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 06/2022
Reading time 1:05 minutes

Without safety concerns

Bicycle and e-bike expert Dirk Zedler knows from his own examinations: Carbon frames and parts repaired in a professional way do not fail in off-road use.

BIKE: Which typical frame damage can be repaired without worrying about reliability?
DIRK ZEDLER: A top tube destroyed after falling over or following a handlebar impact and a broken dropout are the most frequent kinds of damage. In addition, there are down tubes that have been crushed when riding over obstacles. Actually, all these tube repairs are manageable. In these cases, I have no safety concerns when the repair was performed by an experienced specialist. We examined repaired frames in breaking tests some time ago: None of them broke in the repaired area.

And where are the limits?
I would recommend not to repair handlebars or seat posts. These parts are most likely to have safety problems anyway. In addition, it is difficult if you want a repair to remain completely invisible. At best, this requires a lot of effort and a good painter. But then the paintwork may be more expensive than the repair. Often the price also marks the limit of what makes sense.

To what extent and for how long is the repair workshop liable for their work?
If the workshop does not provide a more extensive guarantee, the repair is warranted for two years. But we've never had a lawsuit on the table dealing with these issues. Professional repairs are durable!

What about the reparability of carbon compared to metals?
Even though the eco-balance of carbon is rather poor: The repair of carbon is easier and more reliable than aluminium. And fatigue fractures do not occur in practice.

The questions were asked by Jörg Spaniol

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