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2012 Trek Rig warrantee outcome

30K views 103 replies 45 participants last post by  cjsb 
#1 ·
I spoke to the Trek rep yesterday and he is not offering to refund the cost of the frame, however he is offering to send replacement parts that he says will fix the problem.

I have a few issues with this.

1. The replacement parts were supposed to be here last week.

2. I have spoken to others including bike techs that say the replacement parts do not fix the problems completely.

3. Trek has denied any knowledge of issues with the 2012 Rig and said that my case was the 1st they had heard about it. But yet so many others have had the same issues and I was informed that Trek is working on developing replacement parts to fix the problem, but apparently, according the their emails to me they have NO knowledge of anyone else having issues with the 2012 Rig. So I was blatantly LIED to by Trek about a defect in the frame design that could have put me in danger.

To top everything off I informed the rep that I have heard of others with the same issue with the 2012 Rig getting a refund for the cost of the frame. He did acknowledge that they did that for 1 person and he said that it was only because it was extenuating circumstances, however he did not go into detail of what these extenuating circumstances were. He preceded to say “we did refund the cost of the frame to one individual in Tucson and now that person in BLABBING all over MTBR about it”

I would like to say to Trek… MTBR is a review site for consumers to share information. So “BLABBING” on this site is kind of what it is intended for. I am sorry the “BLABBING” has conflicted with your agenda to produce low quality defective products and cover it up and deny it.

Thanks Trek! I will never own or indorse your product.
 
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#62 ·
Put me on the pro-Trek side. In all my warranty dealings with Trek, it's always the LBS that handles everything. Sounds like the OP needs to find a different LBS. I don't know if his LBS hung him out to dry or what, but with a valid claim, I never seen our LBS have issues dealing with Trek.
 
#63 ·
This is simply a customer service issue.
A customer should NEVER be allowed to get this upset. Remember in business the phrase "The Customer is Always Right" still applies.
This customer should have NEVER had to call Trek directly. The LBS should have taken care of this problem. If the mechanic couldn't do it the Shop Owner should have called Trek directly. If a customer ever has to call Trek there is an issue in the chain of service. And frankly Trek, once they hear from a customer needs to address that issue. At this point Trek needed to make this customer happy.

If there is a problem with the frame and there are replacement parts. They should have been shipped out REGARDLESS. And in a timely manner. Overnight even. But no more than a week should pass. The Trek CS guy should see to it personally. Or is he to busy dealing with many claims?

If this was a small scale frame problem (50 out of 5000) wouldn't it have been more cost effective to replace or refund some money to make this customer happy? To keep him from posting his unsatisfactory experience on the net and telling everyone he knows Trek Treated him poorly? Trek spends a ton of money each year in advertising. But just lost more than a few customers I am sure because of this issue.

Not sure I would buy a Trek at this point, as I have seen this issue first hand on a buddies bike. And BTW. I am the Customer Service Manager for the largest manufactured housing dealership in Indiana. My team has a 4 week turn around on ANY issues arising on the homes we sell. This is a small issue someone along the CS line should have taken care of within a couple weeks.
 
#68 ·
The problem was never resolved. I havent seen the new Rigs for sale at LBS so maybe they stopped production.
They haven't stopped production nor have they changed the drop out or hardware in any way. They don't need too. There isn't a problem. Properly tighten the hardware and you won't have a problem.

The screws used to tension the chain aren't supposed to hold the wheel in place. That's what the 5mm bolts are for and properly tightened will not allow the wheel to move. I've been riding my rig for over a year without ever touching the hardware in that time. Nothing.

I know at least half a dozen other people with this bike and no one has had an issue with it.

The OP has done what he intended to do since this topic was actually briefly mentioned in a magazine.
 
#66 ·
Shoot, I was looking for solutions for I have the same problem with my 2011 Superfly and I found this thread. I guess I'm out of luck. I've tried replacing the aluminum bolts with hardened steel ones with slightly bigger head plus bigger washers. The slippage was a less but I'd still get that every single ride if I get out of the saddle during a hard climb or hard acceleration. I'm 170 lb with gear.

I've tightened these bolts so tight that I've stripped several nuts by now. It's crazy, I now carry with me a bolt, washer and nut to replace that when I'm riding if I need to!!!

To make things worse, the sliding guides deformed under the pressure of the bolt heads and now the dropout doesn't slide well.

Very disappointing. I'm very happy w/ the bike and had excellent racing results with it last year but this I'm looking to sell it now.
 
#67 ·
Its sad whats happened to the OP but I have to agree with the Trek Supporters and others in here. It sounds like you need to find a new Trek Dealer. I purchase a 2012 Trek Fuel EX8 in October in SoCal while I was down visiting friends and family and brought it with me back to San Luis Obispo, on my first ride the front wheel taco'd on a slow right hand turn in dirt on nearly level ground. It was a bummer but I contacted Trek directly detailing my issue and they replied via email with 30 minutes or so on a Sunday telling me that any Trek Dealer could handle the warranty work and they would gladly replace my wheel. They even told me the nearest dealer in the email. I took it the dealer and they took care of me I had my bike back in about 3 days and they even upgraded my rim. Nothing but very professional and kind and a great experience. Better than I've ever had with any Vehicle Warranty work. I say Find a new Dealer to take your bike to.
 
#69 ·
Just curious if one of you guys (pete?) wrote about this to Mountain Bike Action magazine? The current issue posted a letter asking about this, if it was a "well known" problem. MTBA said rubbish! The bike itself is fine. (Their words)

(I'm not taking sides here either way; just wondering if it was one of you guys that wrote the letter)
 
#73 ·
Hey Ive got a 2012 Rig due to breaking an 08 frame. Let me just say this 2012 sucks. Cant keep chain tight, rear wheel is never in line. Frame is a lot heavier too. Trek has sent me 2 different bolt sets and THEY STILL dont work. I called Trek myself and still no help. So my fix I just ordered a 2012 Niner One 9. Im done with trek.
 
