Saddy Face

[krazygl00]

It’s been a good run. 2004 Kona Jake the Snake. Two B.R.A.G. (bike ride across Georgia) rides, several centuries, thousands of commutes. This is the bike that took me from “mountain bike sitting in the corner that gets ridden a couple of times per year” to hardcore everyday commuter and competitor-against-myself. I used to bike it to work in midtown Atlanta, slog up through the Atlanta hills to a meeting in Sandy Springs, ride back down through downtown in the dark and hit trivia night with some friends in Little Five Points before heading home. 7am to 11pm on and off the bike (ahh the single life!).

I was so new to biking when I did my first BRAG that I started off the first few days on cyclocross tires. I had only been doing commutes at that point. Rode with the CX tires for three days before the people I had formed a group with suggested that I try road tires. I did and that’s when I went from commuter to “roadie”.

My family did the loop around Burke lake on the gravel path yesterday (I was pulling the trailer) and when I hoisted it up onto the rack I saw the crack:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3418[/ATTACH]

…and it continues through to the other side:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3419[/ATTACH]

It was a great ride, great weather and a lot of fun. Fitting final ride.

Topic

[hozn]

I don’t have much first-hand experience with warranties, but I’ve never heard of a bike w/ a lifetime warranty not replacing frames that have been ridden hard or long & broken. I would interpret “lifetime warranty” as the assertion that they expect their frames to last a lifetime. I have a buddy that went through 5 Gary Fisher (aluminum) MTB frames, broken by riding them hard & never had any issues with warranty — and then broke a Salsa dos niner & replaced under warranty … and a few other frames. Granted mostly with 2-3 of years of buying them. (…I agree; he may have a problem…) I cracked my steel Voodoo frame after 4 years of relatively hard riding and the shop said that Voodoo would probably warranty it, even though it was out of [3-year] warranty, but I didn’t bother, since I had already replaced it (and only noticed the crack when I was stripping off the components to put it on my jabberwocky). I did warranty my habanero cx frame when that broke at the headtube weld riding singletrack last year.

So, anyway, I am hopeful for you that they’ll replace it and not give you a hard time about it!

[jabberwocky]

Most companies mean “lifetime” to mean “the natural lifetime of the frame”, not your personal human lifetime. But it varies. Most companies offering lifetime warranties are either the huge companies (Trek, Specailized et al) or the expensive boutique companies, and both tend to have good service. Though warranties typically cover defects in workmanship and materials, not normal wear and tear. So it depends. Worth a try. I personally wouldn’t be too upset if a company declined to warranty a well-used 9 year old aluminum frame though.

A guy on the local MTB board broke a Kona frame recently; no word on whether they replaced it or not, but he was trying. http://www.more-mtb.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26090

[Vicegrip]

Should the frame not be covered and you want to keep it I make repairs of this sort and can help out. It looks like it originated in the HAZ and grew out. the good news is you can V cut the crack and weld it flush then make a split sleeve and weld it over the failure area. This reinforces the old HAZ /stressed area. I like to pothole weld the sleeve on ether side, stich weld it shut the add a stich at 12 3 6 and 9 0-clock. I cool the base metal between each stich to prevent warping and heat soak.

[krazygl00]

This project has laid fallow since I first noticed the crack. The frame has been sitting at Bikenetic, waiting for Kona to have more JTS frames in my size but none has been available so far. Meanwhile the parts have been sitting in a pair of shopping bags in my basement. I saw this and pulled the trigger:

Ridley X-Bow Disc
[ATTACH=CONFIG]5309[/ATTACH]

On sale for $299, $348 delivered. Not perfect but it fits the bill. Yeah, I’m sad it is not a Kona but I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ll have to build a new rear wheel but most of my parts should move over. Oh, and now I have disc brakes front AND rear. Of course now that I’ve placed my order all of the better deals will come out of the woodwork, and Kona will suddenly have a flood of new frame production

[Author]

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