Hey i just wanted to know if any of you Yeti owners have broken one of these new 303 in the top tube...a friend of mine broke one, first it started to "bend" then it started to crack...anyone?
Yeti 303 ´08 broken bikes?
- Thread starter Colombian DHer
- Start date
Nope, never heard of one breaking either.
Can you post a pic?
Can you post a pic?
Havent heard anything either, I would love to see some pics as well. What was he doing to first bend the top tube and then crack it. That is pretty impressive to bend the top hydroformed tube.
I broke my '06. where the Top slide connected to the frame near the head tube.
I couldn't believe it. I was VERY shocked! Yeti Warrantied it and I didn't want to cause undue bad vibes.
Yeti makes some great products!
I couldn't believe it. I was VERY shocked! Yeti Warrantied it and I didn't want to cause undue bad vibes.
Yeti makes some great products!
My '06 was definately a crack and not just in the powder coat. It was at the Forward Slide mount and Top Tube under the opening in the Top Tube. It wasn't a big deal. Not catastrophic, but had the potential to be. Yeti Warrantied the Front Triangle with an '08 and in less than 24hrs I had the frame back in my hands. (of course I live in the Denver metro and Yeti is just across town) I couldn't have been happier! Yeti CS is awesome!
Bend and then crack? Lets see some photos please. Not that I have had much time on mine, but I find it hard to understand how it would happen.
LBJ
LBJ
here are the pics...if you´ve seen something like this let me know please!
it first started to bend as i said first....then time passed and it began to crack!in both parts of the frame.
The bent appeared riding, he didnt hit it with anything...by itself...just riding!
it first started to bend as i said first....then time passed and it began to crack!in both parts of the frame.
The bent appeared riding, he didnt hit it with anything...by itself...just riding!
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Looks to me like DENT, BEND, CRACK. Mine was nothing like that.
There is absolutely no way that it could just start bending in that area. It had to be hit by something first.
The top rail support is right under that area so the entire top tube cannot start bending. I find it really hard to believe that it first wasnt hit by anything first and then started to bend in a little from being a weak point over time and then cracking from being even weaker.
I'm not buying it.
The top rail support is right under that area so the entire top tube cannot start bending. I find it really hard to believe that it first wasnt hit by anything first and then started to bend in a little from being a weak point over time and then cracking from being even weaker.
I'm not buying it.
How heavy is the rider? I still can't believe how that would bend there with out first being hit somehow. Another I was just riding along story.
LBJ
LBJ
Has your mate even tried to contact Yeti?
They are a fantastic company and will help him if it is a warranty issue.
Even if it is due to your friend's negligence, talk to them.
Go to the manufacturer. They can help you out better than a forum.
For what it's worth, I cannot see how a deformation like that can occur without a dent being placed there first. Not calling your mate a liar, just saying.
They are a fantastic company and will help him if it is a warranty issue.
Even if it is due to your friend's negligence, talk to them.
Go to the manufacturer. They can help you out better than a forum.
For what it's worth, I cannot see how a deformation like that can occur without a dent being placed there first. Not calling your mate a liar, just saying.
What surprises me a lot is that there is no obvious damage to the top flat part of the top tube. If there was something it would have suggested that the crack may have been caused by that.
If you look at the location of this crack it suggests that the frame has "folded", as if there was something like 100% bottoming out - no more front or rear travel , front and rear wheel pushes up, your body weight resting on pedals pulls down, the frame fold.
I have never seen anything like this. If what I have just described was truth, we would rather see either a crack or completely snapped head tube. Very strange indeed.
I second what Damo said, talk to Yeti guys and please let us know what they say about the damage. I am a Yeti 303 rider as well and very heavy one so I would not like to something like this happening to my bike.
Thanks
I would say something may have gone wrong with the hydro forming process??
plus that tube/mont for the rail would be a stress raiser as well perhaps??
plus that tube/mont for the rail would be a stress raiser as well perhaps??
You should contact Yeti first before posting this on a forum - especially as its not your own bike and cant be 100% sure of circumstances - this kind of thing creates lots of e-speculation and is bad for companies.
I wont comment on the break, how can you from a picture?
Rick
I wont comment on the break, how can you from a picture?
Rick
thats what amazes me, it aint a dent!!
just talked to my friend he contacted Yeti and sent them pics and all that, they say as well it was a dent. So that why I posted this to see if it was happening to somebody else! cause it aint a dent...it started by normal riding!!
just talked to my friend he contacted Yeti and sent them pics and all that, they say as well it was a dent. So that why I posted this to see if it was happening to somebody else! cause it aint a dent...it started by normal riding!!
Keep bugging them. Yours is the worst that I have seen but I have seen it with just about every 303 that actually gets ridden hard. They know about the issue dont let them say otherwise.
wow that sucks! Ive seen one crack at the plate the vertical rail is on but never anything like this.
