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Back in 2001 I bought a Specialized S Works M4 hardtail frame (the last of the US built frames). I think it was £700 which was a fair chunk of money at the time. It now has FOX Vanilla R coil forks with Hope four pot brakes on the front and another Hope on the rear (can't remember which model) plus Mavic disk specific rims front and back on Hope Sport hubs. Its running brand new Shimano Deore (XT?) (chainset, both mechs and shifters).
Anyhow, I've moved into a new home and the builders were looking after it while they finished off my garden (only four months after I moved in but thats another story..) Last night it got nicked so I'm looking for the current equivalent bike to replace it with - or at least give to the builders so they can pay me.
The S Works M4 was the top of the range hardtail at the time so I imagine its not going to be cheap to replace?
I hadn't ridden it in a while but I'd never sell it we'd been through a lot together....almost in tears here..
IIRC it was £2400 for the full bike at the time, with XT/XTR, SID forks and Crossmax wheels. Think the frame was £600. Nice frames, prefered the look of the 2002 M5 with the bendy downtube.
So you have several choices... you can ask for a top of the line bike, as you rightly identify that's what you had. The 2018 S-Works Epic hardtail is £8,000.
You can ask for a modern £2.5k(ish) hardtail, which in all honestly will likely be a nicer bike.
You can ask for something equivalent - ie an aluminium frame with some alright components.
Or you can say the residual value of that bike was probably about £300, so you can ask for a £300 bike.
Your choice really. All moot as I suspect the value was mainly sentimental.
How much was it insured for?
What have the builders said? Are they going through their insurance or looking to pay you as goodwill?
I think njee lays out your options or issues very clearly....
I won’t be claiming on my insurance as it wasn’t in my possession at the time. This only happened this morning so the builders are rightly very upset about what’s happened. I’ve said I’ll send them details of the bikes (my road bike went as well...). They are hoping that it’ll be recovered but we haven’t as yet talked about money. They are a big company (Keepmoat) so I’m happy it’ll be resolved.
If I’d insured it then it’d be a new for old type deal but I think I decent modern hard tail is a good compromise! But yes, I’d sooner have it back.
Well the plot thickens - turns out the sales people moved all my kit out of the garage so they could take some photos for their marketing brochures then didn't put it back in... Sales are blaming the site manager and the site manager is blaming sales. I found this out last night after a visit from the Police.
The running total so far is around £4600 but I can't find an equivalent frame to my S Works so I've currently priced it at the £699 it cost me back in 2001.
Any suggestions for a nice frame?
Doesn't really matter who blames who, presumably sales and site manager are part of the same company and shouldn't be involving you in their argument.
Hope you get it sorted soon.
Absolutely, they are all Keepmoat so one way or another they'll be paying me a fair chunk of money 🙂
Still rather have my bikes back though.
I don't really understand this . Was the bike at your new home or your old home and why were the builders looking after it ?
IMHO I'm not sure the frame is worth £700 but if they're going to pay (and they should) then it's a starting point. Fingers crossed for a swift resolution, rubbish position to be in.
I moved into my new house. Builders failed to do the garden so I couldn't build my shed to store the bikes. Four months later they still hadn't done it so they offered to take my bikes and tools and store them safely in one the garages belonging to an unsold plot. Thats where they were taken from.
The frame cost £700 when I bought it back in 2001, it was the most expensive one available at the time. I'd be looking to replace it with something similar.
Similar ride or similar price point? there will be heaps of stuff much better than that for a decent price these days
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/men/bikes/mountain/mensepichardtailcomp/128971
Do you want a racy XC hard tail? If not Orange P7, something from Bird, even an on one will have better more modern kit on it/
Decide what you want, the only place a 2001 S-works is worth anything is in Retro world, out of interest what was it insured for before you moved?
Shouldn't this all be done on the equivalent price now i.e. the cost of a 16 year old hardtail? 2001 M4s appear to sell for about £200 if you can find a retro buyer. What size was the frame? My mate has a small framed one he no longer uses.
FYI OP, £700 from 01 is getting on for £1100 adjusted for inflation today, so that's where I'd be starting.
