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.

TOUR 09/2014
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Carbon frames

Reader’s question

A few weeks ago I’ve ordered a carbon bike on the Internet. Now, I’ve found out that the frame is not accurately centred. The wheel is about 1.5 millimetres offset from the centre. I’ve already tried to turn the wheel, but the result is the same. This means that the wheel is symmetrical. Then I’ve measured the frame with a stretched line: I’ve guided the line through both drop-outs and tightened it around the head tube. The measurement on the seat tube shows an offset of about 2.5 to 3 millimetres. Various measurements had the same results. Do you think it’s still within tolerance or a reason for complaint? My ten year old alu frame has an offset of 4 millimetres.

Reply by Dirk Zedler, TOUR Technology expert and bicycle expert

One typical feature of carbon frames is that they are optimally centred. They do not even distort after they come out of the manufacturing moulds. It may be possible that the measured distortion is due to asymmetries in the area of the seat tube or the like. Apart from that there are no hard borders from which the frame is still accurate or not. We assume that in the case of road racing bikes a lateral distortion of more than 2.5 millimetres from the centre is not accurate. Without having seen the frame I would therefore assume that the measured offset is still within the range of tolerance.

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