Ouch- Aluminium bar breaks at 55Kph...

[heathyoung]

Yeah, it had to happen eventually...

Coming home on Wedneday night, going downhill, hit a bump and the left-hand handlebar snapped off,
I let go of it, and it jams the front wheel between the tyre and suspension.

Front wheel locks up, and the rear of the bike goes up in the air, tosses me into the ground at high speed.

Left elbow into concrete first, then head (snapped the helmet into two pieces) then right shoulder then no idea.

Had someone come up and ask how I was. Made the mistake of trying to get up with my left arm - err no. Like rubber.Called my wife to pick me up - chained the bike to a tree, and left it, couldn't care less at this time.

Got straight through triage, got into Xray, straight through there for emergency surgery - 14 pins and 3 inches of titanium strip in my left arm (compound fracture of ulna) dislocated elbow, badly sprained wrist, dislocated shoulder, road rash everywhere. Kept the palms of my hands cause I always ride in gloves.

Doc said if I wasn't wearing the helmet, the outcome would have been much worse - any idiot who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. The bar gave no warning, just sheared off.

Moral of the story - don't trust aluminium bars, too risky. Wear gloves and a helmet. This is the second one that I have destroyed in a crash. All of the excuses are bullshit. Hit your head on the road at 55Kph, and you lose most of what you have.

Currently sitting on the lounge under the influence of some serious painkillers, 5mg oxycodone (morphine).

The bike - survived better than I did - might be time to retire it for something with better brakes and suspension, its a 20 year old chromolly frame, solid as they come, but my wife is convinced I'm going to kill myself on it - 55 is too damn fast when you crash, trust me on that one... 6000 ks on it this year alone.

[ohzee]

damn glad you are ok. Handlebars have any weak indicators or it just let go unexpected ?

Agree on the helmet/gloves. I make sure to wear mine when I am out I expect one day it's going to save
me from scrambled eggs.

[full-throttle]

Sorry to hear about your accident

Hope you recover quickly

[heathyoung]

Just let go, nothing at all to suggest it was going. Looking at it now, it appears to be a stress fracture.

I'm so very glad as well for medicare, went in as a public patient, spent 3 days in hospital, and 3 hours in surgery - cost = $0.

To think I was complaining about the medicare surcharge when I was doing my tax this year

Helmet - important as far as I am concerned, I certainly couldn't get by on my looks, need my brains.

[Farfle]

good to hear you made it out in one piece (kinda) . Fullface, gloves and a padded MC jacket for me... lil hot in the summer, but soooo worth it. Hit a car with last years race bike at 65kph and walked away.

[MattyCiii]

Wow Heath.
I wish you the best on a complete and speedy recovery.

[full-throttle]

Moral of the story - don't trust aluminium bars

What bars were they - cheap no-name ones? How old?

[heathyoung]

I believe they are branded Zoom, probably about 2 years old or so. eBay job so quality is questionable, but I think I paid about 25 for them - I think I will stick to steel next time. It's probably due to expecting bicycle parts to work in motorcycle duty (almost). Downhill parts are probably better this kind of mistreatment. The only thing that was interesting was that it broke under the magicshine lamp. The surface was slightly polished? Probably irrelevant.

[biohazardman]

Yup 34MPH is a bit fast to be crashing. I am glad it was not worse because of the helmet and gloves. I Crashed at 25MPH on the snow and was very lucky that it cushioned my fall sooo... much as I was not seriously hurt and 3 months later I am as good as before. Funny you should mention the meds as I was wondering about a pill bottle that had been sitting on the kitchen counter for many months so picked it up last night and read the label. It's the good stuff you have hope I never need it.
Take it easy and heal up good so you don't have to go through years of healing again down the road. I don't have enough metal in me to set off the airport detectors yet. It may be a different story for you

[liveforphysics]

Pics of the carnage.

[Drunkskunk]

That sucks. Glad you're alive.

