TIPS: Avoid the subdued Prophet paintAt the pinnacle of frustration, I wrote Cannondale yesterday asking the company to solve a major problem with the paint on my bike – it’s disintegrating! I love Cannondale quality, and I love the 2005 Prophet I picked up at Revolution Bicycles in Florida on the way home from Iraq this year (new in January). However, I’ve hated the subdued black paint scheme from day one.
So why did I buy it? Not the point here!
The point is that after only having the bike for seven months, the head tube paint is pitted and its decal is peeling off, and the downtube paint chips straight through the subdued decal to bare metal with the most mild impact -- as does the paint on the remainder of the bike. Additionally, the top tube paint appears to be oxidizing and the subdued decal there has peeled up to reveal bare metal. These problems are all over the bike, and on multiple sides – not something sustained from a particularly bad crash. And, by the way, this is a 
bicycle that is stored indoors on a padded wall rack out of the sun.So, what's wrong with the paint and what is Cannondale's solution? My guess is that they’ll initially propose doing nothing – we’ll see how customer-oriented Cannondale really is.
Stay tuned.
posted by Spider Rider at 9:35 PM
1 Comments:
PAINT UPDATE 1
Three days later, Heather at C'dale replied that "Paint and decals are warranted against manufacturing defects for a period of one year from date of purchase." So I just need to get it to my C'dale rep for "warranty consideration." I suppose it's not their fault that the nearest dealer's a $2,000 plane ticket away!
When I hadn't heard anything back after day 1, I e-mailed Bill at Revolution Bikes (Tampa), where I purchased the bike. In less than eight hours, he wrote back with some solutions after talking to his C'dale rep. He had even contacted a couple of other dealers to help. Continued awesome service here!
Anyway, the Bicycle Pro Shop on M Street in DC said they can help during an upcoming trip, so we'll see how that goes. I sent some pictures and asked ahead of time if we could swap for the saffron frame vice another of these subdued things. This will be an interesting process to watch unfold.
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