Niner Announces New Lifetime Warranty
Peace of mind while out riding is invaluable. So too is confidence in a brand that wants to back up its workmanship with a long-term support. Niner have recently announced a lifetime warranty on bike frames purchased after 1st September 2019.
To be eligible for the warranty it’s mandatory to register your Niner product with them. You can do that here. You also need to be the original owner for the warranty to be valid and have had the bike assembled at an authorized Niner dealer.
The warranty policy on frames purchased after the 1st September 2019 covers any damage due to defective material and/or workmanship. At their discretion they’ll wither repair or replace the frame if this is the case. If you purchased a carbon fiber frame before the 1st September 2019 then a 5-year warranty is in place.
To be eligible for the warranty it’s mandatory to register your Niner product with them. You can do that here. You also need to be the original owner for the warranty to be valid and have had the bike assembled at an authorized Niner dealer.
The warranty policy on frames purchased after the 1st September 2019 covers any damage due to defective material and/or workmanship. At their discretion they’ll wither repair or replace the frame if this is the case. If you purchased a carbon fiber frame before the 1st September 2019 then a 5-year warranty is in place.
Their warranty goes further to cover all steel or aluminum frames purchased after 1st January 2017 with a 5-year warranty. Before 1st January 2017 then the warranty period is 2 years.
No fishy business with Niner's new lifetime warranty. Pun intended.
Going deeper into the terms and conditions, and as is the case with most warranty policies, normal wear and tear is not covered. Nor too is any damage from crashing, rocks, bikes falling over, paint problems due to mud or other abrasive materials or corrosion due to humidity or saltwater. As long as you ride your bike as purposed and keep good care of it, you’ll be covered, Niner say. They even cover racing under the warranty, but again, damage from crashing while racing isn’t covered.
One downside is that if you’re outside the USA, or in an area without and active Niner dealer or distributer, then you’ll be looking at a potential 10-16 weeks for warranty claim processing, shipment and customs. The rider will also need to pay all shipment and import duties.
If you do have a crash and damage your frame, there is a crash replacement scheme in place where Niner will sell replacement frames and components to the original owner at minimum cost. Each crash replacement is different, though, and is dealt with on a case by case process.
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Who offers what, what is defined as warranty, what's covered, what isn't. Maybe have a reader pole too about their experience of warranty
But what does that really mean, and how does it usually work out?
Chris King headsets for example, the bearings are lifetime, but the cups aren't.
All I'm saying is that there's usually a way to wriggle out, it more just depends on the company
So really, very little has changed here.
SantaCruz have been awesome to me in the past... currently running a Geometron who have a great reputation and support level.
@kuplik3: Specialized seems to be a bit unique. I have had similar experience with them, however it's very dealer-centric. Some dealers will hook you up and others won't give you the time of day.
Arcteryx on the other hand has been phenomenal. I've warrantied a few items with them and it's always a brand new item in return.
But yeah i've had a perfect experience with Oakley...besides their frames surviving seemingly unsurvive-able incidents, they have also always replaced them with no issues whatsoever.
To clarify - i'm talking about FRAMES only...if you have to get lenses replaced you will be charged for them as lenses are not warrantied the same way.
On the other hand... the lenses seem to get scratched by air alone. My Prizm Trail lenses have held up okay but Prizm Road, Iridium, or anything else reflective are a complete mess within a couple of months, IME.
SRAM has covered every claim I’ve had. Just recently I broke first gear on a xx1 cassette and they sent me a new one with only one request for additional pictures.
frame no.1 Process 2013
frame no.2 Process 2013
frame no.3 Process 153 DL 2014(with RS shock included)
frame no.4 Process 153 DL 2015
frame no.5 Process 153 SE
And all frames were in my hads 2-3 weeks after warranty claim.
I've never broken a frame as a result of a crash
There isn't really a grey area between crashing and not crashing. One is you hitting the floor, one is simply riding
The original point still remains - there's no reason to expect there to be less of a chance of a frame breaking on ride 1 than on ride 143.
Now of course if you crash, or case, that changes things (as we already discussed).
I still disagree though
Agree to disagree.
No questions asked Giant gave him a whole new 2020 bike of his choosing.
The bloke got a trance 29'er and is bloody thrilled.
Nice to see that some companies will do the right thing by their customers.
You should have never wavered with 27.5 wheels & stayed true to 29. For f*ck sakes you had a long travel 29er ten years ago but now they're popular and you don't??????
Design a downhill bike, spend some money on a athlete that can win a world cup & get back in the game! If you need my help, I'm here. Marketing is kinda my thing...but I'm not cheap.
I've had a frame come into a shop (I was a mechanic there) where the dude hit a curb on a chromoly Trek without lifting his front wheel-he buckled the top and down tubes. And as a shop guy I told him it wasn't a warranty.
I've seen Trek warranty OCLV frames because they used to warp out of alignment over time-totally a defect.
But mostly what I've seen is that a good rep and/or shop employee will do an honest appraisal of the damage to a bike with a warranty claim and then provide a bike/discount/nothing accordingly.
Every brand has sometimes failed (for whatever reason) to provide appropriate warranty coverage, but most brands do ok most of the time.
With all of that said, Niner's problem hasn't been that the bikes don't have a lifetime warranty, it's been the number of claims they've denied for stuff like snapped welds (defect) that should have been covered. Yeti has had their a$$ handed to them the last few years (lost customers, lost dealers despite great riding bikes) because when their bikes broke they were stingy with the coverage. They seem to have figured it out.
Here's to hoping that Niner also steps up a little more often.
Only x000€ CrashReplacement was offered, but we laminated it back on ourselves instead.
I once received a new chainstay from them, but that was due to a manufacturing error.
Another claim because of paint chipping was also declined.
To me warranty - is fist of all no questions asked customer service that sort out in reasonable time my issues wether free or for the appropriate fee; however when you have tight schedule time is important
Biker: But did you actually watch the video, I was passed by 40 cyclists, 2 unicycles, and it look me 20 minutes to get down the hill not including the 10 minutes of my silently crying in the bushes by myself.
Agent: sir, SIR! THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO, your entered into a verbal agreement to race down the hill. NEXT!
In that situation and another time I tried to use a warranty for a broken frame the companies had actually changed their warranty policy from when I had made my purchase to when I tried to use the warranty. Both companies had lifetime warranties when I purchased them, the first company changed the policy to add no racing in that 1 year period, the second one had changed from lifetime to 5 year, so when I broke the frame on year 7, no warranty. Definitely swore off both of those companies for life. Every other frame I've broken has been an easy warranty, so it is not impossible to do right.
We want to see a real warranty. that's is, no matter what Niner will replace the frame if broken. Don't think we are fooled by this very, very limited so called life time warranty. NOPE!
** Lifetime of the product , not the user. Which is arbitral but most likely 5 years
(I know, this is true of most "lifetime warranties")