Johnny Alien

I work in IT and I can almost bet that the email they give out does not get read by the CEO and if it does it's only after being filtered through a few service groups. It probably goes right to the customer service dept.

wanders

Yes, the bulge. If it's just paint, I don't care. It's just I've never noticed it before and am worried it may be a crack from over-torqueing like you mentioned. The main cause of concern is the 5.2 pro came with a 53/39 crank and I had the lbs put a 50/36 on before I took delivery. They had to move the derailler down when they put it on. If anyone messed up, it would have been them and I don't want to blame them since I've known the guy for almost 40 years and ride with him weekly.

Man, I hope it's just paint.

Hunt-man

Lets hope it is just a paint bulge that you didn't notice before. I don't think that is normal or good spot for paint to crack. I thought we were talking tube joints. If it is an actual crack you may just get a warranty frame after all but not in a custom painted color most likely. Trek seems to warranty with what they have around the shop.

2ndGen

How does the bike perform?


Do you like the bike itself?

Eclectus

Nobody wants to spend $$$ for a bike that looks crappy after only 4300 mi. If you take it to a painter and he has to sand it (to make a seamless repair) it could void the frame warranty.
I'd probably go with non-sanded airbrushing, and most people won't notice the repaint job.


To some degree, if a top-line Project One bike looks crappy after 4300 mi, is that the image Trek wants to project on their top-line stuff? Personally, I think they should offer a free repaint, maybe you pay for shipping.

I've ridden a lot of bikes including first-year Trek 950 MTB back in 84 when they were small and customer-centric. Currently Cervo, very nice. It's only an RS, but roads here are really sh**ty, and I ride long distance, and want handling that forgives when I get pooped. If I had a problem and got no satisfaction, on it I'd post complaints. None at nearly 8000 mi. I love this bike. If I were young and fast, I would do an R3 or S3 with no hesitation. And FWIW, SRAM Red is holding up fine too.

Like PCad said about MB...I never sold Benzes, but bought one, and they fixed the brakes at 4000 beyond 50,000 mi warranty, free. That's how first-class companies operate: they give you some extra customer satisfaction, because you are paying extra.

It's like Gore products, no specific time warranty. Send something back, they figure if a) you abused it, b) it's normal wear and tear, c) they have a product design or mfr defect, and want to do better.

A one-year paint-job on a premium-line bike? Give me a break! They can't figure out how to incorporate some elastic polymers that can hold up for five years? Duummb people.

ColorChange

None of my Cervelo's have the issue and I would be furious if they did. Bad on Trek!

2ndGen

Not only that, but the bike's paint outlived it's warranty period.
How many manufacturers warranty their paint for more than a year?
Is this a Project One specific problem?

Since P1 is relatively new, can't it be chalked up to a learning curve on Trek's part?
They should've offered to somehow stabilize the cracking issue and repaint the section at least (if it was possible).
But if it outlived it's warranty, Trek fulfilled their end of the bargain IMO.

What is the industry norm?

Blackdays

To make paint that lasts more than 2 years.

tortugaflats

environmentally friendly paint. most new cars have paint that chips or fades easily. you can thank the tree huggers. just not the same kind of paint we use to get.
my .02

Mr. Beanz

..

jrobe

I appreciate the OP frustration, but my first reaction was that he bought 10 Chevy's in the last 15 years and is now frustrated that they aren't perfect.

For the money spent on all those bikes (and for the money probably lost on resales), he could have had a Porsche instead of a Chevy.

Maybe changing brands really is the right thing to do now.

riversiderider

I fully agree...my better half however has limited me to 5 :{

2ndGen

Thanks.

I'd expect machine painted frames to last less than a hand applied paint job.
Kind of odd though that a custom paint would last "less".
I would imagine it (P1) would be hand painted.
I'd expect "more" for more money.

That really sucks OP.

When I throw down some serious money for a bike, P1 Madone was tops on my list. I'll keep an eye on this "issue".

Good luck with your next purchase.



(Now, when you're ready to get rid of that unrideable P1, PM me... )

BigSean

If you read the entire thread you will see that the OP and others have stated that their older Treks have no paint cracking. I dont understand how some think that its ok. They didnt even apologize and offer touch up paint. Wow, that may have cost Trek about $1.

Eclectus

They lived up to their warranty. But why were they putting on 12 month paint, on a top-line bike? If you say it was for pros who dump their bikes after a season, well, they're not paying for them either. I think OP is right to be upset. If you got a car--or most bikes--and the paint came off after a year, you'd be p/o too, wouldn't you? (What's your beef, the mechanicals are working fine...) OP wants something that doesn't look like s**t with only 4300 mi of riding, and it wasn't like he crashed it and wanted scrape-proof paint. Trek screwed up here. For disposable pro bikes, in whatever flashy colors with replacements at factory cost every season, who cares if the paint holds up. For paying customers, it's a totally different matter.

