dmanthree

Trolling? Really? So you think I asked my cousin to break her fork, go over the bars and end up in surgery to I could troll this forum?

Look, I don't know what really happened since I wasn't there. You weren't either. So while we can all make assumptions, none of us can state for sure what really happened. That's all I've said all along. And yes, it does look like something got in the spokes that caused it to break.

WhyFi

I don't know you, I don't know your cousin and people get weird kicks.

This is the first time that you've acknowledged the likelihood that something got kicked up in to her wheel. Every other post has been, "nope - she didn't hit anything." "Nope, the other riders didn't see anything get stuck in her wheel." "Nope, you weren't there so failure is a possibility." etc, etc. IOW, denying the most likely cause (by a large margin) in favor of perpetuating a mysterious JRA failure. Sorry, but that does seem a bit trollish.

dmanthree

Sorry, all I've said is that we can speculate, and I've never denied that anything is possible.

But please, "get weird kicks?" Are you for real?

WhyFi

Based on your responses, I'm feeling more and more certain that you're not for real... or you're super naive. Either way, not worth the time. Have fun. Bye.

Abe_Froman

That was my initial thought as well. If anything, the fork failing may have prevented an even worse crash. If the fork survived, the bike could have bucked the rider up into the air a bit higher and led to a harder impact on the pavement. With it failing, I would assume the rider just went straight forward and down, as if the front wheel washed out in a slick corner.

dmanthree

Sorry, all too real.

Duragrouch

Of course it's explained (if the rim is rigid enough and is impacted from the front); The rim is impacted and stops, unyielding due to rigidity. (Just the rim can be very rigid, and fully spoked it is more so, because as one side is impacted inward, the rim 90 degree forward and back (on top and bottom) resists the rim ovalizing due to the spoke tension.) The rest of the bike keeps going, most specifically the hub, blowing out the aft spokes beyond their ultimate tensile strength. But... aha... if the fork bent first, it wouldn't be stiff enough to yank the spokes. If the spokes broke first and the fork kept going into the frontal impact to bend the fork, the spokes on the front side would be buckled. I yield to your logic sir. I think there was something in the spokes. EDIT: Maybe. Just looked at the pic again, there's just enough spokes still on the back side to keep the front spokes from buckling. Tough call. No buckled front spokes, the aft ones aren't bent either.

edscott.

Nah. Those cheap plastic reflectors cannot cause a carbon fork to break and knock out all those spokes.

edscott.

The wheel is a 32 spoke variant. A squirrel won't fit into the space between the spokes (maybe a rat will, but who ever heard of that?). Maybe on those 20 or 16 spoke wheels a squirrel might fit, but the squirrel perpendicular velocity would have to be much greater than the spoke angular velocity to make it into the space between the spokes. Definitely something for a Marvel film.

cthenn

IT'S A ****ING ALUMINUM FORK FOR THE 100th TIME IN THIS GD THREAD!!!!! A L U M I N U M.

ussprinceton

I would try to sue TREK

downhillmaster

All the more reason not to use a carbon fork.
If this could happen to aluminum, god knows what the outcome would have been had it been carbon.
The OP would surely have had to donate a kidney at the very least.
Assuming he had normal kidney function, was over 18, in good health, a compatible blood type, and not a habitual drug user.

MyTi

I just read the first post which gave no indication of what material the fork was. But my comments still stand. So you are saying there is some kind of prestige having a Made in Taiwan sticker versus Made in China sticker lol. I want some of that Koolaid.

MyTi

The collision could have happened so fast she didn't realize what happened especially if she is going at a decent speed obviously. That is why most people probably say they are just "riding along" and it broke. Pretty obvious a collision occurred of some sort, whether it be from an animal, object, etc. In this case any fork would of probably failed. So not Trek's fault, not aluminum's fault, not crabon's fault, just bad luck. I use a carbon fork myself and have decided not to switch it out since this fork was in fact aluminum.

unterhausen

similarly for steel and magnesium. We should all stop using forks, they are inherently dangerous.

downhillmaster

Incorrect. A steel fork would not have done that.
Steel is real.
NASA has done tests and they have never been able to make a steel fork fail. They have even tried atomic energy.
I think the only known steel fork failure in history was due to an errant Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.

edscott.

Aluminium, carbon, steel, titanium: there is no way a plastic reflector would cause the break.
But the material being aluminium makes more sense: incorrect heat treatment with a cold spot at the height of the break would cause a discontinuity in the crystaline structure of the metal, creating a a weak spot prone to fracture. It makes sense that the fork broke at the same height on both sides, indicating fatigue along this weak spot finally gave way.

Also notice that broken steel forks in other images are not completely severed. This is due to the resilent quality of steel, completely lacking in aluminium.

I really don't get it why someone would use an aluminium fork instead of good quality steel or even CF, just because it is much cheaper to make for the manufacturer.

Litespud

I agree- it would have to be a pretty determined and athletic squirrel to insert itself between the spokes on a 32-spoke wheel at speed. I also don't think something as relatively squishy as a squirrel would've sheared off multiple spokes like we saw here. Also, I imagine the squirrel corpse would have been evident, which apparently it wasn't. I'm sticking with something harder and less obvious, like a stray piece of metal, was flung up and into the spokes.

superdex

This.

Hope she's recovering well, and willing to get back on a bike--

Dan333SP

Whether this was caused by a squirrel or not, it's a little chilling because I have 5 or 6 mini-heart attacks during every ride these days when suicidal squirrels dart in front of me at the last second. Have visions of that cracked fork with the squirrel wedged in the spokes.

Reynolds 

I propose that fork for an Honorary Carbon degree.

BillyD

Hi,
I can appreciate the frustration, really can. lol. But in the future please just let our filter do it’s work and leave out the partial spellings that are really the same as saying the actual word. Personally I like to use the substitutes “frikkin “ or “freaking”. lol

Regards,
BillyD

shelbyfv

If the aluminum fork presents itself as carbon, is that structural appropriation?

cthenn

Gotcha. This thread has run its course anyway, so I'll move on.

dmanthree

I'll ask my cousin if the fork identifies itself as carbon.