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How Orbea Mountain Bikes Can Offer a Lifetime Guarantee
By Hikerpro | July 29, 2010
The frames that come with Orbea mountain bikes are known for being reliable and long lasting. The frames even have a lifetime guarantee. It is this added value that keeps Orbea Mountain bikes a popular and respected choice amongst consumers. But surely it is a business risk to offer a lifetime guarantee? Not if you’re a company like Orbea that is adamant you’re making the very best product there is.
Orbea mountain bikes’ quality controls are known for being strict. They really don’t just test for legal compliance to European Norms regulations, but have their own strict set of tests. Bikes that can’t make the grade go back to the drawing board until they can. Only bikes that can reach the golden standard are sold with the Orbea mountain bikes lifetime guarantee.
First up of all the many tests that bike frames undergo at Orbea mountain bikes’ testing laboratories are static load and fatigue testing. In a static load test, a significant amount of weight is applied continuously to a particular part of the frame. During fatigue tests, a lighter but still significant weight is placed onto a certain part of the frame hundreds of times over. Such tests allow engineers to see just how durable and rigid the frames are.
Those tests are followed by frontal collision testing which resembles the crash tests performed on cars. Because mountain bikes are expected to perform continuously over rough and uneven terrain, they are also tested for their ability to withstand sudden drops. Once again, a lateral hit simulation then tests the rigidity of the frame.
Not only are the bike frames tested for rigidity but also for their ability to resist the effects of the elements, therefore they undergo corrosion tests. In these seriously rigorous tests, frames are kept in a chamber at 35°C full fo water vapour with 5% salinity. Only the frames which show no sign of corrosion after 1000 hours in the chamber are deemed strong enough to pass the test. Finally, every new bike frame material used by Orbea Mountain bikes is subject to sun deterioration tests under infra-red light. Materials which deteriorate in the light are sent back to development.
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