BEWARE WITH PLANETXBIKES SHOP AND SARTO ROVIGO FRAMESET.

lupusretro

Retro Newbie
Hello,I´m from Spain and I previous wrote thin in foromtb.I´m a member since years:
http://www.foromtb.com/showthread.php?t=1054392

First of all sorry for my bad english.I bought this frame set two months ago and I used it only a few days.Last week (8 days ago) I have a light accident with this bike.The front brake made me kiss the ground.I scratched the Chorus levers and Record rear derailleur and hit my right knee.
When I arrived at home I dismounted the fork because it was "dancing" in all directions.My surprise was when I saw the fork tube unwelded.This is a terrible mistake.The front brake bolt (good quality Campagnolo) missed a terrible accident because it retained the fork crown.
I wrote inmediatly Planetxbikes to stop selling those frame set and calling people who bought that fork.I wrote 7 days ago and a few mails.The didn´t reply me and they are selling those frame set.
Those peolple from that shop are very bad people and they don´t like this sport.I write this because I think there are people using this frame with that fork and probably there are more forks with that problem.Of course, i will make a complaint in the European Union Consumer Office.
Please,I you want to issue this post people mounting this Sarto frame set can inspect it.
It´s a shame this shop didn´t inspect those frameset and are selling them after my email.
Of course they don´t like cycling and I don´t need other similar fork because I have a few 1" forks.
You can see they have them in stock:
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FRS ... e_and_fork
 

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Yup, very poor.

It's always difficult with this sort of 'closed bottom' fork crown to be sure of full penetration of the brass. It's hard to get a good heat on the section of steerer inside the crown as you can't access the lower end and the rest has very little surface contact. This type of crown should alway be brazed in separately from the blades, so that the blade sockets can be used as access for heating, brass and inspection. As these probably would have been it a production factory, the steerer and blades would have been brazed in at the same time. That way you need to rely on conduction through a very heavy piece of tube surrounded by thin castings.

To make things worse, it does look like they only applied brass to the top ring/crown race area and not even via the brake holes. Even working this way, any decent builder would have been able to guage by the amont of brass feeding in whether or not the penetration was adequate, but this builder was probably in a hurry, on piece work.

While there's no doubt that you do get what you pay for, definitely a case for a recall IMHO.

All the best,
 
Thank you for your support.I'm waiting for Planetx reply but they prefer the silence.I don't know how a shop prefer $ instead good customer service.They must avoid selling the fork in that set.
 
Oh man that is scary - I'd be very concerned...

I would say in defence of Planet-X, that in my experience most of the staff are committed cyclists, I've found their customer service to be perfect - I'm not disputing your very real concerns about your fork, just suggesting you call them and give them the chance to fix it.
 
Dan is absolutely correct, but I don't know how the retailer is supposed to know, they should react though.
I have seen fork blades without penetration into the crown, including one I had in 1955 which was an Ephgrave, one fork blade just fell out.

But here this could well be a production problem with a large number.
After a second look it seems it is not intended to be brazed, just inserted and held in by the brake bolt and perhaps a lucky interference fit.

Keith
 
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