Originally Posted by
Steve B.
I think my problem with this was the concept of the paint removal altering the frame. That's a connection a lot of folks don't get or understand, myself included, though the manufacturers can fall back on this. The paint is on the frame and is not really a structural portion of the frame. If you didn't paint the frame, the bike rides the same, thus polished Titanium (and carbon these days). being so common.
My problem with Trek, and the reason I wanted it out there among the Trek love-fest that I was reading, was I felt that Trek did a poor job initially as well as on the follow up of painting titanium, then dropped the ball with a crack that my shop agreed had nothing to do with paint or any re-painting. My LBS felt as well that Trek was screwing me. Others can disagree as much as they choose, but no more Trek's for me.
I agree with you at all that Trek dropped the ball on the make-peace part of this; that the repaint of the bike should have been better and then the company failed to rectify their own bad job.
But your own repaint does open up questions in the warranty environment as to why it was done in the first place. Putting aside your claim, Trek obviously was arguing that it could have covered up an unauthorised metal repair that interfered with the integrity of the frame.
I'd imagine that in the LBS world, there are enough JRA stories to make them suspicious of any claim that comes through the door. There have been enough JRA stories on these forums that have later been revealed to have
much more to them than first meets the eye.