Pinkbike Poll: Who's Breaking Bikes These Days?
Wheels and tires top the list of components most likely to die in combat.
What have you broken this season? My score is zero. Not even a flat tire, but that's me. I started thinking about this poll after a buddy of mine cracked a rim last week. It was carbon. The impact sounded bad, but the break was far from catastrophic. His Stan's sealant glued it shut and he was able to ride it out with us. I'd say that bikes are crazy reliable these days, and I believe that most riders would agree. Each time we post a review, however, a number of testimonials pop up about similar items commenters have bent, broken or otherwise pushed to failure.
People crash, parts break - that's a fact every mountain biker must face. It's also a fact that some riders break almost everything they touch (you can feel the earth shake when they bang down the trail), while others, regardless of speed or intensity, rarely do damage to their steeds. Where do you stand between those extremes? What have you broken this season so far?
 | It's also a fact that some riders break almost everything they touch. You can feel the earth shake when they bang down the trail. |
What have you broken this season?
Broken = cracked, bent, severed, or damaged beyond repair. Click all boxes that apply.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYxEemzhCOA
Luckily, my set had no such trouble, if you discounted the nose-diving resale value.
Here's the original event video from a race in Italy I think... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_gKs35dos
I learned three lessons here:
1. If you're gonna ride fancy-pants boutique stuff, always carry spare spokes and deraileur hangers on riding trips. Everything else on the bike is run-of-the mill and easily replaced.
2. I-9's customer service is top-notch. Turner, not so much.
3. Rented a Kona Process 153... Damn that's a great bike.
The good thing about an Eagle derailleur is that you can probably go into most shops and find a replacement part. Not that you necessarily want to pay for it. That was the kicker here. I had hard-to-find parts.
If you think Turners are hard to find parts on trips/gt good service don't buy a Cannondale. Custom forks and shocks, custom hubs, weird rear wheel offset....although the new bike are getting pretty mainstream.
On the bright side, it is a really great bike at a great price point. Carbon frame with all XT groupset and custom I-9 wheels for well under $6k. The same thing from some other brands would have been much, much more. And it rides like a dream. They got that going for them.
Nothing like taking a gamble on unknown manufacturer direct parts for peanuts. 90% are great, but the other 10% suck harder than your mum on a weekend!
Only real breakage this year was pedals n a carbon bar.
Funny enough that's one of the good products and I've got the same ones again on my bike now!
youtu.be/FnUKmlXk5Gs
No matter what sort of bars you run probability of them snapping is really low. Almost Nobody buys carbon for strength. Most people by carbon because it lighter and it is there. It’s an exclusive product. Nobody buys S-line Audi to be faster. They buy it to feel better than those who don’t have S behind their A6 or Q7
Carbon/aluminum frames - carbon/aluminum wheels (assuming here that there are a lot more people on aluminum wheels) - carbon/aluminum handlebars - threaded/pressfit BB's
Interesting.
The TLDR version: even though there'd be a higher probability of seeing one, there'd be a lower probability of one actually breaking...??
The longer version: Say there are 1,500,000 carbon frames, and 90,000,000 aluminium in the hands of the masses.
There are 60 times as many Ali frames about and, let's say there are 1,500 broken carbon frames, and 45,000 broken aluminium frames..... then, in that case:
1) Sure, there'd be a higher probability that we'd hear about a broken Ali frame...hundreds of times more likely.
2) At the same time though, the actual probability of any one person's Ali frame breaking would be lower..the probability of breaking your carbon frame would be 1 in every 1000, but only 1 in every 2000 for Ali..half as likely.
As I said, I know what you mean, yes, there is a high probability of hearing about an Ali frame breakage; however, please forgive me the maths / language freak in my head... it gets to me time to time, well, most of the time actually.
Have a good weekend and don't break anything! Especially yourself!
Specialized have provided me with a new frame now though, can't ride it though as done some ligament damage in my hand
I also have a feeling lots of people are riding cracked frames but just have not noticed, I'm quite bad for sitting on other people bikes and finding cracks on them haha!
