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 10/2002
Reading time 1:00 minute

Expert advice

Breakage of handlebar and stem are unfortunately still two of the failures bike experts have to deal with quite a lot.

Graduate engineer Dirk Zedler
BIKE expert

Unfortunately, breaks in stems and handlebars are still frequent failures bike experts have to deal with. It has certainly been known for some time that problems can arise with these parts. When the first sportbikes were equipped with aluminium handlebars more than 20 years ago, many of them broke. The reason being: The curved handlebars were constructed like those made of steel, but were made of a light metal much more flexible, less solid and very sensitive to notches.

It was the same with mountainbikes in the mid-nineties. The handlebars became lighter and lighter, but no sufficient tests were conducted. The number of recalls does not nearly reflect the number of handlebar types in danger of breaking when in use. My advise: Exchange mountainbike-handlebars after two years at the latest or even earlier if you fell several times. When doing so, you should also exchange the stem if it notches the handlebar.

The tests of DIN, ISO and ISO plus standards are not sufficient with view of today’s riding style in mountainbiking. As long as manufacturers do not exactly describe the purpose of their products, very strict standards must be applied. Breaks on test devices are informatory, breaking bones only hurt.

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