Quoted message said:Yes, I have a carbon frame/fork, however it's not a super-light/thin
one. The frame is a pre b-stay C40, the fork is a sturdy colnago street
with alloy steerer.
There is no visible damage or suspect spot but I'll show it to my LBS
just to be sure.
Please read below what I have selectively culled from the thread
"Carbon Fork Crack", from the posts of Mike Jacoubowsky, the largest
carbon bike dealer in the USA (Chain Reaction Bicycles,
<www.ChainReactionBicycles.com>😉, and especially, the very last one, by
treynolds. "If this sounds like I'm trying to scare some sense into
you, it's because I am."
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Has the fork ever been involved in a crash? Carried on a roof rack that
clamps the dropout? If the answer to either question is yes, then you
definitely need to look into things some more.
There are a *lot* of dangerously-weakened carbon forks out on the road.
Please, anyone reading this, use some common sense. If your bike had a
serious crash, *assume* that the fork may have been damaged. We've got
a frame in our shop... one of our employees... he ran into a curb, and
the steel frame buckled on the top tube and actually tore on the
downtube. The carbon fiber fork appears perfect. And I'll bet a lot of
people would take that fork and put it onto a new bike. But geez, that
fork was NOT made to take that kind of force without damage. Nothing
is. Common sense says to assume the worst, but again, I'll bet many are
riding on forks that have been through something like that, and think
it's fine.
I'd bring the bike back into the shop you got it from and have someone
take a look at it there. Hopefully they have a digital camera so, if
they have any questions about what's going on, they can forward photos
to the manufacturer. Even with all our experience, we still find
ourselves doing that from time-to-time, although we consider ourselves
fortunate; we've got a long-term relationship with the techs, engineers
and warranty people such that, if they tell us "That's the first we've
ever seen that", we can actually believe them. (This doesn't happen
very often)
Unfortunately, there are an increasing number of "JRA" (Just Riding
Along) fork failures... failures of a very serious, and sometimes
deadly nature... where it has been credibly determined the damage had
been caused by an earlier crash, which the owner didn't think required
attention.
The "next crash" may not be related to any impact whatsoever. It may
truly be a "JRA"-type failure, or at least seem so at the time. People
*have* crashed, severely. People *have* died. For doing nothing more
than riding on a fork that they thought was fine, but wasn't. If this
sounds like I'm trying to scare some sense into you, it's because I am.
Yes, present generation carbon forks are much stronger than the steel
and aluminum forks that came before. That can be verified through
testing. They work. The problem is that people don't understand that
they're not bomb proof, they do get damaged, and that damage may not
always be easy to find.
Common sense may save your life. If you've had a nasty crash, one in
which it's possible your fork, handlebar or stem took an impact,
replace those parts. Please. A failure of any of those items will lead
to far more excitement than you want.
It's not the failures that some expected to see 10 years ago... it's
the lack of failures that has caused the problem. Yes, I know that
sounds really odd, but I just don't know how to put it. We've been
trained, essentially, to think that there's not an issue, because it's
not visual.
The things people worried about 10 years ago weren't crash-related,
but rather true JRAs. Those (thankfully) haven't materialized. The
forks are very, very strong. And very reliable. We can say stronger
than what came before. But they aren't bomb-proof. They do get damaged
when impacted; people just aren't looking for it.
[email hidden]
Mike Jacoubowsky wrote: > ........
Quoted message said:There are a *lot* of dangerously-weakened carbon forks out on the
road.
Quoted message said:Please, anyone reading this, use some common sense. If your bike had a
serious crash, *assume* that the fork may have been damaged.
A friend of mine was killed when his carbon fork failed during a fast
descent on Thanksgiving Day, 2005. He had two high-end bikes, one of
which had been in a crash and he was still riding it. I don't know if
his crashed bike was the one he was riding that day but in all
likelihood it was.
Mike makes a very good point. Don't be like my friend.
Tom
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