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 09/1998
Reading time 0:40 minutes

Caution, vicious!

Squealing brakes, worn rims – Shimano’s first generation of nine-speed-brake shoes eat away some rims. This is no longer the case with the new ones, but the first edition is still on sale. Who assumes liability for damages? A TOUR background report.

Hagen Kretschmar from Bad Honnef paid some 4,500 Marks for the road bike he bought shortly before his Easter training camp. But he could not long enjoy the pleasure of his new bike. Already during his first ride in the Northern Italian mountains a big deficiency manifested itself: When riding downhill at high speeds the brake performance of Shimano’s nine-speed-brake pads left a lot to be desired. They made a strange noise while braking as if somebody rubbed the rim with sandpaper. When Kretschmar looked for the reason of this noise, he could not believe his eyes: There were deep grooves in the rims of the aerodynamic Mavic Cosmic wheels, the brake pads were covered with aluminium chippings.

Author: Dirk Zedler

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