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 05/2014
Reading time 1:00 minute

END OF HANDLEBARS

Handlebar breakage is the worst thing that can ever happen to you in your biker life. Really too bad that you cannot tell from the appearance of a handlebar whether it is durable or not. We tested 17 handlebar/stem combinations.

It’s the first sip that tells you whether the milk has turned sour or not. White and perfect from the outside, in terms of taste, however, possibly a bitter disappointment. What applies to milk, unfortunately also applies to handlebars. With the major difference that the sour taste cannot be equalled with an unavoidable fall with possibly devastating consequences.

You cannot tell from the outside whether the handlebars will hold or break. A best before date? Does not exist. This does not only apply to the different handlebar models on the market, but even to the tolerances within the same make, as this test with its alarming results shows: 17 handlebar/stem combinations for the cross-country/marathon use as well as all mountain/enduro use with widths from 705 to 780 millimetres are in the test. Among the candidates are all materials, i.e. carbon, aluminium and titanium as well as one model with the latest diameter at an increased size of 35 mm. To examine test variations within the same model three test samples per handlebar/stem combination had to undergo the test procedure in the independent test laboratory Zedler in Ludwigsburg.

(...)

Author: Peter Nilges


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