1) broke the pawls in a cheap novatec freehub
2) pinch flatted my rear tubeless tire
3) had my RF ride cranks fall off
4) broke a dozen spokes on my rear wheel over the course of the year
5) had a couple pivot points start making an awful racket after wearing out
6) had my dropper's cable snap mid ride
.... i think i might be in the breaker camp :/
1) front and rear rim;
2) 3 rear axles;
3) chain;
4) derailleur;
5) so many flats (yes tubes); and
6) frame.
This year nothing major.
3 aluminum chainstays
2 carbon seatstays
3 pivot bolts
2 Shimano XT brake levers
2 Bontrager Maverick Pro wheels
1 DT Swiss EX 471 rim
1 Sram GX derailleur
1 Shimano XT derailleur
1 Sram GX cassette
2 double-down casing tubeless tire pinch flats
1 Reverb dropper remote lever
1 Rockshox Pike RC
1 Rockshox Monarch Plus Debonair
But kudos to you for pinching a hole in a tire, would love to see how the rim did!
I would be seriously interested in including a box for;
-battery
-motor
add the above two in and my list comes to 13, lucky.
I await the ebike backlash but in all seriousness I feel a LOT of marketplace testing is going on. Feels like the early 00's all over again.
Of the 13, 10 of those are separate incidences.
And that is just in the last 11 months. The family fleet is 11 bikes, only one other failure from the other 10, a reverb.
Haven’t gone through 3-4 derailleur hangers a season like I was doing a year or two ago
I've broken alloy bars, but not while riding. I've bent shift levers from my knee smacking 'em. I've gouged forks in crashes (still rideable). I was about to list not breaking a stem, but I guess I have since the shit came loose on a big hit and I couldn't get it to stay tight no matter what after that.
Both times it’s tiny hairline cracks near the B.B. it’s a common occurrence for others. Not what you want from a $5k AUD frameset.
No rhyme or reason. Different wheels, 3 different bikes with varying suspension travel, and all the hubs were properly greased and in spec
On the DH-bike:
- 1 spoke
- 1 rear mech
- 1 shifter cable
- 1x bottom bracket
On my Enduro:
- 2x freehub on rear wheel (1 time irreparable)
- 1x rear break (shimano XT)
- bottom bracket
- 3x rear mech
- 1x rear shifter
- 2x shifter cable
- 1x chain
- 1x spoke
- 2x dropper (although they repaired it for free)
- 1x fork sucked down to the bottom (brand new fox 34 factory, was repaired by fox, "only" had to pay postage)
On my Gravel/cyclocross bike:
- rim tape
- shifter cable
Thousands of parts have broken while the bikes on which they were mounted weren’t being ridden anywhere near its limits.
The truth is that we non-pros rarely ride our bikes (and their collective parts) anywhere near it’s limits.
disagree. never brake my chain in some of 20 years of cycling. different story when racing. 5 time straight from the gate (not a world cup track though
Parts often break in crashes that were the result of poor line choice or where the rider simply went beyond his skill level, not because the rider pushed the bike to its limits.
and @maddiver: tell me it wasn't the SAME chain for 20 years though!
> Yeti
surprisedpikachu.jpeg
Its now a dream come true for me...
Chromag 180mm DH bars
Chromag 35mm Stem
Dont know why i didnt go for them ages ago????
I’ll get a flat annually on my road bike when I’m too lazy to check the pressure in the tyres before a ride.
My only failure over the past 12 months was my Reverb spring clip rotting away so it actuated its guts out into the frame. The seals were definitely on the way out at the time, but I had a full service/ rebuild so all is good. I have noticed it now binds a bit when I try and slam it down, an issue between bushing tolerances and an argument for steeper SA on the geo maybe?
"Dentist" - Pinkbike comment section.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/17370803
And dont tell me jra lol
Thanks for sticking around for this conversation I just had with myself.
No welds on carbon just sayin.......