Head tube anomaly or crack?

PB Forum :: All Mountain, Enduro & Cross-Country
Head tube anomaly or crack?
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flag gnarlysipes
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Posted: Dec 4, 2022 at 16:16 Quote
Whilst cleaning and re-greasing my headset I noticed what looks like dents or scrapes out of the inner wall of the head tube. This is opposite the top and down tube weld—coincidentally or not. Just above the indentations is what looks like a crack. I’m going to have the shop look at this and ask Specialized Rider Care as well but wanted to get an objective opinion here.

flag naptime
Posted: Dec 4, 2022 at 21:43 Quote
I'm not saying this for definate BUT, that looks a LOT like a crack that has been 'Peened' over!
(P.S I'm QA in an ally foundery)
We do this in our factory to disguise imperfections in the surface of our ally castings like small shrinkage areas, small air holes and... cracks in the metal. We will tap over the crack an then grind away the dents to hide imperfections. Looks like in this instance the peening has been done but, because it's a tube they couldn't finish with grinding.

In my opinion I would stop riding this bike immediatly an take it back to the shop for a full warranty replacement or refund!!! This is possibly acceptable in my very low end ally manufacturing again, on the surface of low importance areas BUT,
Absolutley terrible for the bicycle industry to be passing this to customers!!! in an area like a head tube this is just dangerous.

Sorry for the bad news, Frown
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 4, 2022 at 21:50 Quote
Thanks for the input. Fortunately, the frame is still under warranty. The challenge will be getting an agreeable answer from Specialized. Snowing here currently, so I can’t ride anyway.
flag kiranseligman
O+
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 5:58 Quote
gnarlysipes wrote:
Thanks for the input. Fortunately, the frame is still under warranty. The challenge will be getting an agreeable answer from Specialized. Snowing here currently, so I can’t ride anyway.

What frame is it? Specialized is sometimes really good about warranties but other times it’s a fight for something that clearly is a warranty.
flag gmoss
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 8:26 Quote
Looks like a crack. You can see where something, oil, penetrant, has seeped thru, around the "crack".
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 12:18 Quote
kiranseligman wrote:
gnarlysipes wrote:
Thanks for the input. Fortunately, the frame is still under warranty. The challenge will be getting an agreeable answer from Specialized. Snowing here currently, so I can’t ride anyway.

What frame is it? Specialized is sometimes really good about warranties but other times it’s a fight for something that clearly is a warranty.

It’s a MY22 Levo. Got it in December last year. The LBS will definitely go to bat for me. We’ll see how Specialized handles this. My guess is it was a QC issue that slipped through the cracks (no pun intended) near the height of production mania. As additional context, they put a 150mm fork on this at the factory when it was supposed to be 160mm. That issue was easy to resolve.
flag kiranseligman
O+
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 12:55 Quote
gnarlysipes wrote:
kiranseligman wrote:
gnarlysipes wrote:
Thanks for the input. Fortunately, the frame is still under warranty. The challenge will be getting an agreeable answer from Specialized. Snowing here currently, so I can’t ride anyway.

What frame is it? Specialized is sometimes really good about warranties but other times it’s a fight for something that clearly is a warranty.

It’s a MY22 Levo. Got it in December last year. The LBS will definitely go to bat for me. We’ll see how Specialized handles this. My guess is it was a QC issue that slipped through the cracks (no pun intended) near the height of production mania. As additional context, they put a 150mm fork on this at the factory when it was supposed to be 160mm. That issue was easy to resolve.

Jeez that sucks. I’ve seen the levos get specced real weird. We had one that came with a fox 38 at 160 and a float x2 but then another that came with a float x and fox 36. Just kinda weird having the same bike on the floor with totally different suspension components
flag barp
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 13:18 Quote
The decline in quality in bikes manufactured during the pandemic is a problem we'll all be reckoning with for many years to come.
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 5, 2022 at 13:24 Quote
Unsurprising, given the supply chain mayhem. I think they were putting any parts on they had in stock.
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 6, 2022 at 13:03 Quote
Shop agreed it was abnormal. Rider Care responded with "that definitely does not look normal". So now we'll see what Specialized has to say. Shop said the engineers might have to see it (or at least pictures of it).
flag naptime
Posted: Dec 6, 2022 at 21:40 Quote
that's good!... so far
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 7, 2022 at 15:26 Quote
I'm not holding my breath just yet, but... I heard from the shop that Specialized is going to replace the frame under warranty. They must be concerned about the potential liability if that crack decided to fail catastrophically. Apparently, given the complex setup nature of the Levos, they're replacing the whole bike, including the fork, rather than having the shop tear off all the components and rebuild the bike. The fork is icing on the cake--it was developing play due to premature aging of the bushings. Saves me another warranty claim.
flag gnarlysipes
O+
Posted: Dec 8, 2022 at 17:43 Quote
I’ll let you know when I take delivery.
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