Doh! snapped my caliper mount.... can anyone help?

Bucket Boy

Hey, after reading bike radar for a while and finding it very useful i'm hoping that the wealth of knowledge on here may be able to help.

Out for a ride earlier and i managed to snap one of the caliper mounting posts off the bottom of my fork leg! not just the bolt or the bracket that links the two posts but the bit that is cast into the lower leg that the bolts screw into.

Fork is rock shox recon solo air, on a whyte 901, owned less than 8months.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Do i take it back to bike shop or will any rock shox dealer be able to help me out?

Typicaly i had a big ride planned tis weekend, thats not looking so good anymore

Any advice greatfully received

Paul

nicklouse

new fork lower needed I am afraid.

Bucket Boy

mmm, thought that may be the case.

Is that sort of thing covered under warranty?

Thanks for quick response

Paul

mfereborn

You know what, ive just done this on a recon race!

Bucket Boy

Mighty annoying isnt it!!

Maybe we could get together and get a discount if we buy two lower legs at the same time !

Andy B

If it's a manufacturing defect then it may be covered under warranty, you need to talk to the shop you bought the bike from for them asses the situation

cooldad

How did you break it?

Bucket Boy

Just out for a fitness ride round the local woods, had collected some mud and moisture on the brakes as not used them for a mile or so, was riding with them lightly dragging to clean them before a downhill section coming up, applied a good fistful of front to test power and PING it went.

Appreciate its looking like a return trip to the shop for assessment now, but does anyone have anidea how much a new lower costs if its deemed not in warranty?

Paul

cooldad

Sounds like a warranty issue unless it got whacked and damaged some other time.

Andy B

New lowers are around £200 IIRC

Deputy Dawg

Got any pics showing the break end on? Its just possible it may be a bad casting.

ilovedirt

Sounds like a warranty job, I'm assuming you weren't running daft sized rotors? (200mm+), in which case, that would probably void your warranty.

mfereborn

Recon Race's are said to be able to run upt 210 according to rockshox so they shouldnt complain regardless.

I sent them an email regarding my problem, but i doubt ill get a reply.

Bucket Boy

Im running the standard size rotor as fitted on purchase. 180 I think, but certainly not over 210 so no problems on that front.

Never taken a heavy knock, regularly cleaned and no sign of any fatigue or cracking before the incident.

I hope it is a warranty job as don't have 200notes spare at the moment and was looking forward to some seriuos spring riding as the darkness of winter slowly drifts away. Hope it doesn't drag out and mean I'm off the trails for a long time.

Paul

Andy B

It all depends on how quick the decision is made as to whether it is warranty, how quick the shop posts the forks off, how busy Fisher Outdoor are, if they have the part in stock and how quick they send them back to you & how quick the courier is at delivering your forks back to the shop.

Could be from 1 week to 2 weeks if the parts are in stock, maybe longer if they're not.

Sent a pair of forks off for a service on a Monday, Fisher serviced them and we had them back on the Thursday, but that was just a service with no waiting around for a decision on warranty or parts.

Politely stand your ground, if they did fail in the way you say they did and the parts were fitted by the LBS or manufacturer and it wasn't user error (incorrect fitting) or accident damage that caused the failure then it should be a warranty job as a failure like that should simply not happen under normal usage

Bucket Boy

Thanks Andy for your help and advice.

Its off to the bike shop for me after work!

Chunkers1980

Partly the reason I hate Post Mounts.

Much harder to bust IS and if you do, more often than not it's the bracket and that's a tenner.

Don't even get me started on the screw/bolt fixings.

stubs

A mate had an IS mount break on a Rockshox Recon a couple of years ago after about 2 months riding. He took it back to shop and they reckoned an angry gorilla had tightened the caliper bolt with a 6 foot scaffolding pole. Fork went off to Fishers and the shop got it back and fitted it within a week.

Unfortunately some cnut broke into his shed and stole the bike a few weeks later.

