Giro de San Fran

From Ted:

Giant TCR

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

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.

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.

Giant XTC

Greg sent in these photos of a friend's Giant XTC. No word on what he did to it. These carbon XC frames seem disposable without the disposable price.

Broken Fork on a Giant OCR Alliance Comp

Peter just sent me these photos of his bike with the following story:

About a month ago, I had a minor spill on the way to uni and came off at just under 30km/h. I hit the ground quite hard and got some road rash and a chipped tooth. Apart from that everything was okay. I then got up to check the bike, and was absolutely amazed that the front fork had completely sheared in half, halfway down the fork blade. The top of the fork is still attached to the headtube and steerer, whilst the bottom half is still connected to the dropouts on the front wheel.

You can read the full story over at the Cycling News Forum.

Giant TCR Advanced 2

I received an email from Christian that says:

Here are some pics of my 2 month old TCR Advanced 2. I went into the back of a car that stopped suddenly on a roundabout. I was going only about 15 kph. Front forks snapped at the base of the steerer tube. There is almost no damage to the carbon frame except to the small area around the steerer tube bearing ring at the base of the headtube. I got 10 stitches in my face.

Ouch! That sucks. This is mostly a busted aluminum, but there is a small amount of busted carbon too.

Another Giant

We had a Giant a few days ago, and here is another one with a broken down tube.

Giant Cracks

After a few weeks off for Christmas, I'm back. My leg is still broken, and carbon bikes are still breaking. Today it's a Giant that is completely destroyed.