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Bike shop service question

 
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Colin

Feb 23, 05 14:01

Post #1 of 4 (215 views)
Bike shop service question Can't Post
I know Tom D and other are in the retail business, maybe you can give me some perspective on this situation.

I brought my tri-bike into the shop last week for a tune up. Good shop, supports local races, has a coached rec. team, but not the shop I usually go to. Picked the bike up a week later, 17 miles into a 25 mile ride on the CT I heard and felt a snap. I looked back and saw that 2 spokes broke off my rear hub. Upon closer insprection, the hub had actually broken! A piece roughly the size and shape of 1/2 an eyebrow broke off. This piece was where the 2 spokes connected to the hub.

I took it back to the shop 24 hours after I picked it up from the tune up. They said the hub might be warrantied, they'd look into it and call me back.

Here's my problem. I'm not a mechanic, that's why I bring the bike in every spring to let a professional tune it. I've had the wheels (Bontrager Race Lites) for 3 yrs or so, and have put about 6,000 miles on them without incident. It seems odd that the hub would break on a trainer ride so quickly after the wheels were trued during the tune-up.

Could the shop have overtightened a spoke enough to cause this to happen? Do Bontrager Race Lites have a high failure rate in their hubs? I don't know how hard to argue with them if they come back and say Bontrager denied any warranty coverage, or if they warranty the hub but charge me shop time to rebuild the wheel.

What is reasonable here???


Todder

Feb 23, 05 14:39

Post #2 of 4 (183 views)
Re: Bike shop service question [Colin] [In reply to] Can't Post
Considering that there are about a billion sets of Bontrager Race Lite wheels on the road (due to the billion Trek OCLV bikes sold over the last few years) I think word would be getting out if there was a high rate of failure for just these wheels. I have not heard of anything, which is why I am planning to use Race Lites on my cyclocross bike this year.

I would think that the spokes would break before the hub if it was just a spoke tension issue.

It is hard to tell without knowing everything that happened to the bike while it was at the shop. When I worked in a bike shop in high school there was enough horseplay going on that it is likely that at some time or another we accidentally knocked over a bike, that fell onto another bike, that then fell all the way to the ground. These incidents were far outnumbered by the time we spent treating customer bikes with the utmost care.

You never know, it could be that the hub was destined to fail at some point in time despite the care shown by you and by the shop, you just happened to be lucky enough to have the failure happen on the trainer instead of 40 miles from home.

If you have had the wheels for 3 years and 6,000 miles it is hard to argue that there was a significant fault in the product. Most warranties on wheels usually max out at one year. If you feel like pushing a little you can request to see the communication from Bontrager in writing. If Bontrager sends a new hub I think it is reasonable for the shop to charge a build fee, it is still cheaper than a brand new wheel.

Good luck. Hope everything works out.

Just out of curiosity, was the break on the drive side or non-drive side of the hub?


Colin

Feb 23, 05 14:45

Post #3 of 4 (163 views)
Re: Bike shop service question [Todder] [In reply to] Can't Post
It was on the drive side. The shop guy looked the hub over carefully and thought it was beneficial to my case that there was no indication of the chain ever slipping off the cassette and snagging around the hub.

I failed to mention in my original post that I've never crashed on these wheels, never nailed a ridiculously large pothole or any other damaging riding. And, I'm unfortunately unable to produce massive watts, so it wasn't leg power that broke the hub! :)


(This post was edited by Colin on Feb 23, 05 15:12)


Tom Demerly

Feb 23, 05 14:57

Post #4 of 4 (142 views)
Re: Bike shop service question [Colin] [In reply to] Can't Post
Impossible to tell if the shop was the contributing factor. Really, it is impossible. This is "crash investigation" like at a plane crash.

I wager the thing just plain broke. Tough to say how-



http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/
(NOTE: This poster owns a retail business selling triathlon related products).