Why do companies lie? I just spent $70 on a new Wippermann chain that’s advertised as weighing 250 grams. I get home, plop it on the scale, and this is what I see:
Now granted, 40 grams isn’t a big deal. However, this means that the chain is almost 20% heavier than advertised. That’s total bullshit. It’s not like I bought the bargain-basement chain. $70 is a lot of money.
take a pic of the lie and take the chain back. Write a letter to the company about deceptive advertising practices. BTW it’s rotating weight so 40g of rotating weight x 2.5 = 100g of static weight. If I remember my physics correctly.
That sucks. Pretty heavy lube eh?
First, how about the well respected, “…how do you plan to correct this problem?” and see what happens. If you go in assuming they were/are ignorant of the issue and it is not malicious, you generally get a lot farther. Usually…someone, somehow, just goofed.
If all else fails…let 'em know you expect a full refund plus a little extra for wasted time & effort. Only as a last resort with no adequate response do you pull out the mention that “I can always call an associate at the Consumer Protection Division of the State Attorney General’s Office.” Sometimes that last resort is needed to get the job done.
You can tell volumes about a place by how a problem is addressed.
Is that chain cut to the size you’ll be using?
Is that chain cut to the size you’ll be using?
Not sure if that matters, unless there’s some fine print saying, “This chain weighs 250g when cut to X size.” And if there is fine print to that effect, it’s still pretty lame.
Is the scale accurate?
Definitely take it back or call Ralph Nader and sue. You were psychologically harmed because you weigh all your parts and it may cause you to be slower in your next race.
Seriously though I would take the above advice and write a letter. Maybe they will refund the dough and let you keep the chain. Popular forums appear to be pretty powerful.
No, but that doesn’t matter. The weight listed by the manufacturer should be the accurate weight of the product.
Scale is accurate. Surprisingly, this is the first product I’ve weighed that is not very close to the advertised weight.
You remember correctly, only if you also remember that it only matters when the chain is accelerating.
except…objects going in circles have centripital accelleration all the time don’t they…?
you haven’t answered the salient question yet. if a 53x39 and 11-23 gear set with a dura ace rd and a 41cm chainstay yields, let us say, 116 links (i have no idea, i’m just guessing) and if most companies are saying our chain is “this” weight at “this” number of links (116, let us say), and if wippermann is being cool and giving you 125 or 130 links just in case you need a bunch more chain, then it seems to me appropriate to measure your weight against the standard set by other chain companies.
mind, i have no idea whether or not wippermann is doing this. but it seems to me appropriate to find out before we all start bagging on wippermann or any other chain company.
if most companies are saying our chain is “this” weight at “this” number of links
I’d guess you’re in a better position than most of us to know, Slowman- *is *there a standard number of links that the industry weighs chains?
If there is, maybe you have a point. On the other hand, is it reasonable to expect that most buyers know that? Wouldn’t it be a good idea for Wipperman to put a sticker on the package, to the effect that their chain weighs 250g when it’s 116 links long?
The Wippermann chain comes with 113 links and connex links. However, to me that’s not a salient point. Using that rationale, it wouldn’t be a whole lot different for a seat post or fork manufacturer assuming that you’re not going to need the entire seat tube or steerer tube, and as such they advertise a weight that is lower than the piece of equipment weighs when you pull it out of the box. A percent or two or even three? No big deal. Sixteen percent is a big deal.
Saying our product weighs X but we give you some extra product just to be nice sounds like a good marketing pitch, though.
Do you have anything to check your scale against? A 50 or 100 gram weight for instance. (Do we understand now why Letsrun.com has threads making fun of triathletes?)
You’ve got a valid complaint in my opinion. This is exactly the reason why we bought a scale here in the store. We find stuff like this all the time.
Not certain what to suggest about what to do about it, but from my perspective being about 16% heavier than what they advertise is significant.
“However, to me that’s not a salient point.”
to me, it’s precisely the point. if you’re going to stress over 25 or 50 grams, then i’d think you’d want to compare apples to apples. otherwise, it would be in the chain companies’ best interests to make their chains so short that you don’t have enough links for, say, a 27t cog. me, i don’t care about chain weight. but that’s a metric you notice.
fork makers, yes, they do consider steerer length. each fork maker weighs their forks with a given steerer, and that is the stated weight. however, there is no common standard. likewise for frame makers. and so on. there is no common standard. however, when reynolds (let us say) says its fork is 395g, it’s people note to me that this is for a steerer of (whatever), which is a pretty long one, versus other fork companies that weigh their forks with pretty short steerers.
I don’t know about this chain but most are shipped with a heavy coating of grease. Did you remove this before weighing?
Hmmm. How many links does the chain have out of the box? More than the standard 116? Did I miss something here?
Wouldn’t it be at least a little fair that you disclose that you do or have done advertising for Wipperman?
“Wouldn’t it be at least a little fair that you disclose that you do or have done advertising for Wipperman?”
i believe you just linked to one of a variety of places i’ve disclosed it.