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!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Aluminum sheared right off!!! Holycrap.

Velocodger said...

Jeez- I thought the alu steerers were better than the carbon ones! Annnd...there is a recall on Felt cyclocross bikes equipped with alu steer tubes (see 'news' at bicycle paper.com)...is this a trend?

Anonymous said...

That's more like busted alloy. The crown and steerer are alloy and the legs are carbon (below the brake bosses). Scary, though.

Unknown said...

I just rode this exact bike across country with 30lbs of extra weight on it. Now I am glad that it was in panniers on the rear-end of the machine... My friend had the exact same bike with even more load on it...

TT said...

Another weak (aluminum) point in this bike is the fatigue crack initiating from vent hole in the end of chainstay. Lasted only 18000 km in my bike:

specializedtricross.blogspot.com

Not covered by warranty even though this is quite clearly a design flaw. Lots of Specialized Langsters have also snapped the same way!

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Anonymous said...

What year was the Tricross model in the pictures? I am second owner of a 2008 Tricross Sport.