My Litespeed road frame that is 11 yrs old broke. The frame cracked into at the bottom of the seat stay right in the middle of a weld.
This happen as i was riding the bike and at first i thought i had broken a spoke. when I bought my Litespeed I was told it had a life time warranty on the frame, but after having the local bike shop that i bought the bike from ship it back to Litespeed I am being told by Litespeed that it will cost be $250.00 to have the frame fixed… I don’t understand why i would have to pay anything, has in one else had warranty issues with Litespeed?
Per my Litespeed Owners Manual
LITESPEED LIMITED WARRANTY
Litespeed warrants to the original consumer that this Litespeed product is free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use for the periods set forth below, subject to the imitations and requirements contained herein:
Litespeed Titanium frames for the lifetime of the frame.
Litespeed Aluminum frames for three (3) years from date of purchase.
etc. etc. etc…
This Limited Warranty does not apply if the defect is due to normal wear and tear, improper assembly, abuse, misuse, accident, improper maintenance, modification or alteration.
etc. etc. etc…
So, I’m thinking an 11 year old frame, that has a cracked weld, could be contributed to “normal wear”…
Hmmmm, I’m hoping a cracked weld isn’t normal or expected…
I sent an '04 Saber with a weld crack and they sent a new frame
Call Tennessee and find out why
Good luck with it
A cracked weld is not “normal wear” (unless from a crash or some other extraordinary event). Ti frames are designed for infinite fatigue life; the crack is a result of a poor weld (either structural, or contamination). This should absolutely be a warranty claim. The good news is that the frame can be repaired to good-as-new status.
PS: I used to work for the world’s largest welding manufacturer (Lincoln Electric). We used to inspect failed welds all the time to determine if they were caused by poor design, poor welding, contamination, or defective product. There is really no way to know this until a knowledgeable welder/lab inspects the crack. There is no way that they can say out of hand that this isn’t a warranty, especially since one selling point of Ti frames is that you’ll have them forever.
call litespeed. if its a crack at the weld, thats their deal, not normal wear and tear.
that should be FREE to fix!
First off let me say that I really like both of my Litespeeds and have always been a fan of the company. Unfortunately that being said, I’ve carefully watched a number of this type of complaint pop up on various forums. (when I say ‘a number’ the number is less than ten over the last 3 years or so) and in most of the cases the customer with the problem stopped posting after a while so I assume that they had found satisfaction with Litespeed since it is pretty typical to talk about a complaint and be quiet about a satisfying experience.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that Litespeed warranty seems to have taken a “let’s see if we can re-coup some cost” approach and seems to try to charge everybody for this type of thing. Once an owner questions the charge as the original owner, Litespeed has come across as more than happy to fix the problem.
Personally I think that this stems from a large number of secondhand owners trying to get free fixes or new frames. I don’t think that the record keeping is bulletproof down there in TN and this might be the most effective way to weed out the ‘let’s see what happens’ guys. Obviously this is not the worlds greatest way to do things, but form what I’ve seen almost everybody I’ve followed as an original owner has come out happy.
Good luck
Probably a stupid question, but how does Litespeed know who the original owner is? I purchased mine about 2 years ago and don’t remember ever filling out (or being offered/told about) registration docs. I may be able to dig up a copy of the original receipt. Unfortunately the shop I bought it from has since changed owners and I’m not too optimistic that the records would have carried forward to the new owners.
I feel pretty stupid to be just asking this now since one of the reasons I purchased this frame was the life expectancy (forever) but never looked into this aspect.
Thoughts?
I never filled out any registration, I just provided a copy of the receipt from all3sports.com
.
Just register your frame on line with ABG. PoP is also a sure deal - but the MfG’s know that it is not at all hard to fake a PoP…thus ABG knows what LBS got every frame.
It really should be the original receipt that matters.
my 2003 vortex cracked earlier this year, never been crashed or treated badly - quite the opposite.
The UK distributor was very helpful, but i had no direct contact with Litespeed in the USA -despite several email s and failed phone calls (“sorry he’s not picking up, do you want to leave a voice mail?”), via the distributor they made it clear they would not be taking the option to offer me a replacement frame.
My frame went back to the USA and 7 weeks or so later it came back with a new headtube. My original receipt was required to get this repair. The frame looks ok, but i’m not going to build it into a bike…
You may need to ask them what “lifetime” means to them.
I had a very disappointing issue with a back pack from The North Face, which had a “lifetime” warranty. The backpack started unstitching, I sent it to get repaired and they said that lifetime meant the lifetime of the backpack, which was supposed to be 2 years or something like that.
To my way of seeing, it is a bit misleading to advertise a “lifetime warranty” when in reality it isn’t.
Hello,
I am new to this Slowtwitch thing but I see you have a post stating you have more than one Litespeed. I would like to purchase a Litespeed to replace my Merlin Extralight. My choice is either the Ghisallo or Vortex. Can you shed any light on this to help in the decision-making process? Also, do you know of any for sale OR classy sites where I might find one?
Thanks