Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
leeuk321
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Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by leeuk321 »

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this forum but it seems like a great place. I've got a bit of a situation that I hope people could offer me some advice on. I bought a road bike about 18 months ago from someone, which at the time was around 9 months old from new, hardly ridden. Around £500 tag price. It always had a squeak/creak at the front which I thought was something that just needed oiling. Anyway, I took it into a local bike shop for a service and to get it sorted, and they rung me a couple of days later to explain that the noise was in fact a factory defect, and since it's covered under the manufacturer warranty they had organized with manufacturer for a brand new set of forks to be sent out to them, which the shop would then fit as part of the service. Sounded great, I was over the moon with the service I had gotten so far from both shop and manufacturer.

However...

When I picked the bike up the shop explained that since my bike was 2-3 years old, the manufacturer no longer had the exact forks, so they sent out a pair of carbon fibre forks (£120 value) as an upgrade to my original ally forks (£50 value). Sounds great, but the colour scheme of my bike is grey/red/gloss black and the replacement forks are white/blue/powder black. Looks pretty damn hideous. It actually looks like I crashed my bike and grabbed whatever forks I had spare and slapped them on. I wouldn't mind if it was just one single colour that matched my bike, like black. But the white/blue forks with the grey/red bike looks atrocious.

So, I'm not sure what to do. How would you react? Am I being spoilt by complaining about the bike looking hideous? Should I lump it, live with it or go back in? I'm not even sure what my options are. I know it's only a £500 bike but I really like it and like the aesthetic of it. The peculiar thing as well is that the bike shop never said they would be different forks, it was only when I collected it that I was told. And it wasn't in the form of "Hey, is this okay?", more like just explaining that there it is, ready to go, with an explanation about the forks and how they were an upgrade because of being carbon.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
Lee
eileithyia
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by eileithyia »

Hi and welcome. I too would be upset by the asethetics of it as I like my bikes to co-ordinate etc., Did they ever say what was wrong the original forks? Did they keep them so you could inspect them? I would want to know and see the problem with original forks, then consider re-fitting them. If it is a terminable problem such as a crack then i guess you are better off with the new ones but consider if you can get them re-sprayed or something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8wHglTJl6A

My partner has just had a chain ring dipped to look like carbon as the metal work was a bit tatty..... the chap we went to had a bike in the work shop that he done......

A lot of motorcyclists and custom car paint jobs are done this way.....
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
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gaz
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by gaz »

Forks that have a defective colour seem a great improvement over forks that had a defective structure.
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531colin
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by 531colin »

A quick Google of the bike manufacturer and model and "fork recall" will find out what the fault was with the forks.
However, as a fork failure often results in a high-speed face-plant into the tarmac, i would be inclined to think of a slightly-off colour scheme as a bonus.
Its possible that the dealer has to make the substitution, or risk prosecution for criminal negligence or something, once the manufacturer has identified a safety issue and put out a recall.
leeuk321
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by leeuk321 »

Thanks for everyone's replies. Just to add some clarity to what I'm trying to say: I definitely would prefer safe forks with the wrong colour rather than unsafe forks with the right colour. So, that's out of the way. But obviously life isn't down to overly simplistic ultimatums between two contrasting choices, simply black and white, yes or no, blonde or brunette (hey, there's redheads!). So with that in mind, I'm simply wondering what my options are and how everyone else would react in my shoes.

Cheers for advice on the dipping, I'll have to have a look into that and costs. I know a car painter who I reckon might be able to spray them black for cheap (he knows what he's doing with painting carbon). In response to your questions, the shop simply said that it was a defect, and didn't go into what kind it was, nor offer to show me or anything. Which I guess I wasn't too fussed about, since it was a defect.

