Have any issues ever developed with the Z1/Z2/Z3 Ti dropouts bonding to the carbon stays?

Apparently Ti dropouts suit carbon better than aluminium as Ti doesn't expand or contract with different temperatures...according to Craig Calfee...

No idea about Parlee...

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster..." - Greg Lemond

"Because technology alone is a poor substitute for experience." - Richard Sachs

I know of a Z2 that came unbonded. Huge apologies from Parlee, return of frame, sorted, re-finished and returned good as new. Was only an 18-month old frame too.

It happens - how the company responds and deals with it is what determines whether or not it's an issue.

The guy that own my z3 had a dropout come unbonded- but that was probably after 70k miles.
Parlee happily repaired and refinished frame for free.

I have heard of one incident myself on a 2005 frame. I was also told how quickly Parlee jumped in and fixed it which is consistent with what you all are saying.
I demoed the Z5 and found it remarkable but it's the custom Z3 I've got my sights on. Thanks for the replies.

What in the world... I am truly surprised by how many accounts there are of this happening. Obviously is some sort of manufacturing (bonding) or design flaw through choice of material.

Compared to the number of big brand bikes that fail I'd say percentages are still lower.

Ask a specific question and you'll get a specific answer - simple logic really.

Parlee's customer service

Strikes quite a contrast to some recent examples from other companies on here...

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Baum Ristretto, Baum Mondrian Corretto & the '89 Merckx! | "If you could eat it in one sitting, hold your line." | twitter.com/Tinea_Pedis

@Tinea Pedis

Very tactfully put. Unfortunatelly, price alone is not representative of the product quality and service when problems arise the customer is getting. Thankfully, access to internet and forums as this allow the potential for the dilution of the kool-aid that has been going around for a while.

If by kool aid you mean the folks that constantly come in to bitch about / make mountains out of mole hills, you would be right...

In this case, there are a huge volume of Parlee bikes on the road and 2 people heard about issues and one person had a second hand issue, all taken care of very well...

For my purposes, I've seen a dozen bikes with unbounded drops... None Parlee and all taken care of except the one china direct frame that also had a cracked fork crown.


Parlee have so few issues they don't even need to have an employee dedicated to it, so when something does pop up it's kind of a special occasion...

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charles@pezcyclingnews.com

@charlesM

my comment refers to the "other companies" Tinea Pedis mentioned and NOT to Parlee. It appears it has been demonstrated over the years that the service Parlee offers is exemplary.

The kool-aid comment refers to the general hype that may be influencing people in procurring certain makes on a "me too..." approach expecting the next best thing next to sliced bread without realizing its not longevity but aimed purpose that may be differentiating these bikes on what they were made to do. So when things break or, in this case, get unglued either because of inadequate bonding or use of suspect dropout material and the fix is not covered under the short term waranty which may have expired then, of course, they get pissy.

I do not want to flame parlee, but one of the few advantages if being a smaller company if that you can concentrate on product assembly better than the big brands that pump hundreds of frames a week or month.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

I'm struggling to think of any brand at all that I've not seen develop an issue.

Parlee's are hand made, and humans make mistakes. Parlee's humans make very, very few, and their QC must weed out the vast majority of those. Leaving 5/8ths of FA that make it to the world.

It sounds likely the bonding agent may have had a bad batch, given the reports seem to date to a tightish time frame.

I worked for a small company. Issues still occurred.

One was with a specific, small, batch of Ti. Had a defect, we did not pick it up and it created an issue. Large or small scale production would not have stopped it from happening.

Edit to add, was only once the tubing was put to use in a bicycle we were even aware of the defect. It was that small. Was still fixed as new.

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Baum Ristretto, Baum Mondrian Corretto & the '89 Merckx! | "If you could eat it in one sitting, hold your line." | twitter.com/Tinea_Pedis

It's a manufacturing process so issues will occur. The important things IMO are a) is the same issue consistently happening b) how many happened until discovered and c) is the maker standing behind the product and takes care of the fix or is hiding behind a short term warranty that may have recently expired?