#89 ·
Gtr-33 here is the evidence of the major design flaw. First off the hardware sucks. I purchased my Rig used for $450 bucks knowing there may be issues with the dropouts. The person I bought it from bought a Niner and literally only rode this bike 2 times. As you can see from the photo it is in new condition with the stock wheels and skewers:


The major problem is the fact that the skewer comes into direct contact with the frame, this does not allow the axle to sit all the way into the dropouts. You can see where the skewer has been hitting the frame on mine:



These photos by another Rig owner are a little better:



I too have contacted Trek. My fix was to use grade 8 hardware and file down the skewer so it does not hit the frame. This has solved my problem and I am overall pretty happy considering I only dropped $450 on the bike. But the response from Trek stating that they are not aware of any issues is just plain lame. Clearly from a simple google search I located 8 other threads on several sites regarding issues with the 2012 Rig. Them playing dumb like this really pisses me off. I contacted them to find out if there is replacement dropouts available. Clearly some bikes got different dropouts that are not problematic. But it appears a large percentage recieved dropouts that are dangerous. Trek needs to do the right thing. Seems pretty simple to me. Design a bolt on dropout that is a few mm longer. How hard could that be?
 
#91 ·
Hey guys. Been working with Trek on this issue. They sent me out a 2013 Rig frame and also some brand new CNC machined Single Speed Dropouts. Unfortunately still doing the same thing. Slipping still. I have had every Rig from Gen1 to now. Everyone had problems. Every slider dropout frame slipped no matter what i was told to do by trek.

Keep an eye open will create a new thread and post updates on what is going on.
 
#92 ·
Just chiming in here... I bought a 2012 rig and only got about five miles on it... same problems as everyone else on here. I hung it up in the garage to mess with when I get the time. Well its been hanging there for over a year.. I have met two other people on the trail with the same bike and same problems.. both claim they fixed the problem with grade 8 or stainless steel bolts.. I guess someday ill do something with it but In the meantime I fixed the problem by purchasing a Kona Unit.. Since that fix I haven't had any problems at all.. hahaha
 
#93 ·
I have a Superfly 2009 with the horizontal track end drops. The bike came stock with shimano hubs that have the steel serated nuts that rub on the inside of the dropouts. with standard shimano QR's the wheel did not slip. however when I upgraded to stans hub which are aluminum the wheel would slip no matter how tight I made the QR's. I believe the problem in many cases is that the aluminum hub does not provide enough friction to keep the wheel slipping.
I took the bike into the shop a few time and they couldnt come up with any solution besides two tug nuts, but to get the tug to not rub against the driveside hub where the cassette goes they had to mount the tug on the inside of the dropouts effectively increasing my spacing from 135mm to 137 or so. I didn't like that so I came up with a light more bullet proof solution. I cant believe they don't sell something like this and if they do please tell me where.
the solution is to install the chain and measure the space in the dropout between the hub and front inside edge of dropout, then use an angle grinder to make a small piece of metal that will fill the void perfectly when the chain is at the desired tension. that way there is absolutely no way for the wheel to move. I have used this method successfully for at lease 200 miles.

not sure if there is a slot on these other types of dropout where a small piece of metal could also be wedged in to provide a similar solution.....
 
#94 ·
I have tried selling my old 2011 rig frame, but no luck. It's good to see nothing has changed...I have thought abiut rebuilding the frame using the new hardware but have lost energy on this thing. I wanted to upgrade the ehadset as well if I go in that direction, but given what the bearings look like I'd expect that removing the headset will be a major effort.

I know there are Rig lovers out there and some who tinker with frames and get them working right. The bike actually rode great when it wasn't slipping the wheel. Pm me if you are interested in another project.
 
#100 ·
I have some of the more outrageous crticial posts on my Rig on mtbr, but it is a nice frame absent the droput/tensioner issues. I had read in a mountain bike magazine review that it was fixed for 2013. But never got that confirmed from my LBS where I bought the bike. The LBS first response was that it wasn't supposed to be "public info". That probably got the interest of the NSA so they probably have a file on this turd, too. Then the wonderful LBS stopped returning my emails and calls to find out. Long story short, I went to a different Trek LBS and they happily ordered the replacement tensioner hardware from Trek. They never heard of the probelm so there was nothing to fix or warranty. I paid for the tensioner hardware, installed it myself and finally after a year of Craigslist ads sold ithe frame for $150.

One way for you to check, is to remove the rear wheel and look at the non drive side drop puts. If there are no marks in there, then this frame likely has the problem, unless of course it has never been ridden. I don't know how you would tell if the tensioner hardware is the stronger stuff.
 
#101 ·
Yep I've read on a few places that the hardware got changed for 2013 but I haven't seen anything official. I can get my hands a very lightly used 2013 for $500 so i might just do it. Going to be a backup/winter bike and for the price i haven't found anything better. If anyone else has experience with the 2013 let me know. Thanks for the info cjsb.
 
#104 ·
Great to see this thread keep going. As I posted on the previous page I finally sold mine this summer. I bought a new full suspension bike last month and Trek wasn't on the list of bikes to consider and won't be any time soon. It is possible a different LBS could make Trek work for me again, but the place I bought my Rig from was not helpful at all. They didn't know of a problem and when I aksed about buying the new hardware they blew me off.

There are plenty of options besides Trek.
 
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