It's a rather odd place for a dent, especially from riding. It seems too centered, no signs of impact, and its on the top tube. Defective aluminium, wasn't heat treated properly? It just seems weird, especially from a reputable frame manufacture.
that´s what amazes me..it aint a dent!
Sure he didn't land something really really hard or ride in to a tree tapped out?
This is simply misleading statement. Get your facts straight before spreading this.
It was not head tubes falling off but cracking. There is a BIG difference between snapped head tube and a crack around headtube. I agree the frames were called by Yeti, just not for the reason you stated.
One of the Uk rider I know cracked his....No headtube fell off any of them.
Very misleading statement...
Very misleading statement...
Sorry for the missleading reply!!! Thats justthe word going around the whole british race circuit at the moment,
Any way if they where recalled due to cracking around the headtube why have'nt the 303 frames that have been sold to the public been recalled, as all the uk team bikes where just standard production frames, the rest must have the same problem,
you can't say the team will rail the bike more so it would break quicker, as you don't know what sort of rider has spent a massive £2799 on a frame that may be faulty.
Any way if they where recalled due to cracking around the headtube why have'nt the 303 frames that have been sold to the public been recalled, as all the uk team bikes where just standard production frames, the rest must have the same problem,
you can't say the team will rail the bike more so it would break quicker, as you don't know what sort of rider has spent a massive £2799 on a frame that may be faulty.
Not the first one I've seen...
Colombian DHer posted on yetifan.com forum saying that they will not honour the warranty because he was using a wrong bike rack to hold the bike.
WTF???????/
Full post here: http://yetifancom.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=379&page=1
His own words:
"This happened to my YETI 303... This bike has just 6 months since I bought it. I asked YETI about the warranty and they didnt want to replace the front triangle since they said that was my fault. They say that happened because of transportation problems, but how can that happen if I use the THULE 918 HITCH RACK? At the begging it was just a bend in that place but time went by and it started to break itself. There are two 303 bikes here in COLOMBIA and both of them are just like that... Now I dont know what to do, i'm an active racer and I dont know if YETI will do something for me... THEY DONT REPLY ANY EMAIL, THEY DONT CALL ME BACK... IM COMPLETELY DISSAPOINTED WITH YETI COLORADO... IF I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, I WOULDNT HAVE BOUGHT IT, AND I WOULDNT HAVE RECOMMENDED YETI AS ONE OF THE BEST BRANDS IN THE BIKE MANUFACTURING WORLD.
Nowadays, in Colombia yeti is recognized as the worst company since they make weak bicycles and the warranty they offer is completely false."
WTF???????/
Full post here: http://yetifancom.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=379&page=1
His own words:
"This happened to my YETI 303... This bike has just 6 months since I bought it. I asked YETI about the warranty and they didnt want to replace the front triangle since they said that was my fault. They say that happened because of transportation problems, but how can that happen if I use the THULE 918 HITCH RACK? At the begging it was just a bend in that place but time went by and it started to break itself. There are two 303 bikes here in COLOMBIA and both of them are just like that... Now I dont know what to do, i'm an active racer and I dont know if YETI will do something for me... THEY DONT REPLY ANY EMAIL, THEY DONT CALL ME BACK... IM COMPLETELY DISSAPOINTED WITH YETI COLORADO... IF I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, I WOULDNT HAVE BOUGHT IT, AND I WOULDNT HAVE RECOMMENDED YETI AS ONE OF THE BEST BRANDS IN THE BIKE MANUFACTURING WORLD.
Nowadays, in Colombia yeti is recognized as the worst company since they make weak bicycles and the warranty they offer is completely false."
What is wrong about using a Thule 918?
not sure, check that discussion on yetifan forum (link above), it is getting interesting.
Yeah, you wish ...
My friend broke his older one....
I wish they would admit the mistake and replace them. This isn't directed at Yeti specifically, but all bike companies. If Yeti takes the initiative and does the right thing, there is something to be learned.
Alright, since this thread has resurfaced I feel I should probably throw a few things out there to try squelch rumors and e-haters. First off, I ride on a Yeti sponsored team, and live a few miles from the factory. I also count several of the Yeti employees as personal friends and riding partners. I want to be up front about this since my experience with Yeti and their customer service is certainly going to be different than other people's. Here are some things that I personally KNOW, and are NOT rumors or speculation:
Some other things to note from my personal experiences riding these bikes:
And now some armchair quarterbacking: I have a friend (don't we all right?) who is a stress analysis engineer for a large aeronautics company. He asserts quite a few theories on how or why this COULD have happened, JRA, etc. Stress risers from the rail mount, improper heat treating, imperfections in the hydroforming, even the welding process may be the culprit. He also has said that it is his opinion there is NOTHING Yeti could have done to test for this type of issue, aside from putting the bikes under riders and having them test them in a real-world application.