And settling on a top spec spec Chizel (i think) as that's their alu racey geo bike du jour. By all means go for the epic though!
The frame cost £700 when I bought it back in 2001, it was the most expensive one available at the time. I'd be looking to replace it with something similar.
As per my original post, define "similar"? The frame isn't really anything special by modern standards, and it was 15 years old.
An S-Works Epic hardtail is effectively the evolution of yours, insofar as it's top of the line. I think you've got a weak case for that though frankly. That's like saying when you bought your Ford Focus it was the most expensive car Ford made, they now make a GT40, so that should be the insurance replacement.
A Chisel Expert is about the closest literal comparison - lightweight alu frame, fairly nice kit.
Alternatively something like a Specialized Epic Comp is £2500 (ie the same price as the S-Works was new), or the Epic Expert is £3800 if you want to factor in inflation.
Any of those will be a nicer bike than yours was I'll wager.
Shouldn't this all be done on the equivalent price now i.e. the cost of a 16 year old hardtail? 2001 M4s appear to sell for about £200 if you can find a retro buyer.
+1 Good luck getting £5k out of them - I really hope they cough up but from a nonbiker perspective they've lost a 16 year old pushbike.
Shouldn't this all be done on the equivalent price now i.e. the cost of a 16 year old hardtail? 2001 M4s appear to sell for about £200 if you can find a retro buyer.
The OP should be put back in the position he was before, and that's where the ambiguity lies, given he's not going to get another 2001 S-Works hardtail what is it that replaces that?
Guess i've just had a bad experience, my 3 week old rockhopper got nicked from work. I went in expecting like for like replacement from a meeting with the MD and came out 'happy' that he'd donated me £150 to replace it.
JEFF ROBERTS i still bear a grudge you ASSHOLE!
I'll be expecting new for old and if the old isn't available any more I want the modern equivalent.
The £5k is for the mountain bike, an almost new road bike (with new Easton wheels that had never even been ridden on!!), a compressor and a tool chest full of decent quality tools.
I'll be expecting new for old and if the old isn't available any more I want the modern equivalent.
The modern equivalent of an Alu hardtail - easy lots of them all worth less than 5k.
I remember years ago whilst working in a bike shop specialized used to give you this years "equivalent quality" frame as a warranty replacement, ie, a four year old rockhopper might be replaced with a new hardrock.
BUT
when it came to s-works bikes it was like for like, they never downgraded you due to the sworks factor, a stump jumper just wasn't an sworks, no matter how you dressed it.
So, I'd be going for a replacement sworks, if it's their fault it got nicked then it's not your fault they have to shell out top of the range money.
5k doesn't sound unreasonable for that lot . Good luck .
OP is this your builder?
http://www.mykeepmoathell.co.uk/
Be prepared for a battle reading some of the comments. FWIW though most housebuilders have a dedicated anti-barratt/dwh/persimmon...etc site
when it came to s-works bikes it was like for like, they never downgraded you due to the sworks factor, a stump jumper just wasn't an sworks, no matter how you dressed it.
So, I'd be going for a replacement sworks, if it's their fault it got nicked then it's not your fault they have to shell out top of the range money.
But this is nothing to do with warranty at all, and I remember customers getting new non S-Works bikes as warranty replacements, although I agree they often did keep people within the 'S-Works fraternity'.
It really isn't black and white at all. I reckon a Chisel Expert would be a good outcome for the OP. It's a better bike than he had, even if it's comparatively lower within the range. Other than a sticker on the downtube, which means nothing, he has zero claim to an S-Works Epic hardtail really. It's got as much in common with an S-Works Roubaix road bike!
Just a quick update - a check for £5300 ish has arrived from Keepmoat so fair play to them 🙂
Fair play. Like for like outcome.
Nice! So what you getting?
What’s the new toy then rockhopper?
Well I got fed up waiting for the cheque so I bought a Whyte 901 a few weeks ago, I’m going to bling it up with Hope brakes etc. I’ve replaced a few of my tools and not yet bought a road bike. No idea what I want really but it’ll have to have disks!
Can’t go wrong with a Whyte ime. I used to love my ‘19 team’ carbon HT. mint bikes.
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