[mdd0127]

Zoom parts were put on walmart/ toys r us bikes about fifteen years ago. They're quality control is pretty loose and I don't think that they use the best materials. A good set of bars like something from truvative most likely would not have broken. There's a big difference between making something out of 7075 al and making something out of melted down tuna cans.

Treat your wrist well and take it as easy as possible while it heals. I've broken both bones in both wrists twice and get reminded of all the fun I had when I was younger every time it rains. Get well soon!

[Farfle]

Zoom parts were put on walmart/ toys r us bikes about fifteen years ago. They're quality control is pretty loose and I don't think that they use the best materials. A good set of bars like something from truvative most likely would not have broken. There's a big difference between making something out of 7075 al and making something out of melted down tuna cans.

Treat your wrist well and take it as easy as possible while it heals. I've broken both bones in both wrists twice and get reminded of all the fun I had when I was younger every time it rains. Get well soon!

with steel, you can get away with poorer qc, but aluminum is much more picky. That being said, a good ally bar can be as good or better than a steel one, it just has to be properly formed and heat treated etc...

[mdd0127]

Zoom parts were put on walmart/ toys r us bikes about fifteen years ago. They're quality control is pretty loose and I don't think that they use the best materials. A good set of bars like something from truvative most likely would not have broken. There's a big difference between making something out of 7075 al and making something out of melted down tuna cans.

Treat your wrist well and take it as easy as possible while it heals. I've broken both bones in both wrists twice and get reminded of all the fun I had when I was younger every time it rains. Get well soon!

with steel, you can get away with poorer qc, but aluminum is much more picky. That being said, a good ally bar can be as good or better than a steel one, it just has to be properly formed and heat treated etc...

Yup. I've had aluminum bars on my dirt bike that were tougher than my collarbone. The bars bent but my collar bone cracked so I'd say that the bars won! The last few sets of bars that I've used for downhill mtb stuff have been bombproof. The truvative husselfelt bars are really nice!

I had a zoom stem that I thought was aluminum for years until the bike got left outside for a few months and that dang aluminum started rusting. I pulled the stem off the bike and realized that it weighed a ton and the welds looked like crap on the inside. It took a pretty good beating and held up though. If it hadn't looked like a nice aluminum stem, I would have replaced it as soon as I got the bike but it looked nice on the outside so I just ran it.

Here's the company that made the inferior product that catastrophically failed, causing you serious injuries.
http://www.biketaiwan.com/_common/book_ ... 3_P068.pdf
I have never once recommended that anyone sue a company but in this case, it might be worthwhile. Not only would you get paid a little to help you with your recovery, you'd be teaching a valuable lesson to a company that wastes resources by marketing unsafe garbage.

[dogman]

Wow, glad to hear your head is ok! Sounds a lot like my accident, which involved a water bottle in the forks, and only going about 20 kph. Did the same thing, locked the bike to a pole and called the wife when I should have just called an ambulance directly. Smashed my helmet but the head was fine.

The thing is, it's just so damn sudden you can't do shit except take the beating. No way to use that millisecond to begin your tuck and roll into the crash, choose a side to lay it down on, or anything. Another time I crashed bad at much faster speed, but had time to get tucked before the landing and barely got a scratch.

In any case, it's good that you weren't going bareheaded because you'd ride "safer" that way. Breaking the bars that way, you'd have been just as screwed at 20 kph as I was. I wouldn't say that riding fast contributed that much to your injuries. Or that a helmet made you brave and ride stupid. I got all frocked up crashing similarly at 20 kph.

But if anything is learned on this one it's this. A fast ebike stresses parts on your bike that the designers never took into consideration. Road vibration at 55kph may have had a lot to do with the failure of your cheap handlebars. They were intended for use at normal pedaling speeds. Sure, you might coast down a hill at 55 kph, but not be riding all the time at that speed.

