into that plan.

genericbikedude

I dunno, I doubt that they'll ever stop making the el-cheapo bikes. On the other hand however, I bet bianchi is making oodles of money from the pista, and I wouldn't be surprised if profit margin is a LOT higher for higher-end bikes. Doesn't schwinn make half-decent roadbikes now?

HillRider

A "lifetime" warranty implies the manufacturer will repair (or replace) the frame as long as you keep it unless the failure is crash damage.

Yes, very few riders put enough miles on to get close to the frame's inherent lifetime and most owners replace or tire of the bike way before then but it is a good selling point and does help the occasional long-term owner. I have 65,000 miles on a 10-year old Litespeed frame and have never needed the warranty but it's nice to know it's there and would have been available if there had been an early failure.

kgatwork

I've got a 1986 Vitus 979 bonded aluminum road bike, that I just rebonded (read epoxied) the seat tube to the bottom bracket lug. I guess I got 19 years out of it when the bond finally failed. Probably have about 25k hard miles on the frame. So I guess you can say the aluminum didn't fail, just the bond.

Gonzo Bob

My Vitus 979 is 20 years old with >50,000 miles on it. I still ride it a lot.

Jason Curtiss

Steel has an endurance limit. This means that steel will endure an infinite amount of load cycles without failure, provided the resultant stress is below the steel’s endurance limit. This limit varies with the strength of the material.

Aluminum, however, does not have an endurance limit; and therefore it has a finite life. So, no matter how low the stress, aluminum is on its way to failure when subjected to enough load cycles. Having said this, most aluminum bicycle frames will last longer than their owners, provided the frame has not been over stressed.

capwater

Don't worry about it. Ya got a better chance of getting hit in the head with space junk than wearing out an AL frame.

kgatwork

Geez, I must have gotten a lemmon!

50000 miles is fantastic, I've read that the typical failure rate was between 25-35k miles, the bottom bracket bond being a weak point. I remember having lots of front derailluer auto downshifts when field sprinting. ouch! Note this is not a larger sized 979 (53cm c-t-c)


I just recently rebonded the seat tube to the bottom bracket lug and hopefully I did a good enough job that it will remain bonded for another 10 years. I used a 2 ton hydraulic jack to seperate the failed bonded tube from the bottom bracket lug (about 1 inch) and put in a 2 part water resistant epoxy. I just hope I have enough surface area bonded to ensure a lasting bond. I have put about 60 miles on the bike in the hills around my home and it did not seperate yet. Its still wimpy as ever in the bottom bracket, but thats the way it was when I purchased it new.

ppc

Heck I must be old then...

I've had 3 alu frames, including a high-end DH mountain bike, and they all cracked within 2 or 3 years. I'm heavy and heavy guys make alu frames crack, I know this first hand. My steel bikes however are still in perfect condition.