Any truth to shoddy Serotta work?

[jamesdak]

Saw this on a facebook page about a Serotta. First time I've seen such a statement, curious to hear what the old timers have to say about it.

"Maybe with a picture(s) that showed some details....not from on top of a ladder. I was a Serotta dealer. His frames were unbelievably hit or miss. Some were astonishingly poorly made. Bondo in the 'fillet' joints. Crappy, thick paint that started coming off in the box. I bought 6 for my team, all Nova Special X and had to send every one back. He ran into financial problems and was cutting corners in a huge way. His early frames were super. The Colorado series is still one of the most remarkable frames I ever rode."

Not trying to stir the pot but genuinely curious if this is truly part of the Serotta history. My experience is only with two of their bikes and they are impeccable rides still after all these years.

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by jamesdak

Saw this on a facebook page about a Serotta. First time I've seen such a statement, curious to hear what the old timers have to say about it.

"Maybe with a picture(s) that showed some details....not from on top of a ladder. I was a Serotta dealer. His frames were unbelievably hit or miss. Some were astonishingly poorly made. Bondo in the 'fillet' joints. Crappy, thick paint that started coming off in the box. I bought 6 for my team, all Nova Special X and had to send every one back. He ran into financial problems and was cutting corners in a huge way. His early frames were super. The Colorado series is still one of the most remarkable frames I ever rode."

Not trying to stir the pot but genuinely curious if this is truly part of the Serotta history. My experience is only with two of their bikes and they are impeccable rides still after all these years.

I have owned a ton of Serotta bicycles. One thing they were not is shoddy. This person is talking about Nova Special X bikes and they were out of production over 20 years before the company went under. Those pre date the Colorado Concept tubing and pretty much all of the Serotta bike innovations.

It is possible that there was a bad run of frames for this dealer, but most of the stories of Serotta in a negative light were based off of building road bikes for those who would have probably been better served with a hybrid through wonky geometry and having some poor business dealings with their dealer network.

The paint and craftsmanship of there bikes should not be in question. It was as high level as any bike to this day.


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[FlashUNC]

Andy Hampsten rode a Landshark at the Giro for a reason.

[Fixed]

Colorado 3 love
Cheers

[Louis]

I read on the Interwebs the other day that the earth is flat, and that if you sail too far you'll fall off the edge. I don't know if that's true or not, because I've never been that far in a boat, but that is a bit worrisome. Good thing most cruises have been shut down due to the C-19.

Speaking of COVID, I also read somewhere that it's just a big hoax designed to make our government look bad...

I've been a member of this forum and various other incarnations of it, from the "Original" Kahuna days to the Serotta forum, etc, etc, and even years later it seems like not a month has gone by without someone dredging up something negative to say about Serottas. Whether it was "it's a brand for dentists" or "they sure do build some funny looking frames" (when a picture of a custom bike designed for someone with very specific medical issues showed up somewhere on the web). You'd think that eventually this sort of stuff would die out, but no, like clockwork it still shows up.

[vqdriver]

^
Yep

[reuben]

Originally Posted by Louis

I read on the Interwebs the other day that the earth is flat, and that if you sail too far you'll fall off the edge. I don't know if that's true or not, because I've never been that far in a boat, but that is a bit worrisome. Good thing most cruises have been shut down due to the C-19.

Speaking of COVID, I also read somewhere that it's just a big hoax designed to make our government look bad...

I've been a member of this forum and various other incarnations of it, from the "Original" Kahuna days to the Serotta forum, etc, etc, and even years later it seems like not a month has gone by without someone dredging up something negative to say about Serottas. Whether it was "it's a brand for dentists" or "they sure do build some funny looking frames" (when a picture of a custom bike designed for someone with very specific medical issues showed up somewhere on the web). You'd think that eventually this sort of stuff would die out, but no, like clockwork it still shows up.

Still, they were pretty good for frames that were made on the underside of the world.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Andy Hampsten rode a Landshark at the Giro for a reason.

That was a tubing issue. True Temper had made a new tubing which was used in the 7-11 Serottas/Huffy's. They were prone to failure, and way too frequently. Framebuilder Richard Sachs was using the same tubing at the time and had a very bad experience as well.

[oldpotatoe]

I worked at a Serotta dealer for a long time and altho not a fan of Serotta(long story), I never saw one that was poorly made or had reliability issues.
And we sold a LOT of them.

[Jef58]

From the statement, 'built for his team' implies these could be made on the cheap to service a low budget race team. Is it possible these were just that ? Low budget builds to race for a season and sell off. I rode Saturday morning training rides years ago with a group of local racers. None of them would dream of racing their high end Serotta's, they rode basic budget aluminum. At that time, Serotta was as high end as it got unless you went with something like a Sachs.

[laupsi]

Actually, if there is one thing one could say about Serotta’s frames it’s that they were well designed. Two things, well designed and built. Three things, well designed, well built, well painted. I own 4 of them and can vouch quite confidently that the above statements are all true.

[jamesdak]

Well, seems like everyone has the same impression I do.

My CSI came to me dang near mint and it an awesome machine on the road. I recently picked up an old Nova Special that for years was a crit racer. It's got some paint scars from that but the rest of the bike is in great shape and shows top notch workmanship. It took me on one of my fastest rides of the year yesterday.

I replied to the guys comment's on facebook asking for details. I'll share anything more he says.

I had googled this question last night and all I found negative was more customer related type stuff from back in the day, not shoddy work.

[weisan]

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showp...9&postcount=11

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Andy Hampsten rode a Landshark at the Giro for a reason.

That is disingenuous. He rode a land shark because the tubing supplied by True Temper was cracking due to its super thin wall thickness. It was a new tube set and if I recall correctly it was demanded by the team because true temper was a sponsor. It was absolutely not the fault of Serotta and not due to poor workmanship.

[Elefantino]

Massive face-palm emoji.