Bike fell apart....

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Kaelyn

Regular
....with me on it D:

Whilst going down a small hill out of work I braked and the handlebar stem came loose from the bike causing me to lose all steering control and the front wheel to go sideways making a very effective immediate brake, unfortunately the back wheel still wanted to keep going and the bike flipped over forwards down the hill.

hit the ground hard with my knees then my hands (still holding onto the detached handlebars!) then going down onto my right side, all of this whilst there was a parent of a child I look after from my nursery in a car behind me! She came rushing out of her car and I was still rolling around on the floor in agony still, I remember looking at the bike and swearing then I stood up and didnt feel that bad, mostly just really shaky. She helped me back to the nursery where I locked up both parts of my bike and explained to my boss what had happened and to ask her for a lift the next morning, a friend gave me a lift home and thats when the pain really started kicking in.

Severe bruising to both knees, a deep bruise on my right thigh which I'm assuming was caused by going down heavily onto my set of lock keys in my pocket, skinned and bruised right elbow and scuffs to hands and fingers, my helmet get cracked but fortunately I appeared to have not suffered at all from that. Unfortunately my left knee got increasingly more painful and swollen through the night which I assumed was because its my knee I have previously injured so I was just feeling it more so I just tried to limp through work the next day. my manager insisted I went to accident and emergency after she saw the pain I was in and thats where I ended up for 3 hours.

After being strapped into a knee immobilser over the weekend I went to the fracture clinic on the Monday and was kitted out with crutches and sent for an MRI and told to keep the brace on for another two weeks until I went to the fracture clinic again for the results. Fortunately there was been no permanent damage but I have sever bone edema in my knee and require physio for it in two weeks time, until then I'm still stuck in the brace and crutches so I'm definitely off work until then, 4 weeks off is horrible after not having a sick day for 7 years D:

The bike itself I purchased in November from a new bicycle shop that opened in the next town but due to the weather I barely rode it until the end of January so I had not put it in for its 6 week service yet. I am just wondering if this is a part that can work loose over time and if it is something I should check before each ride? The bike was already built in the bike shop when I purchased it and they supplied me with a check sheet stating they had checked that the stem bolts were tight and since then I hadn't adjusted it as I was sized for the bike in the shop so I have no idea what has gone wrong.

The bike is: http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/momentum-open-frame
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
That sounds like a complete nightmare, handlebars coming loose, all I can say it could have been worse but is very scary to even contemplate it.

Everything works loose eventually but not within such a short time and not such a vital component.
I would make a serious complaint to the shop where you bought it and consider suing them for selling a new bike in such a dangerous condition.
 

cisamcgu

Legendary Member
Location
Merseyside-ish
Sounds nasty - hope you get better soon. I wouldn't have thought that a stem should work loose from the headset, but I am no expert. Otheres will have a much better opinion than I
 

carolonabike

Senior Member
Location
Boldon
Ouch, that sounds really nasty and you were lucky it wasn't much much worse. You have my sympathy.

I'm no expert in bike mechanics but even to me that sounds like it wasn't put together properly. There's no way it should just come away like that. I would definitely go back to the shop.

Oh and welcome :hello:
 

Rouge Penguin

New Member
Location
East Berkshire
Where there's blame, there's a claim!!

On a more serious note, I would re visit the lbs while still immobilised with the check sheet and speak to the manager. Sounds like it wasn't tightened properly as I've never had anything like that in 20 odd bikes.
 
