Originally Posted by alanbikehouston
It may confuse people to discuss "longevity" and "warranty" in the same post. These are two very different issues. A "warranty" covers a defect in material or workmanship at the time the bike left the factory. A warranty does NOT cover accidents, wear and tear, fatigue, or longevity.
When a bike company says that its frame is guaranteed "for life", that only means against a defect that was present when the bike left the factory. These days, it would be rare for ANY defects to be found in a frame from a company such as Cannondale. So, a "lifetime" frame warranty almost has no meaning. It is a warranty against something that is NOT going to happen.
I suspect the Cannondale website included the language about "life span" of a frame to "educate" buyers that ALL frames could fail someday, if ridden long enough, and ridden hard enough. I have never seen a road bike frame that was made in the USA fail under normal use (of course, "normal use" does not include the stuff my nephew does with his bikes - who knew you could ride a bike at high speed off a two foot tall loading dock? Over and over, even...)
It's just a CYA disclaimer,that really ought to be more common..... And,FWIW, you are wrong about 'things that are not going to happen'. There are defects, there are failures that do fall under the warranty provisions, and some manufacturere are much more loose in there interpetation of how they apply the warranty to failure that could be due to fatigue. Sweeping generalization,just don't fly.