[196nautique]

Have an '07 tricross that I bought used last year. It was fine when I bought it. Rode it last year, and this year, mostly fire road rides. Planned to take it out tomorrow for a 4- 5 hour ride in the hills. It was a little muddy, so I decided to wash it. I am really glad I did, because I found a crack in the rear seat stay, it isn't just cosmetic either, I can bend the crack with my hands.

Any ideas if Specialized will help out at all? I am pretty sure I am screwed with a full warranty replacement because I bought it used. I wonder if they will give me a discount on a replacement frame?

Damn, loved that bike too.

 

[jroden]

talk to your local specialized dealer and explain the problem to them and see what they say, they might help you out if it makes you a loyal customer. It may be a matter of them handing the stripped frame to the rep and they either warranty it or not, it's not a huge favor from the loacal shop, give it a whirl. You may be out a frame for a while, so get going.

 

[atpjunkie]

cross your fingers

and hope you have friends who work at a Specialized Dealer

 

[196nautique]

I hope I can get a discount on a new frame, but I am also thinking of just getting a cross check frame and fork and moving all the pieces over. I have a mtn cassette on the bike, and use it mostly on fire roads and some single track, no plans on racing. I am thinking that a steel frame bike may be more durable. The Tricross cracked on the carbon fiber seatstay, and I thinking 205lbs and carbon fiber + bumpy (sometimes rocky) fire roads may not be a lasting combination. I liked the tricross just fine, it had some fork shutter which was remedied by toeing in the front brakes, and some toe overlap on tight corners at low speeds, but overall I was happy.

Problem is that I have a brand new Stumpjumper Expert in the garage that is less than 10 days old, and I am sure the wife will not be too happy about dropping another pot of cash on my bike habit.

I have 3 Specialized bikes (Tarmac, Stumpjumper, and Tricross). Why is it that the only one I bought used is the one that I need warranteed?

Will have the bike at the shop Tuesday morning at 10am sharp!!!!!

 

[atpjunkie]

if you bought the other 2

I hope I can get a discount on a new frame, but I am also thinking of just getting a cross check frame and fork and moving all the pieces over. I have a mtn cassette on the bike, and use it mostly on fire roads and some single track, no plans on racing. I am thinking that a steel frame bike may be more durable. The Tricross cracked on the carbon fiber seatstay, and I thinking 205lbs and carbon fiber + bumpy (sometimes rocky) fire roads may not be a lasting combination. I liked the tricross just fine, it had some fork shutter which was remedied by toeing in the front brakes, and some toe overlap on tight corners at low speeds, but overall I was happy.

Problem is that I have a brand new Stumpjumper Expert in the garage that is less than 10 days old, and I am sure the wife will not be too happy about dropping another pot of cash on my bike habit.

I have 3 Specialized bikes (Tarmac, Stumpjumper, and Tricross). Why is it that the only one I bought used is the one that I need warranteed?

Will have the bike at the shop Tuesday morning at 10am sharp!!!!!

new from the same dealer,they may help you out

 

[dead flag blues]

Seeing I'm considering a Tri Cross (and a few other options), I'd love a pic or two of the damage. If you don't mind.

 

[alchemist]

Why is it that the only one I bought used is the one that I need warranteed?

It's a special case of Murphy's Law.

 

[196nautique]

Here's the pictures

I am not the best photographer.......

I am not sure how or when it happened. All I can think of is the tire picked up something and it bought it all the way around and whacked the back of the seat stay.

 

[dead flag blues]

Great pics, thank you. Specialized is rumoured to be good about warrantees, hope they treat you well. Best of luck.

 

[Hand/of/Midas]

Great pics, thank you. Specialized is rumoured to be good about warrantees, hope they treat you well. Best of luck.

they are great with warrenties, weve had them send out entire new bikes to customers before. but this is a unique case.

 

[RetroS]

Personally, I would have tried to resolve the issue with LBS before posting my story. That said I have broken two Stumpjumpers over the years and both were returned w/o a hassel. One I received was a substancial improvement due to model year changes.

Good Luck.

 

[atpjunkie]

Nope

I am not the best photographer.......

I am not sure how or when it happened. All I can think of is the tire picked up something and it bought it all the way around and whacked the back of the seat stay.

had you 'brought something up' it would have been in your spokes
having something in your spokes whack your stay hard enough to crack it, well lets just say "you would have felt that or would have crashed"

I see no impact point on the crack either. A whack would have left a mark ofimpact, not just a crack.
\
next an impact crack wouldbean 'innie' and this appears to be an 'outie'

looks more like a stress crack that fractured on vertical loads

so then we look for possible 'weak areas' where said crack could develop

I notice fracture is close to/and above the zertz insert

now I'm no structural engineer (though I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night)
but I'm guessing I'm close to correct

 

[PeanutButterBreath]

I could imagine a scenario where a large rock could have been kicked up into the spokes and subsequently bounced forward into the rear of the stay. Looks like a large mark of impact from a rock-like object in on the rear inside face of the stay.

