Johnno260
Veteran
- Location
- East Sussex
How did it go with Ribble? are you waiting to hear back still?
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- Thread starter EltonFrog
- Start date
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How did it go with Ribble? are you waiting to hear back still?
wonderloaf
Veteran
All going well, a new frame is being posted out to me today. To be fair to Ribble so far their Customer Service & Returns Departments have been exemplary, I sent my initial claim in late at night on Thursday 16th Sept, had a phone call with the CS Dept on the Friday and since then the returns process has been very smooth.
Now I just need Parcel Force to do their bit and get the frame to me, hopefully I'll have it by the end of the week so I can spend the weekend building the bike back up and I can get back out on the gravel before the weather gets too rubbish!
wonderloaf
Veteran
I've now received my new frame from Ribble so as promised a few pics showing the extent of the downtube cracks on my old CGR Ti:
The frame was just under 3 years old with about 11,000 miles on it, mostly ridden on the road but probably with a few hundred gravel miles as well.
I think the bottom right hand crack may have originated from a sharp corner in the welded in cable port surround, causing a stress raiser which eventually gave way causing the catastrophic failure you can see in the pictures. I feel lucky to be alive and undamaged as just before my last ride in the New Forest I checked these cable ports as the screws have a habit of coming loose and I'm certain they didn't exist then, so they must have propagated in the 20 odd miles of that ride. About 1/2 mile from the end of this ride I was going down hill at 29.4mph (according to Strava) so if the cracks had completely gone around the downtube the results don't bear thinking about!
Anyway Ribble have been very good and replaced the frame without any argument and have been very polite and efficient in arranging delivery of the new frame to me. The only hiccup has been the new frame has external headset cups which I cannot fit so it's in the local LBS to have them fitted and should be ready tomorrow, hopefully I'll be back out by the weekend!
The frame was just under 3 years old with about 11,000 miles on it, mostly ridden on the road but probably with a few hundred gravel miles as well.
I think the bottom right hand crack may have originated from a sharp corner in the welded in cable port surround, causing a stress raiser which eventually gave way causing the catastrophic failure you can see in the pictures. I feel lucky to be alive and undamaged as just before my last ride in the New Forest I checked these cable ports as the screws have a habit of coming loose and I'm certain they didn't exist then, so they must have propagated in the 20 odd miles of that ride. About 1/2 mile from the end of this ride I was going down hill at 29.4mph (according to Strava) so if the cracks had completely gone around the downtube the results don't bear thinking about!
Anyway Ribble have been very good and replaced the frame without any argument and have been very polite and efficient in arranging delivery of the new frame to me. The only hiccup has been the new frame has external headset cups which I cannot fit so it's in the local LBS to have them fitted and should be ready tomorrow, hopefully I'll be back out by the weekend!
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really good news to hear that Rubble handled your claim well.
Johnno260
Veteran
- Location
- East Sussex
Good to hear they handled the claim well, but still those cracks are something else.
Cheers for keeping us updated.
Cheers for keeping us updated.
wonderloaf
Veteran
Ribble have had a few few negative reviews just recently so it's nice to put them in a more positive light. Must admit when I heard about their potential sale I did worry how it would affect my claim but it really couldn't have gone much better.
I'll be keeping a very careful eye on the affected area's on the new frame, hopefully my experience is just a one off!
wonderloaf
Veteran
Well I guess it had to happen, the second frame from Ribble has also cracked in exactly the same place and mileage (~11,000 miles). This time I heard (and felt) a 'ping' from the frame and stopped to look hoping it was a spoke or something but nope, a crack it was. A rather stinging email has gone off to Ribble so I'll have to see what they say, I wrote it after a few beers last night (I know, you should never do this!) so it is very uncomplimentary but at least it got over my true feelings!
So if there are any Ribble Ti owners out there I would encourage them to regularily check their frames, especially around cable ports.
So if there are any Ribble Ti owners out there I would encourage them to regularily check their frames, especially around cable ports.
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StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
That sucks. Hope they do the right thing.
wonderloaf
Veteran
Annoyed isn't quite how I feel at the moment, I'm more like
.I've already lined up a replacement and this will have full internal cabling through the headset, although I bet that will come with it's own plethora of issues. Also got a lifetime warranty. At least I won't have to worry about the possibility of cracks appearing though!
My expectations aren't very high, even if they offered me a new frame I wouldn't be interested. The only solution I would be interested in is a full or partial refund, but I can't really see that happening as I guess in their eyes they've fulfiled their side of the warranty, just have to wait and see.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Annoyed isn't quite how I feel at the moment, I'm more like
I've already lined up a replacement and this will have full internal cabling through the headset, although I bet that will come with it's own plethora of issues. Also got a lifetime warranty. At least I won't have to worry about the possibility of cracks appearing though!
My expectations aren't very high, even if they offered me a new frame I wouldn't be interested. The only solution I would be interested in is a full or partial refund, but I can't really see that happening as I guess in their eyes they've fulfiled their side of the warranty, just have to wait and see.
Fingers crossed. What are you buying?
wonderloaf
Veteran
Dolan GTX. Was going to buy just a frame but a complete bike was not much more, so after a bit of encouragement from Mrs W (bless her
and like any encouragement was needed ) ordered a ready built.So far Dolan customer service have been excellent, hope that continues with the delivery fulfilment.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Dolan GTX. Was going to buy just a frame but a complete bike was not much more, so after a bit of encouragement from Mrs W (bless her
So far Dolan customer service have been excellent, hope that continues with the delivery fulfilment.
The GXT is rather fine, from what I've heard…
wonderloaf
Veteran
Hope so, I'll let you know 🫰
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Out of curiosity etc, I've been doing a few searches for similar issues, and found this, another chap whose CGR Ti cracked around the internal routing holes. Not heard of that particular issue with any other titanium frame brand- including Kinesis, who of course have at least a few reported failures of their own, including on here- and they all offer internal routing as an option if not as standard. A weak point in the Ribble design, perhaps…
