With the Anthem X having been around for a couple of years now and with the recall on the Anthem X 29'r because of cracks at the top tube/seat tube junction, I thought it would be a good idea to see how many Anthem X 26'r owners have had a problem with their frame developing a crack at the same place as the 29'r.
Out of the three AX owners, myself included, that I know in my area, two have had to get their frames replaced due to the frame cracking.
How many others in this forum, if any, have had the same problem?
Do you think that running a seat dropper post would help prevent these cracks in the seat tube/down tube junction? I figure that running a regular seatpost, I'd be more likely to make a higher force contacts than if I lowered the seatpost. I have a 6" AM bike that I ride in tougher terrain, and I am planning on building up this new Anthem 29er for XC races, so it won't be ridden in techy terrain. I was thinking about the 4 LEV.
Well, I guess that goes to show that Giant is good on warranty replacements. All of the damage on the Advanced 1 frame on ebay looks like user damage and not a manufacturer defect.
Discovered this Sunday. Had 20 miles left including a 3,000 vert feet dirt road descent to get home. Held together, could see it gapping (perhaps 1mm) when I was seated climbing. Giant is replacing the whole frame minus shock with a 2012. They don't have 2013 replacement frames in stock yet.
FYI. Thought it ought to be out as a data point. I'm 190-200 lbs 6'1" often ride with a fairly heavy pack (100oz water, clothing, etc). I've put between 1200 and 1500 miles on it since getting it December 28, including 24 solo at Old Pueblo. I do ride tech trails but have been pretty cautious after getting hurt a couple times late last season. Definitely no hucking... Have not crashed it.
Seems like Giant is responding quite quickly, although I don't know what the eta of the replacement is yet.
Hope giant replaces the frame. I've only been riding it for 6 month and was hoping to ride the PMBAR on it had to rent a bike last year I am running a dropper post.
Giant was quite good with the frame replacement for me (although they refused to change the Anthem 29 frameset for a Trance 29, even if I was willing to pay a price difference).
In less than a week a 2012 X0
whole frameset arrived with a brand new shock. They rear shock mount seems to be the same design as my 2011 frame; I hope that this one doesn't break.
Here are photos of the crack and my new ride.
Giant was quite good with the frame replacement for me (although they refused to change the Anthem 29 frameset for a Trance 29, even if I was willing to pay a price difference).
In less than a week a 2012 X0
View attachment 795582View attachment 795583
whole frameset arrived with a brand new shock. They rear shock mount seems to be the same design as my 2011 frame; I hope that this one doesn't break.
Here are photos of the crack and my new ride.
can see that in this design the seattube will want to bow in due to combination of force on the rocker pivot and rider on saddle - ie both making the seat tube wanting to bow towards the headtube..
flattened top tube will be doing little to help support the seat tube from flexing and looks like a rather nice hinge..
this would explain the position of the cracks at seat tube/ top tube, centre of seat tube and a lower end..
perhaps in the quest to save weight the seat tube is a bit thin..
I have a Giant Anthem X2 replacement frame waiting for me and I have a few questions.
Long story long, my father in laW cracked his anthem. After a a bit a back and forth, Giant agreed to replace the entire frameset included the shock due to the fact that the design changed quite a bit since 2007 and the front and rear triangles wouldn't be compatible. One huge point for giant in my book. Pops in law didnt want To wait for the replacement frame, so I have been given the new frame. Pretty nice of pops in law. However, nowhere can I find the specs off an anthem x2 frameset only. The colors are red and blue and then od2 headsetnis imcluded. I'm thinking maybema European orcas Asian markets frame. Or perhaps, giants follow treks example and painted replacement frames differently. ie treks raw alum replacents for black and blue and gray fuels.
There's no such thing as an X2 frame set. If it's an X2 it came as a complete bike, and you want to look at the X2 bike spec. They're simply replacing the frame like for like in terms of the shock included if it's spec'd as an X2.
