Carbon MTB 2nd hand = No Warranty, Worth It?

[Bjorn881]

I'm looking at purchasing a Santa Cruz Hightower carbon mountain bike for Enduro second hand. Santa Cruz's policy is that the warranty on the frame and bearings is only available to the first owner, is the saving worth purchasing a second hand carbon MTB for Enduro riding? Does anyone have any experience with having to replace a Santa Cruz frame for which they weren't the owner?

[Jbr]

touching wood, I went through 3 second hand MTBS and 1 new + 2 second hand road bikes and never had an issue with frames. So on the long run I'd tend to say it's worth the risk, just take a close look at the frame for cracks before buying. If the previous owner rode the bike a bit and didn't crack/break, I'd assume then the frame is viable. He did the quality control for you

Edited January 7, 2021 by Jbr

[DieselnDust]

What Jbr said.

 

If the bike has been through the wringer then just make sure you insure it for replacement value and not purchase value

[Schnavel]

It's definitely worth it!

 

All of my bikes have been second hand - never purchased a bike new. 

 

Touch wood, but never had any issues with the purchased frames, and that's for around 10 frames.

 

As already mentioned, make you sure you give it a good inspection and insure it to the replacement value and you are good to go.

[DR ◣◢]

Insure, insure, insure. 

 

Better than having a warranty as it generally covers crashing your brains out as well. 

[Thermophage]

Insure, but at least with carbon, if it goes pop you CAN repair it. If an alu bike cracks...basically throw away, so plastic may in that regard be much better.

[BaGearA]

okay so there's this thing with Santa Cruz , Iv'e seen santa cruz frames that are so old the paint is flacking off and others where every single part is up to date but the frame is ancient 

 

 

but I've never seen A broken Santa cruz frame ( at least not in person ) 

 

Over the years I've grown to trust that their frames actually warrant the eye-watering prices just cause you'll likely never break it even if you try 

[DieselnDust]

Sometimes you may even struggle to get pivot bearings out