The Tracer was a great bike and one of my all time favorites but at this point I would not recommend buying one. They have been out of production for a few years. That means there is no warranty or or spare parts for them anymore.
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Tracers rear end is totally out of alignment!
UPDATE. After owning an Intense 5.5 from 04-06 I decided to sell it and buy a new 01 red Tracer. I bought the Tracer last October, the frame had never left the shop in all that time so was brand new. I got the Tracer built up in August this year and now after only six rides the frames badly out of alignment which I believe was like that since new but only has become apparent now after a few rides as these things are hard to see without a jig. My frame is still mint, not a stone chip nothing.
Last weekend I lost a horst link bolt from the linkage that came out while riding to my local bike shop in town! I have a spare set of horst link bolts and some main pivot bolts but they're useless as I'll just keep losing them because of the bad alignment. Basically the rear end feels loose as hell and if you hold the chainstay it wobbles between the horst link bolts and the bearings with all bolts done up. The bolts/spacers are backing out from the bearings causing metal on metal contact on the drivetrain side. All the bolts are done up as far as they'll go with the right-hand spacers visible when looking from above and below where as they should be plush against each other. When building the Tracer my lbs had trouble with the correctly sized reducers for the rear shock to fit in the CNC linkage (I had to get custom longer ones made) so I think the linkage is off as well. I'm a light rider and have never broken anything, not even a chain! I've pumped so much money into this frame and other intense frames, getting everything double checked and maintained. Only fifty miles on this frame sucks! Either the bike shops are all bad or it's the frame and I'm sorry to say it's probably the frame.
For the warranty I was told I'd be covered for two years from the date of purchase. Tracer bought new. It cost a lot to get the frame built up so this time off the bike isn't really what I needed or expect /from a high end frame. Will intense cover the extra labor costs involved in replacing all my parts from my old frame to a new one? I suppose the front could be out of alignment but I'm pretty sure it's the rear end chainstay and seatstay.
The Tracer is getting old, last production run 2003, it's a great machine that still deserves its passionate following. Hope that some of the problems with quality control aren't too common as these guys make some of the best frames, period.
So was it worth it, no. So far after two emails to Intense I've heard nothing back. So I phoned Intense warranty up who told me to contact my local distrubuter Extra UK who then told me they were waiting for Intense to get back to them! :madman: Why so slow, I emailed Maverick about some issues with their products last week and got three replies from different people all trying to help me with my problem and a replacement part was shipped the same day! :eekster:
The frame in question before I built it up in August
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UPDATE. After owning an Intense 5.5 from 04-06 I decided to sell it and buy a new 01 red Tracer. I bought the Tracer last October, the frame had never left the shop in all that time so was brand new. I got the Tracer built up in August this year and now after only six rides the frames badly out of alignment which I believe was like that since new but only has become apparent now after a few rides as these things are hard to see without a jig. My frame is still mint, not a stone chip nothing.
Last weekend I lost a horst link bolt from the linkage that came out while riding to my local bike shop in town! I have a spare set of horst link bolts and some main pivot bolts but they're useless as I'll just keep losing them because of the bad alignment. Basically the rear end feels loose as hell and if you hold the chainstay it wobbles between the horst link bolts and the bearings with all bolts done up. The bolts/spacers are backing out from the bearings causing metal on metal contact on the drivetrain side. All the bolts are done up as far as they'll go with the right-hand spacers visible when looking from above and below where as they should be plush against each other. When building the Tracer my lbs had trouble with the correctly sized reducers for the rear shock to fit in the CNC linkage (I had to get custom longer ones made) so I think the linkage is off as well. I'm a light rider and have never broken anything, not even a chain! I've pumped so much money into this frame and other intense frames, getting everything double checked and maintained. Only fifty miles on this frame sucks! Either the bike shops are all bad or it's the frame and I'm sorry to say it's probably the frame.
For the warranty I was told I'd be covered for two years from the date of purchase. Tracer bought new. It cost a lot to get the frame built up so this time off the bike isn't really what I needed or expect /from a high end frame. Will intense cover the extra labor costs involved in replacing all my parts from my old frame to a new one? I suppose the front could be out of alignment but I'm pretty sure it's the rear end chainstay and seatstay.
The Tracer is getting old, last production run 2003, it's a great machine that still deserves its passionate following. Hope that some of the problems with quality control aren't too common as these guys make some of the best frames, period.
So was it worth it, no. So far after two emails to Intense I've heard nothing back. So I phoned Intense warranty up who told me to contact my local distrubuter Extra UK who then told me they were waiting for Intense to get back to them! :madman: Why so slow, I emailed Maverick about some issues with their products last week and got three replies from different people all trying to help me with my problem and a replacement part was shipped the same day! :eekster:
The frame in question before I built it up in August
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