RJ80

Hey guys,

I'm a long time lurker with a question: I bought a new high-end road bike (retail $4k plus) for a song direct from the company due to a fortunate connection. It was shipped to my house and I was planning to assemble it myself (really just install the wheels, seat post and stem and bar tape), but there are warnings in the packing material that an authorized dealer must assemble the bike for the warranty to be valid.

My local authorized dealer for this brand seems like a good place. I took my other bike there once before for a new fork install and they charged me a fair price and did a good, quick job of it. However, I called them with this issue today and asked if I could assemble it and if they'd then be willing to look it over for a nominal fee and authorize it for warranty.

The response was that they can't do that for liability reasons, but they'll be happy to put the bike together for me and check everything out as they would one of their own for $100. Seems a lot of money for not too much work. On the bike is a sticker with a barcode and serial number that says it's for warranty purposes. I'm guessing this must be scanned by a shop for the warranty to be active? On the website, it appears I can just register the warranty online. Does having the shop assemble it actually matter? Is it worth the cost, even if they're overcharging, to have *some* relationship with an authorized dealer for my bike? There were no warranty forms that came with the bike itself, excepting a hangtag advertising the warranty.

What would you do in my shoes? Thanks for any advice!

dstrong 

I can't be in your shoes, but in my shoes I'd assemble it and ride the heck out of it. The last time I bought a bike with a warranty was more than 20 years ago...and I never had to use the warranty. Hopefully if something happens to it, your fortunate connection would help you out.

SlimRider

You got your bike for a song.Therefore, there were some savings. I'm assuming quite a bit of savings.

If the warranty means a great deal to you, then why not spend some of that savings on the completion of your build?

OTOH, I really haven't seen too many warranties that appeared to worth the paper they're written on, anyways. Either the company will be willing to assist you or not. The way most warranties are written up, the manufacturer can squeeze out of abiding by the print because of certain escape clauses.

Like how do you distinguish a frame defect from a bike that was involved in an accident.

I can just hear the scenario right now:

Plaintiff: Your honor the frame arrived to my home via UPS in the exact same condition it's in right now. It was always bent that way!

Defendant (manufacturer): Our quality control department stamps a code on every manifest containing the serial number of all bicycles that have passed the frame structure test. This bike's frame was thoroughly tested before it left the premises your honor. Otherwise, it would not have a stamp next to its serial number and it would not appear upon the manifest of bicycles whose frame structures have passed our most stringent balance test.

Judge: Alright! Case dismissed!

I'd just finish the build and have them check it out anyway, for a much smaller fee.

eja_ bottecchia

^^^What he said^^^

carpediemracing 

if you think assembling a bike for $100 is too much money then you're demonstrating that assembling the bike is in fact worth $100 for you.

I'd want many things checked on a bike before I trust it. You need to be able to do competently at least the following (my brain is a bit fuzzy this early), build/true a wheel (in order to verify that the wheels are in good shape), adjust bearings (if applicable - usually the headset is the only coarsely adjustable bearing on a modern bike), use proper torque settings, adjust derailleurs (min/max, cable tension), adjust brakes (ditto), and do quick checks for major problems (frame damage, weird problems like a frame that's not aligned or perhaps damaged in some way).

You should be able to check over a bike mercilessly so that you have full confidence that on the road you can depend on, say, the bars staying in place if you hit a bump at 30 mph or that you can stop on a steep descent where they've just installed a stop light at the bottom. Do you know how to check the different crank configurations for proper installation/torque? Do you know the tricks to installing a (carbon?) seatpost into a carbon frame? How about cable length. Housing length. Do you agree with the factory method of installing the chain? Etc etc.

The last time I assembled a "99% assembled" bike was in 2007 I think and it took me about 2-3 hours to make it to the point where I'd have trusted the bike on a 60 mph descent first time out (because that's what a shop has to expect from the rider). Although the bike was virtually fully assembled, in reality it needed a lot of tuning before it'd be ready to go ride (and I'd have spent more time on it had it been my own - I'd have rewrapped the bars and installed a different chain, and I'd have spent more time on the wheels). The bike was not mine, it was a shop's, and I assembled it to help them out. It was an Ultegra bike so maybe $3k? It was a major brand bike. The shop said later that the assembly was fine and they were very happy with it.

