Hi,
I had emailed the retailer (c r c) as well last night but wanted to seek independent advice as well so thanks guys for your feedback. The technical department has responded having looked at the photos and mentioned that in this condition it is unusable. c r c have offered to collect the frame and issue a refund or exchange. So kudos to them for their quick response and making things right. I will try again with an exchange.
Baalzamon wrote:Damaged in shipping, just how well was that headset area protected when you got it?
The headset area had about a 7mm foam sheet folded and wrapped around the head tube and other parts of the bike like chainstay, forks,etc. The box didn't seem to be damaged. The frame itself was in bubble wrap and a large sheet of thick cardboard to stop the frame from moving around in the box. So i was thinking it might have been dropped/knocked prior but I think you guys are correct that most common cause would be rough shipping.
twizzle wrote:And yet the paint wasn't cracked. I wonder how that was achieved.
There was a very faint paint crack barely noticeable. Talking to a friend he mentioned that it isn't an area of great stress usually the bottom of the head tube. You could bend it back but unlike steel it would lose integrity/strength if bended back and forth a few times plus the level of precision to make the bearing run smoothly might be a problem still (campag hidden headset). So I rather play it safe than sorry and relieved that it will be quickly resolved. Was getting excited about replacing the flat bar with a more racy road bike geometry which still accepted mudguards, a rack and panniers but happy to wait for my own safety.
But at least mine was a removable cup and it was clearly damaged prior to shipping as it had a heap of packing in it and around that area.