today i was riding. i stopped at a light. when i started to pedal again, i heard a snap. nothing seemed to be broken, so i checked once i got to where i was going. this little piece of the pedal had snapped off
(this is obviously the good pedal)
now, i have had the bike for a week and have been pretty happy with it. initially, the seat was broken (it felt like one of the rails was too short, and not touching the back of its hole, so it would flex and squeak). i took it to the bike shop, and they said 'no problem' and swapped it for the seat of a floor model. i thought this would be a similar case, so i went in and asked. i was basically told the piece was useless and the pedal was a cheap part and they would not warranty it. hmmm, i thought this piece helped flip the pedal over to get my foot in. its on all other clip pedals, and makes sense to me.
so i figured the mechanic was just being a dick, and i called raleigh. i explained the situation and the guy didn't quite seem to know what i was talking about. he put me on hold for 10 minutes.
when he came back, he informed me he had talked to the bike shop and that the piece was just a left over from the injection of the plastic into the mold. they normally would not warranty it. he then told me that a bike wouldn't stay together forever and it needs some service and care. he told me that in this case, the bike shop would warranty it, but it would probably just break off again and then they wouldn't. through the whole thing i was normal, but this just pissed me off. i told him i never plan on taking my business to that bike shop again and hope to never have to deal with raleigh again and hung up.
so does this piece actually serve the purpose i thought (helps flip it over to get my foot in)?
yes, i know its a cheap pedal, but i like them. they still work fine, it just pisses me off that i wasn't taken care of. and get this, the whole reason i went to this bike shop was because the owner convinced me they offer better service than their budget bikes competitor and that was why i was paying $50 more for the bike there (he ended up getting down closer to their price, but it was still more).
anyways, thanks for reading my rant