waterrockets 

My work here is done.

bostongarden

I have a feeling that we might hear from Trek

khatfull

And hopefully their response would be STFU.

"I called and spoke with their support staff, and got transferred to our district rep. I told him about how I've put Trek on the podium a bunch of times and want to continue. I told him how I have a team buy coming up where I can inexpensively start putting another brand up on the podium."

The Trek rep should have hung up right then and there. That statement is so incredibly narcissistic.

Translated: "I can put Trek on the podium so give me a frame. Oh, and while you're at it why not fire that Armstrong guy and let me shill for Trek. I've put Trek on the podium a bunch too!"

khatfull

Ah, found it on the Trek website, evidently those talks were already happening:

waterrockets 

I know that everything else you read on the internet is 100% complete and true, but that conversation I posted? Yeah, that was a summary. I didn't record it, but we had a normal conversation.

I told him how I loved how the frame felt, looked, and performed, but it broke. I told him about the shop warranty declination, who I acquired the bike from, and that I wanted to discuss the policy to see if there was anything they would be willing to do beyond a crash replacement. I told him I won 5 M35+ and Cat 3 races on it and I'd like to keep doing so in 2010 -- this is a way of selling him on the fact that I like the bike and I use it. He said they don't repair BB shells, it and the 20% deal off was their solution.

Am I proud I won those races? Yes. This is a competitive sport, and I suffered a lot for those wins and played the game well. I'm not ashamed to mention it, and I can't say "I rode it while I raised $5000 for the MS-150, because I didn't." I raced it.

Here's some narcissism for you:

BikeWise1

Sorry for the off-topic.

I had an E46 wagon. It was a 2000 model with sport package and a manual trans. Generally a nice car to drive, but jeez, all the plastic underhood! I had two cooling system failures that left me stranded both times. Once was the reservoir splitting open, and the other, a hose popping off a fitting. There aren't hose clamps you can tighten, just metal bands. When the hose ages, and they age quickly because BMW runs the cooling system at 240 degrees, the bands lose their grip and suddenly the hose pops off and bye-bye coolant! Then there's the stuff you hope won't happen- oil separator issues, the subframe issues, air pump, VANOS seals and endless window regulator issues....

I sold mine and bought a car I can fix myself: a 1985 535i! You can buy a lot of car for little during a recession, and I paid less than $4K. I just finished the conversion to an -is with the correct front and rear spoilers, springs and shocks and sport seats. Dark blue, but the sun was setting in the photo, so it looks black. Almost 250,000 miles on original engine and drivetrain. Doesn't even burn (or leak) oil. It's much faster than the E46, too. This car was built when the engineers got what they wanted-not the bean counters. It has fewer squeaks and rattles than my E46 did.

There's no way I would buy a new BMW now, even if I had the cash. No dipstick, no tranny or diff drain plugs (!), too much stupid electronic crap that the dealership can't fix, and they just aren't as engaging to drive as my oldie....




I'd post some pictures of myself racing-I was a trackie, but they're in black and white. They hadn't invented color yet.... :-)

khatfull

Congrats on the wins, and the fund raising...all admirable.

But the statement I quoted simply sounds like a demand of Trek because of your success. Whether or not that's really how it came across to the Trek rep we don't know...but your "Cliff's notes" version sure sounded that way.

BTW, I especially like that first pic. If I were you I'd have that on a 24x36 poster print in my office. (And yes, that's narcissistic )

Spreggy

I think that Trek should have come across with a better goodwill offer, like 50% on a frame, but I came from Toyota service culture and they take pretty good care of loyal customers and full warranty for used buyers. This move is more like Ford, where if they didn't get the big check from you, they tell you to go shine it. And guess who sells the most cars?

KiddSisko

With the help of advanced photo analysis, I've been able to isolate the beginning of the end for WR's Trek.

roadwarrior

Correct.

And that person told him to go fly a kite.

gsteinb

Not for nothing, but the guy behind you looks like he needs to lay off the donuts.

waterrockets 

You aren't kidding. I'm friends with him (infrequent though -- he lives in Houston). Two years ago, he was over 400lbs. He discovered cycling and dropped down to 230 lbs. He's been there a while now, but man is he ever a strong sprinter/kilo guy.

2000W 5" power
1000W 1' power

5m after the line, he was in front of me. This was from one of my kilo attacks, and halfway through it I was over 100m ahead of everyone, but you know how those things end up...

He can't hack it in the hills though.

After two seasons, he was a Cat 2 on the track, and I believe he got his Cat 1 upgrade. Cat 3 on the road. Several Cat 5 and Cat 4 wins to get there -- not many races needed for the points.

shoerhino

Offering a full warranty for second owners is typical in the car business. In this case, you're asking Trek to go outside of their established warranty agreement and make an exception. If the Toyota warranty was for 100,000 miles and your engine died at 150,000, would Toyota stand behind their product and either give you a new engine or cut you a deal on one? Doubtful, although I'm sure that they make exceptions in warranty claims, as does Trek. In this case, WR was not "screwed", so to speak, as there is no obligation for Trek to offer any assistance other than what they did but he wasn't as lucky as some of the other people who get exceptions.

I think Trek stands behind their warranties like everyone else. When they are obligated to perform, they do. When someone asks them to extend coverage outside of the warranty, they have made exceptions but it's not the norm.

gsteinb

Well if you're going to beat up on big fatty you might not want to appear to be gloating. It's not wonder Trek told you to go pound sand.

DScott

I'm surprised that no one has said what needs to be said. I quote:

Flatballer

...

waterrockets 

nice

Six of us in that photo made it to Cat 2 later that month.

Those were the days.

Ouch. The irony. (surprised you're the first...)

Fleabiscuit

I'll keep this short because I don't want to divert attention from this important thread. Very cool car! I love those old BMW's and if I was handy would love to have one. Learned my lesson about not being handy when I owned a '69 VW Conv. I love my E46 and have never had a problem. It's the last design before the Bangle era. The car is quick, very reliable and gets about 30 mpg on the highway. Best of all, it was "free" because my last company bought it for me. The only money I (actually, they) spent was for a break job, tires and front control arm bushings. My car has a dipstick, and (I think) diff drain plug, but trans fluid changes are a *****.

Cheers,

FB

Grumpy McTrumpy

break job?

coasting 

i wonder if waterrocket has ever fallen over celebrating like that. No ill will intended; just wondering. Ahhhh...who am i kidding?

BikeWise1

It's easy on a road bike-you can coast. Try it on a track bike!

Or rather, don't!



Or maybe something like this:


Nothing like a good bike fire.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I've been working on it for a while, pretty stable. I can't consistently look cool though. I'm probably too tall and goofy looking to look too cool, but it's hard to argue with a win photo Maybe my teammates and I should work this into an upcoming training camp. Seems like one of us is always winning something

Here's my Ritchey in action (pack started out with 50 in the rainy crit that dried up):

(another kilo attack)

thenomad

I want to enter a race, get kitted out and then raise my hands like that just before the field laps me and get a pic.

WCroadie

Then he should be posting about how he bought a used frame and when it broke he contacted the guy he bought it from he wouldn't help him out. Not how Trek won't help someone who was never their customer.

waterrockets 

You know, being able to sell your old bike might enable the purchase of the next one. I give him $1600 towards the purchase of his next Trek. None of this is isolated. Used bikes don't appear in a vacuum.