Shortening Seat Post Voids Bike Warranty?!?

Zynks

I am about to buy a road bike for my fast growing 12 y.o.. We found a bike that suits him (not many options at a reasonable price out there) in Halfords. It is called the Carrera TDF (€375). The only thing is that the seat post is just a bit too long, around one inch. It just won't go down enough.

Easy, I thought, cut the lower end of the seat post by one inch, right? Not exactly. Apparently, this voids the warranty of the bike. I discussed this with the sales guy, the store manager and the customer service in the UK, which, I was told, included consultations with the 'bike specialist'. They claim it is a health and safety issue and they have been sued by people who had the seat post cut and had accidents

Not sure, but this sounds like they may need to revamp their legal team if they could not win such a case.

To make things more confusing, I was told that if I replace the pole for a shorter one and keep the original one, then the warranty will remain intact...

Has anyone else come across this before?

Caroline_ie

Looks like you've found a solution by replacing the seatpost.

I think it's pretty standard warranty policies, thought, maybe I am wrong.

C3PO

I would guess that, if you need to cut the seat post, the bike is probably too big for him in other areas also!

cython

Zynks wrote: »

I am about to buy a road bike for my fast growing 12 y.o.. We found a bike that suits him (not many options at a reasonable price out there) in Halfords. It is called the Carrera TDF (€375). The only thing is that the seat post is just a bit too long, around one inch. It just won't go down enough.

Easy, I thought, cut the lower end of the seat post by one inch, right? Not exactly. Apparently, this voids the warranty of the bike. I discussed this with the sales guy, the store manager and the customer service in the UK, which, I was told, included consultations with the 'bike specialist'. They claim it is a health and safety issue and they have been sued by people who had the seat post cut and had accidents

Not sure, but this sounds like they may need to revamp their legal team if they could not win such a case.

To make things more confusing, I was told that if I replace the pole for a shorter one and keep the original one, then the warranty will remain intact...

Has anyone else come across this before?

I could see at least one rationale behind this exclusion on cutting of seatposts, that being that some idiot decides that drastically shortening the seatpost would give a weight reduction, and so cuts it to such an extreme that insufficient seatpost remains inside the frame. This would cause undue stresses on both the seatpost and seat tube, potentially leading to failure/breaking of one or both. It may be especially pertinent if the seatpost has a mark beyond which it should not be extended - if the seatpost were cut, this mark is no longer accurate, and should be moved up the seatpost by the same amount as was cut off.

An extreme example, I'll admit, but there may be other similar, more realistic reasons too.

Lumen

Yes it's complete bullshít, but seatposts are cheap so if you're bothered about the frame warranty (I wouldn't be, it's an anchor) just spend €10-15 on a new one.

Zynks

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Looks like you've found a solution by replacing the seatpost.

I think it's pretty standard warranty policies, thought, maybe I am wrong.

This would make sense if it was to be used by a tall person with a short pole, but still, it should be the owners choice and risk - to claim that a failed fork would be out of warranty because the seatpost was too low is plain wrong.

It does seem that I will have to go for a new post if we decide to go ahead with that bike - though I doubt they would pull the post out to check its length if the bike was sent in for a failure in gearshifts or a similar mechanical failure.

RPL1 wrote: »

I would guess that, if you need to cut the seat post, the bike is probably too big for him in other areas also!

True. To be honest the bike is just right in size, but he is still lacking confidence since this is a much taller bike than his last BMX style one. He has tried it in the shop and felt well on it, except for this issue.

cython wrote: »

I could see at least one rationale behind this exclusion on cutting of seatposts, that being that some idiot decides that drastically shortening the seatpost would give a weight reduction, and so cuts it to such an extreme that insufficient seatpost remains inside the frame. This would cause undue stresses on both the seatpost and seat tube, potentially leading to failure/breaking of one or both. It may be especially pertinent if the seatpost has a mark beyond which it should not be extended - if the seatpost were cut, this mark is no longer accurate, and should be moved up the seatpost by the same amount as was cut off.

An extreme example, I'll admit, but there may be other similar, more realistic reasons too.

Yes, there seems to be an issue with such mark. At first their UK 'bike expert' said that they would just put a new higher mark, but then they changed their minds half an hour later. :rolleyes:

Caroline_ie

A colleague of mine bought this bike last month and asked me to help him with a couple of things on it. Maybe the price is low but it's not a very good bike to make a young cyclist want to cycle it more tbh. It's very heavy and ( according to me ) looks a bit 'meh'. I really wasn't impressed.

Since you are getting a bike for a growing kid I reckon a good 2nd hand bike, like a Trek 1000 or a Giant OCR with Carbon forks and a weight a little more acceptable might be a better idea. I don't think you'd be able to sell on the carrera when your kid needs a bigger bike, whereas a trek/Giant etc would probably resell.
my2c

Zynks

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Since you are getting a bike for a growing kid I reckon a good 2nd hand bike, like a Trek 1000 or a Giant OCR with Carbon forks and a weight a little more acceptable might be a better idea. I don't think you'd be able to sell on the carrera when your kid needs a bigger bike, whereas a trek/Giant etc would probably resell.
my2c

I would be all for that, if only I could find one. I have been looking at adverts.ie and gumtree for a couple of weeks and didn't come across anything suitable.

Are you aware of a better site to shop around?

TinyExplosions

Zynks wrote: »

This would make sense if it was to be used by a tall person with a short pole, but still, it should be the owners choice and risk - to claim that a failed fork would be out of warranty because the seatpost was too low is plain wrong.

It does seem that I will have to go for a new post if we decide to go ahead with that bike - though I doubt they would pull the post out to check its length if the bike was sent in for a failure in gearshifts or a similar mechanical failure.

It's easier to have a blanket "you change anything, you're shit out of luck" policy than a more sensible "if a non-modified part fails, we'll cover it" type of thing.

Don't forget, most companies want to do everything possible to avoid having to fix any problems

Caroline_ie

Zynks wrote: »

I would be all for that, if only I could find one. I have been looking at adverts.ie and gumtree for a couple of weeks and didn't come across anything suitable.

Are you aware of a better site to shop around?

Have you tried Rothar?