tagaproject6

This is why I only buy brand name products, just so I can sue somebody! Hah!

rangerdavid

.... and I'd certainly rather spend that extra $1000 on a Scott, Specialized, Cannondale, or the like, instead of medical bills or my Blue Cross deductable.

rangerdavid

That disclaimer is indeed in almost every warranty. We probably file breach of warranty suites 20 times a year. That crap language won't stop them from getting sued.

Juan Foote

Just out of curiousity, is there a similar site around for broken or bent aluminum frames?

patentcad

I'm very old. What's your point?

patentcad

He never has a point.

patentcad

He fits right in here.

UberGeek

And that "crap language" will surely make the suit very expensive for the person bringing it... In fact, prohibitively expensive for most anyone.

Because the person bringing the suit must prove:
* The bicycle had a defect
* The defect is what caused the injury
* The bicycle had 0 modifications. Remember, all bets are off if you do after-market add-ons, because they could have caused it.

So, go ahead, and try. See how far the suit against Toyota went for their gas pedals.

Jed19

Toyota settled some of those lawsuits, and you can bet your sweet beepy they are working on settling the other lawsuits.

Jed19

Come on, act a little bit intelligent. A brand name product probably has a reputation it has built up, and of course, they really don't want their name attached to a product failure kinda lawsuit, thus they try harder. You really think the guys salvaging cooking oil from sewers to use in making your chinese food products care about their "brand reputation"? Or the guy who is selling poisonous dry wall? I can assure you though, that US Gypsum is definitely gonna test their dry wall extensively to ascertain that it is not gonna poison homeowners.

The mention of a lawsuit is not b/cos I like lawsuits, (as a matter of fact, I think the USA having too many aggressive product liability lawyers is a detriment to the country actually achieving its true potential, but I digress) but it keeps people who manufacture and sell branded products here on their toes as a kind of check and balances.

I do not lump Pedalforce with the chinese "huckster" crowd, but the generic e-Bay guy, well, I think I'll pass, thank you.

nyxis

toyota was found not at fault for the accelerator issue so i doubt they will be settling anything..

Jed19

You are wrong! Toyota settled the Lexus California Highway Patrol officer lawsuit. That is the guy who perished with some members of his family b/cos he could not get his Lexus to stop.

Look it up.

nyxis

okay did..

https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...n7329588.shtml

Jed19

It said electronics was ruled out as the cause of the problem. It did not say Toyota is not responsible for floor mats getting stuck or other mechanical issue(s).

Read it again.

cooleric1234

Don't feed the wildlife.

cooleric1234

As an engineer myself I would say that by the amount of times he said I don't know he's bordering on being an outright scientist, maybe even a physicist. Us engineers prefer "it depends."

tagaproject6

I like the way you insult someone you do not know on the internet and assume they have a point of view different from yours. Dude, you take these discussions way too seriously. Nobody really gives a rat's ass about how you want to spend your money and which or what product you want to buy and however the hell you feel about China and their practices. Know that people will disagree with you and some will not be swayed by whatever spews out of your keyboard...those with real intelligence will make up their own minds according to each of his or her own values...not yours.

Jed19

Standard boiler plate stuff. There are lawyers on retainership who make a living writing that stuff for all kinda businesses.

Jed19

I did not intend to insult you and I am sorry you feel that way.

I do think you took a cheap shot with your original comment about how you only buy brand ed products so you can sue somebody.

catonec 

I have a set of unbranded, chineese, carbon handlebars that I got for $60 off ebay. I have 2500+ miles on them. Maybe I just got lucky and got a good pair.

Rowan

'It would be wise for everyone to be sure to differentiate between Taiwan and China when they refer to the origins of these products. They are two entirely different countries, and the Taiwanese rarely, if ever, want to be associated with China.

I would suggest that Taiwan is way ahead on the quality control aspect, and its factories certainly do mould and produce product for major brands. My "cheap" CF and Ti components are Taiwan-manufactured, which gives me a bit of a headstart over the Chinese generic stuff.

kleinboogie

I have two Cannondale road bikes, one Klein road bike and a generic TT frameset. I'm big and slow on all of them. No breakages. I'm not afraid of my bike breaking, I'm more concerned with the motorist who's clueless about their surroundings driving down the bike lane while texting.

Jazzy Hands

going to part with what little knowledge I have on Chinese manufacturing...

What happens when a large company goes into China to produce something is that they give them a lot of raw materials, but a limited supply of something else. For example, lets say they are making frames, but they only have X number of part Y.

What happens at the end is that they produce X number of frames for the company and takes the leftover raw material to make more frames (without part Y) and adds a similar part Y onto it - these then get sold on the secondary market.

Basically, you get the exact same thing, but with a (usually lower quality) different part Y on the product.

If part Y was stickers, then you are good to go, but if it is something a little more important, then you have some risk.

tagaproject6

Again, internet...do not take it too seriously. You seem passionate about your belief, and writing words as if your truth should be the truth of everyone else, is foolhardy.

Rowan

Actually, they do, depending on which part of the world in which you live.

Here in Australia, a milllion-dollar-plus lawsuit was started earlier this year against a bike brand and an importer over a broken fork that left the rider with injuries that were serious and long-term. The brand is reputable, and the material of the fork was not mentioned in the the news coverage of the opening court proceedings.

Companies might hide behind waivers in their warranties, but they reallly aren't worth much when it comes to a court action. Defence itself, let alone the damage to a company's reputation can cause far more financial damage than the final settlement. Hence, there are more out-of-court and confidential settlements in all spheres than make the media.

Negligence is virtually indeensible, but there are degrees of negligence, and it takes a well-founded and researched action to follow the processes and to find a hole in them -- such as failure to test to destruction with documentation.

The ultimate defence, of course, is that the user's treatment of the equipment led to the failure, but even this might be arguable. Hence all those little stickers on "MTB" bikes even in bike shops that these bikes aren't designed for off-road use, and the handbooks that comprise 10 pages of instruction and 30 on what not to do.

Here in Australia, a business cannot go into business without a decent decent liability and indemnity policy. It's one of the heavy costs of doing business which the eBay and other internet vendors based in China, Vietnam and Malaysia don't have to carry. It's the one sympathy I do have for LBS operators.

All this hand-wringing over carbon fibre is well and good, but how many people who order a steel frame from a custom builder demand to see the test-to-destruction results for their products before spending their bucks?