Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Racing in the Rain
Anthony Skorochod of www.cyclingcaptured.com posted a bunch of great photos from the Mengoni Grand Prix. I've done enough races in the rain to guess what happened. I recognize those expressions of pain. It looks like lots of road rash and broken bikes, but I think everybody walked away.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Zipp 404
Friday, September 25, 2009
eBay Disaster
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Principa Revolution
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Busted Seatpost
Friday, September 18, 2009
Cinelli Bars
As seen on Bike Snob NYC, it's not always the carbon fiber that fails; sometimes it's common sense. These are probably the world's most expensive chopped handlebars.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Giant XTC
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
No Carbon Wednesday: Carbon > Steel
I was sent this photo of a Jamis Nova that was crashed into a curb. The carbon fork survived, the steel frame didn't. My friend Jen did the same thing with a similar result.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Niner Strength Test
Chris Sugai, co-owner of Niner bikes, is trying to dispel some of the myths about carbon fiber. I'm not exactly sure what this video proves, but the fork does look pretty tough.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Exploding Ridley
Filipe just sent me this on Twitter. It looks like Jeremy Honorez gets pushed into a post and his bike explodes. Watch the YouTube video. His team has posted some news about the crash, sounds like he's in rough shape. Hope he makes a full recovery.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Another Specialized
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Specialized Tarmac: Before & After
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
No Carbon Wednesday: Sweat Damage
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Specialized Tri-Cross
Another submission from Anthony. This one is surprising because the Tri-Cross forks look a lot stronger than most cyclocross forks. I guess look sstrong isn't the same as is strong.
The poor guy who owns this Specialized Tri-Cross bike was descending a hill at speed when the fork suddenly snapped clean off at the crown! The guy was wearing a helmet luckily but told me that sometimes he doesn't bother! I reckon even as it was he is lucky to be alive!The bike in question was only six months old and had not been used off-road - in the way that the cyclo-cross style marketing of this model hints at. Only knows how long it might have lasted if it had been used off-road!!!! The guy took it straight to his dealer after talking to me and later commented that they'd taken it off him pretty quick! As an experienced mechanic I can honestly say that this is the scariest failure of a carbon fork to date!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Trek Madone
Chris sent me these photos of his 2007 Trek Madone 5.9SL Team. He says:
In sept of 2008 I was out for a ride in Seattle on the bike trail near the UW campus. I was riding eastbound through an intersection and was t-boned on the right by a northbound subaru (thank goodness it was a low profile vehicle). It hit my right pedal and bent the dura ace crank past the right chain stay. The left chain stay was broken as well as the seat tube. I was flipped onto the hood and the bike was punched out into the intersection. I also cracked my giro pneumo helmet but not my head. Aside from a few nice bruises and scrapes on my legs and some sore back muscles, I walked away from the crash.
Wow, he's very lucky to walk away from a crash like that.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Pinarello Prince
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
No Carbon Wednesday: Cyclocross!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Zipp Failure at Roubaix
Backstedt broke his Zipp carbon rims at Paris Roubaix, the problem according to Zipp engineer Josh Poertner was that he was running 24mm tires instead of 27mm tires. Full Interview.