Never heard of a stem working loose. My advice would be either to get someone with a lot of bike knowledge to look at it [don't adjust anything meanwhile] or another bike shop and then confront whoever sold it to you. Many years ago I picked up a new bike, didn't give it the once over as I usually do and crashed because the chainset hadn't been tightened. To cut a long story short I took it back and got over £100 pounds worth of bike stuff as compensation. Also take someone knowledgeable with you when you take the bike back if possible. Good luck.
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
In your link it looks like an adjustable quill stem/threaded headset. Whilst the headsets on those can come "loose" and cause juddering when applying the front brake, it doesnt cause the handlebars to separate from the bike or so stop turning the fork. There is a single long bolt that goes down vertically through the stem (usually with an allen key socket at the top). These bolts do not "work loose" IME. If they are not tightened enough it is theoretically possible to find the fork not turning as much as the handlebars but even that is rare and consequences not as dramatic as your experience. More usually you'll find that handlebars and forks are out of alignment as a result of some knock or other, but it's a smple matter to loosen the bolt, re-align and re-tighten the bolt.

Is it possible that someone could have deliberately loosened that bolt right off while your bike was unattended? Would you have turned the handlebars at all before you got to that hill ? That amount of looseness have been noticeable I would have thought even moving the bike away from stand or wall.

TBH what you describe sounds to me like fracture of that long bolt (also called an expander bolt). I've never heard of that happening, but I wonder if it may have been overtightened by the shop.... (a feat I have never managed) and then failed suddenly in fatigue.
 
OP
OP
K

Kaelyn

Regular
I don't have to make any turns on my bike until I turn to go down the hill that it became loose on, it is doubtful that anyone tampered with the bike as I work at a nursery in quite a remote location and the bike is parked under the fire exit right next to the room I work in.

I didn't notice any looseness on the way to work, I will be getting the bike checked over properly to see if there is a fault that caused this and to make sure nothing got damaged badly in the accident, from what I can see I only have a bit of scuffing on the seat and the bar ends I added got trashed when I hit the floor, at least it was those that hit the gravel and absorbed the impact and not my hands!

I'm still quite shaken from the whole thing, if it had happened on one of the other two much longer hills I go down on the way home or if there was a car directly behind me I wouldn't have been so lucky.

Would it be worth approaching the bike shop about it? I thought as it is technically a user adjustable part then I wouldn't have much of a case against them.
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
It's the bike shops responsibility to ensure it was road worthy, it sounds like it wasn't in your case.

If you have not touched that part and you have ridden it very much then the bike shop is still totally responsible.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
Apart from what Pete deduced, perhaps there are a couple of other possibilities. One is that the stem and expander bolt used are too long for the steerer/headtube, which meant the expander bolt wouldn't have been able to bite correctly despite being tightened, and braking downhill as mentioned worked it loose. Sheldon specifically warned about this here.

The other possibility, although you did not specifically say so, is that the stem actually fractured at the handlebar. This is not unknown, some examples are here.

Glad you are still in one piece. It is worth taking photos of everything you think might be needed to make the appropriate claim. In a case like this if the fault lies with the shop, I would certainly expect compensation to consist of a new bike (or its cost when new) as well as a suitable amount for other financial losses and the pain and suffering caused.
 

the snail

Guru
Location
Chippenham
Hope you get well soon Kaelyn. I think you should take legal advice asap, as it seems to me the shop was very likely at fault, and if so you should be compensated, and it's not impossible that you could suffer further complications. I would leave the bike as it is and talk to a solicitor.
 
Ouch sounds nasty!

I've the same (or similar) adjustable quill stem on my Ridgeback Velocity and in the four years I've had it I've never had a problem with any of the bolts comming loose.

In theory if the clamp at the end of (held together by two allen bolts) was extremely loose or bolts were damaged the bar could detach from the stem but I'am bemused how that can happen after such a short period of time and you would have certainly noticed it on your ride to work.
 

chris-s

New Member
Location
Truro
Ouch! That hurt just imagining it, hope you get better soon.

Chris

(Off to check handle bars are tight after I adjusted them this morning....)
 

soulful dog

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
Ouch, hope you get on ok recovering from what sounds like a quite nasty fall.

Definitely sounds like a good idea to:

a) get the bike checked over by another bike shop/mechanic

b) take photos of the bike

If it was some kind of fault, I'd imagine a bike shop should be able to spot that? If there isn't any noticeable fault, maybe they'll argue it must have been tampered with?
 
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