I bought a 3-year-old Madone. Raced on it for a year. Won five crits on it. Doing hills one day, I felt some play in the cranks.

"Crap. My cranks are loose."

"Holy ~*@%!!! The BB is busted out of the frame!"

It turns out that I somehow broke the BB shell free from the frame just by pedaling it. I thought they were made for that.

Of course, Trek will have nothing to do with a warranty because I'm a 2nd owner. Even though it's clearly a quality issue (nothing I could do from the outside to bust that loose). They built it poorly and won't stand behind it, just because they were lucky enough to have the bike change hands once before it broke.

They are offering a crash replacement of 20% off. Yippie. I think anyone that can't manage 20% off MSRP on new kit probably isn't trying hard enough.

I went through the shop warranty channel. Denied.

I went through the web warranty channel. Crickets.

I called and spoke with their support staff, and got transferred to our district rep. I told him about how I've put Trek on the podium a bunch of times and want to continue. I told him how I have a team buy coming up where I can inexpensively start putting another brand up on the podium.

"No warranty. Sorry, you're not the original owner."

"No, we won't repair it either -- we don't repair broken BB shells."

"Ok, so you're telling me I can either turn this poorly built $3500 frame in for a crash replacement or throw it in the trash?"

"Correct."