carbon forks

carthorse1

:evil: out today riding a specialized roubaix sl2 not had it long, any way pushing it hard uphill and the front forks snapped @ the top near the handle bar stem, is this a common problem with carbon or just unluckly.Knocked my convidence a little the fought of going down hill. I`ve took it back to the shop they think it`s a fault but fought i`d ask the question on here. Not been cycling long

topdude

That is definitely unusual, either a defect in the steerer or just badly installed.

centimani

Glad your ok carthorse, thats scary.
I'd recommend anyone to do what i do, inspect your forks regularly and look really closely.

centimani

Glad your ok carthorse, thats scary.
I'd recommend anyone to do what i do, inspect your forks regularly and look really closely.

carthorse1

I`ve only been out on it twice so not clocked up alot of miles i find it rather worrying to say the least most bikes these days seem to have carbon forks and i`ll be honest it has put doubts in my mind. There was no warning signs it just went

Wheelspinner

Sounds like (a) a faulty steerer tube and/or (b) whoever did the assembly has tightened the stem bolts way too much around the tube.

Also, sure hope they didn't have a star nut inserted instead of a compression plug in the steerer to mount the top cap.

FWIW, I've got several bikes with carbon steerer tube forks. I'm 83kg, and do a fair bit of (slow) hill-climbing, and never had a problem with any of the forks. Not even a squeak, in many thousands of KM all up.

buder

Glad your ok that sounds really bad.

Its understandable its knocked your confidence, but its definitely not your fault and must have been caused by either a manufacturing defect or by the person who installed the forks and or stem.

I would be really interested to know what the lbs say about this, have you got any pics ??

carthorse1

:evil: I have no photo`s sorry. The bike has been returned to the shop and boxed and returned to specialized today 27-06-2011 i have e-mailed specialized personally down in surrey and they have e-mailed me and are now deeling with me directely to try and get too the bottom of what has gone wrong. Thety do seem to be treating it with some great concern i`ll keep fingers crossed this maybe a positive rather than a negative. I have advised them i don`t want just a replacement bike but answers too what has caused this malfunction and they seem to understand what i`m saying

SteveR_100Milers

Sounds like you were very lucky indeed, a clubmate had a similar problem only at speed and was injured quite badly. It often crosses my mind when hammering down hill at 40+... :!:

nferrar

Yeah that's not good - I'd guess installation issue personally although I guess the odd manufacturing defect slips through.