Man who was paralysed sues Planet X for £10 million

[Fastpedaller]

Being new doesn't make a failure any less painful.

But it does make it more unexpected.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I've had two bike frames fail, neither were carbon and both were bought new. Fortunately no injuries.

Good luck to this bloke, but how will PXs never ending bankruptcy affect his case?

 

[I like Skol]

Happened to George Hincapie a few years ago. Apparently it was an aluminium steerer bonded to a CF fork so the join was the weak point.

Difficult to see clearly in the vid clip, but that appears to be the handlebars that separate from the steerer. Totally different to a fork failure.

It was a new bike.

There tend to be two kinds of failure mode in normal machinery. Either early on, sort of teething trouble, or later on after long service when wear/fatigue sets in. Failure rates would typically form an inverse bell curve (or bathtub curve) so a failure on a new bike would not be atypical.

 

[TheDoctor]

I've had two bike frames fail, neither were carbon and both were bought new. Fortunately no injuries.

Good luck to this bloke, but how will PXs never ending bankruptcy affect his case?

Should be down to PXs liability cover?

 

[Drago]

But it does make it more unexpected.

All the more reason to make pre ride checks a habit. Only the prepared expect the unexpected.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Should be down to PXs liability cover?

I'd have thought so, but if they haven't paid for it, is it still there?

 

[ColinJ]

I hope the injured rider manages to get a big financial settlement!

Cannondale had a very similar case with a CAADX bike, but in that case the unfortunate rider died. I have the affected model and have not ridden it since the end of 2019 because I read about a safety recall notice just as Covid was breaking out.

I failed to find a local dealer to fit a replacement fork. I must try again. The bike would probably be okay as it is but I would always be worried every time I rode it.

 

[Slick]

I'd have thought so, but if they haven't paid for it, is it still there?

The liability will be provided by whomever had the cover in place at the time, regardless of what's happened since.

 

[wiggydiggy]

The liability will be provided by whomever had the cover in place at the time, regardless of what's happened since.

I hope that is correct.

 

[bonzobanana]

It seems most brands have had carbon fork recalls but from what I remember reading the carbon fibre blades bonded to a aluminium steerer was a much more common failure than the full carbon fibre forks maybe 70% to 30% as an impression but the bonded forks often took time for the bonding to break down. Of course carbon fibre forks are hand made, layered etc so its something which can be great 98% of the time but then 2% fail which is enough to merit a recall. As a heavy chap I don't even consider carbon fibre but because of how forks fail and collapse the structure of the bike they are a lot more dangerous than carbon fibre frames. Personally I'm a huge fan of steel forks which have incredibly low failure rates and not bike weight obsessed so for peace of mind go steel.

There's a long history of lightweight performance bicycle forks causing injury and even death in fact there was a British manufacturer Viscount that used aluminium forks that were called death forks years ago with a steel frame.

The benefit of steel forks isn't just their strength and durability but they give good notice of when they are going to fail and if you get the fork design which has tapered tubes with a slight curve they offer good a level of flexing for comfort. Some modern steel forks are straight blade and don't really flex. They might be a bit lighter though.

Carbon fibre often has the cheapest nastiest manufacturing as its so labour intensive. Quest Composites who manufacture for Trek and Canyon and likely many other brands too have horrible cramped conditions and you can see clearly in this factory image from Quest themselves that the woman in the foreground is not wearing that protective hat properly and any dust or dirt that gets into the carbon fibres is like a cutting blade as the forks flex.

 

[Tenkaykev]

It seems most brands have had carbon fork recalls but from what I remember reading the carbon fibre blades bonded to a aluminium steerer was a much more common failure than the full carbon fibre forks maybe 70% to 30% as an impression but the bonded forks often took time for the bonding to break down. Of course carbon fibre forks are hand made, layered etc so its something which can be great 98% of the time but then 2% fail which is enough to merit a recall. As a heavy chap I don't even consider carbon fibre but because of how forks fail and collapse the structure of the bike they are a lot more dangerous than carbon fibre frames. Personally I'm a huge fan of steel forks which have incredibly low failure rates and not bike weight obsessed so for peace of mind go steel.

There's a long history of lightweight performance bicycle forks causing injury and even death in fact there was a British manufacturer Viscount that used aluminium forks that were called death forks years ago with a steel frame.

The benefit of steel forks isn't just their strength and durability but they give good notice of when they are going to fail and if you get the fork design which has tapered tubes with a slight curve they offer good a level of flexing for comfort. Some modern steel forks are straight blade and don't really flex. They might be a bit lighter though.

Carbon fibre often has the cheapest nastiest manufacturing as its so labour intensive. Quest Composites who manufacture for Trek and Canyon and likely many other brands too have horrible cramped conditions and you can see clearly in this factory image from Quest themselves that the woman in the foreground is not wearing that protective hat properly and any dust or dirt that gets into the carbon fibres is like a cutting blade as the forks flex.

View attachment 714762

That picture reminds me of when we had a visit by a minor royal. We were all issued with smart new overalls and hard hats which we handed back after the visit.

 

[T4tomo]

but how will PXs never ending bankruptcy affect his case?

completely irrelevant. They have public and product liability insurance, the claim being handled by the insurers, whose first course of action is always to deny liability, which they have done. it will either come to court in the fullness of time or more likely be settled before then.

 

[Kingfisher101]

completely irrelevant. They have public and product liability insurance, the claim being handled by the insurers, whose first course of action is always to deny liability, which they have done. it will either come to court in the fullness of time or more likely be settled before then.

It will be settled well before the court case. He'll get it but at the last moment. Insurers do not like to pay out especially vast sums. Very sad thing to have happened.

 

[T4tomo]

It will be settled well before the court case.

I like that you make a superfluous distinction between "before" and "well before" especially if action A (settles) happens action B (court) wont and hence there is no way of knowing whether it is merely "before" or "well before"

 

[Electric_Andy]

Happened to me with a new Carrera MTB, only about 50 miles in and the pedal sheared off. I hope the chap gets the settlement, for all we know he could have done checks and not found anything, and even then it's expected that a new bike should have already been checked for weaknesses