Do you own a "Carver" bike? are you happy with it?

[ludwigmass]

Carver is the house brand of the German group Fahrrad XXL. The other option in my area would be to get a "giant" bike, with a lifelong warranty, just for the frame. The Carver frame is of double butted aluminium.

Is it important that the frame has a lifelong warranty or am I falling for their marketing techniques?

 

[dhk2]

You're falling for marketing. Read the "lifetime" warranty carefully, and I'll bet you find it covers "manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship", but excludes failures due to "fatigue damage", "normal usage", or "wear and tear". Most major manufacturers warranties in the US have this exclusion. So, if the frame just wears out and cracks due to normal usage over say 10 years, that's not a covered failure.

You could compare the Carver and Giant written warranties to see if there really is any difference. My guess is that both will cover "manufacturing defects" without a time limit, but exclude failures due to normal usage, ie, wearout of the frame.

 

[Volnix]

Originally Posted by ludwigmass
Is it important that the frame has a lifelong warranty or am I falling for their marketing techniques?

I was once told that the "warranty" does not actually have any legal standing. It is more like a "promise" from the manufacturer which has no legal obligation to actually replace the frame if it breaks too soon due to sub-standard quality.

On the other hand though, lots of manufacturers do indeed give you free replacement parts in such cases. For example I just got a new fork on a Specialized bike for free because the one that came with the bike started having cracks near the rim after 5000km of use.

A new frame can cost anything from 400 to 6000 euro... So if it is an expensive frame a time-lengthy warranty is probably not a bad thing to have.