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

The most common safety risks that we come across in our daily work around bicycle safety, technology and operating instructions are also published by us in articles in the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR (Europe's road bike magazine no. 1), BIKE (Europe's mountain bike magazine no. 1), MYBIKE and EMTB in order to make this information, which is important for the industry, available to a wider public.

For many years now, the Eurobike Show Daily, trade fair magazine of the annual Eurobike Show, has also given us the opportunity to publish our view of major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent expert presentations about all areas of bicycle technology and the bicycle market. In addition, we are quoted by further special-interest magazines of the industry and the trade as well as increasingly by radio and television in their media reports, which shows us that we are spot on with our advice. The section "News" informs you about the latest news from our specialist areas. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to areas of interest.

BIKE 04/2019
Reading time 2:00 minutes

BREAKAGE BALANCE

Dirk Zedler, graduate engineer, expert witness for bicycles and e-bikes, about the handlebar/stem test in BIKE 04/2019

Six among the stems failed, ten among the handlebars. These are the typical weak points every biker should check regularly.

1. It is either the screws or the handlebar or fork steerer clamps that break. Therefore, check the clamping areas for cracks regularly 2. Every handlebar area wrapped or clamped can generate a breakage. In the case of the Beast Flatbar there was a breakage at the brake lever clamp. Therefore, be sure to use a torque wrench for tightening fittings with the torque wrench and only in a way that they do not turn during the ride. 3. Further weak points are bendings. The FSA SL-K broke three times in the same area. 4. Narrowing can also be the weakest link in the chain. The Truvativ-Kyle-Strait aluminium handlebar cracked three times close to the stem clamp.

Health is valuable, safety an expensive commodity. As expert witnesses we know that MTB handlebars and stems have caused the crashes of many cyclists in the past years, some of them with partly dramatic consequences. In the mid 90s already the special interest magazines of the German publishing house Delius-Klasing Verlag showed a reaction and conducted basic research together with universities. The research resulted in a first serious mountain bike handlebar test published in the October issue 1995 of BIKE.

The current test is based on these findings. Further theses were continuously assigned in cooperation with universities and the test procedure was permanently adjusted to the sport which developed and differentiated at a rapid pace. The tests not only focus on the level of forces measured, but also on the question how often will an incident act on a handlebar during its service life. The test that we conducted for BIKE not only considers typical cross-country or marathon rides, but also failed riding manoeuvres, drops and hard jumps. We assume in particular that a mountain biker will not replace his sinfully expensive handlebar after having gone down. For this reason usual falls are considered. In my opinion the test results are a complete success, because more and more manufacturers create a dense quality at highest level to the benefit of the mountain bikers.

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