Huge Crash

This one has been making the rounds on the internet on "funny image" websites and email forwards. No idea on the story behind it, but it looks very painful.

See you all in 2010 with more photos of broken bikes.

Non Catastrophic Failure

Sometimes carbon frames fail in less dramatic ways. Robert sent me this photo of his 2006 Time Edge First. The frame developed a small crack between the headtube and the downtube. Time had a new frame to him six days later.

Performance Scattante

Nhat alerted me to this photo album of a broken Scattante fork, no details other than "defective."

Aero seatpost on a mountain bike?

Jamie sent me this photo of his theme bike which uses as many components designed in the UK as possible. That included using an aero road seatpost in a mountain bike. Oops, not the best idea.

Rocky Mountain Slayer

Once again, I'm posting one of my wife's bikes. This her Rocky Mountain Slayer that she bought used from the Dirt Series. Second ride it tipped over and broke. Why do they even put carbon on bikes like these? It's not a cross country bike, weight just doesn't matter that much. Rocky Mountain was good about it, they replaced the part no questions asked.

Enjoy the carbon goodies you get for Christmas, and send me photos of them when they break.

Caloso and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Check out this thread on bikeforums for more photos and the story of how Caloso broke his bike in half.

Bike Rack Crunch

Here's one from Nic:

I was backing out of a parking space in a small parking garage of a San Fransisco hotel with my bike on a trunk rack when I hear a loud crunch. This is the result. Although I traded up for a Felt F1 for little money, it worked out for the best.

Double Busted Seatpost

From Mark:

I broke this Zeus carbon fiber seat post while transitioning from a golf cart path to the street. The uppermost fracture is from the event; while the lower fracture was made while extracting it from my Orbea Orca by my favorite bike shop in Peachtree City Ga, Bicycles Unlimited.

Crashed Trek

This arrived in my inbox recently:

Hi,

This is already from the end of April. But back then I didn't know your website yet.
This was a bit wide corner from my side...
...and the car won.

ciao,
Tonny (from The Netherlands)

Busted Dog

Marcus Burghardt hits a dog in the 2007 Tour de France and his front carbon rim collapses. Poor doggie.

Aerospoke

I'm surprised I hadn't posted an aerospoke yet, they are popular with the fixie crowd, and those guys break a lot of stuff. Luckily Stuart sent these photos my way.

Trashed Cervelo

Tim sent me this trashed Cervelo. I'm not sure where the front of the bike went, into the trash bin perhaps.

Orbea Alma 29er

Mark sent me a photo of his Orbea Alma 29er downtube after minor race crash.

Twice Busted Madone

Mark send me these photos of his Trek Madone. First the seat tube cracked and was repaired. Then 10,000 miles later Mark hit a pothole at 30mph and it broke again. The 2nd time Trek gave him a new frame.

No Carbon Wednesday: Cranks Are Still Falling Off

Remember when I reported there was a global pandemic of cranks falling off. It's still going on. Here's a report from Paul:

Here's a shot of my (insert brand here) bottom bracket that was kind enough to break off. What the photo can't show is that there's a crack extending up the spindle, too, right up inside the bearing race. And yes, that's a shard of BB spindle sticking out of the crankarm!

Giant TCR

This one is from Carol. "This is what carbon looks like after hitting the side of a car." No other details.

Broken Forks Redux

I first posted this photo on October 11th 2008, but I'm posting them again because I now have more photos and more details. Bob sent me a link to his blog, where you can read the full details of how he got hit. Ouch.

Busted Boat

Thanks to Scott for letting me know it's not just bicycles that are experience carbon fiber failures. This is Carl & Carol's boat after breaking the mast. To put costs into perspective, the mast is worth about 6 or 7 Trek Madones. Ouch, I always knew sailing was expensive.

Bicyclist hit by vehicle

Here's a story from The OC Register that Nhat alerted me too. A Jeep Cherokee hit a cyclist and the cyclist only has moderate injuries while the driver is in critical condition. That's an odd reversal of roles. Hopefully they both recover.

No Carbon Wednesday: Stump > Steel

Reid sent me these photos of his steel cross bike.

This just doesn't seem right, but I did indeed have to pay to have the downtube replaced.

How bizarre is that?

Bike Destroys Car

Ryan sent me this story about his friend Josh's bike.

The bike flew off of the roof of my car at 75 mph, shattering my rear window and bouncing down Interstate 95 in Maine, in the dark, on the way back from a crit in September 2007. The bike bounced into the road and got run over by a Mercedes C-class (my insurance company later found out that it punctured the oil tank of the Mercedes) and was totally wrecked. Luckily no one was hurt.

What had apparently happened was that Josh forgot to secure the rear wheel on my roof rack. The bike was facing backwards, and the carbon dropouts broke (they were still in my Thule tray!) and the bike went flying.

We collected the bike, put it in the back seat of my car (which was now covered in shattered glass) and Josh kept it in his apartment as a piece of "art".

Amazingly, the SRM survived the entire ordeal, and was in perfect shape, and lived on to be used on Josh's TT bike.

Zipp 303 vs Single Track

Quigley sent me this photo of his Zipp 303 that failed while he was riding his cyclocross bike on single track. Riding 'cross bikes on mountain bike trails is fun, but I can't recommend doing it with your good wheels, especially if your trails are anything like the ones I ride on Vancouver Island.

Broken Bars

My friend Dave spotted these bars in the basement of Oak Bay Bikes.

Carbon Fork / Disc Brakes

Photo from Alan:

Salsa Las Cruces CX frame built up as touring bike with hydraulic discs. Braking force separated the aluminum dropout from carbon fork blade.

No Carbon Wednesday: BMX

I've haven't posted a BMX bike yet. Luckily Justin sent me a photo of one.

The company did end up warrantying it because the first batch they made did have a few issues. Sometimes even heattreated chromoly fails especially when doing 360's to flat from eight feet up. Came out unschated luckily.

And yes, you can get carbon fiber BMX frames.

Another Victim of Cyclocross

Craig sent me this photo of his bars.

They broke in my hands after a previous crash probably weakened them. Separated shoulder and a new love of aluminum bars. Easton sent me a new replacement bar no questions asked. They are for sale.

Mountain Bike vs Truck

Here is a crazy story from Jeremy. I have no idea how he is still alive. I've suffered some pretty serious accidents, and even I can't imagine how much this hurt.

This happend a long time ago. In may of 94 or 95 I was trying to hit 60 mph. I had hit 59 but couldnt break the 60 barrier so I got road tires and a bigger front chain ring. I was young and dumb and tried it at night with no lights. A truck made a left in front of me this is the aftermath. It took a year and seven surgeries (two bone graphs) to get me back on my feet. Obviously this is no fault of the carbon, but 15 yrs later I still have visible shards in my leg to remember my first mountain bike. Now 15 yrs later I am still a bicycle messenger, and I love it.

Army Spring Classic 2009

Thanks to Tony for some pictures of the carnage at the Army Spring Classic.

Descending the Guaramiranga

Leandro from Brazil sent me these photos of his friends bike. He crashed descending the Guaramiranga for the first time. Luckily he only received minor scuffs. His "Pinarello Style" bike however did not survive.