All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

In our daily work as we deal with bicycle safety, technology and user manuals we come across lots of safety risks. The most frequent ones are published in articles of the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR – Europas Rennrad-Magazin Nr. 1, BIKE – Das Mountainbike Magazin Europas Nr. 1 and E-Bike – Das Pedelec-Magazin to make this information important for the sector accessible to a wider public.

For many years now the Eurobike Show Daily accompanying the annual international Eurobike Show has given us the opportunity to publish our perspective on major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent lectures about all topics relating to bicycle technology and bicycle market. In addition, we are regularly cited by further special-interest magazines or trade journals as well as more and more by radio and television and in their media reports, which shows us that we are completely right with our information. The section NEWS informs you about the latest news from our specialist fields. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to topics of interest.

BIKE 06/2002
Reading time 1:10 minutes

Dangerous forks

Faulty design with Votec and Acros double-bridged forks.

That double-bridged forks do not necessarily mean more safety shows frame- and fork-manufacturer Votec.

(...)

The clamping bolts on the lower bridge loosen gradually (ie they may loosen when not correctly tightened – annotation Dirk Zedler) causing the bridge slowly but surely to detach from the head tube. This leads to the fork’s folding and to an unavoidable fall.

(...)

Votec already detected this problem in July 2001 and has since been integrating a new, double clamping mechanism into all forks. (...) All Votec-pilots worrying about their safety, can upgrade their forks with the new clamping bolt. Costs: 30 Euros (without assembly) – not very customer-friendly.

Faulty just as well are all double-bridged forks of the Acros company, which had been almost identical in construction to the Votec-forks till January, 1, 2002. Also Acros detected the problem and has been upgrading all new forks with a continuous clamping bolt. Also here, no recall has been launched, but at least free amendment is offered. Acros-head Frank Weidner: "On specification of serial number, the bike dealer will retrofit the part free of charge."

Dirk Zedler confirms: "The construction of the Votec-forks is not redundant (double-backed) at this place." That’s why Zedler recommends the following for Votec-forks:

Advice for Votec-forks
Make sure fork clampings are assembled grease-free
Prevent all fork bolts from loosening by using bolt backups
Tighten the bolts with the torque stipulated
Check the bolted connections regularly with a torque wrench

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