I've just been in to the shop, and the chap who saw me agreed that it does like dodgy, and he'll call up the manufacturer on tuesday and see what they can offer me. I just wanted to get a rough berometer on what other cyclists would do in my shoes, so when they get back to me I know i'm being reasonable.
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bigjim
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by bigjim »

I think you are being reasonable. You are entitled to the product that you originally bought imo. As to the issue with forks failing and face planting. Why should we have to worry about this kind of thing? There really should be no issue about forks failing in normal use. If we can't manufacture a guaranteed safe product we should not be selling them. Imagine if a car maker sold a vehicle that just might kill you if you hit a pothole, raised grid etc.
leeuk321
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by leeuk321 »

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. And I definitely agree with you, a consumer shouldn't have to worry about manufacturing defects and "to just be thankful you don't have the defect part any more". It should come safe as standard, and any replacement be to bring it back to original spec. But like I said I'd be willing to accept a complete black or carbon fibre colour fork, so I think that's being more than reasonable.
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by Heltor Chasca »

This would annoy me. It happened when I ordered a wheel hub. Wrong colour arrived and the lbs couldn't understand why I didn't want the wrong one. [emoji849] I don't want my bike to look like a dog's breakfast.

At the very least they should offer to pay for the paint job. Will it last without flaking/cracking? I keep my bikes looking good for my own pride but also for resale.

I hope it works out ok...b
leeuk321
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by leeuk321 »

Thanks for your input. Yeah I hear you on that wheel hub. I think sometimes a lot of people are more carefree when it isn't theirs - it's all too easy for someone else to say "it's fine" when they have no personal attachment to it, but then when it's something of theirs they become the most particular, exacting person on the planet.

I'd love to post a pic to show how the bike looks, but for now I want to refrain from saying who the manufturer is, because I still want to give them chance to offer a solution to the problem.
iandriver
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by iandriver »

I suspect the terms of the warranty are the key here. I wouldn't blame the bike shop who are probably as impressed as you are.
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PH
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by PH »

Normally it would be the retailer's obligation to put the defect right for their customer, replacing something that is such a bad match isn't doing that. However it's complicated by you not being the original purchaser, I can understand the manufacturer not wanting you riding round on a faulty product but I don't know what obligation they have to you. I'd go back to the shop and say you're not satisfied, see what they say.
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531colin
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by 531colin »

PH wrote:Normally it would be the retailer's obligation to put the defect right for their customer, replacing something that is such a bad match isn't doing that. However it's complicated by you not being the original purchaser, I can understand the manufacturer not wanting you riding round on a faulty product but I don't know what obligation they have to you. I'd go back to the shop and say you're not satisfied, see what they say.


"The retailer"....?
We don't know that this random bike shop sold this particular bike to the original owner, do we? How is it their "obligation"?
The manufacturer must supply the parts to fulfill their recall, surely?
This random bike shop is going to get stuffed with replacing the dodgy forks (the manufacturers never pay the going rate for warranty work) and then replacing them again with forks a different colour!
There are all sorts of consumer legislation to make retailers fulfill their obligations to the consumer, and nothing with any teeth to make distributors/manufacturers etc fulfill their obligations to the retailer. The retailer gets shafted again, stuck between a random member of the public who bought a secondhand bike but expects Rolls Royce "service" for no money, and a manufacturer/distributor who couldn't give a flying fig.
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bigjim
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by bigjim »

is this a Specialized? Forks replaced under their recall programme.
PH
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by PH »

531colin wrote:
PH wrote:Normally it would be the retailer's obligation to put the defect right for their customer, replacing something that is such a bad match isn't doing that. However it's complicated by you not being the original purchaser, I can understand the manufacturer not wanting you riding round on a faulty product but I don't know what obligation they have to you. I'd go back to the shop and say you're not satisfied, see what they say.


"The retailer"....?
We don't know that this random bike shop sold this particular bike to the original owner, do we? How is it their "obligation"?
The manufacturer must supply the parts to fulfill their recall, surely?
This random bike shop is going to get stuffed with replacing the dodgy forks (the manufacturers never pay the going rate for warranty work) and then replacing them again with forks a different colour!
There are all sorts of consumer legislation to make retailers fulfill their obligations to the consumer, and nothing with any teeth to make distributors/manufacturers etc fulfill their obligations to the retailer. The retailer gets shafted again, stuck between a random member of the public who bought a secondhand bike but expects Rolls Royce "service" for no money, and a manufacturer/distributor who couldn't give a flying fig.


The retailer - their customer
That would be the original retailer of the original customer
That's how the UKs consumer regulations work
It's really very simple, the contract exists where there's been an exchange of money and goods.
As I said it's complicated by it not being the original purchaser
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531colin
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Re: Bike shop turned my bike into Frankenstein's monster...advice?

Post by 531colin »

Secondhand bike = no contract

thats not complicated at all, its very simple.
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