mig wrote:what's the best way to check a handlebar?
inspect the surface for cracks, and check that it is still airtight (= no through-wall defects). There isn't much else that you can do beyond that.
cheers
mig wrote:what's the best way to check a handlebar?
drossall wrote:I commute into London on a folder. This happened last Thursday. I was riding past the station at home, on the way back from an evening meeting. I hit a bit of a bump in the road, nothing serious, so clearly the fault had been developing and that was the last straw. I had inspected the frame a while back, but not recently.
I once had a fork fail, but only one side of the pair, so (unlike with the above) I didn't come off.
PH wrote:I'm not sure it's the component that determines which failure is most dangerous, it's a very fine line between an amusing anecdote and a visit to A&E (Or worse) and it's largely down to circumstance and luck.
I had a handlebar break last year, it was the most frightening experience I've had on a bike. It was so sudden I didn't even realise what had brought me down, I think as it snapped the wheel turned sharply, I can best describe it as like hitting a glass wall. Luckily I walked away, though the injuries were so diverse it's hard to picture just what I hit where Even more luckily the driver going in the opposite direction was was able to swerve onto the verge and miss me. So I'd put handlebar failure in Brucey's Cat 1, except that I have since been inundated with others amusing tales of handlebar breakages...
mig wrote:what's the best way to check a handlebar?
mig wrote:PH wrote:I'm not sure it's the component that determines which failure is most dangerous, it's a very fine line between an amusing anecdote and a visit to A&E (Or worse) and it's largely down to circumstance and luck.
I had a handlebar break last year, it was the most frightening experience I've had on a bike. It was so sudden I didn't even realise what had brought me down, I think as it snapped the wheel turned sharply, I can best describe it as like hitting a glass wall. Luckily I walked away, though the injuries were so diverse it's hard to picture just what I hit where Even more luckily the driver going in the opposite direction was was able to swerve onto the verge and miss me. So I'd put handlebar failure in Brucey's Cat 1, except that I have since been inundated with others amusing tales of handlebar breakages...
did it break near the stem? quill stem?
mig wrote:what's the best way to check a handlebar?
pete75 wrote:When I worked in engineering we used dye to check fr cracks etc. It's available on ebay quite cheaply. You need a penetrant and a developer. A good cleaner before hand helps helps - trike is the best but it's not overly easy to get these days but most good degreasers should be ok.
drossall wrote:pete75 wrote:When I worked in engineering we used dye to check fr cracks etc. It's available on ebay quite cheaply. You need a penetrant and a developer. A good cleaner before hand helps helps - trike is the best but it's not overly easy to get these days but most good degreasers should be ok.
I've told this story before, but...
When I was a student, I broke a Zeus crank whilst riding a team time trial. Luckily I was on the back at the time. I was at Leeds, and only a short ride from Ron Kitching's at Harrogate, the Zeus importer at the time, so I replaced the broken crank. I must have had grazes and so on, can't remember, because my supervisor in the physics lab found out about it, and was fascinated that human effort could break a crank in that way. He was mostly a utility cyclist, but interested enough to have discussed bikes with me occasionally.
Anyway, he sent me off to a friend who lectured in mechanical engineering. This friend did a die test on the remaining crank, and assured me that it was fine. It broke less than a year later. Fortunately, this time I recognised the signs and didn't fall off.
Brucey wrote:most parts on a bike are unlikely to fail suddenly ......... The exceptions to that are
Class 2;
- seat pins
class 2 = some immediate risk of injury through the breakage, but you will sometimes (but not always) be able to bring the bike to a halt in a semi-controlled fashion, rather than come off it.