Bicycle Mechanics - My Fuji frame broke! (long)

My '98 steel Fuji Finest frame broke where the right rear dropout enters the chain stay, while I was commuting to work. I did not realize what the clunking was until I dismounted at work. I was heartbroken.

I had already reserved a pool car to haul gear that day, so I went home at lunch, pulled my reciept, and called Fuji. They asked if the frame was steel, and had I been in a wreck. When said steel and no wreck, they said it was covered, no time limit.

I stripped all parts off the frame, packed it up, and shipped it to Fuji in New Jersey (at my cost). Fuji declared the failure to be their fault, and shipped me the closest replacement they had available, a steel '01 Finest frame.

To shorten this up, it took them three (3!) tries to get a viable frame delivered to me. The first two were poorly wrapped, and UPS bashed in the top of the headtube.

To cap it off, the new frame came with a threadless fork, and the seat post size was different. So I had to buy a new headset, new stem, and new seatpost. And this all added up to six weeks without my own bike, and a fair bit of my own money spent on Fuji's problem. I will make them understand that I am not totally happy, but we are done.

On the plus size, the new frame is better than the olad one, plus I had been wanting to upgrade to threadless.

I have a Fuji touring bike I use for commuting.. Anyone share with this experience.? Hope they make good frames and this is just bad odds. So far I really like my Fuji touring bike. They used to have a great reputation. I had better loose weight.

Geez, you could gone to a frame builder and had the old frame fixed and spot-painted in only 2-3 days.

I am a little sensitive to crashing right now..Wonder is a 'Consumer Report' covers such matters as bicycle frame reliability.. Any cross comparsions to frame stregnth for one brand of bike compared to another?
I have really liked my Fuji bike and recall "Adventure Cycling" magazine reviewed it and liked the bike. Said great for the money..
Something so many of us are really into want real reliability.
Bike frame stregnth is as critical as the kind of wheels you put on. In hind sight, if I thought I was going to rely on a bike for 80,000 miles, another $450 for a better grade frame is nothing .

I stripped all parts off the frame, packed it up, and shipped it to Fuji in New Jersey (at my cost). Fuji declared the failure to be their fault, and shipped me the closest replacement they had available, a steel '01 Finest frame.

To shorten this up, it took them three (3!) tries to get a viable frame delivered to me. The first two were poorly wrapped, and UPS bashed in the top of the headtube.

I work at a Fuji Dealer and I can relate to the UPS problem. I recently had a large order of Fuji Police bikes come in for the Local PD and 2 of them had broken suspension forks as a result of UPS shipping. It happens all the time.

-Ryan

I will never use UPS...Many years ago I sent a Christmas present to my Grandmother... When it arrived it was broken..
Instead of honoring insurance we had to go through a big hassle.. A local ups manager called and said my grandmother was covering up for the fact that she had broken it.
I was angry and never used them since. Fedex or US Mail for me..They honor their insurance, at least..
Anyone remember someone put in a motion sensor in a UPS shippment. Study was many years ago...Recorded vibration...Seems greatest shock was like 7 foot drop..

I'd call and talk to Fuji about all the incompatibility issues, etc.

Be polite and see if they can work with you to help defray some of the cost associated with changing all these parts. A seatpost for example...that'll save you $50 for sure.

I bet you'd be surprised how they'll deal with you after all the problems you had getting a new frame considering the first one broke due to manufacturer defect.

If they want to keep you as a customer, they'll bend to make things right. That's what business is about, right?

PJBAZ

If you are using the stock Fuji post and fork , you can ask if they will exchange it for current post that comes with that frame etc.. definately can not hurt. I only dealt with Fuji one time so far, I bought my Fuji Cross used and I bent the rear derailleur they sent me a replacemetn free of cost :)

Swapped out the stock post a long time ago, and I couldn't even tell you where it is now. They did send a new fork, no problems there. But when I asked about parts I would have to buy, all they threw in was a seatpost clamp. Got three Fujis in the family, and it will end there.

Da Tinker...I rode my Fuji Touring bike back from physical therapy today.. The touring bike frame looks really solid. Solid welds....Is your frame for a road bike, touring bike, or what.?

Honestly after reading some nightmare stories about people trying to get their frames replaced under warranty other then the UPS problem sounds like yours went pretty smoothly. They can't stock all frames they ever made, so replacing with exact frame that is 5 years old is virtualy impossible next best thing is a newer model of same quality or better which they did.

My frame is a road bike frame, and I had thought of it as quite solid. It looks like the dropout failed at the weld line, perhaps from a stress riser.

I do not blame UPS for the damaged frames, as the boxes looked pristine when they arrived. I blame Fuji, since the headtubes were 'protected' only by a short, thin piece of foam wrapped around the headtube, and the frame was free to move in the box. The first frame was packed just like it arrived from the frame shop.

I asked the warranty manager if the frames arrived as indivudual shipments, or as bulk shipments, like in a freight container. He confirmed the latter. I then tried to explain to him how a packing job sufficent for a bulk shipment, where the boxes are not handled, can be totally inadequate for individual shipments. Heck, youy could see the marks inside the box where the headtube had been repeatedly hitting the inside of the box.

I still prefer FedEx.