Snapped main frame - Dawes ladies bike

[fossyant]

I wouldn't worry about frames/components failing - can happen to any material.

Anyone see dan-bo's pics of his crashed cross bike..... carbon forks and a steel frame.... forks fine, frame bent....

TBH most of the pics are crash damage. I've mainly got steel bikes, but my daily ride is lightweight alloy frame, carbon forks and carbon seat pin..... do I worry...NOPE !

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

I wouldn't worry about frames/components failing - can happen to any material.

Anyone see dan-bo's pics of his crashed cross bike..... carbon forks and a steel frame.... forks fine, frame bent....

Perhaps the issue is not whether and what bike bits can get bent/snapped in a crash (they all can). I think the important issue raised by Crankarm's post is what parts/materials are susceptible to fail suddenly and catastrophically from even a tiny crack arisen from design, manufacturing, installation or usage; and perhaps more importantly how can cyclists be better informed and protected.

For example, we all know aluminium alloy is hard but brittle. Yet many stems sold and used today could have been much safer (with little weight or cost penalty) if they were better designed - see http://www.bikexprt.com/witness/product/stems.htm

The thing is carbon is still fairly new, but inevitably more carbon parts are being sold secondhand on ebay. Having bought a new Record carbon seatpost and read the instruction manual, it is not obvious to me how can anybody buy a secondhand carbon seatpost with the certainty that it has not been internally damaged by the previous owner. I also wondered whether new bikes with carbon seatposts always come with the manuals. Further, if such risks exist for seatposts, what about carbon frames or forks?