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Messages - bladechapman

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29er / Re: TanTan FM08 cracked during shipping
« on: July 25, 2020, 11:31:33 PM »
Figured I’d close out the story on this one. I ended up doing a DIY carbon repair using the kit from Predator Cycling. It involved sanding down the broken layers of carbon and epoxying in fresh layers. I was initially suspicious of how well this would work, but the cracks turned out to be quite shallow and it seems to be holding up.

The bike is now built up and I’m having a blast with it! It’s my first full sus and I’m loving the extra confidence I get from it on the trails :)

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29er / Where to find spare derailleur hangers?
« on: July 25, 2020, 11:14:40 PM »
Hey all, has anyone had luck with finding hangers outside of ordering them direct from the manufacturer? I have no problem doing so, but I’m hoping I can make my bike last and I don’t know if I trust the manufacturer to stock hardware for a frame years and years after they stop manufacturing it.

Are there any good alternative resources to identifying and ordering hangers?

Side note, I ride a TanTan FM08 / LightCarbon LCFS713

Thanks!

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29er / Re: TanTan FM08 cracked during shipping
« on: February 10, 2020, 12:56:34 PM »
Sure! Here are the pics from the factory before they shipped it out:

The specific colors were Pantone 290C and Pantone 165C

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29er / Re: TanTan FM08 cracked during shipping
« on: February 05, 2020, 06:27:30 PM »
TL;DR I would not recommend going with TanTan in the future, and do not count on PayPal purchase protection to save you. Lessons learned...


Well, after much back and forth, we were unable to come to an agreement on shipping.

I was prepared to eat the shipping cost until I found out an unpleasant truth, it's much more expensive to ship things from the US west coast to China than the other way around! The US Post Office refused to take the package due to the size, and UPS, Fedex, etc. were going to charge upwards of $800USD! The cheapest I could find was BikeFlights at ~$300 USD, but at that rate I might as well just get it repaired locally and not risk further shipping damage.

Unfortunately PayPal Purchase Protection wasn't much help either. In the end, PayPal agreed to refund the total cost of the frame if I returned it, but with the aforementioned cost of shipping, that's a non-option for me.

Looks like I will be going the way of local / home repair, which I'm fine with. The damaged area doesn't seem too large or located in a critical structural area, so I imagine a repaired frame will be okay, I just would have preferred not to take the risk or eat into my slim budget...

On the bright side, at least I can proceed with the rest of my build! I'm pretty excited, as this will be my first full-sus bike  :)

I'm genuinely curious, does anyone have experience with shipping bike frames back to China at a reasonable price?

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29er / Re: TanTan FM08 cracked during shipping
« on: January 11, 2020, 12:46:13 PM »
Still working it out with TanTan. They seem to be willing to uphold their warranty and repair the frame. We are primarily negotiating shipping at the moment.

Aside from the shipping damage, the frame seems quite nice. For the cost, I'm pleased with how the paint turned out. That's funny that they sent you a pic of my frame.

I would say it's okay to go with TanTan as long as you emphasize that they take extra care when packing your purchase. Make sure to ask them to secure the frame in the box and to provide extra padding around the top tube and down tube areas where the frame has the potential to collide with itself in the event that the shock brace breaks.

If you're still hesitant, I've read good things about LightCarbon bicycles, which seem to sell the exact same frame as the LCFS713:
https://www.lightcarbon.com/lightcarbon-2019-new-all-mountain-suspension-enduro-frame_p125.html

I was considering going with them, but they quoted me at a higher price than TanTan, so I chose the less expensive option.

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29er / TanTan FM08 cracked during shipping
« on: December 25, 2019, 02:08:49 PM »
Hi all, I've recently just received a TanTan FM08 frame. However, it appears that the plastic brace used to immobilize the frame snapped during shipping, causing the metal linkage to collide with the top tube and create a pretty big crack... It seems like the frame was unsecured in the box and rattled around during shipment.

I know I have the 2 year warranty through TanTan, and I've also used PayPal purchase protection, so I suppose I can get a refund in the worst case. Does anyone have any experience with this scenario? Are TanTan usually pretty good about upholding their warranty?

Thanks!

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