Title. Recieved this damage on the crown of a new Fox 36 Perf Elite. Looks to me like paint peeling up from some kind of corrosive like DOT fluid or similar. I've emailed them to see what they say but wondering what you guys would be most happy with in this situation given the damage – do you think it's structural? Thanks.
by what-to_put_here
19 Comments
I’d want a new one
Hair dryer and see if that shrinks it onto the fork?
“Give me one that’s painted properly dammit”.
It is a mountain bike, just roll with it.
If you don’t really care about it see if they’ll make a deal to partially refund 🤷♀️ might be worth it to them to take 20-30% off to not deal with it
Dot fluid won’t do that. It won’t even stain paint unless it’s left to dry. It’s cosmetic but it could lead to corrosion underneath given time. You have two choices, live with it and fix it or get a new one as that one is defective. I’d go with two.
Send the pics to customer service and see what they can do for you.
Personally I wouldn’t care, only you will know it’s there!
What is Merlin? I am on a lot of bird subreddits too and I was quite confused lol
That’s definitely a paint failure but it’s not likely to be DOT or any kind of hydraulic fluid. This stuff is painted long before it reaches any assembly area where that stuff would be near.
At least it demonstrates the film strength is good, it’s not flaking, but it needs to stick.
Honestly that’s just powdercoating that didn’t adhere properly. You might be able to put some degreaser like alcohol underneath to clear the area and then hit it gently with a heat gun to tighten it up kinda like vinyl. It’s not gonna hurt anything but you could use it to get some money back on the cost of the bike. Maybe enough to be able to get a replacement fork
Is this one of the very cheap one with cosmetic damage? They were selling recently?
I really can’t believe you’re complaining about that. It’s a mtn bike not a piece of art you’re going to display.
Merlin is a discount house.
I wouldn’t mind if it where a mom and pops business, but big corpos want to charge premium prices, they must deliver premium products or take them back.
My 36 had bad paint in almost the exact same spot. I warrantied it and they let me send it in after the riding season was over. They just rebuilt my fork with new uppers. Basically got fork service for free lmao.
I’d try to knock 30-50% off and run it like that. It’s just paint
I would confirm with the retailer that it’s covered under warranty by Fox, if it’s grey market, which Merlin sometimes does, it may not be. If they confirm yes, or that they will honour the warranty period, I’d just ride it until it broke (if it ever did).
Do they vinyl wrap bikes? You might be able to hold a hair dryer on that and get it to tighten up…