Man who was paralysed sues Planet X for £10 million

[Yellow Saddle]

What is your test for forks ?

I explained it in my post. Pull the front brake, sit on the top tube (side-saddle style) and rock forwards and backwards. A loose headset will come up as a click click, a fork about to break will make nasty noises. Then face the bike, put the front wheel between your knees and "steer" the handlebar hard left and right. This will reveal a torsional weakness and/or a loose stem. The latter used to be done routinely at races where marshals would randomly pick participants for tests.
It is very seldom that any bike part fails suddenly and without warning. However, not all people are mechanically sympathetic and can pick up these signals.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

You originally said that tests needed to be done 'regularly'. Quite hard to comply with that advice on a new bike.

Are you looking for a barney or are you just....nevermind.

Obviously you can't start living before you are born. Likewise with a new bike, you can only regularly test it once it is in existence.

Use a little bit of imagination.

 

[Ajax Bay]

https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-paralysed-sue-planet-x-insurers-ps10m-305347
This is a decent article as opposed the the OP's Daily Fail clickbait.
"Planet X entered administration earlier this year [so] claim "likely to be in the order of £10 million" against the company's insurers Arch Insurance (UK) Limited and Chubb European Group SE."

 

[wiggydiggy]

I couldn't find the original pictures I took of a frame fail but it was on this bike, rear end of the crossbar just in front of the seatpost. The frame actually failed slowly over time and I didn't notice as I wasn't inspecting my bike enough, and there was a light battery pack attached to the frame over where it broke. The pack actually ended holding the frame together until I had need to remove it and found the frame sheared through!

Replaced under warranty from Giant, who put extra 'Be Safe' (or similar wording) stickers on it when returned, thing is the bike was called a Toughroad so perhaps not that tough though the replacement was fine.

 

[bonzobanana]

lol If you think those are "horribly cramped conditions" I can only assume you've never seen the inside of a factory before.

Yes I've worked in a factory in the past but those conditions I have to say do look pretty cramped to me and the stools just seem to be small tables rather than actual stools. They couldn't get much closer. However in a previous job for a power tool importer I did see many factory images from China and most if not all seemed better than this but those people were often operating machinery, I'm guessing carbon fibre being so labour intensive means a high number of employees doing manual work and having to shoe horn a lot of people into a small area. I think I have seen worse when there was a report about a lot of people being killed in a fire in Bangladesh I think it was and being locked in the factory. The conditions there were pretty similar with people very close to each other which again was a lot of manual labour finishing off garments and shoes etc. The point of the image was more about the quality concerns about such conditions though.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Thanks for the interesting replies so far. It's helped me understand a bit more about bike construction and manufacture. I always check tyres and brakes but I would never think to check the forks for stress, which is daft really as it was bought second hand and could have had a hard life and a lot of miles on it.

 

[Drago]

...and even then it's expected that a new bike should have already been checked for weaknesses

It ain't checked until YOU have checked it.

And then you check it again daily.

Assumption is the mother of all foxtrot ups.

 

[bonzobanana]

I couldn't find the original pictures I took of a frame fail but it was on this bike, rear end of the crossbar just in front of the seatpost. The frame actually failed slowly over time and I didn't notice as I wasn't inspecting my bike enough, and there was a light battery pack attached to the frame over where it broke. The pack actually ended holding the frame together until I had need to remove it and found the frame sheared through!

Replaced under warranty from Giant, who put extra 'Be Safe' (or similar wording) stickers on it when returned, thing is the bike was called a Toughroad so perhaps not that tough though the replacement was fine.



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I think that is a common area for failure on all types of frames as the saddle post flexes especially at maximum height or even used slightly beyond maximum markings at the top of the seat tube. Some weight weenies even cut down their saddle posts to save weight which could damage the frame over time. Another common area is the bottom bracket area as a lot of flexing there and of course the rear stays both seat stays and chain stays. Typically the headtube area is rather over built so less of an issue.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I think that is a common area for failure on all types of frames as the saddle post flexes especially at maximum height or even used slightly beyond maximum markings at the top of the seat tube. Some weight weenies even cut down their saddle posts to save weight which could damage the frame over time. Another common area is the bottom bracket area as a lot of flexing there and of course the rear stays both seat stays and chain stays. Typically the headtube area is rather over built so less of an issue.

Yeah I had another frame fail in a similar spot, although it wasn't a clean break instead the welding on the frame started to fail. I spotted that earlier though.

 

[bonzobanana]

Thanks for the interesting replies so far. It's helped me understand a bit more about bike construction and manufacture. I always check tyres and brakes but I would never think to check the forks for stress, which is daft really as it was bought second hand and could have had a hard life and a lot of miles on it.

You can do visual checks for faults with carbon fibre but they are only surface checks and wouldn't give you the full picture of the internals of the fork. I think Luescher Technik who is an expert on carbon fibre does electrical scanning of forks, ultrasonic testing and tap tests to get the full picture for checking of internal cracks etc.

 

[alicat]

Are you looking for a barney or are you just....nevermind.

Obviously you can't start living before you are born. Likewise with a new bike, you can only regularly test it once it is in existence.

Use a little bit of imagination.

Have you noticed how patronising you sound....

 

[Ajax Bay]

Looking for a barney then! You'll need your 'A' game, dear.

 

[alicat]

Looking for a barney then! You'll need your 'A' game, dear.

And you sound equally patronising. Are you both cut from the same mould?

 

[Alex321]

Have you noticed how patronising you sound....

Not nearly as much so as you did with what he responded to.

 

[slowmotion]

That's a pretty scary story for someone with carbon forks.