Legal battle ensues between team Saint Piran and Raleigh over bike's safety design

According to reports from Cycling weekly. A dispute over the design of their bikes has resulted in a £100,000 legal battle between the British team Saint Piran and the French company Lapierre's UK representative Raleigh. Lawyers are being sought to resolve the dispute.

A sponsorship deal was signed with Lapierre by Saint Piran last year. But cracks started to appear in the partnership when potential safety issues with 60 bikes supplied were reported by the team.

Saint Piran claims that it was not a one-time thing, but there were 23 separate episodes that caused safety concerns. The team reported Seven fork failures, multiple replaced frames and 14 marked steerer columns were the main part of the concern. “Since September 2021, the team has suffered problems with headsets on the bikes regularly working loose and with frame and fork failures," read the statement released by the company.

But  Raleigh straight out refused to accept any problem with the bikes and blamed the team for not using the configuration of the bike properly. “The problem is not with design or manufacture but with over tightening of the bike's headset components by Saint Piran,” read the statement released by Raleigh.

In order to maintain safety, the team decided to source alternative bikes for its riders which cost somewhere around £ 100,000. The team sent a legal notice to the bike company to incur the loss caused by them. “Saint Piran’s lawyers have in fact, written to Raleigh on 22nd April 2022 and have since been in correspondence with Raleigh (UK) Ltd’s own lawyers. The dispute is ongoing,” said the team.

“Raleigh UK Ltd, on behalf of Lapierre in the UK, has previously responded through formal legal correspondence to the claim made by Saint Piran. Raleigh UK Ltd has responded to all allegations made by Saint Piran and disagrees with all points made,” Raleigh replied in response to the legal notice.

The company further added, “Given that Saint Piran decided to proceed down the legal route, Raleigh UK Ltd will only discuss the matter further through the legal framework outlined. Raleigh UK Ltd will not comment anymore through the media channels on this specific subject.”

“Given that Saint Piran decided to proceed down the legal route, Raleigh UK Ltd will only discuss the matter further through the legal framework outlined. Raleigh UK Ltd will not comment anymore through the media channels on this specific subject.”