I didn't mean to come across as negative in my comments about Trek's service. I thought the service was quite impressive. When I started the process, I really didn't think I'd get anywhere, but thought I'd give it a try. Truth be told, I don't know how much of my success was due to Rainbow Jersey, because I did it through them and they had a very good relationship with Trek at the time, being Trek dealers from the beginning. The service was good, the execution (paint) was bad.
I guess the point learned is, if you've got a problem, try and get it resolved. You have nothing to loose.
As a side note, I've had three Merckx frames (85, 89 & 90) and the paint quality and durability were excellent.
Wayne Bingham
-----Original Message----- From: Tom Dalton [mailto:tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 5:31 PM To: Bingham, Wayne Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Trek
I think your experience with Trek, while presented as negative, points out one of the benefits that bikes like the 770 had in their day. If your wife had bought a Colnago, or Merckx, or whatever, in 1985 and ridden it for four years, the paint could quite likely have begun to fail. Four years is a long time in the life of a race bike, and no European production frame builder would have given you two cents for a paint problem, or a tube failure for that matter. Trek repainted her bike (although poorly) and when that wasn't satisfactory they gave her the market value of the stock one color / no clearcoat paintjob. Sounds like excellent customer service to me. My point is that you didn't necessarily get the finest product, but they did back it up. Comaprable Euro frames at the time cost more and were a little flashier, but the finishes weren't any more durable and no warranty was extended. I think the only frames that could or can be reasonably expected to be free of finish failures are botique bike like Sachs and Baylis. You get what you pay for, I guess.
In todays world of throw-away aluminum race bikes, a good warranty from Trek, Cannondale or Bianchi is worth even more. A superlight DeRosa or Colnago is super cool, but I'd settle for a slightly less cool (and less expensive) Bianchi knowing that if I broke three frames in two years, each would be replaced.
Tom Dalton