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

[531colin]

And can we now alter the thread title to "I don't like the colour of my FREE FORKS for my secondhand bike"
......if the shop gets it wrong, then name and shame, but this shop appears to have treated a random customer with a secondhand bike very well indeed.

[Graham]

I quite like the original title. It illustrates the frenzied anguish of an aggrieved customer.

Then followed by detached, experienced views from a number of contributors.

Leading to useful enlightenment for all . . .

[leeuk321]

Thanks for everyone's candor. And as for not understanding how the world works comment, that's quite a sweeping, aggressive statement, maybe I just don't understand how the frame manufacturing world works. Is that not what forums are for?

And yes, like I've said my only qualm is with the manufacturer, which is exactly why I haven't 'named and shamed' the bike shop. And as I feared, a lot have said it doesn't look that bad. But there's a difference between it not looking that bad, and being able to honestly say that you'd be happy with it happening on your own bike. And remember, I just took my bike in for a service, the different forks were a total surprise that I wasn't asked if it were acceptable at any point. I mean, imagine if a pal borrowed your bike then returned them with different coloured forks. You wouldn't say "Well it's not that bad so no bother". When it's your own bike that you're familiar with and it get changed as a complete surprise, a stranger's "not that bad" is your own "horrendous". And besides, "not that bad" is actually an incredibly negative response, I mean imagine if you asked your partner if she/he enjoyed last night, and they said "not that bad", would you be happy?

Anyway, I'm a pragmatist and purely came here to get a rough berometer reading on what the cycling world would think of the situation. I think I'll do what people have suggested and get then sprayed black. The bike shop has kindly offered to take the forks off and fit them back on for free.

[leeuk321]

Oh, and as for the suggestion for the title change, yeah I kinda like my original title too But on a serious note, since your post was quite aggressive, you might want to grab yourself a dictionary, since 'free' implies that something is given without any compensation or exchange. My forks were exchanged, ie not free. Maybe if Giant had let me keep my old forks, and said hey, they should be fine, just a bit of squeezing but here's some others as well if you wish, then they'd be free. But they didn't, so they aren't.

[Graham]

. . .. And as for not understanding how the world works comment, that's quite a sweeping, aggressive statement, maybe I just don't understand how the frame manufacturing world works. Is that not what forums are for?

Well Lee, you clearly don't understand how Internet forums work !!

Only joking - I couldn't resist it.

Read the advice : take what you need and disregard the rest. It's only an internet forum.

[RickH]

The big problem for the bike shop is that once they have identified the forks as a recalled model, they are on difficult ground legally if they returned them to you.

The forks on my Kinesis frame were subject to recall (possibility of steerer detaching from crown) and, fortunately for the aesthetics, they were a black for black carbon replacement. However it appears that there was a fatality relating to the failure of the forks in question. Faulty forks could be that serious!

I suspect the LBS could still be held liable even if they gave you the bike back with a notice saying "do not under any circumstances ride this bike until the forks have been changed"!

Rick.

[PH]

The big problem for the bike shop is that once they have identified the forks as a recalled model, they are on difficult ground legally if they returned them to you.

I know Vorpal treated us to chapter and verse on the recall process, but there's nothing on this thread (Or revealed by a quick google) that indicates this product was ever recalled.
But as I said much earlier, if some part of the chain deemed these forks to be unsafe , they wouldn't then have allowed them to be used. Rightly so.

[kendoon]

If the decals are under the lacquer, ie it's all smooth, I'd just buy a can of black paint and a clear coat and do the job myself.

Forks are just about the easiest thing to paint. Ten minutes, bosh, job done!

[gloomyandy]

Out of interest I wonder how people would feel if they took their car in for a service and it came back with the two front wings replaced with ones of a different colour to the rest of the car? Perhaps folks are saying just live with it because of the price, but I doubt if many would be happy if a similar thing happened with a car, even if the car is second hand!

[[XAP]Bob]

The forks do stand out to me as well - interestingly though it's the white more than the blue which looks out of place...

If you can suggest to the mfr that they have a better colour match elsewhere in their catalogue (and tell them where) then they should be able to tell you why that wouldn't work (different offset?)

[Brucey]

Out of interest I wonder how people would feel if they took their car in for a service and it came back with the two front wings replaced with ones of a different colour to the rest of the car? Perhaps folks are saying just live with it because of the price, but I doubt if many would be happy if a similar thing happened with a car, even if the car is second hand!

bicycles don't have 'bodywork' in the same way, only useful functional parts, most of which you can see.

If you went in for a service and came out with different coloured suspension units, or different wheels, or different brake calipers, replaced for safety reasons, that would be comparable. [I have owned car where some versions of it had faulty wheels and the replacements looked different: Tough....]

If the whole frame were recalled and replaced I don't think there would be any obligation or expectation to match the colour to the original (in fact when this happens it almost invariably is a different colour frame). And then it wouldn't 'match the wheels'....?

If it were my bike (or belonged to a friend) I'd be much more worried about the fact that the frame is almost certainly completely the wrong size for its owner....

cheers

[Zanda]

...I'd be much more worried about the fact that the frame is almost certainly completely the wrong size for its owner....

Out of curiosity, how have you deduced that?

[[XAP]Bob]

...I'd be much more worried about the fact that the frame is almost certainly completely the wrong size for its owner....

Out of curiosity, how have you deduced that?

Idle look suggests a long stem, a layback post and significant seat post exposed as well as plenty of spacers under the stem.

All suggests that a frame one size larger (maybe more) might be better suited.

Don't listen to me though - I don't do DF fitting...

[gloomyandy]

bicycles don't have 'bodywork' in the same way, only useful functional parts, most of which you can see.

If you went in for a service and came out with different coloured suspension units, or different wheels, or different brake calipers, replaced for safety reasons, that would be comparable. [I have owned car where some versions of it had faulty wheels and the replacements looked different: Tough....]

OK pick a visible functional part of a car. Say the front bumper or the drivers seat! If this did not match the car would you be happy? The forks may be functional but they are also typically colour coded to match the rest of the bike, just like a car bumper or a seat.

Sure if you had damaged the part then you might decide to put up with a mismatch. But I bet you wouldn't if the replaced item was a faulty part that was very visible.

[fastpedaller]

Crikey - You've done well (if the part was faulty and likely to cause an accident) on the basis that you've had your SECOND HAND PRIVATE PURCHASE bike repaired with a free (minus your scrap forks) pair of forks. All this time posting notes about it! you could have painted them 5 times over by now.