Fix my Cake or get a HiFi??
 

I was on the trail the other day doing a pretty hard 9 mile ride on my 2006 Fisher Cake 2 DLX, which is a bike I really like. I took my bike home and when I tried to put the rear wheel back on, I realized that there was something wrong with the spacing and it wouldn't fit. I noticed that there was a big dent on the left chainstay and this had bent the frame. I was angry at myself for not knowing when this happened, etc.

I basically have two options. I work at a Trek/GF shop and I've called our rep and asked him what I can do. They're going to give me $84 to use on whatever I want. The first option is to get a new swingarm. The swingarm I have now is aluminum on the chainstays, with carbon seatstays. All they have are full carbon ones. I kind of don't want this, because I do abuse the bike a little bit with 3 foot drops and whatnot. This would be $210 including the $84 I get from them.
If I were to go with this option, I would be able to spend about $300 on upgrades, such as a King headset, etc.

The second option is to get a new HiFi (base model) and switch the stuff from my Cake (XT with a Fox fork) to the HiFi. For me, this option would be $720 plus tax. I would not have money left over to upgrade.

I like the Cake, but the HiFi is good too, with the G2 geometry. The only thing that makes me want the HiFi is the fact that the swingarm is carbon, which worries me, probably irrationally.

I've sold my Karate Monkey to finance either of these options, so either of these will be my only mountain bike now. This is fine, because the KM was always too hard on my wrists and arms on the trails, which is all I used it for.

What do you guys think? I would love any constructive criticism, but am leaning toward buying the swingarm.

Either of these will be ordered Monday.

1. Why can't you buy just a frame?
2. Trek dealer? Fuel EX frame only, dude. HiFi and Cake will give you the silent finger for giving them 3' drops. (unless you're dropping to tranny...or you have good trials skillz)
3. I hate Trek bikes, but in this case...it seems like your best option.

Trek is all out of pretty much all frames other than super high end full carbon stuff. They have one ProCaliber, but it's a 15" and I'm a 19", plus I want more trail, less XC. I have gone through many options and I'm down to these two. I even talked to our rep about warranty frames, and they've got nothing.

They're only giving you 84 bloody dollars for a two year old bike?!

Mmhmm, just for the swingarm though. I bought it only last year, haha. Oh well.

I'll admit I haven't had any experience with warranty issues, but since GF has the lifetime warranty on the frame, the least I would expect is replacing the swingarm free of charge.

Id go for the HiFi

If you put your Fox fork on the HiFi, you negate the G2 geometry. And I can understand why they aren't straight warrantying it- they can't give you something they haven't made in a couple of years and are out of. But yeah, the base HiFi is solid, the frames are the same throughout the line.

A buddy of mine snapped the whole rear end of his Hifi about 3 weeks ago. They replaced it free of charge.
They even replaced the rotor for his disk brake that got jacked up in the incident.

Get the new Cake rear stays. Get the upgrade stuff you want. Swap all the good stuff to a beefier frame down the road after saving up some more cash.

IMO, you should push harder to get a better/free deal on the replacement stays. That local rep ought to toss you a new one for the price of a half rack of nice brew.