For Forks' Sake!!!!

[ColinJ]

I was out this afternoon with CC forum members Alun and Svendo riding a gorgeous sunny edition of Spring Into The Dales when we encountered another cyclist walking his bike along a lane near Gargrave. We asked if we could help him and he replied "Not unless you have a spare pair of forks on you!" I thought that was a pretty cryptic remark and asked him what he meant. He pointed at the offending forks and all became clear...

Yikes!!!!!

He'd already done some 30-40 mph descents at gradients up to 20% on those forks. It was only when he was riding on the flat that he noticed that his mudguard was rubbing his wheel for some reason and the front of the bike felt wobbly. An inspection revealed the shocking truth! One very fortunate cyclist methinks...

Steel may 'be real' but it also rusts - check your bikes from time to time folks!

 

[Aperitif]

Fork in hell photo!

Just thinking about your ride Colin - after reading longers' message elsewhere...

 

[RedBike]

Pfft, looks ridable to me. Whats his trouble.
(Obviously not serious)

 

[gavintc]

He is a fool, there is rust in that fracture. One of the purposes of cleaning a bike is to to give it a visual check over for just this type of problem.

 

[trio25]

Scary!

 

[Lardyboy]

Good God, was he blind? Surely he must of seen the rust stains? Or perhaps he assumed it was the "patina" of the old paint?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Thats one old bike, the brakes look like the old weimen centre pulls. He's also one lucky feller, obviously belongs to the I will fix it when it breaks school of maintenance.

 

[fossyant]

Like Gav says..the evidence is there......

 

[Night Train]

A pair of jump leads and a 10 pence piece and a car battery and I could have welded it back together for him.

If he was one of the local cyclists here he could have ridden the whole route home on just his back wheel while wearing a black hoody, swigging a can of lager and yelling at his mates while on the wrong side of the road.

 

[Keith Oates]

One very lucky man, hope he learns from the experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I had a pair of forks go like that, but at the steerer tube inside the headset where I couldn't see the rust. The visible parts of the forks looked fine.

 

[gbb]

One very lucky man, hope he learns from the experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess many of us can.

With the exception of a few, how many of us truthfully inspect things that closely. Its easy to be critical of him, but i cant say i inspect my forks on my steelie. I think i will now

The forks were showing the signs mind...i'd like to think i'd have picked up on it.

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm with RT...I think some of you are being very harsh. This happened to me, but the corrosion had been tucked up inside the 'capping' (if that's clear) - totally invisible to the naked eye, no way of knowing it was there until it gave out.

 

[ColinJ]

I really posted this as a reminder to us to make sure our bikes are maintained properly.

The man in question was remarkably cheerful about having his day ruined. I suppose it was the realisation that having a ruined day was much better than having a ruined life.

This is one of the descents he'd ridden down earlier...

You can't see the steepest part of the hill in that photo. The road drops away at about 16% where those buildings are. Imagine having your forks snap off going down there!

Even braking, I did well over 30 mph down that hill...

 

[colly]

Scary.

It looks like the mudguard was the only thing stopping his forks from collapsing.