GT GTR Sport lack of customer service

llynaj

Hi
My Daughter a newcomer to cycling purchased a beginner's road bike a GT GTR Sport, to use in London. She based her purchase decision on a favourable review on Bike Radar (dated December 26th 2019). While cycling in a cycle lane a car travelling in her direction of travel, turned left and into her front wheel. It was clearly the car drivers fault as witnessed by other pedestrians and road users.
Having recovered from her injuries she had the damage assessed and needs a new front fork (carbon) and wheel e.t.c. GT cycles are unable to supply a replacement fork period. They cannot give a date as to when they can supply a fork, certainly not in the next year.

So as it has some weirdly tapered fork she has been advised by GT authorised stockist that they cannot even fit a generic fork. So her Bike is effectively written off.

Any advise as to how to bring pressure on GT would be appreciated.

Thanks John

Defblade

This sounds like a problem for the driver's insurance, not GT. If they can't get the part, they can't get the part - I'm sure they would if they could. So the insurance may have to cough up for a whole new bike instead of a repair... which is cheap in their world, either way.

Ben6899

Forks with a tapered steerer tube are not hard to get a hold of. It doesn’t need to be GT branded.

MattFalle

Any tapered fork will work.

pop down the LBS for a quote for a new one.

it sounds like a driver's insurance problem, not a GT problem.

lesfirth

As already said the bike is a write off and the insurance company involved need to pay up quickly before you get a solicitor on the job.
With all respect to the OP this is a great example of a novice mishandling a bike accident .

llynaj

In response to Ben6899 and MattFalle the bike is with the only GT authorised stockist within 50 mile radius. They ordered a generic fork and cannot make it work!
Surely we can all agree that Cycle manufacturers should hold spare parts for a bike which was only two months old at the time of the accident.

MattFalle

I think they may ve mugging you off.

and in a normal world they probably do but there's been some mad happenings lately

Ben6899

They're either incompetent or not telling the whole truth. From what I can discern in GT's tech docs (which aren't great, tbh) the Grade (which the GTR appears to be the same as) has a 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" tapered headtube.

This isn't that unusual.

This fork will fit.

MattFalle

exactly as Ben said.

llynaj

I appreciate people taking the time and effort to help. However "any tapered fork will fit" is not particularly helpful. The fork is carbon has a thru axle and disk brakes. I do worry about the competency of GT authorised dealer. The mechanic ordered a fork cut it to size then found it did not fit.

slowestrider

let the insurance sort it out, they'll just pay for a replacement, it's quicker and simpler for them

thistle_

slowestrider said:

let the insurance sort it out, they'll just pay for a replacement, it's quicker and simpler for them

+1
Tell the insurers that the only local dealer has said there's no replacement part available so will they pay for a replacement bike.

The dealer could be useless but at the end of the day the driver's insurance should be sorting all of this out.

Ben6899

llynaj said:

I appreciate people taking the time and effort to help. However "any tapered fork will fit" is not particularly helpful. The fork is carbon has a thru axle and disk brakes. I do worry about the competency of GT authorised dealer. The mechanic ordered a fork cut it to size then found it did not fit.

My point is that you're not looking for a unicorn.

slowestrider said:

let the insurance sort it out, they'll just pay for a replacement, it's quicker and simpler for them

I get the impression that the driver is long gone and any insurance talk is moot. But I could be wrong. If I am wrong then I agree - get the bike written off.