Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Bent and cracked turtle

The frame of my trike had cracked and is bent. On the last Saturday and Sunday ride several people told me the my rear wheel looked like it was tilted. Saturday afternoon looked at the trike but could not figure out what was wrong. Sunday after the ride I found that right side fork was bent up about one half inch from the left one, after removing the rear wheel I found a small crack in the support for the rear fork.

I contacted Terratrike and at first they agreed to replace the trike frame but then they called me back and told me because I was above the weight limit they would not replace the frame but would give me a good deal on a new frame.

Tonight while I was taking the trike a part I found a second crack in the frame. I am not sure but I cannot see how this crack could be caused by my weight.
When I was in the process of purchasing the Tour I was very upfront with them about my size and I was told by one of the people there that the trike was designed to handle twice the posted weight limit. Of course I have no way to prove this and never thought I would need to everything I had heard about Terratrike was that they would go out of their way to honor their warranty and that they had doe so many time. So when I was told they would not replace my frame I was really surprised. Also they have changed the weight limit for the tirke it use to say 350 pounds on the website but since the Rover came out which will handle 400 pound now the Tour will only handle 300 pounds. I guess this makes the Rover look more appealing.

I told Terratrike I was in a real bad position do to the MS Tour being this weekend so they knew I had no way to shop around for a different trike and that the only way I could maybe do the MS Tour - even after me talking to them about this and agreeing to buy a new frame it took the more than 24 hours to get it shipped meaning it is unlikely it will get here soon enough for me to reassemble it and get to the MS Tour Friday afternoon. By shipping it Wednesday meaning it may arrive Friday or Saturday. If it is not delivered Friday I may not get it at all because the last time I tried to pick up a UPS delivery Saturday at my office the UPS people did not put it on the truck because they assumed we would be closed. In spite of this I disassembled the trike tonight just in case I get the new frame. It took me several hours to disassemble the trike and I think it will take me at least five hours to reassemble and adjust her.
I was so looking forward to going to the MS Tour and a number of people committed money to support me on the ride and I do not know what to do about that and what to tell them.
I am so tired of being too big and too fat to not be able the things that everyone else does with out having to make special arrangements of have special equipment of whatever.
Some times or most of the time it really sucks to be me!

2 comments:

GF said...

Hi, I was wondering if you have experienced this crack AGAIN since the replacement of the frame?

I have hat this crack in the cruciform part of the frame happen TWICE now... and so has a fellow TT owner! (2x for both of us)

Unknown said...

TT refused to honor their warranty and I had to pay for a replacement frame that and because to the stetting problems I allays had above 30 mph I sold my TT and bought a Catrike Expedition. I told the guy about the steering problem - he said he would never be going that fast. I love the Catrike - it is a much much better trike.