Race Face Introduces Carbon Wheel Guarantee
There's a wealth of carbon wheels currently on the market, which means that it often comes down to the little details when deciding what to buy. For that reason, we're seeing more companies offering impressive guarantees and warranties that make it a little easier to justify ponying up for a set of fancy carbon hoops.
Race Face are no exception, and they recently announced a two year guarantee for their carbon wheels that covers damage of any kind, including moments of user error, like backing over your wheel as you drive away from the trails. Read on for more details from Race Face, as well as a visual representation of exactly what that guarantee covers.
It’s clear that people love to abuse their bikes. And coming up on 25 years of building industry leading bicycle components, we’ve seen just about every story of JRA imaginable. From botched gaps to bikes on roof racks meeting garage entrances, the tragic stories of components lost before their time get shared amongst riders like folklore. And while these can be fun for wrenches filling in some #bikeshopbingo, we want to ensure our customers are getting the full lifetime of their product, especially when it comes to an investment in ride quality like Next R carbon wheels.
![Race Face]()
![Race Face]()
Race Face believes that our carbon wheels are top of their class; they are so durable we are offering the following 2 year, no fault, guarantee to the original retail purchaser with proof of purchase. At the discretion of Race Face we will, within 2 years of your original purchase, repair or replace your carbon wheel regardless of how the damage occurred or what the damage is. This guarantee covers your complete carbon wheel, including the rim, spokes, and hub with bearings to ensure you have a fully functioning, ride-ready wheel.
![Race Face]()
You won’t. But if you do, we’ll cover it.
Find our guarantee and all the legalese that goes with it at www.raceface.com/guarantee
Race Face are no exception, and they recently announced a two year guarantee for their carbon wheels that covers damage of any kind, including moments of user error, like backing over your wheel as you drive away from the trails. Read on for more details from Race Face, as well as a visual representation of exactly what that guarantee covers.
It’s clear that people love to abuse their bikes. And coming up on 25 years of building industry leading bicycle components, we’ve seen just about every story of JRA imaginable. From botched gaps to bikes on roof racks meeting garage entrances, the tragic stories of components lost before their time get shared amongst riders like folklore. And while these can be fun for wrenches filling in some #bikeshopbingo, we want to ensure our customers are getting the full lifetime of their product, especially when it comes to an investment in ride quality like Next R carbon wheels.
Race Face believes that our carbon wheels are top of their class; they are so durable we are offering the following 2 year, no fault, guarantee to the original retail purchaser with proof of purchase. At the discretion of Race Face we will, within 2 years of your original purchase, repair or replace your carbon wheel regardless of how the damage occurred or what the damage is. This guarantee covers your complete carbon wheel, including the rim, spokes, and hub with bearings to ensure you have a fully functioning, ride-ready wheel.
You won’t. But if you do, we’ll cover it.
Find our guarantee and all the legalese that goes with it at www.raceface.com/guarantee
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
That's quite the asterisk.
Why aren't you so generous when comes to you shite aluminium wheels?
"... only applicable to Race face carbon wheels purchased new... as shown by original proof of purchase..."
Could be deliberately worded to be ambiguous for a variety of reasons but long story short: even one time the guarantee is stellar and if it's possible to take advantage of it and you do then you're just a dick.
I seem to remember buying a zebdi trials frame off them, with the free "no quibble guarantee". When I broke the frame within 9 months of having it, Brant (owner of Planet-X/On-One) flat out refused to replace it, and insisted that I paid half price for new...
I and a few others in the trials community had such a falling out with Brant, that he eventually pulled the zebdi from sale within the UK!
People abusing the system wasn't the problem in its entirety, Brant had a lot of issues he seemed in capable of dealing with at the time!
Bottom line is Pole gave us all a line of BS as an excuse not to use carbon fiber.
Also where is the source for dumping carbon is illegal and how are they enforcing it?
The 'Ocean Fill' calls which have gone around PB are like another Ice Bucket Challenge, but that doesn't make the issue Pole's guy highlighted any less valid.
Of course it's ocean fill. That is absolutely believable.
