Here is my dilemma:
I have a mountain bike that I bought about 8 years ago for about $600. I now have a crack in the seat tube just below the end the tube where the seat post goes in. I cannot obviously ride the bike since the crack almost goes around the circumference of the tube. I have called a local bike shop that is currently a dealer for this brand, since the shop where I bought the bike no longer carries them. The shop said that they would evaluate the frame to see if the frame failure was covered by the manufacturer’s lifetime warranty. Even if it is, it will still cost me around $180 for the shop to strip the bike, send it back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement, and then reassemble the bike with appropriate adjustments.

I am leaning toward buying a new bike for around the same price as the original bike since investing in this bike will mean being out $180 plus whatever time it takes to get the bike shipped, repaired, and reassembled. I remember many years ago when I broke a dropout on my old Trek, it took at least 2 months to get my bike back. Back then, however, neither Trek nor the bike shop charged me a penny so the wait wasn’t that bad.

Any suggestions?

Mike Divine