Saddy Face

[consularrider]

Ouch! Ahhh, memories of Atlanta bike commuting (Virginia Highlands to near the Georgia Dome 25 years ago)!

[grandallj]

>Taps<

[jrenaut]

Like and dislike.

[jabberwocky]

Sounds like it had a good life and died a warriors death.

[krazygl00]

@consularrider 60013 wrote:

Ouch! Ahhh, memories of Atlanta bike commuting (Virginia Highlands to near the Georgia Dome 25 years ago)!

Hardcore! You were in the vanguard!

[mello yello]

looks like it started right at the edge of the weld on the top of the TT. Combination of geometric stress concentrator and maybe possibly some stresses from the weld cooling – careful attention to tempering may have prevented this crack, but no way of telling. Ah, I’m having fun remembering my mechanical failures class in materials science.

Sorry to hear about your JTS – 9 years is too soon, but it sounds like it was a good 9 years.

[consularrider]

Forgot to ask if you are submitting this for possible replacement under Kona’s lifetime frame warranty?

[mstone]

at least you noticed the crack before you found it the hard way

[jabberwocky]

Looks like a fatigue crack to me. Aluminum doesn’t have the best fatigue resistance. Could have been a small weak point from welding or just in the tube.

9 years isn’t super long, but it sure sounds like it was heavily ridden in those 9 years. I’d count that as a good life for an all purpose aluminum frame. Give it a place of honor on the wall where it belongs and get yourself something new.

[ronwalf]

@consularrider 60024 wrote:

Forgot to ask if you are submitting this for possible replacement under Kona’s lifetime frame warranty?

It’s not the most useful of warrantees:

http://www.konaworld.com/warranty.cfm wrote:

LIFETIME LIMITED WARRANTY ON BICYCLE FRAME

Kona further warrants to the original owner that the frame of this new Kona bicycle purchased from an authorized Kona dealer shall be free of defective materials or workmanship for the lifetime of ownership by the original owner (this warranty is limited to five years for carbon fiber frames and three years for Safariland Patrol Bikes and electric pedal assist frames). During this warranty period, Kona shall repair or replace, at its sole option, the bicycle frame if Kona determines the frame is defective and subject to this limited warranty. The original owner shall pay all labor and shipping charges connected with the repair or replacement of the bicycle frame.

So he needs to be able to show he is the original owner and then pay shipping charges (plus labor, if he gets a bike shop to strip it).

[DismalScientist]

I don’t know the shape of your components, but you could pick up a Xcross frame from Nashbar for $130 and spend a weekend moving your equipment over.

[hozn]

@ronwalf 60029 wrote:

So he needs to be able to show he is the original owner and then pay shipping charges (plus labor, if he gets a bike shop to strip it).

I think that is standard with bicycle frame warranties (all the ones I have seen are “original owner”). Perhaps the shipping is less of an issue if you have a Kona shop take care of it (?), but then you have some labor. Diamondback (and I think parent company, Raleigh) go further to absolve themselves of any warranty obligation if you do not purchase the frame already built up from a brick & mortar bike store and/or build up the frame yourself. I don’t know to what extent they actually refuse warranties on that grounds, but that strikes me as pretty ridiculous (esp. given that there are online retailers of DB frames that claim to be authorized retailers).

But assuming original owner, getting the current edition of that frame for ~$50 seems like a pretty good deal. (Even if you just turn around and sell it because you want something new.)

[jabberwocky]

Yeah, thats pretty standard boilerplate on bike warranties. How companies actually handle things varies wildly. Kona, I’m pretty sure, requires you to go through a shop, so the warranty service you’ll get probably depends on the relationship you have with your local Kona dealer and the relationship they have with Kona.

All that said, the warranty only covers “defective materials and workmanship”. I don’t think this is a defect, its just a frame that was ridden hard and wore out.

They may offer you a crash replacement if you ask. I think its unlikely that Kona will replace it under warranty.

[krazygl00]

The plan is to strip the frame (I can do this myself – I have a shop in the basement ) and submit for warranty replacement. I do hope they honor it; I will have to dig deeply for the proof of purchase from the original shop in Atlanta but I’m not sure I’ll be able to find it — and actually that shop just closed so I don’t know how that might further complicate things. Yeah, nine years is a long time, but not a reaaaalllllly long time; and plus I’m a clydesdale-class rider. If they don’t replace it I cannot say I’ll feel cheated, because the bike did an awful lot. Nothing on it is OEM except the seatpost clamp. I don’t know how many drivetrains I wore out.

If they won’t honor it I hope they may at least give me a deal on a replacement frame; and honestly the newer JTS frames are upgrades, particularly the disc brake mounts and internal cable routing.

[jabberwocky]

Bikenetic in Falls Church (http://www.bikenetic.com/) is a Kona Dealer and I hear lots of good things about them.

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