My main point of interest is, why does anyone care? I mean, the oceans are huge... and they are only getting bigger thanks to that ice melting in Antarctica. A few thousand frames getting thrown in every year is not going to make any difference to anyone or anything. Well, it might provide homes for some marine life, much like a shipwreck.
There is a ton more to pollution and environmental impact than just waste material after the life cycle of a product is over. Strip mining, smelting, manufacturing, etc of metals is not a small thing. There simply isn't any good evidence that tries to take the totality of small scale lightweight structure manufacturing's impact on the environment. It could even be that aluminum pollutes less in some ways but more than others.
Finally, the impact of small parts in a small industry is like comparing a match to the sun. The amount of metal, plastic, and sunk manufacturing energy in a car is probably equal to over a thousand modern mountain bikes.
As for the whole alu vs. CF thing, some cursory research tells me that aluminium and CF have a similar level of embodied energy - about 200MJ/kg. However you get 92% of that energy back by recycling the aluminium (or by using recycled material in the first place). I can't tell you how much you'd get back recycling carbon fibre, but it's a fraction of that, and you can't use recycled CF in place of virgin.
Environmental groups have not proven to be effective at getting good government policy. I would argue that government can't in any meaningful way address environmental degradation at all. Look at corn ethanol in the USA; environmental groups teamed up with corn farmers to pass legislation mandating that a certain percentage of US fuel be from ethanol, and that car manufacturers make 'flex fuel' engines that could take the stuff. Ask @WAKIdesigns - Corn ethanol has been the biggest boondoggle in the last 20 years! Without going into details (I'm already way off topic) the ethanol mandate has raised food prices for poor people, it causes way more pollution, it ruins our engines and fuel efficiency, it costs billions, tears up nature for monoculture farms, and enriches a select few at the cost of many.
In western countries, the demand for fossil fuels is very inelastic; changes in price will not affect consumption that much. However, in developing countries it is very elastic. If we stop artificially raising the price of fossil fuels, then more poor people could afford it and stop burning charcoal indoors. Increasing access to fossil fuels is the single greatest thing we can do to reduce death from pollution.
Next, we can fight against politicians sending us to War. How many carbon frames have to be made to make up for a single Abrams tank that weighs 62 metric tons? War is one of the greatest polluters of any human activity.
Also, we can stop advocating that government do something about pollution- government eefffs it up and makes the problem worse.
These are actual changes, not trying to guilt trip someone out of buying a carbon handlebar.
Have you seen the homestove? It is the two tier idea from the guy who makes the Bio Lite camp stove, but its for developing nations who burn wood indoors. It reduces fuel consumption by 75% and emissions similarly. Pretty neat, its similar to the same argument for actually expanding fossil fuel use which is the raw fuel burning is sooo crappy compared to the efficiency we've been able to afford here
I disagree that theres nothing we can do about the developing world. By promoting free markets and capitalism, plus removing barriers to fossil fuel use, we can save millions from poverty and premature death. This is happening right now. Since the mid 1990s, the absolute number of people living in absolute poverty, defined by the UN as living on less than $1.25/day, has dropped in half. You can learn about stuff like that here:
humanprogress.org
Now of course with RaceFace I'm not too worried. When I bought my current frame (16" DMR Switchback with a 26.8mm seatpost diameter) I had calculated that if I got a 400mm post with a 100mm insertion depth, I could just get it up to XC height to ride to the trails (which were between 30min or 45min from home back then). And when I got there, I could slide the post down to get the saddle nice and low. I got a RaceFace Prodigy post. It worked great, the first few months. At about 75kg or so (with gear) apparently I was bouncing too much when pedaling seated (with platform pedals) so the post bent slightly so that it wouldn't slide down properly. Because RF claimed to have such great warranty I contacted them and explained what happened. They said it is an XC post and it is not for jumping so the warranty is void. I said I'm bending it when riding on road and easy paths on my way to the trails. When I'm jumping I slide it down and stand on the pedals. They insisted it is not for jumping. That was the last time I attempted to make a warranty claim. It isn't worth the hassle.
In RF's defense, I've had NC17 and Azonic posts after that which bent just as well. Now that I moved I don't need to do any seated pedaling anymore so I got a short stubby Thomson post and keep it low.
