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 09/1999
Reading time 0:40 minutes

Caution, design flaw

Many stems do not connect fork stem and handlebar safely and firmly. The consequences can be devastating. TOUR scrutinized deficient stems and tells you how to identify weak parts – and how you can protect yourself from having an accident.

Have you once thought about what could happen if you braked shortly before a bend approaching it at full throttle – and suddenly the handlebars of your bike would fall off? Certainly a thought which you would prefer to push to the back of your mind. But this happens more often than you might imagine. TOUR, e.g., has found time and again bikes in various test fields whose handlebars could not be clamped in the stem safely, ie without the rider being able to twist them. In spring, one of our test riders witnessed the low point of stem quality. After having the handlebars adapted to his needs, he tried to clamp it. When doing so, a bolt tore the thread out of the stem. The same happened with a stem of the same manufacturer in the TOUR trainingcamp on Sicily. Luckily both defects occurred while standing so that no one got harmed.

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