This regrettable event should be a warning to all of us who are running an ebike at more than 35 kph/22 mph, that we need to seriously look at everything on the bike, not just the brakes. Is this part up to the road shocks and vibrations of 50 kph day in day out?

Hard to say if zoom was really responsible, since you did put it to a use they never intended.

[The fingers]

Will keep you in prayer.

[Kin]

Woah, hey. I really appreciate these kind of threads. I can sometimes relax a bit on safety before I remember I'm running a bike 50% above it's designed speed and it's an alu alloy folder bike (though, a particularly beefy one.)


I am glad you made it out of that one. Agreed on the helmet business. Kind of why I kept posting on that construction helmet thread. Construction helmet will do shit for you in a crash, all illusion.


I'm wondering if there are any threads on ES where people talk about safety equipment. I figure DH mountainbiking or mountain biking in general might be a place to source the stuff from. Even though I'd be resigning myself to someone else's filth, I was thinking the most likely way I will pick up saftey gear is if I find some's used gear at a good price [The stuff doesn't look cheap from my local shop]. I just put up a iftt.com craiglist alert for any mountain bike stuff, so I'll see if anything shows up in the next few months.

[Sancho's Horse]

Sorry to read about the accident. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

If you can put the "carnage pics" up, please do. Some may go ooooh aaaah, but others will say, "maybe I should think about safety more." People here sometimes take some safety risks, which is fine, because they are taking the risks. However, with a situation like this where it is totally unexpected, it may trigger a little more thinking in the areas where it might be a little more easily predicted.

Just my $0.02.

[cal3thousand]

Sorry to hear about your fall, but glad you posted. I'm also happy to hear that the helmet did it's job and saved your melon.

I agree with other posters here, this should make everyone think twice about their bike and it's construction. Don't trust your safety to inferior parts. They may cost less now, but could cost you more in the end.

Hope you have a speedy recovery and use the time to build up your bike real nice

[Hillhater]

..People here sometimes take some safety risks, which is fine, because they are taking the risks. However, with a situation like this where it is totally unexpected, it may trigger a little more thinking in the areas where it might be a little more easily predicted..

+1
and i would add that no matter how good your equipment is, there is always the other idiot that you cannot allow for who can ruin your ride.
Remember also the consequences of a crash at 50+ km/hr is very different to a crash at 30 km/hr !
After all is said , riding a cycle at 50+ km/hr is Dangerous ! .
As they say .." better to get there a little later, than not to get there at all "!

[el_walto]

Well, I think i'm finally going to stick my riding to under 40km/h for now on. Riding 22km a day eventually I'm going to crash. 2 years and no crashes so far, lucky me.

[Alan B]

Sorry to hear of your crash.

Thanks for sharing. Lessons to learn from.

Take care.

[mud2005]

like alan alda says in crimes and misdemeanors "if it bends it's funny if it breaks it's not funny"

sorry to hear about your pain, makes me glad I went overboard on strength when I got my handlebars, s+m bmx cruiser bars. love 'em and they're strong as hell.

handlebars.JPG (228.9 KiB) Viewed 766 times

[Lessss]

Just think if you were in the US your insurer would be trying to deny coverage as it was an illegal unregistered motor vehicle, and you might even be facing charges for attempted insurance fraud.
I've got a stealth Cabrera conversion that just feels unsafe riding to me as the seat is so high up and the riders postion is so racehorse positioning top heavy. I prefer my sit in it like a chair looks like a moped ebike. It just "feels" safer being lower to the ground.

Wouldn't that bar you dropped be attached to a break cable or even a gear shifter cable?

[yoyoman]

I was going to do it soon, but after reading this, tonight, I took the motor and things off my race weight full suspension bike and will transfer them to my Diamondback Response Sport, which has a much stronger frame. Hmm, I'm thinking that maybe I should get tires wider than my 1.95" to handle any road anomalies better. My downhill ride home from work can accelerate me to 30mph, so I use my Bionx's regen to automatically slow me down to a safe speed.