Part of the reason why you got the bike "for a song" is because part of the bike's retail margin is the labor required to inspect/build and possibly warranty it. There's margin/profit calculated as far as selling the bike, demonstrating it, perhaps doing a brief fit. All this is stuff someone has to pay for when a shop does it for you. If you know enough to skip all that then you can leverage your knowledge to save money. If you don't know all that stuff then it's well worth it to pay a shop some margin (either in buying the bike there or paying them for service).

20 years ago the industry standard was something like "you need to make $65/hour in service". This means working on bikes or demonstrating how to do x, y, or z. Now it's probably closer to $100/hr although honestly I don't know. It's usually very close to a car mechanic's service rate (local garage, not dealer).

Remember that a skilled mechanic will be able to do work quickly and efficiently, so time/effort comparisons become moot when trying to compare an unskilled mechanic's work to a skilled one. As an example the fastest wheel I built (from having hub/spokes/rim sitting in front of me to a raceable wheel - it was a mtb wheel) was a front wheel, 32 spoke, in about 20 minutes. I actually built it to time myself, it wasn't a sold/necessary wheel. More typical was 45-60 min per wheel.

In a different kind of example, my brother is a high level programmer. As a favor to a doctor that does (okay, did) free work (he ran a one day a week clinic where he'd diagnose anyone for free and use sales samples of drugs to give away as much stuff as possible), my brother replicated his many thousand dollar office software ($15k software?). The doctor had mentioned the need for some software but he really wanted to keep the same look and feel of his current office application. He did not need the money part that tied with a ledger (this is a significant programming hump so it made it easier to exclude that feature). He wanted a separate database and he wanted it portable. It had to be legal (i.e. no illegal copies of his own software). This way he could keep track of the free patients. My brother took his laptop, and, using totally legal open source applications/OS/etc, replicated the software in about 12 hours of very intense programming, all legal, and delivered the new application, fully ready to use, the day after the doctor requested it. (The doctor was treating our mom for her cancer and we wanted to try and help him out). My brother had documented steps for on security, backups, and restorations in case of a drive failure, and of course he kept his own copy in case the doctor really messed up and lost the laptop.

Now you think my brother gets paid $10/hour for his programming skills? No, he gets paid a lot more than that. But he can solve problems quickly. He gets paid much more but he delivers value for that salary (as long as he's utilized properly). A good shop delivers on their labor charge.

Former everything (progressed from mechanic, salesperson, manager, and finally owner of a bike shop) who can now leverage knowledge to save money,
cdr

Bob Dopolina 

They might check it but only and idiot would warranty someone else's work due to liability concerns. If it's about the warranty then the shop has to do the work.

SlimRider

I personally wouldn't care about any warranty after I've completed the build. The manufacturer only warranties factory defects. If I can't detect a factory defect within the frame during the build, then I deserve to lose the warranty. If it's a faulty component, then that's easily replaceable.

I'm only going to have the LBS inspect it after I complete the build, to appease my own conscience. However, now that you've mentioned it, that really sounds more like a kickback, if it's made mandatory that the manufacturer's LBS has to complete the build. Most of the build has already been completed at the factory (or some other midpoint). Therefore, how many things are being jeopardized by my build completion. A practical thinking person would realize that only a few important things would need to be inspected, depending upon the bicycle itself. Here, you're only installing the wheels, seat post, and stem. The bar tape shouldn't even count. Just check those few key items that were not factory installed and issue me the bill. IQ need not enter the conversation.

So what about bikesdirect and Motobecane? ...They even have a video to guide the cycling consumer through the build completion.

www.bikesdirect.com/instructionhelp.htm

Are they idiots for honoring their warranty, after the sale?

https://motobecane.com/warranty/

I would think not!

PS.

