Suspension stem fails on tandem gravel ride

[Jezrant]

Vlogger and wife come a cropper on their copper chopper when their USE Vybe suspension stem suddenly failed near the end of a 50km charity gravel ride in the North York Moors. Luckily neither was seriously hurt.
https://youtu.be/WklijtZCNLw?si=ANg0FIuc78p9DsLS

[Bonefishblues]

Would a tandem put more stress through the stem than a solo?

[Brucey]

nothing snapped, the bolt just fell out. It may have been pilot error; in any event it is probably the kind of thing a drop of loctite would sort out, if you couldn't be bothered to check it is tight.

[Jezrant]

Thanks Brucey, I've edited the OP accordingly. Not sure why you think it might be an error on his part. It looks like the pivot bolt fell out, which suggests a manufacturing fault rather than a user error.

[Brucey]

like most suspension stems, the USE one has elastomers that can be changed to alter ride quality. The USE stem has a choice of four. It is a pretty fair bet that the elastomer was changed for another one, but the bolt wasn't tightened properly afterwards. It is just a educated guess to be sure, but I think it is highly unlikely that the bolt would back out on a single ride otherwise.

[Jezrant]

While it's not very clear in the video, it looks like the stem's pivot bolt is missing at the end. Even if he had changed the elastomer, how could that cause the pivot bolt to fall out? Isn't the elastomer changed by removing the faceplate and bars? What does that have to do with the pivot bolt?