No Carbon Wednesday: Bone

No bike today. It's my leg. I'm off the bike for six weeks.

Chain Damage

This one is my own bike. What you see is the damage caused by dropping the chain. A short time later the water bottle mounts pulled out of the frame. After being replaced under warranty, this frame went to the secret carbon graveyard.

Broken Carbon Forks

Not the best photo, you're going to have to look closely. One of the fork blades is still on the wheel. The dropout is missing from the remaining fork blade. 

Cracked Frame

Cracks in a carbon frame, as a result of crash.

No Carbon Wednesday: Litespeed Titanium

Titanium does not break. It lasts forever. This is a fact.

Shelley the Republican runs over a Bianchi

Apparently Shelley the Republican ran over this Bianchi with her Hummer and offered to replace it with a Huffy. It's a good read. 

Carbon Bars

I have so many photos of broken carbon bars. All the photos are pretty much the same, except this one shows some interesting detail. 

No Carbon Wednesday: Cannondale R700

The carbon fiber apologists have been complaining. They want to see some broken aluminum, steel and titanium bikes as well. To make them happy I've started "No Carbon Wednesday." I'll start things off with the king of the aluminum bike: Cannondale. This R700 is in rough shape.

Improvise!

What are you going to do when you are out in the wilderness and you break your bars? Improvise - just jam a stick down the remains of your bars and you are good to go.

Pinarello F4:13

Pinarello is known for their crazy looking frames. But this F4:13 looks extra crazy with an extra bend in the top tube and the down tube.

Merida Needs More Glue

This Merida mountain bike came apart during a race. It looks like it could be fixed with a bit of glue and some duct tape.

Easton Bars

I don't know how you break both sides of your bars off. Not from any normal crash.

Carbon Steerer

Once again, the steerer breaks. I'm guessing a crash in a race, judging by the number on the bike.

Tinker Juarez gets doored

Tinker Juarez got hit by an opening car door while doing about 22 mph. He's ok, but his bike isn't. 4 inch crack in the top tube. The complete story is on his blog.

Look at the forks

Oh my, another broken Look.

Edit: Update from Russ:

That's my bike. 

Crash happened descending the Tourmalet when I misjudged a corner. Ended up going into a ditch as the 'safest' option. Front wheel hit the end of the ditch, ripped the wheel and forks off and I did a forward roll over the bars. 

Walked away without an injury, the bike needed a bit of work. 

Wow, glad you are ok.

Carbon Bars on a Track Bike

The bizarre angle of the bars makes this look like the result of a crash. The Look frame appears to be ok, which is good news.

Dolan Frame Issue

The issue here is that the frame is now in two pieces.

The steerer, again!

After a crash resulting in a broken steerer, this fork found a new life as a desk ornament.

Broken Pedalforce RS2

Dave sent me a photo of his bike and he says:

I saw your website yesterday and thought you might like to see the attached image. It is a photo of my broken and much loved Pedalforce RS2 whcih is sadly hanging in the garage awaiting its end. I was in a road race in England when a rider in front of me touched wheels with someone else and fell onto my front wheel; I went down hard breaking a collarbone. The bike as relatively undamaged the only broken parts where the top tube, the saddle and the forks. The forks did not break but the bond between the steerer and the crown broke. The bike went upside down on impact , when the saddle hit the road the force stretching the tube resulted in it almost breaking, there are a few strands holding it together, though the frame still feels very stiff.

Ouch. It was a beautiful bike, but I'm glad he's ok. 

Spinergy Rev-X

The infamous Spinergy Rev-X. A number of catastrophic failures caused Spinergy to pull these wheels off of the market. This was in the 90s, before digital cameras were everywhere, so there aren't that many good photos of them. The Spinergy Accidents page only exists in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine now. Soon these wheels will be completely forgetten.

Bianchi with Broken Forks

Here is the story on this one:

This racer tried to sneak a right turn in at full speed, got his wheel caught under a pickup truck's tire, and snapped his carbon fork. I heard it from a block away and went back to help. He was dancing around in pain. Spectators were telling him he was in shock. He said, I'm not in shock. I'm in pain. 

Wilier Triestina Izoard vs Bike Rack

This bike was on a trunk mounted bike rack. Roof racks and garages must be the #1 killer of bikes, truck racks is probably a close second.

Ritchey Carbon Bars

Mountain bikers want in on the fun too. Broken carbon bars aren't just for roadies.

Cervelo Warranty Issue

This isn't carbon, but I'm posting it anyway. It's from a thead on bikeforums.net.

Please take a look at the attached picture where my bike frame broke (I am not going into the details of how this happened). Is this covered by the warranty? How do I go about getting this fixed? Will I need to buy a new frame?

1) Probably not

2) You can't

3) Yes

I'm not sure what he did to break his frame like this, and he's not saying. However, I'm pretty sure that Cervelo won't be replacing it for free.

Another set of forks

This time it's a Felt that has lost it forks.

Fuji vs Land Rover

Thanks to Stuart for this one. When a Fuji and a Land Rover meet at a 4 way stop, and the Land Rover doesn't stop, the Fuji loses. 

Triathletes Break Carbon Too

I've been getting a lot of traffic from Tritalk.co.uk so I thought I'd post a tri-bike. It's not just the roadies who are breaking their forks.

Unicycle

It looks like the carbon fork blades popped off of the crown. It doesn't appear to be a problem however, since a fixed gear bicycle without a front wheel is just a unicycle.

Look at the Seatpost

It's broken.

BMC Pro Machine

I don't know the full store behind this one, all the owner is willing to say is "car, wife and solid object = dead BMC." Such a beautiful bike, such a waste.

Steel Frame - Carbon Seatpost

The frame looks 20 years old, and will last another 20. The seatpost is broken.

Pile of Carbon

The guys at rideyourbike.com have a carbon fiber warning. This is their 2007 collection of broken carbon fiber that has collected at their shop.

Modern Art

Not sure what happened to this bike, but the rider looks ok. Just a little road rash. In the second picture I think the bike looks like a modern art sculpture. 

Mountain Bikes want in on the fun

So far I've just been posting road and cyclocross bikes, but there are carbon mountain bikes too. The owner of this bike took and old school carbon cross country bike and put a huge triple crown fork on it and started doing huge jumps and drops. Crazy. But even crazier, after he broken the frame, he just patched it up and kept on riding. Crazy.

Watch out for that Tree

Wow, today's busted carbon is crazy. When Ben was out riding, an Oak Tree fell on him. Amazingly, he's ok except for his nose and some bruises. His bike didn't survive, but I don't think anybody would expect it to.

A Warning to Others

This Stevens was on display at a crit as a warning to others. Judging by the greenery in the front forks, somebody took this bike on an unplanned off road excursion.

Even more Cyclocross

Since it's cyclocross season, I'll stick with the cyclocross theme. This time it's a broken seat post, but a broken seat post dosn't always mean DNF -- I've seen people finish a race standing.

More Cyclocross

More cyclocross means more broken carbon. This time it's the bars. Thanks to Adam for sending me this photo.

Don't sit down

Don't sit on this because it would really hurt.