Its hard to tell in the photo, but is the damage a crack or just pulverization of the clearcoat? Is the area under the damage soft?

Might not be an issue. Probably repairable if Specialized won't deal with a second owner.

 

[atpjunkie]

no, that grey/ white area

I could imagine a scenario where a large rock could have been kicked up into the spokes and subsequently bounced forward into the rear of the stay. Looks like a large mark of impact from a rock-like object in on the rear inside face of the stay.

Its hard to tell in the photo, but is the damage a crack or just pulverization of the clearcoat? Is the area under the damage soft?

Might not be an issue. Probably repairable if Specialized won't deal with a second owner.

on the inside of the stay is where the CF cloth delaminated but didn't break all the way
it was flexed beyond the point of structural integrity and the bond between cloth and resin is gone. I'm a surfer, I know a few things about this.

here, do a quick test, all you need is 2 pencils or sticks.
a) take pencil A, set it between 2 items (clamps) and wack it with some object. observe the damage and breaking pattern
b) take pencil B hold between your hands (on each end) and flex the pencil upward to the point of failure. observe the break

which break looks like the bike? B
it is an 'outie'

my guess is there was a micro-fracture in the CF (internally) that caused the crack, on a vertical load, the crack increased to failure and where it didn't break it delaminated

 

[PeanutButterBreath]

Fair enough. But I used to work with a few hundred Specialized bikes as a fleet mechanic and I saw many a CF component that looked like hell without suffering more than superficial damage to the clearcoat and top layer.

I have a hard time imagining how a micro fracture could manifest that much damage without the stay giving way completely. What is holding the bike together? A surfboard is a whole different ball of wax, where I could see a rock impact pulverizing a section all the way through without the whole thing collapsing.

The fact that OP didn't even notice the damage while riding and only discovered it while cleaning makes me wonder. The pictures don't tell me enough to say for sure.*

And I am not going to ruin two perfectly good pencils, thank you very much. Nice try though



* And just to clarify, I would not ride the bike without the sign-off of a rep or someone I trusted with my safety.

 

[California L33]

Any ideas if Specialized will help out at all? I am pretty sure I am screwed with a full warranty replacement because I bought it used.

They might not give you full warranty replacement, but it wouldn't surprise me if they gave you crash replacement on it.

 

[atpjunkie]

surfboards

Fair enough. But I used to work with a few hundred Specialized bikes as a fleet mechanic and I saw many a CF component that looked like hell without suffering more than superficial damage to the clearcoat and top layer.

I have a hard time imagining how a micro fracture could manifest that much damage without the stay giving way completely. What is holding the bike together? A surfboard is a whole different ball of wax, where I could see a rock impact pulverizing a section all the way through without the whole thing collapsing.

The fact that OP didn't even notice the damage while riding and only discovered it while cleaning makes me wonder. The pictures don't tell me enough to say for sure.*

And I am not going to ruin two perfectly good pencils, thank you very much. Nice try though



* And just to clarify, I would not ride the bike without the sign-off of a rep or someone I trusted with my safety.

sometimes from the impact of the lip get flexed beyond theglass and resins ability to hold.It creates de-lam which is that white cloudy looking stuff. the board is still functional but the delam will spread and it makes a structural weak spot. another impact in the same area and the boards sometimes breakin half.No hard impact (rock) is needed just enough flex to cause the materials to fail

imagine there being a small anomoly in the matrix, from the forces it turns into a small crack.Over time the crack gets bigger until it creates a weak enough point for one big krinkle.so you have 1/4 of the stay cracked,1/4suffering some delam and 1/2
still holding (the inside).CF is strong,the inner(lower) half held.

 

[Wolverine777]

Why would the fact it's used affect the warranty? I don't know anything about bike warranties, but often (usually?), the warranty runs with the product. If you're providing a lifetime warranty on a frame, I'm not sure why ownership should matter, as long as you haven't otherwise voided the warranty by modifying the frame, etc.

Does anyone have the explicit wording of the warranty?

 

[PeanutButterBreath]

Question
What is the warranty on my new Specialized bike?
Answer
Thanks for question! The frame has a limited lifetime warranty on the frame (manufacturers defect) and one year for the components-to the original owner.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/sbcfaq.jsp?a=b&minisite=10029&language=US

Not the explicit wording, but not encouraging.

Why? To cut down on warrantys. To provide an incentive to buy new and discourage re-sale, which helps both Specialized and their dealers.

Warrantys are often limited to the original owner.

 

[cbuchanan]

Warranties being good for the original owner of the bike only is actually pretty standard procedure on the cycling world. Some companies tend to b a bit more flexible about it then others so it never hurts to try.