02gf74

in theory it is repairable by TIG welding on a new boss - you would need to seek aframe builder or speclaiist in alumiium welding.

there will be a fari amount of paint loss plus risk of distortion so the fork lower will be knackered anyway. no idea of costs but it does sound like a warranty issue - the bossess shold never breaker under normal usage.

nicklouse

and people wondered why I said NOOOOOoooo when the fork makers started to adopt the post mount standard.

Andy B

nicklouse wrote:

and people wondered why I said NOOOOOoooo when the fork makers started to adopt the post mount standard.

Yup, deja vu, been here before, done it before. IS is the new standard, PM is the new standard... blah blah blah...

No doubt IS will be back as the new 'improved' standard in a year or two's time, unless they think of something new & clever that isn't a ball ache like PM is

diy

I can't see how that is anything other than a warranty claim. When you say less than 8 months - is likely to be less than 6. You have different rights for less than 6 months.

Bucket Boy

I dropped the bike off earlier at the place of purchase to plenty of "never seen that before" remarks but they seemed pretty confident it would be a warranty replacement.

They are going to drop the forks outs and send them off to fisher to be assessed tomorrow. So now i just gotta play the waiting game.

I pulled out the receipt and it was 7months ago i purchased the bike.

Paul

stubs

Andy B wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

and people wondered why I said NOOOOOoooo when the fork makers started to adopt the post mount standard.

Yup, deja vu, been here before, done it before. IS is the new standard, PM is the new standard... blah blah blah...

No doubt IS will be back as the new 'improved' standard in a year or two's time, unless they think of something new & clever that isn't a ball ache like PM is

Wonder why you guys are down on the PM standard seems to work okay is it just because its another standard to work round or are you seeing problems in the bike shop. I have PM on one bike and IS on the other doesnt seem to be any difference in braking.

Chunkers1980

It's nowt to do with the braking as such, power on one will be the same as power on the other.

It's the fact it's a alu (well mostly) post that stick out and can be bent very easily from knocks ect. With IS you're more likely with the same hit just to bend the replacable bracket and not the post that's part of the lowers.

That's not really even the worst part, the mounting bolts screw directly into the fork lowers, if these are cross threaded, over torqued or just pulled right through somehow then you need some sort of engineering to fix it or new lowers.

IS does not contain any threads, and allows any impact ect to be taken more on the bracket that's replacable.

The only upside to the PM standard is it's slightly lighter and affords more room for things on the inside.

IMO, it should be reserved for race day stuff, and where the IS standard simply does not work with what's required, so nothing XC really only AM - DH type bikes.

stubs

That makes sense Chunkers1980 I saw a bike with PM rear mounts and I remember thinking at the time they looked a bit vulnerable to crash damage.

Hopefully we dont get into the same situation with brake mounts we have with headsets a dozen competing systems that all seem to work slightly worse than the original.

diy

The big problem with PM brakes is more of an issue with 160mm discs than 180-210 discs. Specifically the brake itself becomes an active part in the structure. Something it is not designed for. Again the bicycle industry fails to learn the lessons from the motorcycle industry.

With an IS mount the load is reduced by as much as 50% for the same sized brake.

cavegiant

Tig weld? I thought the lowers were Mg? That would be very exciting if you got it too hot!

Andy!

If given the choice on new forks it would be IS over PM. Really don't like the PM design.

But I like the PM brake caliper design as it works well with the IS to PM adapters. I am not keen on brakes that use IS mounts.

nicklouse

Andy! wrote:

If given the choice on new forks it would be IS over PM. Really don't like the PM design.

But I like the PM brake caliper design as it works well with the IS to PM adapters. I am not keen on brakes that use IS mounts.

+1

why put a thread in an expensive part that if damaged makes the bike useless.

Post mount rear brake mounts sorry no... IS and an adaptor to Post is the best and safest but may have a few grams weight disadvantage.

cavegiant

Do nto forget though, that single figure of grams is amazingly noticeable and could be the difference between you winning the race and getting laid, or dieing horribly in a ditch alone.

Well at least that is the gist I get from reading adverts.