Just got a note from Cervélo that they no longer allow any painters to be authorized re-painters for their bikes.
So if you chose to get your bike re-painted - it will void the warranty on it.
This was very surprising as, previously, there were quite a few options to get our bikes painted (notably Hot Tubes, but some other options in Canada as well).
Thoughts? Seems a bit strange that they would do this?
It was sold to Pon Holdings in 2011 I think. I guess one less thing for the company to try and administer and QA, and one more reason to avoid providing a warranty. Seems like an one less cost for them to incur. Guess this is what happens when a company gets sold to a larger company.
They don’t really honor their warranties anyway so what difference does it really make.
I never knew that such “authorized re-painters” existed! We could get those cool color schemes that the pros have? Does specialized have any of these authorized re-painters?
They don’t really honor their warranties anyway so what difference does it really make.
Erroneous.
My 2 fast and relatively unquestioned frame replacements tells me your statement is false.
They don’t really honor their warranties anyway so what difference does it really make.
Tell that to my riding buddy who is on his second, free S3 frame replacement.
Submitted pics on my claim on a Saturday and by Monday had an approval and upgraded from my RS to an R3 Team and was riding that the following Wednesday…that includes a holiday weekend where my shop was closed.
Freaking super fast if you ask me!
Just great. I’m not even done with my build yet. 
I was hoping to send my white P3 for a paint job (was waiting for some Fantasy football money to come in on Sun)…I had checked the site a few times earlier this week and the link to Cervelo paint wasn’t working…perhaps this is why…
That’s too bad. I enjoyed a lot of the custom paint designs people had. Hopefully they start doing better job with the OEM paint. As a fan of their company, I must say that some of their offerings are quite difficult to look at.
However interesting that up until very recently there were a number of authorized re-painters. It is curious that this is a very new policy - like 2016 new. I had my P5 painted last summer - it was totally fine as an authorized painter did it.
As many have stated here - this can’t be any further from the truth. My P4 was warrantied - no questions asked due to the faulty seatpost clamp. Warrantied and upgraded in part to a P5. Cervélo has always been above and beyond whenever I’ve encountered any issues - from the very minor to the replacement of my bike.
They don’t really honor their warranties anyway so what difference does it really make.
Tell that to my riding buddy who is on his second, free S3 frame replacement.
For every such story, there are the same ones for folks that didn’t get replacements. One of my riding buddies had a custom painted under warranty S5 with alignment issues not replaced. Unfortunately there is just no recourse when they turn you down.
Why would a paint be a reason to void a woranty? It is not that you changed someting in the structural integrity of the bike like drilling a hole. Could it be the chemicals in the paint interacting with the carbon?
If they don’t know what they are doing they can really damage the frame. If they put chemicals on it to strip the paint it can destroy the carbon or if you sand it you can sand down the carbon making it weaker.
The typical methalyne chloride stripper would be a no no on carbon. Painters rarely use anything courser than 400 grit when preping for paint. It would be very difficult to damage a frame with this fine of a sandpaper. Bodyman use courser papers and may not know how thin the carbon on bikes are. a typical staightforward paint job would be safe. The paints themselves cure quickly and wouldn’t hurt a frame. My guess is that it would be easy to hide damage with filler and paint thus making it susceptible to warranty fraud.