Have a situation and was hoping someone on here had gone through it before.
I have a Specialized Allez Comp road bike. Not top of the line but a great road bike. I have never had any complaints with this bike and would buy another in a second. Thursday night ride and bam front der. (braze on) broke off the frame. The bracket is L shaped with the bottom of the L sticking out from the bike to allow for mounting. The bottom of the L broke in half. No way to remount the der. I took it to the bike shop (a Specialized dealer) for help. My question to them is “how do you fix it?” their answer “you don’t”. The shop is going to call Specialized Monday. (closed Friday for the holiday) I am told one of three things will happen.
1)Specialized will say tough luck
2)Specialized will replace the frame
3)Specialized will give credit toward the purchase of a new bike
Anyone have a guess as to the outcome? I’m agonizing over this because I have put myself on a tight tri/cycling budget this year. Can you say Dave Ramsey?
The answer came back as next to nothing. They offered me 20% off a new frame. Then the bike shop tried to sell me a competitors frame. (twice) Needless to say I am dissapointed.
Repercussions of this for me. I have to buy a new bike sooner than planned.
Repercussions for Specialized. At my age I will probably buy another 8 to 10 bikes in my cycling life and none of them will be Specialized.
Repercussions for the bike shop. They won’t sell me anything again, ever.
Will they miss my money? No, but it is the only weapon I have.
What size bike you ride? I have a 57 cm cdale 6-13 in the cool orange color I need to unload…since I am opening a bike business and will sell…Specialized. I need to ride what I sell. It is unfortunate to hear about your frame.
You were just riding along and the front derailleur braze-on came off all of a sudden? If that is true, then it does seem surprising that there is no warranty coverage (if you are the original owner).
What could the shop have done differently? It sounds like they tried to warranty it for you, and when they were unsuccessful with that they tried to sell you another bicycle. Did you expect them to give you something else?
Just curious as to how the customer service could have been improved? Maybe they were rude, I don’t know, just wondering.
Yes, I was riding along on a smooth, well paved road. My first indication that something was wrong was the sound of the der. hitting the rear spokes. Have no idea why it broke. Only outside influence on the bike at the time was me pedaling and road vibration. The bike has been down but on the non-drive side. There are no scratches, dents or dings anywhere near the braze on. I did not go looking for a hand out or a freebie. I went to the shop expecting to pay for a repair. The shop says we don’t repair that, the mfg (in this case SPC) will replace your frame or give you credit toward a new bike ( I am the original owner). When I hear back from SPC the offer is 20% toward a new frame or bike. My thought was “that’s not to good but lets see how the numbers work out”. Before I could even look at the SPC bikes the dealer was showing me a Lemond demo he was wanting to unload and a Trek 2300. This stuck me as odd since the dealer would be getting the credit from SPC but was trying to sell me other brands. As a side note my bike is full Ultegra. The bikes being shown to me were a mixed lot of 105 and lesser components. I just decided to refuse the offer. Loaded my bike and came home.
I am simply relaying my experience with this issue. I have purposely not named the shop and I don’t begrudge SPC their policy. It is their equipment they can handle it how they wish. I have the right to do or not do business with them. Part of the value of this forum is the knowledge that gets shared about bikes and the industry. SPC makes a very good product. One of my best friends rides and loves his new Tarmac. I had no complaints about my bike until now. SPC offered to do something for me to help but I decided that their offer wasn’t satisfactory. I could have taken 20% off one of their bikes but I am choosing to pay full price somewhere else.
How old was your bike? some offer a pro-rated warranty and after so many years they may only offer you 20%. I had a similar problem several years ago with a 3 year old Trek 2000 frameset (came unglued at the chainstay) after riding the roads in Korea (I was in the Army and had just returned). the local shop wouldn’t work with me (now out of business. Hmmm, wonder why) so I contacted Trek directly. Got a new frameset, custom painted in my choice of color at no charge. Try contacting the person at Specialized first (my experience is that they are a great company and are customer oriented).
If they can’t or won’t do anything and you really like the bike, why not eat the cost and sed it to a frame repair shop and have them repair it. Depending where you are a shop should be somewhat close. One I have dealt with is Harry Hoovarian (sorry for mispelling his name) in the Philly area, but I know there are others.
Try contacting the person listed above in the thread. If they won’t budge, any good frame builder can grind off the old hangar and epoxy on a new one. You’ll be out a few hundred for the repair + paint, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than tossing the bike…
I’ve always liked Specialized. I don’t own one, nor do I have plans to - but I’d recommend one any day.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to come across as attacking you. I do fits at a shop, and based on what you had said, I wasn’t sure what else the dealer could have done to keep your business. I was asking so that in my dealings with customers I can do a better job than this shop had clearly done with you. I appreciate your response.
that is, why don’t you just grind the remaining bracket away, and get a clamp-on FD, or simply a clamp for 10 bux from problem solvers, attach you existing FD to it and be done with it ??
your experience is shabby compared to the luck i have had with SBC, by the by. i had two carbon frames replaced by them for basiacally cosmetic issues ( galvanic corrosion ), one of them edging on at least 7 years old, and i had originally bought it used off a guy. these were replaced with current top of the line s-works frames plus forks at i beleieve 100 bucks from me. it took some talking tho, and not taking no for an answer. i have also had a newer mtn bike frame replaced fully free, and speedily done, after a similar failure to yours. i would maybe guess your dealer sucks. get SBC’s vice president of customer relations on the phone. go to the top, and be nice yet firm when you get there and i would expect better.
That is basically the plan. I am going to grind the protruding bit off and install a clamp on at the top of what will be left of the braze on bracket. The bracket is not riveted but is indeed brazed. I may have to go with a triple because the mounting position will be a few cm higher. I can adjust the screws so the der only moves enough for two rings. A mountain bike racing friend claims many of them do that. I am afraid to grind too close to the seat tube. I don’t want to weaken the frame.
This was the “my” plan from the beginning. The shop brought up the “new frame scenario”. I think I was just put off by the way they were getting a rebate from SPC but trying to sell me something else. If one of my distributors was taking credit I gave them to help put customers into a competitor’s equipment I would not be happy.
I thought about heading to Lowe’s or Home Depot and trying to find a clamp that would work with the f der. I think I would always be waiting for it to break if I used something other than “bike componets”.