gkamieneski - I suffered a zombie attack- no reflection on your standards of bike care.

Good luck getting the matter settled.




OTOH, I guess the condition of the OP's bike is more understandable since it is actually six years old.

This is an interesting issue. Does a new frame provided to replace an original under a "lifetime warranty" policy also have a "lifetime warranty" itself? I guess you and Bianchi will have to thrash that out. However, base on being 0 for 2 with Bianchi, it might be time for you to try another maker.

And yes, woodcraft apparently didn't notice that the February mentioned in the OP was February 2009.

HR- I have seen both outcomes before. The stingy companies will offer only 1 warranty per purchase. The more customer savvy companies will say that the warranties are for each frame. Andy.

Dubbs...; My gut feel is that the frame is toast but there are a dozen previous threads searchable on this forum which detail that there is no way to tell 'fer sur' except to remove the paint and examine it closely. Good luck with the warrantee... I'll note that my local shop stated clearly that if it was a Specialized bike/frame sold new by an authorized dealer it would be covered no questions asked.

As to the cause, I would put my money on the cause as someone riding the bike very hard with the seat post extended too far out of the frame. When a frame has the seat tube that goes well above the top tube like in your pix, you want to ignore the "minimum insertion line" on the seat post as those are based on classic road bike frames where the seat tube does not extend up so high. Keep the seat post in at least another half inch deeper past the minimum line. Note that extra long seat posts are ease to find on Amazon or ebay starting at the $10 range. I swear by them!

Hope that helps
/K

so perhaps the seatpost was raised too high past the minimum insertion point and cracked the collar. would not ride.

Again, sorry for hijacking the OP's thread, but I have good news! Bianchi USA agreed to warranty this frame after all. Working together with Back Bay Bicycle in Portland, Maine, my SL-Lite frame was returned to the distributor in California. Then they met me halfway for my cost for a complete bicycle, in my case a 2014 Intenso with 105. Kudos to Bianchi USA and Back Bay Bicycle for stepping up to effect this remediation.