Catastrophic failure at Archway roundabout

Cyclegent

Well every cyclist's worst nightmare happened to me last night!

I was pulling away from the lights at Archway roundabout (a busy gyratory system in north London) when I was pitched forward and felt a sharp pain in my crotch. At first I thought I'd been hit from behind but there was nothing near me, so I looked down and found the right handlebars had snapped clean in half and I was left holding the right hand bit like Oliver Hardy! So I quickly got off the road and had to do a quick self check because the broken end had hit me just above the old chap. It was a bit sore but no major damage.

I was very, very lucky it happened with nothing behind me or at speed, or I would have been toast. Fortunately there was a bike shop nearby and I caused a minor sensation. The bike shop man said it was caused by a fault in the metal - he showed me a bit where it was thinner on one side. So he's replacing it with steel ones which he says are safer than aluminium.

So I'm pleased to say I've joined the elite club of catastrophic failures and lived to tell the tale!

The bike is 17 years old. Should the bars and stem be regularly replaced to avoid fatigue or was this just bad luck?

spasypaddy

glad to hear you are ok!

Mog Uk

Jeez, sounds like that could have been much worse... Lucky you were near a LBS

* makes a mental note to check handlebars before leaving the office tonight.....

nicklouse

Aluminum does "work" harden with age. i guess it went just to one side of the stem clamp?
the constant up and down movement through 17 years of use could of caused the failure.

Unfortunatly there is no way to check if it is going to fail with alloy bars. at least steel bends first.

If used every day i would replace the bars once every 3ish years (dependant on the Makers recomendations).

lighterweight bars maybe sooner heavy weight bars could last forever.

Cyclegent

It went about halfway between the stem clamp and the end of the bar.
Thanks for the advice, should the stem clamp be changed regularly too? It seems to be made of a similar material but solid rather than hollow.

PrettyBoyTim

I had a similar thing happen to me as a teenager, the left bar bent rather than snapped just as I was standing up on the pedals (I had an ancient bike that had belonged to my Dad when he was a student, that had been since been fitted with 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub gears, and my friend on his 5-speed racer seemed to think he could go faster than me... :twisted: ). I came off, bounced along the road for a bit - left handle bar was all bent down and the left crank was bent so that it wouldn't go past the frame any more... I had a bit of road rash, but otherwise I was fine. The bike was never ridden again, which pleased me at the time because it was rubbish, and gave me good grounds for persuading my parents to but me a new bike!

Anyway, sorry to hear about your accident - I've started going around Archway roundabout myself recently, and I'd hate to have a spill on it!

A - W

At least your ok and it didnt happen at speed.

jel

Hapened to me last year. I wasn't going very fast at all but had just finished a climb and sat down when it went. Lots of what might have beens going on.

prj45

Cyclegent wrote:

so I looked down and found the right handlebars had snapped clean in half and I was left holding the right hand bit like Oliver Hardy!

This sort of happened to me, but luckily I was stationary.

I pulled up at a light, then got a very strange feeling as my right arm started going down, and down, and down and then the bar snapped clean off, I don't think anybody saw it happen, v embarrasing.

Shadowduck

Cyclegent wrote:

*snip* ... or was this just bad luck?

From the sounds of it, I'd say there was a lot more good luck than bad involved! No idea what the design lifespan of the average handlebar (or indeed bike) is but I would think anything that's still in use after ten years is well past the average.

Glad you're ok.

toontra

My quill stem snapped off when I was cycling along Upper Street (Islington) a few years ago. As you say, it was very much an Oliver & Hardy moment, still holding the handlebars but slowly realising they weren't steering the bike any longer.

Luckily I managed to use my body weight to steer the bike over to the left where I fell like a heap of potatoes onto the pavement.

prj45

toontra wrote:

My quill stem snapped off when I was cycling along Upper Street (Islington) a few years ago. As you say, it was very much an Oliver & Hardy moment, still holding the handlebars but slowly realising they weren't steering the bike any longer.

Luckily I managed to use my body weight to steer the bike over to the left where I fell like a heap of potatoes onto the pavement.

Falling off a bike is not nice, the closest I can get when describing it to a non cyclist is that its like falling off a pair of scissors, onto sandpaper.

spen666

toontra wrote:

My quill stem snapped off when I was cycling along Upper Street (Islington) a few years ago. As you say, it was very much an Oliver & Hardy moment, still holding the handlebars but slowly realising they weren't steering the bike any longer.

Luckily I managed to use my body weight to steer the bike over to the left where I fell like a heap of potatoes onto the pavement.

What is an Oliver & Hardy moment? :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:

anything to do with stan LAUREL & Oliver HARDY ie Laurel & Hardy?

Or have I completely missed the point?

secretsam

What sort of bars were they? possibly cheap ones with a bulge (oo-err) instead of a sleeve to reinforce the middle??

Lucky escape, glad you're OK