67stang

Quick update to my post in March 2017 where I bought/built a Deng Fu R01 frameset.
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post19586025

6 months of riding and honestly feeling it was as nice of a bike in terms of riding/handling as any other, yesterday it failed. 96 miles into a 100 miles ride, hit a little rise in the asphalt (not a pothole technically) and heard a 'snap' - definitely the sound of carbon. Initial though was maybe a rock or something hit the downtube. I didn't lose control and kept on riding to finish off the ride.

Checked the bike afterwards and sure enough, major failure on the seat tube approx where the seat post would end.

I have emailed Deng Fu with pictures. Not really too concerned about losing the ~$700-800 I paid, as it was an experiment worth taking in my book. But I am curious what their response will be and how they chose to handle this.

In any case, unfortunately, I don't think I'll go the chinese frame route any more unless there is very compelling reason why this failure was an anomaly.

johnnytheboy

wish i had your money. i'd be throwing a fit if an $800 frame snapped on me 6mos in.
although i'd never buy a chinarello frame in the first place.

woodcraft

Yet no dental bills- amazing!

rpenmanparker 

OP's frame is not a Chinarello. It is not pretending to be anything it is not. It is a Dengfu.

rpenmanparker 

Let's hear what Dengfu says. I'm pretty sure that if they are not responsive, it can be repaired. For how much is the question.

67stang

but you'd buy an $800 frame... so what exactly is your point?

67stang

I have NO interest in having it repaired. (I also didn't have my cracked 2014 S-Works repaired, for the record.)
It just me, but repairing a cracked carbon frame is like owning a car with a salvage title - doesn't matter if it is "as good as new", it's still in your head that it's been compromised

shelbyfv

Bummer that it happened but you seem to have a proper attitude toward it. You knew it was a crapshoot going in, took your chances. It will be interesting to see if you get a response from the seller, don't forget to update.

tarmacgreg

That would have been a stressful 6 months for me...

Marcus_Ti

A bump in the road did that? Yikes.

Jofu

I first chalked the DengFu failure to sub-par quality, but your S-Works also failed. Is there a thread where you documented this other failure? I'm curious to see why you ended up with 2 frame failures, which I thought was very rare (despite many people somehow thinking it happens quite often haha). Not passing judgment, I'm just generally curious what happened since I thought S-Works is generally highly regarded.


Geoff

johnnytheboy

roll your eyes all you want. the big companies have this thing called a "warranty". it's pretty cool. also, you can purchase one of these bike at a "local bike shop" that will go to bat for you.
crazy i know.

67stang

The eye roll was specifically in response to the irony of your original comment.
In any case, I have had mixed results with these so called magical warranties - specialized refused to warranty my cracked s-works seat stays, but did offer a crash replacement at $2500 - so I'd be out of pocked "only" ~$5000 lol

And last month after my Roval wheels started showing delamination, same thing...no warranty honoring, just a $600 rebuild by spesh factory servicing.

So again, my point is and always was that a $800 chinese frame experiment is not a big 'loss' for me considering a US branded frame with its magical warranty would be 4x that amount.

67stang

Two different scenarios all together, 3 years apart. (FYI I'm only 160lbs, so it's not weight. )
The s-works cracked at both seat stays. Very small cracks, and it is possible one was because the bike fell over while leaning up against a fence. My contention with Spec. was that a $3000 frame shouldn't fail like that, but they said it was caused by an impact, not a defect and would not replace it under warranty. Oh well. I sent it to have repaired but didn't feel it was worth the total cost.

The chinese frame, imo, is a true defective/sub-par failure. At 24-26mph in a pace line I ran over some irregularity in the asphalt...not sure what it was, maybe a low spot, but nothing that took me off my line or caused me to lose control, and it didn't un-true the wheels. Basically just shifted/jarred me enough on the saddle to cause the seat tube failure you see in the pic.

I've had/have other bikes so it's not as if there is any correlation between me and the frame failures - I think

PepeM

Someone needs some bomb-proof equipment.

datlas 

Is it bombproof or bulletproof?

PepeM

Bombproof wheels and bulletproof frames I think. Maybe I have it backwards.

datlas 

Agree it's bombproof wheels and BULLETPROOF tires. Not sure about frames.

PepeM

Ah yes, you're right. I think frames just go by their asplosive rating.

datlas 

Would that be one to five firecrackers? I give this one five firecrackers.

f4rrest

It's not BBFYB?

Best bang for your buck?

datlas 

With emphasis on bang for asplosion tendency?

Sy Reene

Am I off-base in thinking that this is pretty low on the seat tube if this is where the end of your seatpost is located? I thought usually a seatpost only went in about 2.5-3" ? Hard to tell from the photo though.

67stang

seat post actually extends about 1.5" below where that crack is

redfooj

the true irony is you wanted to save $30 by falsifying your purchase on paypal so if you tried to claim warranty you would have had no legal support anyway.