Mountain Biking - Warrranties

What do YOURS cover? Or if they expired, what did they cover? What is considered abuse, by the warranties? I get confused. Sometimes the people just say "One YEAr Warranty!" when they mean 1 year warranty to find factory defects in the model. And their abuse is "if you accidentally break something or go off a small jump or drop and flatten your rims, it is not covered". What's your say?

its changes per company, per type of part and per year. Its also changes per warranty inspector. Some are cool with freeriding and warranty it, and others won't except anything but JRA manufacturer problems. There is no set standard (maybe there should be)

It also changes per bike store. I just indexed the headset on a 6 month old Trek and my LBS won't cover the parts under warranty.

What do YOURS cover? Or if they expired, what did they cover? What is considered abuse, by the warranties? I get confused. Sometimes the people just say "One YEAr Warranty!" when they mean 1 year warranty to find factory defects in the model. And their abuse is "if you accidentally break something or go off a small jump or drop and flatten your rims, it is not covered". What's your say?


One of the points about a warranty, is that it will cover defects made apparant in the period of the warranty that are down to faulty manufacture and not misuse or wear and tear. One of my mates is big. 6'8" 100 kgs. that is big. he is heavy on parts, so he got a Giant Boulder when he started, as the frame was rated as strong. 3 years later and we can vouch for the frame, seat post, stem and bars, as that is all that remains from the original bike. His wheels fell apart within 3 months, bottom bracket within 4, and we got these replaced under warranty from Giant for exactly the same type as failed. Both went again within 3 months and after some haggling by his lbs, he got a better set of wheels that did last for 1 year. Everything else on the bike failed through "excessive wear" and they had. How can you say that the chainset has failed under warranty, when he had done 600 miles mud plugging. Chains and mechs were a similar situation. His weight and power did not help, but as we pointed out to Giant," if they make a 23"frame, it is not going to be a lightweight riding it". Their answer was that 90% of Mountain bikes sold never see a bit of dirt, never mind mud, and that was why the bike had so many parts fail, True the lbs got us some recompense from giant, but that was by the efforts of the lbs and not giant
Another of my friends bought a Univega, and this had the frame fail within 6 months of buying it. He was a fit 19 year old with skill, and his riding had caused the frame to fail. It was a faulty frame. His lbs was not prepared to do anything and said it was misuse. I got in touch with Univega, and after a great deal of hassle got them to change the frame, and throw some upgrades in aswell.
It all depends on your lbs. If they are good enough, they will get recompense from the manufacturer. If they can't be bothered, change your lbs

Most shops and manufacturers wont cover parts that have clearly been taken beyond their intended use. For instance doing drops on a light weight HT and breaking the frame wont get covered by warrently because the bike was never designed for that type of impact. However, if the frame develops a crack at a weld or somewhere else over time, and the bike shows no other signs of damage, then the company will probably chalk one up to a poor weld and give you a new frame.

In your case, if you are refering to the dept. store bike I dont know if it will be taken back since you're dealing with a retail store, not a bike shop. Most retail stores have return policies of no more than 30 days for an unopened item, or an unridden bike in your case. If the bike itself has a warrenty from the maker (it may not) then you are going to have to deal with them your self, the place you purchased the bike probably wont help you out, they dont care because they already have your money.

If you cant get the bike replaced then I wouldnt put any more money into it. dont upgrade parts, you'll likely damage them putting them on a bike they were not intended to be installed on. I doubt any shop would put a decent shock on a dept. store bike, there is way too much liability in it if you got hurt. Maybe you can clean the bike up and sell it at a garage sale to someone who doesnt want to take it off road. If all else fails, pawn the damn thing and start saving money for something you'll enjoy.

I have a cannondale and the warranty covers everything, even the stickers and paint on the bike.

But the warranty only applies to the original owner. I e-mailed them a few days ago and they said that even though I wasn't the original owner If my frame breaks they will give me a discount on a new one.

I cracked the frame above the shock on both sides and broke the swingarm on my 2000 Stumpjumper. They replaced it with a 2003 and included the rear shock. No hassle, no waiting for them to get the old frame to check it out. Said it was going to be mailed out the next day and it was. I just got my new bike today. Now if it wasn't raining and nasty.

I've worked in a shop and have heard too many JRA stories. The best was an OCLV Carbon frame that Gary Fisher put out around the time of the 1996 (was it '96?) Olympics. Regardless, it was Carbon and Sick light. It came in broken in half with a JRA story which we later found out was a dirt jumping over a creek actuality. Needless to say, GF did NOT warranty that one! Believe it or not, the kid was pissed!

(shaking head) Takes all kinds!

If you're going to ride it hard, expect to buy replacement parts more often. Trying to turn it in for a warranty claim is dishonest, and drives the cost up for the rest of us.

L8R