There is one other time I returned a battery from Lupine Lighting. To fit a helmet mount to the battery an employee accidentally instructed me to puncture the label and screw the mount onto the exposed hole in the casing. Then when she found out she had made a mistake she rushed to her colleagues who contacted me, explained what happened (she was getting married that weekend and understandably wasn't concentrated) and asked me to return the battery. Because they do everything in house, they could fix it and mail it the same day they received it. Now that's the kind of company that not only backs their warranty, but is actually in the position to do so. Companies who outsource their stuff are more like "yeah that should be covered under warranty but we're waiting for our supplier to get things sorted out and we're hoping to get you a replacement by October". Not worth the bother.
I mean, it's something like 1800-2500€ for a set of Enve/DT swiss/whatever (except Light Bicycle, that's another subject).
I know there's people out there buying anything the world has to offer, but I'm curious to know if they cash that amount in the end.
www.pinkbike.com/news/bontrager-line-pro-30-carbon-wheels-you-might-actually-be-able-to-afford-2017.html
Bikeradar and Vitalmtb have already reviewed them.
Run 'em over!
Rims got updated to a new version??! And you Don't like 'em old ones any more??!!
Run 'em over!!!
You have a complete new build kit for a new bike?? But those stupid old carbon rims dont fit into the "new" appearance of your shiny new bike. Run 'em over!!!
You just have a bad day and want feel like you need to destroy something??
Run 'em over!!!
That's as stupid as crashing your car every two year cause you paid for insurance and they should give you some money every now and then.
The experience with race face products at our shop is getting worse and worse and their warranty department is shocking.
I mean the hubs are made by p321 in house in Bend Oregon. Wheels are assembled by them, but it's weareone who use p321 hubs with their made in Canada rims and assemble them in house.
And I ride a Chromag now.
Except my road bike, which is Trek Boone.
This and other 'warranty' horror stories from Race Face have inspired me to never buy their products. Ever.
Shame they wouldn't do a thing about the 2 sixc cranks I've broken, aswell as the numerous cranks from my customers! Sram warranty from here on out! Thanks @raceface
Are the wheels very cheap to produce?
How long does a wheel take to be replaced? A few days or months?
Any hidden cases in which the guarantee does not cover?
Or is the price simply that high?
Reynolds Assurance Program for crashes etc.
reynoldscycling.com/pages/warranty-guarantee
"Should it be determined, by Race Face in its sole and final discretion, that a Race Face product is covered by this limited warranty, it will be repaired or replaced, by a comparable model, at Race Face’s sole option, which will be conclusive and binding. THIS IS THE EXCLUSIVE REMEDY UNDER THIS LIMITED WARRANTY. ANY AND ALL OTHER REMEDIES AND DAMAGES THAT MAY OTHERWISE BE APPLICABLE UNDER THIS LIMITED WARRANTY ARE EXCLUDED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR PUNATIVE DAMAGES."
I bought two pairs of Easton Haven carbon rims. (I didn't pay full price circa £1000 instead of £1500) I cracked every rim several times. Easton replaced them every time.
So I don't doubt Race Face will honor their warranty especially as they have announced it so publicly.
However, I wouldn't be fooled into thinking that a great warranty = stronger than anyone else wheels. In the case of the Easton Haven rims they were not bad. But I broke them numerous times. The bottom line is you can't have light and unbreakable.
The question you have to ask yourself is, are you prepared to write off £1200 ($1500) over two years? That's what it amounted to for me. As I cracked these rims every 3months to 9months. Once out of warranty the replacement/rebuild cost per rim was £600 ($790) which was painfully but the real show stopper was due to their poor hubs. I couldn't take the chance of putting a new rim onto a fecked hub and apparently you couldn't build their rim onto another hub.
two year warranty?
thats a joke.
how about a five year crash replacement.
You wreck em yo get new ones at half price.
Any component reliable enough doesn't need this sort of bait to attract innocent prey.
Ibis provides “low cost” replacements for 7 yrs. In my experience, the costs were ok but not low.
SC is providing free lifetime replacements overnighted. I’d call that a big step up.