Originally Posted by
mpetry912
here's the failure. From what I could see in the video - it literally popped "while riding along". IMHO - the quest for ever lighter frames and components inevitably will lead to (some) structural failures. Remember that racers get new bikes every season ! Maybe every race! but carbon fails catastrophically where even the cracked and bent frame posted by Cuda above was still rideable - would not have dumped it's rider on the pavement.
I'm reminded of the failure of Artemis Racing's America's cup yacht - it literally exploded. Boats and bikes have high concentrations of stress - unlike an aircraft stabilizer for example - and there are some limits in the finite element models that validate the designs.
Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA
Was the corpse of the rider that bike took out in the big red & white bag?
Originally Posted by
since6
Ah, add weight to get to the 15lb limit, that's what the batteries and electric motor are for, ballast!
It all makes sense.
I think it's called "the racer's edge"?
Brilliant! What an ingenious use for those old dead Lithium-Ion fire hazard batteries, bicycle ballast!
