lapierre or should i say snapierre

lapierre 700

Just thought i would warn everybody i can before they buy a lapierre, there is a thread on bikemagic which talks about the zesty's frames cracking on the bb and the swing arm.
well i bought a lapierre 700 technic hardtail frame sept last year, built it up and to be fair it was a great feeling bike which climbed well and really did perform, HOWEVER last week i noticed a very small hairline crack between the weld on the seatube and the ally top tube.
I had noticed this crack as i was checking the bike over before a big dartmoor ride, i figured i would carry on with the ride, but i would keep an eye on it.Well it was like this by the end of the ride!! :shock: :shock:



When i contacted the guy i bought it from he got onto lapierre and asked if they could help at all, basically they said that if it was the bb they would replace it as this is a common fault but as this fault is an isolated case they would not.
Great customer service that is.
I even ran a carbon seatpost which to some extent would have taken some stress away from this point.
Anyways you have been informed.

The Northern Monkey

how old is it?
did you buy it 2nd hand then?

nice crack straight through the weld there.

nicklouse

I had noticed this crack as i was checking the bike over before a big dartmoor ride, i figured i would carry on with the ride, but i would keep an eye on it.Well it was like this by the end of the ride!!

sorry but what did you expect to happen? it to fix its self? you are lucky it did not fail completely and do you some damage.

if frames crack it is usually at a high stress point and it will only get worse FAST.

riding a failure like that does you no favours.

Dirtydog11

Great customer service that is.
I even ran a carbon seatpost which to some extent would have taken some stress away from this point.
Anyways you have been informed.

I guess you'll be changing your username.

toasty

When i contacted the guy i bought it from he got onto lapierre and asked if they could help at all, basically they said that if it was the bb they would replace it as this is a common fault but as this fault is an isolated case they would not.

My Mojo cracked in that same place at the weekend, seemingly cosmetic crack as I carried on riding on it without flex for another 10 miles. Hans from Ibis (one of the company owners, bike industry guru chap) jumped on my thread and instantly offered me a replacement front triangle, and linkage service for free.

The frame is out of warranty (over 3 years old) and I'm not the original owner, I didn't even have to speak to the original owner to be honest. Take note Lapierre, or should I say Crapierre?! :P

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=616505

bomberesque

funny, we've had la Pierre bikes over here for a couple of years longer than you brits have I think and I've not yet heard of even ONE frame failure

ofc any frame can fail and weld faults show up in the best quality frames but what are you lot doing to these bikes? :P

that said, while it seems pretty clear that you bought this bike second hand so would be out of warranty by default, I don't understand LPs statement about isolated cases.

And Toasty, given the cost of Ibises, I would certainly hope that their customer service was a cut above the likes of LP (and can attest; when I blew the thread on the BB frame T-bolt on my tranny, one email to IBIS and a new bolt was in the post to me, not the same as a new F Triangle but fast no-nonsense response nonetheless)

ExeterSimon

I'm not surprised at the crack in a Lapierre but I'm gobsmacked that you kept riding the bike (especially on somewhere like Dartmoor) after you noticed the hairline.

toasty

bomberesque wrote:

And Toasty, given the cost of Ibises, I would certainly hope that their customer service was a cut above the likes of LP (and can attest; when I blew the thread on the BB frame T-bolt on my tranny, one email to IBIS and a new bolt was in the post to me, not the same as a new F Triangle but fast no-nonsense response nonetheless)

Not too bad is it? £1800 for a fairly boutique frame. Much cheaper than a Genius 10 frame, Trance X Advanced, Carbon Meta 5.5, Blur LTc etc. You could even build up with Lap 914 level bits for much cheaper too.

surreyxc

so it cracked, but what size frame is it, how tall are you and weight. The trend for the lightest and smallest hardtail frame can lead to failure, particualy with a stiff material. that frame looks to have a long seat tube extending above the top tube add a long seatpost and then a heavy weight (rider) the stress can be pretty high. You can get away with it on steel or ti but alu? That said my alu frame is similar but they had the sense to but a couple of braces from the seat collar to the top tube.

surreyxc

I also wonder about all the cheaper carbon frames we are seeing. Either we have all been paying far to much for the expemsive models or the cheaper carbon frames are just being thrown together. I guess we will see over the next few years, alu failure is rare, my frame has a 10 year warranty, and I have rarely heard of steel or ti faliing. Perhaps frames are getting too light.

cgarossi

Looks to be a crack in the weld where it meets the top tube. Maybe it can be repaired?

breezer

Warranty is 2 years against all failures, no weight limits that I recall, original owner only so I would suggest getting him to contact Lapierre if he doesnt mind as they have to replace it unless they can prove it was due to the rider crashing, racing etc but dont see how they could do that with the location of the crack

stumpyjon

Was the seatpost in far enough, maybe an obvious question but it's the sort of thing that causes that sort of damage.

Northwind

So you bought a used frame and you're annoyed that they won't honour the warranty you don't have? Ho hum.

Radioactiveman

Northwind wrote:

So you bought a used frame and you're annoyed that they won't honour the warranty you don't have? Ho hum.

I blame wiggle

toasty

Northwind wrote:

So you bought a used frame and you're annoyed that they won't honour the warranty you don't have? Ho hum.

