Homeyba

One never knows! I just threw that out there for a giggle.

Sayre Kulp 

That's the part that concerned me as well.

Sayre Kulp 

That thought had occurred to me as well. Like I said though - not sure if that counts.

bassjones

I think it's unethical for a company to offer a lifetime warranty then void it after the original owner sells it. That looks like a crack due to a design flaw and the company should honor their warranty, particularly on such an expensive bicycle.

bigfred 

I would say that it could be repair, except for the fact that you need a seatpost to slide in past the repair point in order to distribute some of the load beyond the tube joints.

Not the best design in the world. Specially for a heavy person and if the seatpost doesn't extend far enough into the seat tube.

Best of luck working things out with the original owner and the manufacturer. You could attempt honesty with the manufacturere. Given a personal relationship with the Original Owner, they might be willing to make things happen.

ShoreCyclist

Looks like it will buff out.

sstorkel

The problems are:

1) Aluminum is tricky to TIG weld
2) Thin-walled aluminum, like that used in bicycle tubes, is extremely tricky to TIG weld
3) The welds may need to be back-purged with argon, increasing the complexity and cost of welding
4) If the bike is made from 6061 aluminum, it will need to be heat-treated after welding
5) After the repair the frame will need to be refinished

By the time you pay to have components stripped from the bike, welded, heat-treated (if necessary), refinished and reassembled you're well on your way to having bought a brand-new frame.

AmFaeEmbra

I feel that a manufacturer who gives a lifetime guarantee and then wriggles out of it "as it no longer belongs to the original owner" is also guilty of fraud. The vendor will have customer records but won't know that it's changed hands, the original owner complains, I don't see a problem.

goldfinch

It isn't fraud or unethical if the manufacturer explicitly says in the warranty that it applies to the original owner only.

I think the best course is to have a discussion with the manufacturer about options.

Tony N.

Sayer,
Me thinks you did the right thing and like I would have done, called the manufacturer. I would continue to contact them and go up the ladder. Surely someone would want to get the cracked frame back to study why it failed and be willing to offer you a frame for discount for PR. Is there a dealer nearby? I would also go on CF forums to see if anyone else has had a similar frame failure. Sorry about your frame but I agree that you should not try to usurp the system and sale the bike back to the original owner then buy it back. Just sounds wrong but I know how you feel. Just keep calling as it should not have failed like it did. Glad you found it before it totally failed and possibly injured you.

Wanderer

If the frame gets replaced, consider a longer seatpost next time.......

sumguy

If the crack isn't from any sort of abuse then try for the lifetime warranty. If they won't budge, have the original owner replace it. I would only feel guilty if I had abused it or got in an accident of some sort.

Sayre Kulp 

I believe it's 7005 aluminum, though I doubt that matters much given all the other expenses.

Sayre Kulp 

Well, I agree that a lifetime warranty should really be a lifetime warranty, regardless of who is in possession of it. One problem that could affect the customer records is that I found the bike via the company's web forum classifieds.

Sayre Kulp 

Nothing can really be done about the seat post. It is unique to the bike itself. No other seat posts will work with this seat/frame.

Sayre Kulp 

I had contacted the company and by that evening received a response from the CEO. Strangely enough, I've met him at races. In fact, I'll likely see him again in person in about two or three weeks at a race. I don't think there is a way around it. And even then, I think I'd feel pretty scummy trying to wriggle around something like that, even though I personally feel that a lifetime warranty SHOULD be honored. Maybe I can talk to him and see if there is something they can do.

The big problem is that the frame itself is around $1100 and I just don't have that. Not even close.

johnnywhale 

You could have it gusseted like this, speak to a good local tig weldor. These are steel, but yu get the idea. Back purging, etc. is no problem. That is, if you really, really love this frame.

Neil_B

This is the time you set your personal modesty aside. Reach out to the company, explain that you've raced on this bike, that you lost 160 pounds and turned your life around and this bike is part of the story..... and that you want to do the right thing here. Companies are not made of stone. Small companies are built and run by people who love what they do and make. I'm sure if you speak to the man, politely but firmly explain the situation and what you want, the two of you can come to some agreement.

BTW, the situations aren't quite the same, but I remember a few years ago a case of a cyclist riding his Trek 520 to a local Goodwill to arrange for delivery of furniture. While he was inside a clerk sold his bike. Trek heard about the incident and replaced the 520 and all the gear on it. CEOs are cyclists too.....

BigJeff

Sounds like you got your money's worth.

The design looks like it would suffer from stress fracture at that point eventually.

The frame cracked after "Clydesdale" heavy use on an angled seat tube??? You are fortune you didn't shear it off in a catastrophic failure.

fulcrum+lever=breaks

Bent Bill

I have to respectfully disagree
any decent welder with a angle grinder,propane torch,tig torch,temp probe,and some scrap aluminum for a couple of gussets
should be able to fix that in 40 minutes
aluminum sheet metal is hard to weld bicycle tubing isnt
I myself would only take the seatpost out and replace it with some bar stock to prevent any warpage
and disconect the brake cable housing
I myself cant see it costing more than a $ 150.00 and thats a high estimate
besides theres nothing lost by taking it to a reputable welding shop for an estimate except some time

phread59

I agree, I see no reason that frame cannot be welded and gusseted inexpensivly. Using TIG there should be a very minimal heat zone. And a few gussets and some paint would finish it up right. If done right you may never even know it was not factory.

Mark Shuman

sstorkel

Agree: it wouldn't hurt to call some local welding shops and ask them about repairing the frame. Sounds like it's made from 7005 aluminum. I don't know about Sayre's bike specifically, but aluminum bicycle tubing seems to be around 0.8-1.0mm thick in non-butted areas and 1.2-1.8mm thick at the butted ends. The shop will need to to have AC TIG gear and be capable of welding tubing of this thickness. None of the professional frame-builders I met during my custom frame-building class would touch it, but perhaps he'll be able to find someone. Now that I have some experience TIG welding aluminum and titanium, I understand why so many custom frame builders prefer to work with steel

indyfabz

It would be fraud. And unless someone who got Cs in law school drafted the warrantly, its terms should provide that a sale to another automatically voids it.

indyfabz

The warranty is what it is. If it's for the original owner then it's only for the original owner. It's like any term of a contract. When the original owner bought the bike, he agreed to accept a warranty that was limited to the original owner. If one agrees to buy something for $X dollars or that is the color Y one has no basis to argue that it really should have cost $Y-5 and/or really should have been color Z.

Sayre Kulp 

Even if it was possible to pull the wool over their eyes, I don't think I could do it. Too much integrity. I would know and that would be enough.