2016 RM Instinct 970 MSL cracked 3 times

PB Forum :: Rocky Mountain Bikes
2016 RM Instinct 970 MSL cracked 3 times
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flag uphilarious
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Posted: Sep 6, 2016 at 22:18 Quote
Sorry this is really long, there is a TLDR at the bottom if you just want the gist of it, but if you have the time please help me out with your opinion. It is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I bought a brand new XL instinct 970 msl from my lbs back in January, and since then it has cracked twice on the drive side chain-stay and is now cracked in the drive side seat-stay. The first 'crack' was more of a catastrophic carbon failure that happened in April, about 3 months after I got the bike. Upon landing a small lip/kickup onto flat (seriously only 6 inches of air at max), I hear a loud snapping sound and my back wheel started rubbing horribly on the inside of the chain stay.
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Turns out the entire drive side chain-stay snapped, all the way around. Honestly I'm glad it was on a slow train or I might have been seriously injured. It completely ruined my race weekend and I had to borrow a bike to compete, but I was optimistic. I though it was just a one off thing like a faulty chainstay. I took it in to my LBS and they sent pictures to their RM rep and I had a new one within the week which they put on free of charge. Good job Rocky Mountain! However, 4 months later in August, I take the chain stay protector off to check and there is another crack in the exact same spot! Now I'm a little pissed, I paid over $5,000 for this bike and it's broken twice in less than a year! This time it was just a crack on the upper half of the chain stay and hadn't gone all the way around yet. What the heck! I take it in and have the replacement in about a week, good job RM again but I shouldn't be without my $5,000 bike for a week like that twice! Now just before I found the second crack, I had a very slow bail-off on a technical trail where I jumped off and the bike slowly tipped over onto some rocks and landed on the seatstay leaving a little gouge and scratch.
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You can see the little gouge on the upper edge of the seatstay. I had a real bike mechanic look at it (not from LBS, wasn't riding at home) and he said it should be fine, the carbon is really thick there and it was a slow impact. however, only a month later with only about 10 hours of riding, it appears to have developed into a crack as well. I'm assuming that since this is "crash damage" it won't be covered by warranty, but should I not expect my $5,000 MOUNTAIN bike to be able to handle a small, slow crash without going to shit afterwards?

And, on a different subject, the remote for the rear shock does not work, at all, when there is any weight on the bike. I talked to my LBS and they talked with their RM rep who has the exact same bike and she just said "yeah we know about that it just doesn't work with our cable routing". WTF! RM knew that the remote didn't work and didn't change it! I want absolutely NOTHING to do with a company like that!

Anyways, I just can't believe that this is "OK" for this expensive of a bike from a big company. But what should I expect? Is it unreasonable to want a full replacement frame or maybe even a refund? I can't keep dealing with this and I have no reason to believe it won't crack again in 3 months. What would you guys do in a situation like this? This is the first bike I've ever purchased new and it's also so far the only one i've ever had any problems with.


TLDR
I bought a brand new $5,000 RM instinct 970msl in January 2016. Since then the right chain stay has catastrophically failed once then the replacement cracked again in the same spot. Then, a small, slow tip over onto rocks left a small gouge and scratch in the right seat stay,and a month later it is cracking where the scratch (not the gouge) is. I don't know what to do but I want this problem fixed for good. I'm thinking about asking for a whole replacement frame or maybe even a refund.

edit: PB didn't like my self hosted pictures so I switched them over to PB
flag SpecializedFTW
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Posted: Sep 20, 2016 at 11:45 Quote
The first two times sound like warranty issues and RMB did end up warrantying them which is good. Unfortunately for you the third crack does not sound like a warranty issue. Not only is is crash damage, you also rode on crash damage. The mechanic who said it's fine to ride on chipped or fractured carbon is quite simply wrong. It's the same as why you should avoid riding on bent metal frames: you don't know what kind of additional damage is lurking either in the carbon itself or on the inside of the carbon frame tube. What you explained happened in the third case sounds like a completely normal failure with carbon. If I were you I'd as the LBS and RMB if they can help you out at all with replacing the seat stay so that you're not paying full price for a new seat stay.
flag bonkievan
Posted: Nov 2, 2016 at 2:56 Quote
I've not had the problem with the 'dropper' but I am a little concerned with your frame issues considering I have just bought a 2016 970msl.

Any updates and/or other instances of customers reporting frame issues?
flag bonkievan
Posted: Dec 1, 2016 at 2:17 Quote
Obviously not......
flag uphilarious
O+
Posted: Dec 2, 2016 at 8:20 Quote
bonkievan wrote:
Obviously not......

Sorry I wasn't getting notifications from this thread for some reason. RMB ended up replacing the seat stay for free, and since then have had no issues with the frame, per say. Both times the chain stay cracked I had the ride-9 chip in the lowest (closest to the ground) position. Since then I have been riding with it all the way slacked out, and I rode it much harder and on much chunkier trails than when it cracked with no problems. I broke a lot of spokes but had no issues with the frame. This leads me to believe that the cracking was caused by the ride-9 position. I have just put it back to the low (closest to the ground) position for my XC season and we will see if it cracks again. If it does I will probably be demanding a refund or replacement bike because it is a clear sign that the problem is with the ride-9 chip. They will probably try to tell me just not to run it in that position but I didn't pay $5000 for a bike for them to tell me I can't use half of it. I also know a lot of people with the Instinct and a couple of people with the exact same model and none of them have had any problems whatsoever with their frames, so don't worry about your frame.
flag bonkievan
Posted: Jan 4, 2017 at 23:11 Quote
Thanks uphilarious,

I've just been on holiday and rode nearly everyday for 3weeks and I'm happy to report that I have seen no issues with the frame. I'm about 220lbs on an XL and rode with the Ride9 at it's lowest position also, so not a light weight either, and all's well .....touch wood.

Thanks for replying.

-Edit- My 970 was 2x11 stock. Did you change to 1x11, if so, pro's cons?
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