Robvolz 

They were the first QR pedals.

But, if you didn't remember to bend down to pull the little plastic release (which was brittle) you were stuck in them until you fell over and the safety switch on the outside of the pedal would release you, but only after you had contact with the ground.

Robvolz 

[QUOTE=Hi-E skewers[/QUOTE]

What was wrong with Hi-E skewers?

chain_whipped

Late 1980's production Modolo stems. Many models, Equipe, Professional, etc..

Grafton cranks.

American Classic seat post rail clamp assembly.

Hondo6

Apparently Hi-E made some skewers that were 100% aluminum alloy - including the skewer rods.

https://www.bikeforums.net/22526081-post65.html

steelbikeguy

Yeah... aluminum wasn't the best material for the skewer rod/shaft.
I've heard a lot of folks who didn't feel that the steel skewer was a lot better, but because the one-sided wing nut didn't provide a lot of clamping force.
That's not wrong, but I've been happy enough with it for a front wheel. I don't think it fared well when used for the rear wheel.

I've got two skewers (with steel rods) for the front wheel. One uses the original one-sided wingnut, and the other has wrench flats for use on a track bike. The second one is probably safer, honestly. I still use the first one with a Hi-E hub on one of my bikes.



Steve in Peoria

Fahrenheit531 

Thank you for clarifying. I had no idea.

darkmoon

I haven't used Campy Record FD with 4-hole, 1978.
A friend/bike shop owner said, "I haven't used it, either. But I saw some with the cracked band. The band is too slim to tighten securely. The right torque may be too strong for that slim band"

pix from internet.

jetboy 

Mountech RD- a very rare fail from suntour. cool design that was highly sensitive to particulate matter- and subsequently exploding. - not a great idea for a mountain bike. I suspect on a road bike it would be excellent-

RCMoeur 

I had a seized-up up Mountech I was able to rehabilitate by repeatedly flushing the problematic jockey pulley with cleaning solution. I just obtained a second one and gave it the same treatment. They both spin well now. I may install one of the Mountechs on my urban bike once the plastic cage on the existing Suntour Alpha 2000 crunches and fails.

dddd

Downtube shifters.

Seriously, if you reach down and accidentally let your finger get pulled under the fork crown by the rotating tire.

A guy riding behind me did that once, and I mean ONCE. His front wheel got pushed back far enough to overlap the downtube, so the frame and/or fork (older Colnago) was pretty much toast.

Early Araya double-walled rims could be "death" rims due to their mere rounded nub serving as a bead hook. Mostly only a problem when aged tires were used, wire or folding bead, because the soft, grippy rubber along the bead edge has hardened/glazed and so doesn't settle in securely below the bead nubs. I've personally had four different tires blow off of three different Araya rims, only one was perhaps my fault since I found a crooked rim tape after the tire blew off on Mulholland Highway.

How about right crankarms from the Nuovo and Super Record era, the cracks that never stop growing.

And radial-laced front wheels, where a chunked flange means that consecutive same-side spokes all lose tension together instead of spread about the periphery of the rim.

Death brake pads, installed backwards so may eject the pad inserts during hard braking.

"Death" rim tape where the tube can bulge into the spoke nipple sockets and then rupture, due to a split in the material or due to the tape drifting off center.

Rusty "death" chains may snap at the worst possible time!

A stem that gets forced into the butted part of a relatively short steerer and then tightened becomes a "death" stem in that it may lose all attachment if it moves upward along the internal taper (which it will do) at the end of the butt.

JulesCW 

Some interesting interpretations of "death" on this thread -- I'd be amazed, for example, if anyone ever died as a result of a cracked front derailleur. Hyperbole ... apparently it's all the rage these days!

nlerner

I suppose it’s a good thing if the part dies rather than the rider.

79pmooney

I am here because after my first season of racing I vowed that { would buy and wear that goofy mushroom helmet if I raced another. i did, I was, i lived (barely). (And Sheldon heard my story. No, I don't "know" that but he hung at our shop the summer before and was close to our mechanic who hung with another mechanic at the shop I used to hang at after hours; owned by the leader of the ride I was going to when I crashed. Small world.)

I'd wondered since I bought my Lambert as a engineering sophomore how they did the blind joint between the aluminum fork crown and steel steerer. The machined plug occurred to me but I knew as a sophomore that no one would ever do that. Create a completely blind (save C-rays) stress rising machined corner of weaker aluminum the inside of a butted steerer. (I didn't even know then that steerers were butted; further reducing the outside and controlling - stress-wise - diameter of the aluminum. After my crash, I saw that Lambert did exactly that with my own eyes.

steelbikeguy

frail!? (or fail)

Mine has survived for years and years, with no loss of function, exposed to all of the dirt and abuse that is found ... in a parts box in a closet.

yeah, I don't have the nerve to actually mount it on a bike.



Steve in Peoria

John E

Second generation (first with 144mm BCD spider) Sugino Mighty Compe cranks. I snapped the left across the pedal eye on an out-of-saddle climb. My injuries were not that bad, but could have been much worse. I noticed that in the next generation version, the aluminum around the pedal eye was about 1mm thicker on both sides, about a 15% increase in thickness, and presumably in strength.

chain_whipped

The 'hyperbole' started back in the 1970's.
C'mon you know its just a moniker attached to parts with a reputation. Doubt, if anyone actually died to any of it. Hurt or severe injured, most likely.

100x the modern day parts break vs the vintage stuff. Check our the CPSC listings. Gawd forbid Billy bike ride doesn't properly torque a screw on his modern tech bike.

-----
Anyways, a few defined vintage frames to add:
Cracked downtubes, chainstays on both-
LeMond Zurich 853
Teledyne Titan at the shifter crimp plus the forks.

steelbikeguy

Wasn't the "suicide" front derailleur more of a reference to the need to bend around (or reach low) and manipulate the lever while pedaling at the same time?
It wasn't related to the part failing as much as the odds that the rider might trip himself up while performing this maneuver.

I'm not sure how some front derailleurs ended up with this nickname and the Campy Cambio Corsa or Vittoria Margherita didn't... especially the version that didn't have the little flipper fingers that moved the chain. These early versions required the rider to reach back and move the chain with one's fingers! I wonder how many fingertips were lost during the learning process??



Steve in Peoria

stevel610 

Wow, what a story. Hope you fully recovered.

JohnDThompson 

I wouldn't call them a "death" component, but they were essentially light alloy wing-nuts. The rear dropout had to be modified or the QR couldn't hold the wheel securely in a horizontal dropout.

Andy_K 

Did you see Sep Kuss try to fix his rear derailleur while riding at the Giro this year? He wasn't pedaling while he did it, but it sure didn't look safe.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/gi...77/video.shtml

halb 

More "death" from HiE.
I had a HiE radially spoked wheel using their proprietary rim.
A rider fell in front of me, and I hit his bike with him still attached.
My front wheel completely collapsed, my bike dropped down onto the forks.
Subsequent examination revealed about a 4" section of the rim completely severed.
And my PX10 suffered bent top and down tubes.
Peter Weigle won the race, and later pronounced my frame "dead."
The HiE hub sat in the cabinet of my LBS for years.

steelbikeguy

that's impressive!
I guess that's a good reason to be doing yoga.

Steve in Peoria

Road Fan

Sorry, I didn't know!

mpetry912 

I would like to build a bike with all of the "death" components on it.

/markp

bargo68 

Then we could hyperbolically call all the sound components 'lifesavers'.