Trek Domane
 

My wife has a really nice Domane that she got last fall. During a recent fitting adjustment they put some tape on the seatpost to mark the height. She took the tape off and the clearcoat came with it, making a real mess. The LBS contacted Trek and they said tough nuggies. Same with the LBS, they put some carbon fiber tape over it. My wife is not a complainer, she's happy with it.

Trek has forever lost me as a customer. Clearly their IsoSpeed decoupler seatpost is prone to weakening the paint. It's a flawed design and they should be recalling all of these bikes.

Whoa, easy. Who are "they"? Did the lbs put the tape? What kind of tape? Your beef should be with whomever put the tape on the seat post not with trek.

"They" are the LBS. They aren't going to do anything about it either. They know I am not happy. I will not shop there anymore. It's my wife's bike and she's dropping the issue.

I mostly posted this in case others were considering a Trek with the IsoSpeed decoupler. It sounds like a decent idea, but how can you have that much flex and not expect the paint to suffer?

Before jumping on Trek, I would first point to whomever put the tape on the bike in the first place. I assume it was the LBS? I understand why Trek said no go if it was the LBS' fault as they caused the damage. however, they should be repairing the paint on the frame for you in that case. What type of tape did they put on it? I have done this on several of my carbon bikes with simple black vinyl tape and it has never removed the clear coat.

Plain old black electrical tape.

As you elude to...depends on the kind of tape. If vinyl or painters tape yanked clearcoat off, I'd question strongly how the clearcoat job was done.

Exactly. I have used vinyl on my Domane without this issue. I have seen my LBS get Trek to cover issues similar to this and it seems like the process usually goes very smoothly. Maybe take it to another LBS and see if they have better luck? This really stinks and I am sorry you have to go through this.

I think the assumption that the decoupler mechanism is faulty because an LBS ruined the paint job is faulty. Electrical tape is strong enough to take paint off a bike and they should have used painters tape.

I think your beef is with the LBS that ruined the paint and not Trek.

Wait Trek should recall all Domanes because your LBS put electrical tape on your wife's seatpost causing the clear coat to come off? So if you put a bumper sticker on your car and it damages the paint should all those same model of cars be recalled? I would keep pestering the bike shop because Trek has nothing to do with your issue. It was the shops fault for not taking off the tape once done with whatever they were doing. We normally just used a sharpie to mark the position. At the least they owe you a new seatpost as the frame it's has no issue for a recall.

That's part of the problem, it's an integrated seatpost. There is a tremendous amount of flex. The LBS said this is a know problem and they are very careful to mount the seats at the top until the customer buys it. They know the seat clamp will damage the paint, not a big deal when one person rides it since there won't be large adjustments in height.

I've let them know I am unhappy and they are responsible and should be making us happy, but my wife is a kinder person than me and is happy enough with the crappy fix they did.

I think the shop is feeding you a line to prevent them from having to fix the issue. It is easier to point the finger at somebody else then taking responsibility for your own actions sometimes. The flex comes from the decoupler and not the seat post itself. The seat post sits on a pin and bearing joint that allows the movement. Above the joint, the carbon stays straight and the seat cap sits on top with the clamp around the mast and it never touches that part of the bike. I have seen damage done here, but it has always been an over-tightning of the seat clamp that has caused it.

I am not saying that the frame your wife has definitely did not have a possible paint issue, but with you shop telling you it is a known problem and they don't even put the cap on until somebody buys the bike just sounds real fishy.

If it was a known problem, my shop would know about it.

1) You're out of your mind. The decoupler is NOT causing ANY flex just below the seatmast. ALL of the flex occurs BELOW the junction. If you expected to see any paint fail due to the flex, it would be happening on the seat tube below the top tube/seat stay junction, probably somewhere in the middle, or if anything, at the BB junction.

2) This is a lot of "he said, she said" BS when you post a wild claim with zero documentation or evidence. You say the LBS put the tape on, but your wife took it off. Did you see her take it off? Did the clearcoat come off in a discernible chunk along with the tape? Or did she try to clean off the excess gunk from the tape and use something too harsh? I'm not saying it didn't just come off in chunks, but I am saying you came in here making a wild claim with half the story and no pictures.

3) You later state that the LBS says it's a "known problem." Horse ****. The problem they are describing is completely separate from the problem you claim. They are talking about the clearcoat on the seat post scuffing as people adjust the seatmast repeatedly. That's totally different from your imagined damage to the paint due to flex (that isn't even happening, see point 1).

Tell you what, I'll do you a huge favor here. I have some electrical tape on my Domane seat post at this very moment and it's been there for a few months now. Also, I transport the bike in my car 2-3 times a week for after work rides, which requires me to take off the seatmast every time. I also need to put more tape on it because I actually changed to a slightly thinner saddle (for anyone curious, it's really easy to throw the seatmast on, let it hit the tape, then torque the bolt after straightening the seat instead of eyeballing the level every time). I will take my bike to the shop this weekend and pull of the tape, and clean off the seatmast so we can see how marred up it is from repeated removal and install of the seatmast. I expect the clearcoat underneath the seatmast will be pretty scuffed up, but I will put MONEY on the tape not taking off any clear coat.