My opinion on that is this: with 2 years of production, several years of prototyping before that, and tons of digital stress analysis on the new tubeset, I fully understand how and why something like this could happen to a reputable company. As far as any of us knew, including the folks at Yeti, this year's frame was a hands-down winner and a vast improvement over the '06-'07 models. It doesn't make it suck any less, for them OR for me or anyone else who has a problematic frame. It just is what it is, and my expectations are that Yeti will do what is needed to "make this right" with their customers. My experience with Yeti is that they take ultimate pride in the Tribe, and cultivating DEEP brand loyalty, and will take this issue quite seriously.
- Several of the bikes on our team have this same dimple/fold/depression in the top tube as shown in the pictures above - although not one of them have cracked or failed as shown in the pictures above.
- Yeti is certainly aware of the issue, since we work closely with them and are basically a developmental grassroots team.
- Yeti has sent both non-dimpled and dimpled frames for extensive testing, and through that has found the structural integrity to be the same, whether dimpled or not. This means that in a testing environment, both dimpled and non-dimpled frames showed the same strength and had the same failure rate. Everything will fail if you try hard enough, and what I was told is the testing done simulated "riding your bike hard for 10 years straight". Further stress analysis IS planned, according to the folks I talked to.
- Everyone I have spoken involved in the design and development of the bike cannot currently figure out why this is happening. My bike shows NO other signs of stress, no cracking or stretching on any other part of the frame.
Some other things to note from my personal experiences riding these bikes:
- My first 303 (an '06 team edition model) did not have this issue.
- I believe that the dimple/fold/depression in MY frame occurred NOT during a crash or by being hit with an object, but rather by hitting a rather large hole on a DH track covered with some over grown grass and weeds that I did not see. I was going pretty darn fast at the time and felt the front and rear bottom out harshly, almost knocking me off the bike. After this incident was the first I noticed the dimple.
- I also believe the dimple in my frame has grown this past weekend, after nose-casing in a fairly large step-down gap, again feeling the bottom out of the front end.
- I am keeping a very close eye on the dimple, as well as all the joints, welds, and tubes of the front triangle of my bike. I personally see no outcome other than what is pictured above: I fully believe that the frame will fail at some point. I'm not completely comfortable with this knowledge, and have expressed my concerns to Yeti. They have asked me to continue to ride the frame and monitor it while they are working on a solution.
And now some armchair quarterbacking: I have a friend (don't we all right?) who is a stress analysis engineer for a large aeronautics company. He asserts quite a few theories on how or why this COULD have happened, JRA, etc. Stress risers from the rail mount, improper heat treating, imperfections in the hydroforming, even the welding process may be the culprit. He also has said that it is his opinion there is NOTHING Yeti could have done to test for this type of issue, aside from putting the bikes under riders and having them test them in a real-world application.
My opinion on that is this: with 2 years of production, several years of prototyping before that, and tons of digital stress analysis on the new tubeset, I fully understand how and why something like this could happen to a reputable company. As far as any of us knew, including the folks at Yeti, this year's frame was a hands-down winner and a vast improvement over the '06-'07 models. It doesn't make it suck any less, for them OR for me or anyone else who has a problematic frame. It just is what it is, and my expectations are that Yeti will do what is needed to "make this right" with their customers. My experience with Yeti is that they take ultimate pride in the Tribe, and cultivating DEEP brand loyalty, and will take this issue quite seriously.
Oh f**k, I shall go and inspect my frame then...
This is now getting scary.
This is now getting scary.
God it feel good being right! lol
I do have a few other ideas why this has happend but with out being up close and personal with a 303 I cant say for sure
I would start worrying when it/if it ever happen...
Just ride it and don't worry about it.
It will only affect you confidence.
Yeti bikes are awesome and inspire confidence,not take it away
Just ride it and don't worry about it.
It will only affect you confidence.
Yeti bikes are awesome and inspire confidence,not take it away
rule of thumb gents, don't believe everything you read on forums!!!!
How do you know if what people are typing is fact or fiction.......
How do you know if what people are typing is fact or fiction.......
I personally know Full Trucker. I live in the same city and on many occassions have ridden with him.
He is a man of his word. If what he's saying wasn't true, I guarantee he wouldn't have posted it out there.
EOS.
Thanks for the vouch, man - I appreciate it for sure. You up for a Bootleg trip this winter? I know the team will be going down at least once if not twice, but I'd like to get some winter shredding in with friends too!I personally know Full Trucker. I live in the same city and on many occassions have ridden with him.
He is a man of his word. If what he's saying wasn't true, I guarantee he wouldn't have posted it out there.
EOS.
No sweat. I'm totally in for a bootleg trip this winter. I'm sure some of the other guys on my team too. Hopefully Mike P. heals fast and is able to get back riding and can join in. Sounds like a good time. Bootleg rocks! No pun intended. :biggrin:
Oh oh oh I want to go!