2010 Madone 6.9 Pro: Busted Chainstay

This one is from Jeff:

Was riding at 6mph up a smooth hill. Stopped to re-seat my computer on bars. Started up again and heard a bang and lurched as the wheel started rubbing. Thought it was a broken spoke. Nope, broken chainstay. Was in my 34/21.

Annoying, but warranty should cover it.

Brian vs Minivan

Looks like his Roubaix lost. Hope he was ok.

Busted BMC & Hip

Brian sent me these photos. I have a hard time looking at them, looks very painful. He says:

Guardrail 1. BMC/femur: 0

Healed fasted. Rode Alpe D'Huez 4 months to the day of the accident.

Wow, he's tougher than me.

Specialized Handle Bars

Ted just sent in these photos of his handle bars. No crashes, just out of the saddle cranking and they broke. Lame.

No Carbon Wednesday: Cyclocross Destruction

One common theme in cyclocross racing everywhere is destroying your bike. I'd like to see carbon fiber do this. Thanks to Eric for the photos.

Wind vs Bike

I was just alerted to a bizarre story on bikeforums.net. Mr Quadzilla says:

It's really windy here today in Silicon Valley. I was riding to work. Going 25 (according to Garmin). A gust lifted up my front end. Seriously, I got lift, and turned my front wheel a little. When my wheel touched the ground the fork snapped in half, broke...

However it was really windy, windy enough to snap a cable on the Bay Bridge.

Repaired Carbon

Shawn of Ruckus Components just sent me a link showing off his carbon repairs and custom creations. You'd have to be a braver man than me to ride repaired carbon.

Giant TCR 2 Composite

Jay sent me this photo of his bike.

This happened when a Volkswagon Jetta suddenly appeared in front of me on my 2004 Giant TCR 2 Composite. I was going about 15mph when it pulled out from a driveway into the bike lane. There were bushes blocking the driveway, so I had zero time (five feet) to hit the brakes. I struck the front fender straight on at 90 degrees and CRUNCH the bike snapped in three places, one on the top tube, two on the bottom. I spidered the windshield, rolled off the hood and walked away unharmed.

Amazingly lucky to walk away.

Even More Cyclocross Carnage

Dave alerted me to this photo of Molly Cameron, North America's worst European Cyclocross racer. He got a beautiful Vanilla 'cross frame with a broken carbon handlebar.

No Carbon Wednesday: Empella Bonfire

In the second race after buying it, I crashed my Empella Bonfire SL and bent the chain stay. I replaced it with an Everti Ti-Fighter which should be almost indestructible. My friend Sarah shot this video which almost catches my crash. I'm in blue and I do an endo at about 7 seconds. Listen to the crunch.

Squished Carbon

As seen on slowtwitch.com, don't clamp carbon without a torque wrench.

Cinelli Aliante - Busted Fork

Rodney sent me a photo of his fork. He's not really sure what happened, one moment he's riding along, the next he's flying through the air. Bikeforums thread and more photos.

Easton EC90 bars meet Nissan Pathfinder

Nissan Pathfinder meet Easton EC90 bars.

Ditch Disaster

Pommi blogs about riding his bike through a small ditch (not sure why) and breaking the frame. Trek replaced the frame with a 2009 saying they'd never seen a failure like this one.

No Carbon Wednesday: Garage Door - Round #3

Garage door wins again.