Well my post was quite full of typos! Thats what 24 hours shift do to your mind! I am thinking its the Anthem X frameset as sold overseas as a frameset only. I'm more curious about the color of the frame. I haven't seen a red and blue anthem anywhere on my internet searches. If its something out of the ordinary, I'll post a picture when I get it built up. It will most likely end up as back up bike. I can't imagine a full suspension will replace my beloved 853 steel hard tail.
Well went for a short ride yesterday, and my 2011 26er decided enough was enough (not like I'm and aggressive rider or anything, might be why it's lasted 3 years).
Going in today to see about a warrenty replacement (going to be fun, as they haven't had any 26ers here for the last 2 years)
The frame I received is blue black and white. Its a 26er. I'm assuming its from 2010. Threaded bottom bracket and non tapered headtube. The suppiled shock is a Fox Float rp2.
Here is my 2012 x29er 2. Mine is just shy of a year old. No warning or indication of slight cracking before, just a clean snap. Shop had another model with the same problem although it was a 2010. Just hoping there was an improvement somewhere. I dont want a replacement that will knowingly break.
It's the Aluxx. I haven't heard about any non-crash failures of the advanced (carbon) ones.
If there's a redesign involved in the 2014, it would be AMAZING if they failed to fix it. It would actually be sad--there was a recall in 2011 and they have kept producing the exact same design for two more model years? If they don't resolve it with a new design, they are either bad engineers or don't care. I don't believe either of those things are true, I'm guessing it was just a business decision to deal with the design issues for a couple years until it was time to re-visit it.
Wow really? I've finally narrowed down my bike choice to the Anthem x 29er a few days ago. Kinda makes me want to wait for 2014's come out to see if they address the "issue"
I'm going to question the idea that this is a straight up design problem or that a minor tweak wasn't made to fix it. Here's why: It's straight up illegal to sell something that's been recalled for safety issues. So there are a number of options here. Either the 2011 bikes that were recalled were produced with a bad batch of tubes, or they've changed something in the process that should solve the problem. Most of the cracks I saw in frames looked like they were right across the front side of the weld connecting the top tube to the seat post. Being right across the front edge of the weld indicates a possibility that someone got a setting wrong when they made that weld. It's just a thought.
On a brighter note, I've had my 2013 Anthem X2 for almost 10 months. I ride frequently, and I ride it pretty hard, although my riding probably mostly falls well within the bounds of XC that the Anthem was designed for. I weigh just north of 200 lbs, and my frame is in good shape so far.
I'm adding another photo to the topic. My buddy's 2010 2011 Anthem X frame in size M has just cracked today during a regular ride. He has ~12000km (~7500mi) in the frame.
Update: After ~2 months of waiting (including waiting for the LBS, then the frame has probably been sent back to Taiwan), the replacement has just arrived:
As you can see, this is the 2013 Anthem X. For some reason, shipment costs must be paid by my buddy (~30USD, not a big deal, this is why it is particularly not very generous from them IMO...)
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Do you guys know if there was any improvement in the 2013 Anthem X frames as opposed to older models?
I think we'd need to know how many Anthem's were sold and how many are cracking. It's quite possible that these cracked frames are from a bad batch. Perhaps a bad session of welding or some other issue?
In some of the 2011's there were bad welds on top of the bad design , and so failure rate was very high. Subsequently it's just been bad design so riders who sit and run longish seat posts would put the most force on the area, and even then generally it takes some thousands of kms for the crack to develop.
I do not believe its a safety issue, as the bike doesn't break in 2 - it's a triangle, so when one angle disconnects , the other 2 hold it together
So far then pictures of the 2014 anthems seem to have redesigned this area in line with the trance
Well obviously not enough people are cracking them then. Other possible, is their plan is to move over to carbon only for the anthem 29 er in 2015, and so couldn't be bothered to change their frame design.
In the races I go to, almost every other giant anthem is a replacement frame - ie because I know the shock frame combos, I ask other riders where theirs cracked- it's always the same answer. It's obviously not a proper survey because it misses the 95% of owners who don't race, and probably do a 1000km or less a year.
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