Granted, a hundred bucks is not a lot of money. However, it shouldn't be a matter of standard practice to charge that fee, if a cyclist has proficient mechanical skills of his own, or has an associate who employs those skills on his behalf. Otherwise, just charge me the entire price straight away, and direct me to a local place where I can pick my bicycle up, completely assembled already.

Bob Dopolina 

Incorrect.

There are too many false assumptions for me to address at the moment. If others don't get to them first I'll jump in later.

Menel

It's not a lot, it's a very reasonable fee.
No.
No.
It depends, primarily on your bike mechanic skills and experience.

Both my bikes were assembled by dealer. My roommate is a mechanic for the local Giant/Raleigh dealer, I often get him to check adjust items on my bikes.

StanSeven

This sums it up well. Unless you are experienced and current doing this work, it's going to take 2-3 hours. The LBS wants to charge $100. So your time is $33 - $50/hr. If you want to save money, do it yourself. If not pay $100.

I peronally wouldn't worry about a warranty. Except for cars, i've never used one.

Menel

I've known several people needing to warranty Trek, Cannondale, Fuji frames. Poor assumption to make. Not that any company with any interest in customer satisfaction would deny warranty if you build it yourself.

MDfive21

$100 is pretty fair and you may save yourself a lot more than that in repairs/replacement if you botch the job and break something or crash out.

the shop i use charges $65 just for a general service, so $100 to build it up from pieces sounds like a good deal.

wphamilton

Seems about right. In fact, it's low enough that I'd be sorely tempted just for the warranty even though my general inclination would be just assemble it and ride.

Look at it this way: your good deal from a direct connection is just the bike. No warranty, no service, no advice no support. If the LBS is giving you a way to get back in the regular channel, that could easily be worth $100.

himespau 

$100 sounds like a good deal. For this price range I'm assuming it's carbon and, as such, I'd want the warranty.

nhluhr

1) Have you ever actually assembled a $4000 bike? Do you have any idea what it takes to do it? There's a good chance you'll have to cut the fork, set up the cables/housings, even possibly install a bottom bracket, not to mention true the wheels, adjust any/all bearings, adjust everything, tape the handlebars, etc etc. That's a lot of work and all part of a normal build of a high end bike. It's also a damn good deal at $100. We often spend 2-3 hours building high end bikes which would work out to just $33/hr billable rate. That's dirt cheap in any technical trade.

Also, without a bill of sale, your warranty will never be good.

10 Wheels

Add the $100 to your song and be very happy.

pihb

you can spend $100 a season to have your bike tuned up. Hell i spend oever $100 on a pair of shorts and a couple hundred on shoes. If your bike is important to you, the $100 is a service fee that will assure many many miles of easy riding

carpediemracing 

Thing about the warranty - when the shop opens the box, if they notice anything, they can request an RMA etc.

If you open the box and notice something on what is a out-the-back-door bike, you're basically screwed unless you go through your contact and get that contact to deal with fixing whatever it is (missing QR skewer to crooked decals to hairline fracture somewhere on the frame etc).

RJ80

Thanks for all the responses. I called up another authorized dealer and they said it doesn't matter who assembles the bike, the only thing that matters is retaining the sales receipt with regard to the warranty. I'm going to build the bike myself then bring it down to the local dealer and try to give them $30 or so to have them give it a 15-minute once over for obvious issues.

JaceK

Whew... 4k isn't a high end road bike.
$100 to assemble a bike isn't a lot of money
If you need to ask, I would bet you do not have the tools, lube, paste, skills, etc to do the job, meaning you will pay more than $100 out of pocket for the requirements to build the bike.
Warranty -- I do not recall a manufacturer ever asking me who built up my bike, nor have I had an issue getting things dealt with.
I would assume based upon the 4k is a high end bike, you are not going to be buying multiple bikes, nor would you require tools to do your own maintenance, so the question really answers itself.

RJ80

Well... high-end is all relative I guess. It's high-end to me!

I'm perfectly comfortable building the bike, I do most of my own maintenance on my current De Rosa and my cars. My only question was regarding the warranty, which has been resolved.