nitro1636 said:
ok so today im out im my back yard working on a wood table top thats made out of a bunch of junk in my garage and i stop to look down at my bike and i see that the rear shock mount is bent so bad that if i bunny hopped it would have snapped in 2. i went inside to look at the papers i got when i bought the bike and find out that the warenty is for five years and i bought the bike in july of 2002. so i was wondering what steps i nead to take to get this all worked out. the bike is a 2002 K2 launch 4.0 and they dont make them anymore. am i gonna get the replacement model or are they gonna leave me bikeless? Now after all that my question is what to do???
I don't believe that the damage is caused by a manufacturing defect. No welds broke, and the metal bent, but didn't break. What you have is a poorly designed bracket. And warranties usually don't cover poor designs. When I looked at your pics, the first thing I thought was wow, that bracket is really Mickey Mouse. The thickness of the triangle should have been at least twice as thick.
Try to get it warrantied. Even though they don't make them anymore for sale as new bikes, they may still have or make them as warranty items. Or maybe they'll upgrade you to a newer frame. At the very least, I would argue to get them to pro rate it or something. Maybe charge you 1/2 price for a new frame.
If you can't get a new frame, you could fix it rather easily if it's steel. Straighten the brackets. Obviously they should bend rather easily. Get 2 pieces of steel (1/8" thick) cut slightly larger than the triangle shaped hole. Then get them welded over the holes. It'll be 10x stronger.