In SoCal reflectors (white or yellow) and visible from the front & rear are required riding equipment (VEH 21201(d)(3)) at night. The yellow reflectors on the pedals on my bike that meet this requirement have broken off and the company (Mukkpet) says that reflectors are not included in their "all-inclusive" warranty ("... All Mukkpet bikes are covered under our manufacturer's 1-year all-inclusive warranty ...") as it is considered a "wear" item. Can a company exlcude from the warranty parts that are required by law when the part is part of the original purchase package? This seems counter intuitive to me. Anyone else with experience here?
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
If you can't replace your pedal reflectors, you can still comply by wearing reflective or lighted hi-vis ankle bands. Zillions of styles on Amazon. I like the reflective LED slap bands in hi-vis green or orange.
What type of pedal are you talking about? Got a picture of said pedals? I like Odyssey Twisted PC pedals but they don't come with reflectors, so I purchased a whole bag of reflectors for those style pedals. I think they (reflectors) came from Stolen brand. I ordered 6 sets and Stolen sent me a huge bag worth. Amazon also sells replacement reflectors for everything known to man. If your pedals look like the old Shimano DX/Odyssey Twisted style I can send you some extras. I put a tiny bit of double sided tape behind the reflectors to make sure they stay secured since my pedals suffer from hitting/and being hit by everything. Reflectors are just another level of cheap insurance for me. Not required by law here but I still insist on using them.
I'm not a lawyer, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Short answer more than likely yes they can. The enduser is responsible for complying with the law, not the manufacturer. Manufacturers will comply initially so they can sell their product.
Since you also said "broke off" rather than "fell off" that actually sounds like "they were damaged (abuse)" rather than "manufacturer's defect."
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mobilejo
New Member
- Region
- United Kingdom
Of course. Wear items may be required by law (e.g. tyres) but if you wear them out, the warranty does not apply.
As said above, it is not the manufacturers job to keep your bike legally compliant - it only has to be compliant when they sell it to you. After that, you are responsible for maintaining it which can include replacing wear items.
The real question here is whether reflectors are 'wear' items - that I'm not 100% convinced of, but Mukkpet is not a brand who's warranty I would be relying on.
Before I forget since reflectors are the talk of the day. My RadRunner that I just purchased had all the reflectors in a bag, not on the ebike. The wheel reflectors are such a pain to install I just tossed them back in the bag. Rad probably saved a penny per ebike so the customer can say "This sucks, I don't care anymore." and not install wheel reflectors.
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