They're in such a dangerous position though, I bet a lot of sales from the UK have vanished from the cracking frames recently already. Look what happened to Commencal, most UK dealers stopped selling them due to all the warranty issues of '09.

I bet it would cost them next to nothing to chuck out a replacement frame for what very strongly looks like a manufacturing fault.

angry_bird

Radioactiveman wrote:

Northwind wrote:

So you bought a used frame and you're annoyed that they won't honour the warranty you don't have? Ho hum.

I blame wiggle

*goes to find the wiggle thread again*

lawman

so you bought a second hand frame, then noticed it had a crack, rode said cracked bike and you are now wondering why it snapped and why they wont replace it????? :roll:

bails87

ouchthathurts wrote:

Radioactiveman wrote:

Northwind wrote:

So you bought a used frame and you're annoyed that they won't honour the warranty you don't have? Ho hum.

I blame wiggle

*goes to find the wiggle thread again*

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=163

angry_bird

Cheers bails87

Got it bookmarked, good if i ever need a laugh

Anonymous

That warranty sounds like a crock of crap. I snapped the swingarm on my old wolfridge in a bad smash years ago. i went to the dealer, and explained plainly that I had crashed the bike, and the swingarm has broken - they replaced it freee of charge, no questions asked. They didn't even bother to check that I was the original owner.
(this is why my old 'ridge has a black frame AND swingarm - they originally came with a horrible mango colour arm)

nickfrog

It would be interesting to know what the frame size is and even more interesting to know what the frame weight is. I am 13st and I know that I would not feel safe on an aluminium frame that weighs much less than 1700g or so.

Anonymous

bummer about the damage, shame it wont get fixed. i spose the company are wthin their rights to not honour the frame but there are plenty of manufacturers who will do all they can for their customers.

toasty, thats an amzing response form the guy at ibis, almost makes the price tag worthwhile (very almost!) i have only had to deal with 2 companies for warranty related business and both were outstanding,

bionicon sent me a load of spare bits and bobs when i need to make a couple of changes without checking if i was the original owner or any reference to a receipt or owt and it was done super quick. the uk rep, roger, is a gleaming bloke.

specialized gave me a 2 year warranty on a second hand bike and fork then set about repairing the fork i had problems with in the space of 2 days. tip top folk but i suppose if you have a company that big, you can afford to be a bit generous.

allthegearnoidea

Toasty wrote:

They're in such a dangerous position though, I bet a lot of sales from the UK have vanished from the cracking frames recently already. Look what happened to Commencal, most UK dealers stopped selling them due to all the warranty issues of '09.

try getting your self a zesty! my lbs has the last 4 Lge 314 zesty's available from the distributer! (they rang to offer them as they sell a lot!) No medium's available in 314 or 514! 714's are starting to run low too!
Sales on them are anything but dwindling!
the bottom bracket problem has been addressed as it iirc affected 08/09 frames,

be interesting to see if technic700 replies though,

i did loook at the frames on ebay (technic 700's) when i was looking and was advised not to as! they were not made where they were bing sold from and are made in one factory and Shipped directly to Lapierre and no where else, and that they were not the current frame colours, Yeah they were cheap and had all the markings But bit of a risk buying a frame like it if its a copy!!!

toasty

allthegearnoidea wrote:

Toasty wrote:

They're in such a dangerous position though, I bet a lot of sales from the UK have vanished from the cracking frames recently already. Look what happened to Commencal, most UK dealers stopped selling them due to all the warranty issues of '09.

try getting your self a zesty! my lbs has the last 4 Lge 314 zesty's available from the distributer! (they rang to offer them as they sell a lot!) No medium's available in 314 or 514! 714's are starting to run low too!
Sales on them are anything but dwindling!
the bottom bracket problem has been addressed as it iirc affected 08/09 frames,

Hmmm fair enough, were they actually able to produce enough to sell, I think they'd have lost sales in that case. The fact they've not actually managed to make enough frames every year for the past 3 years is something else :P

allthegearnoidea

hahaha! that could help the supply/demand issue's hey! iirc they did get a Lot more made for '10 season,

x-isle

bomberesque wrote:

funny, we've had la Pierre bikes over here for a couple of years longer than you brits have I think and I've not yet heard of even ONE frame failure

Isnt that's because Belgium has no mountains?

Sorry couldn't resist.

It is a bit worrying that there is a lot of mention of these frames cracking.

weeksy59

x-isle wrote:

bomberesque wrote:

funny, we've had la Pierre bikes over here for a couple of years longer than you brits have I think and I've not yet heard of even ONE frame failure

Isnt that's because Belgium has no mountains?

Sorry couldn't resist.

It is a bit worrying that there is a lot of mention of these frames cracking.

You ever been to Belgium ? lol.

try Spa and the Mosel regions.... lots there.

x-isle

Yep, spent a lot of time in Belgium.

Flatter than Keira Knightley.......mainly.

richg1979

if you did have a warranty dont expect a frame for a long long time.

lapierre's replacemet warranty is a joke, a mate broke is new zesty 514 after a couple of rides on flat single track almost 5 weeks later and still nothing even though they said they had the part ready to be shipped.

rchip

They should replace the frame, how old is the frame!? I can't believe they told the orginal owner they wont replace it as it's an isolated incident, how does that make any sense at all!?