Warranty or Pay For Repair?

stevie.

My friend was riding her 6 week old / 200 miles at most road bike today and when she shifted into the largest rear sprocket (she was climbing a hill at the time), the rear mech. went into the spokes. It's twisted the mech. beyond repair and snapped the mech hanger.
I reckon it's a warranty job, she seems to be thinking she's going to have to pay.
Any experiences either way?

mamba80

my friend had his 3month old Spesh Tarmac replaced (along with chain and mech) when this happened and the frame got damaged.
i guess it will depend on the dealer and how pushy your friend is?

Monty Dog

This can happen for a few reasons:
Bent or damaged frame - likely if the bike has been crashed / knocked
The rear mech hanger fails - as above or incorrectly fitted
Rear mech failure - usually a consequence of crashing
Incorrectly adjusted gears
Heavy-handed gear shifting in combination with any of the above

Trouble is, it's hard to determine the cause because of the damage caused - Suggest you take the bike back to the shop and see how they react - trouble is, these are often presented as 'just riding along' incidents when if fact they are often the consequence of prior events.

slowbike

Just be honest with the shop - tell them what happened and that it needs a new hanger - they may fit it for nothing or do the whole lot foc. A hanger is what ? £15 at most? If they don't offer a free fit then you can always do it yourself.

tmg

Exact same thing happened to me. I went back to the retailer I bought the bike from (I bought it online so couldn't just pop in to the shop), they asked me to send them the mech and they subsequently sent it back to the uk distributor to assess if it was at fault, they agreed it was and the retailer coughed upto replace all damaged parts and paid for the work to be carried out to get the bike back to how it was before the mech failed.

Normally parts on new bikes are covered for but can vary so check first, suggest you go back to where you bought it and see what they have to say, mechs shouldn't fail after 200miles so I would explore getting it sorted under warranty, obviously this will take longer than buying the bits and getting it fixed at your own expense.

slowbike

tmg wrote:

mechs shouldn't fail after 200miles

No - but cables stretch and other parts settle in - it sounds like the mech needed adjusting anyway as the stop should prevent it from moving too far in.
To the OP - are you happy that the bike hadn't been lent against the mech? that could've bent the hanger a little, exacerbating the issue...

As I said - be honest with the shop - thats what I did when we had a "user failure" that broke the hanger - the shop took the bike in, checked it, fitted the hanger and adjusted it (something I wouldn't have done at home!) and tested before giving it back - I paid for the hanger. His rational was that it was our mistake and I'd been honest about it rather than trying to put the blame on the shop - so he was happy to help us ...
we go back there whenever we need bits'n'pieces ... always get good service (and a discount!)

nickellis

Club mate had the same thing happen going up hill on his B'Twin roadie. This was at least 3 months after he brought it probably a bit longer.

He went back to decathlon, asked for a refund and they gave it to him. TBF his hanger, rear mech and a few spokes were beyond repaire so it was probably easier for the shop to send the whole lot back rather than spend the time replacing.

navrig

Happened to me on my Ribble. Ribble replaced the mech hanger and I fitted and straightened up the rear mech. It ran OK but after another year I replaced it with new.

stevie.

Mech is twisted and toasted. Hanger snapped in half. Wheel is slightly buckled.
The shop have told her they will supply the mech and hanger at trade price, £10 labour to sort the wheel out. Full bill approx. £45. She's happy with that.
She's not crashed it at all. The mechanic asked her how many times in the last six weeks she'd been in the small chainring/large sprocket. She of course told him probably quite a few times. His response made sense "It's not knackered up before now so something has happend to it.....". That made the managers offer sound very fair and I shut my warranty claiming mouth up :-)
Thanks for the replies

slowbike

If both parties come out smiling then it's a good deal ... glad it's resolved

FunBus

I agree, that's not a bad deal.

Sounds as though the mech needed adjusting (which it would after 6 weeks) and, as she was shifting going up hill, there's more pressure going through the drivetrain, exaggerating any issues. The shop could've put it down to lack of maintanance and charged full whack, so that's an alright outcome.

.....just make sure you regularly check the gears from now on