Question for any framebuilders out there

[stevet1]

Out of curiosity, why has it only just become a problem if you've been riding the frame for three years?

Because now I know about it!!!

I ride my mountain bikes more than my BMX so when I switch it always feels a bit twitchy (some of which I put down to riding a kids bike when I'm 35) - but if its 2 degrees steeper than it should be then this certainly isn't helping. I started looking at other bmx's and thought they looked slacker than mine, so I bought an angle finder and hey presto - 76.25 degree head angle on a dirt jump bike (standard angles are 74-74.5). The seat angle comes out at 70.75 which is close enough to the 71 specced. I've been honest with the builder and admitted I have stacked it a few times and so basically now he doesn't want to know. They offer a lifetime warranty which states they will repair any damaged frames for the cost of a repaint BUT he has said that if there is no visible damage it is unrepairable and says theres no point even sending it to them. I'm not normally one to warranty stuff, and certainly not if its my fault but I can't help feeling I'm being palmed off with a frame that was misaligned from new.
I'd be much happier if I could convince myself that I'd damaged it! especially as I was a very proud supporter of this brand when asked about my frame by other people down at the trails.
Ah well, maybe its just time to suck it up and put it down as a mystery.

 

[perry]

So who is it then ?

If there is no visible sign then it was like that from new , needs sorting . If it's been dinged then it'll come under lifetime warranty to the original owner , needs sorting . Either way they need to sort the fooking thing out

If it's as much as that far out then you will notice a very big change in the ride from new to now , it'll look awful too .

 

[IDB1]

Independent checker required.

 

[cchris2lou]

if the frame is 3 year old , not much you can do about it I would think from a legal point of view .

 

[stevet1]

Perry - I think you can guess.
I took it into a bike shop last night and compared with a few bikes and its definitely noticeably steeper than all of them. We decided best move would be to remove the paint around the headtube and look for any damage that might be hidden. Theres also a suspicious mark at the end of the top tube where it joins the seattube, I'm going to strip that area too.
Cheers for all your advice.

 

[stevet1]

Following up this thread for anyone that's still interested... I removed the paint around the headtube and found no indication of any damage at all, nor on the seattube/toptube join.
Phoned the framebuilder and he is adamant that his jig is set to a certain head angle and it cannot be changed. He has talked to a couple of people about my frame and in particular one pro rider had a frame with a similarly changed head angle after coming up short on a jump but there was no visible damage to the frame apart from some stress marks in the chrome plating. This was all caught on video and the video shows the front wheel moving back far enough to actually contact the downtube before springing back again. The changed head angle seems to come from the toptube 'stretching' slightly. Now call me Mr. Gullible but I'm apt to believe this can happen and so am leaving it at that with no ill feelings towards the frame builder.
Now I'm off to place an order for one of these -
http://www.standardbyke.com/blog/?page_id=2615