I'll report back Saturday evening.

That's quite possible and very likely.


I did not see her take it off, but she saved the tape with large chunks of clear coat stuck to it.

I'm curious to see what happens.

Ok, I had the time to clean up the bike, take off the tape and check everything out.

As it turns out, the above bold statement is true, but your interpretation of what is damaging the paint is incorrect. As I said earlier, there is no flex in the area you're talking about, however, the part of the seatmast that clamps to the seatpost is what will eat up the clear coat.

When I took off the electrical tape, no clear coat came off with it. It was perfectly clean. But what I did find underneath the seatmast was that the clear coat had indeed been rubbed off right at the clamping point from repeated removal and installation of the seatpost. However, it's purely cosmetic (as you mentioned) and has no bearing on the safe use of the bicycle. This isn't much different from a derailleur leaving a mark in the paint, or a cable scuffing the frame over time. There is a reason the top of the seatpost is only a clear finish and not the same color as the rest of the bicycle.

So let me try and piece together what actually happened, since you enjoy telling half of the story, and blaming a part of the bike that has nothing to do with it.

Either the Domane in question had seen a few test rides, and had the seatmast moved frequently, or your wife got a more thorough fit at a date sometime after the initial purchase. Whatever the case, the clamping portion of the seatmast had already eaten up the clearcoat when the dealer put a piece of tape to "mark" the position, or perhaps they saw the scuffing and though it would help to cover it up.

Then months later, it's decided that she doesn't like the tape, and pulls it off. The weakened part of the clear coat decides to come with it.

So yeah, now your story makes sense, but you're 1) blaming the wrong part of the bicycle and 2) having too high of an expectation for a part of the bicycle that has carbon on carbon contact at a good bit of torque.

But hey, if you want to throw an entire manufacturer and dealer under the bus because you expect every single centimeter of a bicycle to never be marred, that's cool, too.

EDIT: Just to clarify for all of us, let's say the dealer and/or Trek took responsibility for this issue. What is your proposed fix? What would they have to do to make you happy? I'm not clear on what you really expected them to do here.

I'm confused. Are the bikes that fragile that removing a piece of tape has damaged it? On the seatpost? (Not being sarcastic....having just purchased a Domane less than two months ago.). If it caused "damage" to the bike, couldn't you just replace the seat post ? And isn't the isoflex part of the frame and not the seat post?

The 2-series & 4-series Domanes have a seat post, the 5 & 6 series have seat masts. Sounds like the bike in question has a seat mast. I've had a band of electrical tape mark my saddle height on a 5-series Domane for almost two years that has come off/been replaced numerous times without any issues.

Sounds like the tape was defective.

Thank you for the information softreset. I'm new to rode biking and I still have a lot to learn.

OK so here I sit hanging my head in shame.

Wheels may be right, and it looks like I am a total, or at least partial, doofus. It seems I didn't post the whole story, mostly because I didn't have the whole story.

My wife's bike is a men's 6.2. She did indeed have her seat raised after riding it about 3000 miles. I was not aware of this seat height change. Even though she knew how upset I was about the paint coming off, she left that little detail out. When she had her new fitting they put plain old electrical tape where the new height was over what appeared to be perfectly clean paint. Again, this is a new bike from last fall and was ridden inside all winter.

She took her seat with her on a business trip and after she put it back on at the correct (new) height she decided to take the tape off. The tape pulled off most of the clear coat under it, stuck to the piece of tape.

I still contend this is a "compromise" (read as defect) of the seatmast type of design.
Yes, I do like things I spend a lot of money on to stay in good shape, and yes I know they won't remain perfect. It is a choice and I will choose not to purchase this design of seat / post / mast.

/hanging head in shame

Thanks for the follow up. Interesting thread.

If it helps to reduce your shame, I was a real jerk about it. Sorry for getting so worked up.

I won't say the design is perfect, and I'm sort of in the same boat in that I just changed saddles and ended up having to raise the seatmast a good 5 or more mm. I actually like the tape being there for resetting the saddle, but if I did have it off, I would have a good portion of the exposed seat tube that would be pretty scuffed up.

And yeah, a 6.2? I'm sure that cost a pretty penny, so I can understand that you would be upset for what you perceived to be just really crappy paint. But it's an awesome bike and I'm sure she enjoys it.

Happy trails.

Awww, let's a kiss and make up and get all kumbaya around a camp fire on a beach as the sun sets.

Don't forget the smores.

Lesson learned. Buy sharpies to mark your seat height, instead of using tape. Buy multiple colors, and you can see how your fit changes.

GH

Or...get over the carbon fiber fetish for everything ;)