Ritchey WCS compact FAILURE

Yup... well, it was the Pro version but similar enough. It is a common
problem.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Lance R said:

I'm wondering if anyone ELSE has experienced a failure of a Ritchey WCS
compact
crankarm?

Failure, as in snapped IN HALF.

No experience. But just recently saw the photo of on a forum of a guy's
Dura Ace crank snapped in half. The other side also found to have
serious crack when examined.
--

Lance R said:

I'm wondering if anyone ELSE has experienced a failure of a Ritchey WCS compact
crankarm?

Failure, as in snapped IN HALF.

never seen that. i had issues with my ricthey wcs wheels, the rims
started breaking over the spoke joint. not happy about it, but i guess
they are not super high end topolino wheels
carlos
www.bikingthings.com
ride fast, get fit, be happy

In article <[email hidden]>,

Lance R said:

I'm wondering if anyone ELSE has experienced a failure of a Ritchey
WCS compact crankarm?

Failure, as in snapped IN HALF.

Cranks snapping in half is not exactly an unknown phenomenon. Here are
photos of at least 29 broken cranks:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html

And a few more:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-009/000.html

A couple more:

http://www.m-gineering.nl/oopsg.htm

Breaking cranks is a dangerous event, since it usually happens when
you're grinding away out of the saddle. I hope you didn't get hurt.

Quoted message said:

Cranks snapping in half is not exactly an unknown phenomenon. Here are
photos of at least 29 broken cranks:

Perhaps you need to go back read my post for comprehension this time.

First of all I am not so naive as to think I was the first person to ever break
a crank, and secondly, I came on to this group to make a specific query about a
specific product, and you send in references to what looks like cranks from the
70's and 80's. TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to my post.

Please don't waste my time or anyone else's who may be interested in this thread
by responding with dated and/or redundant information.

Lance R? said:

Quoted message said:

Cranks snapping in half is not exactly an unknown phenomenon. Here are
photos of at least 29 broken cranks:

Perhaps you need to go back read my post for comprehension this time.

This is Usenet, not a formalized debate or exam. Not every reply is
going to EXACTLY address the question asked. Thread drift will occur, so
learn to deal with in.

Quoted message said:

First of all I am not so naive as to think I was the first person to ever break
a crank, and secondly, I came on to this group to make a specific query about a
specific product, and you send in references to what looks like cranks from the
70's and 80's. TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to my post.

So what? Maybe Tim's post was of general interest to other readers of
this group.

Quoted message said:

Please don't waste my time or anyone else's who may be interested in this thread
by responding with dated and/or redundant information.

Cranky are we (pun intended)?

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"Localized intense suction such as tornadoes is created when temperature
differences are high enough between meeting air masses, and can impart
excessive energy onto a cyclist." - Randy Schlitter

Lance R said:

I'm wondering if anyone ELSE has experienced a failure of a Ritchey WCS compact
crankarm?

Failure, as in snapped IN HALF.

Breakage of lightweight components is to be expected, especially when
the one using them is not a lightweight. Ritchey cranks are neither
the best nor the worst in mitigating the shortcomings of their
lightweight design. If you don't want to break any more cranks, use
some of a proven, conservative design that weigh more, or are known to
be made of a stronger material, than the ones you broke.

Usually these events are a result of highly stressed parts in
combination with materials flaws or design flaws that wouldn't have
caused failure if the parts hadn't been so highly stressed.
Manufacturers shouldn't make weak, flimsy parts for public
comsumption-- but by the same token, cyclists shouldn't buy very
lightweight, inexpensive parts and expect them to last indefinitely
when ridden hard.

There's nothing off-topic about posting a link to Pardo's pictures of
broken cranks. Surely many of them failed for the same reasons that
your crank failed. If you send Pardo some decent pictures of the
broken cranks at issue, he'll probably add them to his page.

Chalo

Lance R said:

Quoted message said:

Cranks snapping in half is not exactly an unknown phenomenon. Here are
photos of at least 29 broken cranks:

Perhaps you need to go back read my post for comprehension this time.

First of all I am not so naive as to think I was the first person to ever break
a crank, and secondly, I came on to this group to make a specific query about a
specific product, and you send in references to what looks like cranks from the
70's and 80's. TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to my post.

Please don't waste my time or anyone else's who may be interested in this thread
by responding with dated and/or redundant information.

Not at all irrelevant - Many of the pics on that site are of '70s
cranks that share the Ritchey's scooped-out I-beam design. It shows
that such removal of material was as vulnerable a design then as it is
now.

Oh, and did yours fail on the drive side, or non-drive side? That's
some pretty important info. On the drive side, if it snaps literally
in half, I'd suspect stress risers caused by scratches on the back of
the arm, caused by a misadjusted FD.

Hank Wirtz said:

Oh, and did yours fail on the drive side, or non-drive side? That's
some pretty important info. On the drive side, if it snaps literally
in half, I'd suspect stress risers caused by scratches on the back of
the arm, caused by a misadjusted FD.

Wouldn't it be nice if life was so easy? However:
www.m-gineering.nl/oopsg.htm

(4 down)

--
/Marten

info(apestaartje)m-gineering(punt)nl