OP knows he has no recourse, given a 1-year warrantee. But he knows better now than to deal with a company that sells a high-price bike and if it turns crappy-looking with not-much riding, they don't care. And Trek loses a customer. With LA's exit, Trek should focus on customer satisfaction, since their bling-image promoter is going away.

ultraman6970

I see a BMC in the OP's future

Another reason to do not buy a trek, so it means that all my choices had been right all the time. Sometimes a sorry could change the situation so much. If i was Trek i would offer you new paint job for 3/4 of the price or something. Now if you don't know if the problem is the paint or not, you need to sand the paint off a little bit and see whats going on because if the crack is in the frame guess what is going to happen New frame...

I was looking at a giant bike today and they look nice

For the next bike please choose something that you dont see so often this time, probably you will feel better bling bling wise


Eclectus.. almost all the frames give you 1 year in the paint. No more no less just 1 year so it doesnt surprise me that they send the OP to hell big time. The issue is that they start repainting frames they will start repaiting maybe 50% of them so it is like bad idea to offer it. If I was trek i would offer paint jobs for cheap after all a paint job to trek is not expensive at all compared with other options like a new darn frame, i might be wrong tho.

2ndGen

You need to negotiate better...there are still two days left in the week unaccounted for!

BigSean

Its a golden time for those smaller company's. Seems like a cycle, every so many years. Company's get too big, forget what got em there and slowly crumble. Will we see Trek bikes in Walmart in 3 years???? Time will tell.

2ndGen

I'll admit that I didn't read every last word of 4 pages, but did read where the
older models are not as problematic as the P1 being described here is.

And, in a follow up post, I expressed that I think it's unacceptable
that the paint didn't last longer than a standard issue paint job.

2ndGen

The only reason I'd drop that much money on a bike would be for the customer support I'd expect for that purchase.

But if this is how Trek normally treats their elite customers, I won't feel comfortable supporting them.

6.X Madones (especially P1's) are cash cows for Trek. I'd think that they'd treat it as a sacred cow.

Trek, are you listening?

Eclectus

I just closely inspected my Cervo. Over 1 year old, nearly 8000 mi. Not a crystalline paint flaw to be found around the headtube and bottom bracket. Maybe it's a yellow-paint problem, but I doubt it, because Porsche doesn't have a problem.

SwingBlade

For the OP: Good on you for raising a stink with Trek ans making your complaints public.

First, you might want to inquire as to the Trek Rep's basis for stating the crack is only the paint and the frame is 100% crack free. There is almost no way to be certain that CF type materials are crack free unless the paint in the subject area is stripped. An extremely minute shallow crack can result in paint cracking in this type of situation. I'm not implying he is wrong, just making the point that if he is strictly using the old, "Looks like a paint crack to me" visual examination he has no legitimate basis for his claim.

Second, there are tremendous looking high end paint products that can remain virtually crack free in this type of situation. By their own admission, Trek has apparently intentionally chosen to use a lower quality paint and then charged you for a custom paint job prone to failure. Trek is selling too high priced a product to be playing caveat emptor with top level consumers like you.

Trek knew there was a high probability, not a remote probability, that your custom paint job would crack early. If they had behaved responsibly, the decision to proceed with a custom paint job prone to cracking would have been yours. Instead, they withheld material facts regarding the relatively poor quality of their custom paint job. You have every right to be very upset. No one should tolerate this type of behavior from a supposed world class company like Trek. You have a more than reasonable basis to expect Trek to have warned you that the paint job you were ordering would probably crack at joints early on.

Our Lexus transmission failed at 51,000 miles, well out of warranty. Then we found out through the internet that this particular transmission has an extremely high failure rate between 46,000 and 75,000 miles and that Lexus knew about these abnormal failure rates over a year before we purchased. After a lot of negotiations at progressively higher levels we got Toyota to agree to pick up $3500 of the $4400 parts and labor replacement costs. But, in our opinion, their intentional and unacceptable conduct warranted much more including a transferable lifetime warranty so we are pursuing a class action complaint against Toyota through Federal and state agencies.

If we consumers allow supposed top level companies like Toyota and Trek to treat us with such disrespect then we deserve to continue to get the shaft now and far into the future. It is up to us to just say, "No, this isn't right."

BigSean

Exactly. There are some great smaller companies that still know about the customer. Ive gotten over the name part of my bike, and I definately dont wanna pay extra for the name.

OhioBuckeye

I purchased a Trek 1.2 at a Trek LBS and I thought I would be purchasing my next bike at BikesDirect strictly for the value. But based on my customer experience and how well the store has treated me I would purchase another Trek through them instead.

cycle17

The bike rides great. Yes I like the bike, I'm keeping the bike, I'm continuing to ride the bike, I just don't like the crack that is getting bigger in the paint. LOL

Also, someone posted this is a 6.9 Madone, I never stated that. It's a 5.5 SL Project One Madone with hand-painted yellow flames into gun metal metallic flake. It has other special order items like a XXX carbon stem, and XXX carbon seat post and upgraded handlbars which came on it when purchased. So without quoting a price, let's just agree that it's a pretty expensive bike. Bought at the end of 2007 (but since I lived in New England at the time, it didn't get ridden until summer of 2008 when I moved out west).