The other day me and Dan were riding our bikes. Me trying to get up a bit of cobbles and put too kuch stress into the rear mech (well, i downshifted whilst I hit the cobbles... the clever). The mech jammed (as it would) and the force caused it to shear away from the hanger. Me and Dan thought it was fine and single speeded it and carried on our merry way without allowing the chain to contact the chainstays. But summat wasn't right.
After a few more light downhill sections and there being a 'funny' noise from the drivetrain, I realised the bridge between the seat and chainstays had been tugged apart. Told Dan to go on and I sorry-walked it back to civilisation (to the rescue van). Thinking to myself it's lovely Sonder I didn't worry too much...
At the point of sale I queried with the team about it's strength (a superlight 1200g frame) and was told it's got 5 years warranty and its their strongest frame to date (or garb to the effect). So I send in the warranty info and some pics. Which if looked at carefully - well you'd need to get hands on to examine it properly - can be seen that the bridge between the chain and seat stays has sheared/pulled apart.
In the meanwhile I look through the Sonder sales pages and realise the Transmitter carbon has been archived and no longer for sale. I think, it's a cut and shut and obviously (in my head) that they'd only archive such a beautiful for quality control purposes.
Today I get this email (in my opinion, fobbing me off) from a brother/sister at Sonder...
Obviously I'm taking it easy and they have a good track record as well as it being alot of money. But what has got to me a bit ia that they've not even bothered to examine to piece of trash a bit further and IMO any engineer could see its not an impact but the stay getting pulled apart. 'Our steongest frame yet' my left foot...Thanks for getting back in touch. I am afraid the frame would not be classed as a manufacturing defect as it appears to have occurred due to impact.
We do have one single transmitter carbon frame left in stock which I would be happy to supply at 50% off the normal list price as a replacement if that would be of interest?
All the best,