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Old April 1st 05, 02:25 PM
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Dan wrote:

snip

It turns out that a small piece of the aluminum frame supporting the
gear shifter wore out due to metal fatigue. The shifter mechanism
ripped off the aluminum frame, got caught in the rear spokes, and
destroyed the entire rear end of the bike. Several spokes are broken
and/or bent. The shifter mechanism is bent in several places, the
shifter wire is shredded, and the front crank apparatus also has some
damage due to the sudden awkward pull on the chain.


I would be willing to bet that the manufacturer finds an excuse to not
do anything, even if the dealer goes to bat for you. It doesn't matter
what the actual cause of the failure was, it's whether or not they can
find a way to not do anything, since it's your word against their's.
There could be several reasons why the hanger was stressed, i.e. the
chain could have fallen off and gotten stuck, while you tried to pedal
harder because you didn't realize what happened. If they do do
something for you, it both admits liability, and it implies that there
is a problem with the product, neither of which is worth keeping you as
a customer.

You really want to avoid aluminum frames if at all possible, but you're
not going to find many $420 bicycles with chromoloy steel frames! Metal
fatigue is a huge problem with aluminum, and not just on bicycles. Of
course most of the time you'll be just fine, but it's those
catastrophic failures, that are much more likely to occur with
aluminum, that are scary. The derailleur hanger can be subjected to a
lot of stress, with not a lot of metal there.

--------------Begin Obligatory Airplane Comparison---------------
"When discussing aluminum, someone always brings up airplanes. Airplane
design showcases what aluminum does best: acceptable strength and a low
relative weight. But, aluminum's lack of a fatigue limit is one very
good reason why there is stringent monitoring of dynamically or
cyclically stressed aluminum structures."
----------------End Obligatory Airplane Comparison---------------

You can see what happens when aluminum fails on an aircraft
"http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2001/Jan/18/118localnews1.html"

There are still some chromoloy frame mountain bikes available. Slap on
some slicks, and call it a hybrid. Marin still makes several steel
mountain bikes that are not excessively expensive (but more than $420).
See
"http://marinbikes.com/bicycles_2005/html/bikes/bike_series/bikes_ser_steelht.html"
The Bear Valley is $650 MSRP, though REI still has some (or one) 17"
2004 Bear Valley's on sale for $390 (see
"http://www.rei.com/outlet/product/47943588.htm?vcat=OUTLET_SSHP_CYCLING_SA").

I don't think that there are any chromolloy steel hybrids available
anymore; hybrids tend to be relatively inexpensive, and aluminum is a
lot less expensive than chromoly steel.

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