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.

TOUR 02/2014
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Cleaning with acetone

Reader’s question

In one of your workshop articles you point out that the parts must be free of grease before mounting the stem. I therefore cleaned the carbon fork steerer tube with acetone, before applying the carbon mounting paste I now learned from a friend that acetone would attack and damage carbon. Now, I don’t know whether or not to replace my fork to be on the safe side.

Reply by Dirk Zedler, TOUR technology expert and bicycle expert

Acetone is a wonderful cleaning agent which may contain however, like all cleaning agents, harmful solvents. Acetone has the potential to attack materials which are otherwise very resistant, just like carbon. Nevertheless, you cannot advise against using acetone with carbon as a rule. There is no risk in wiping off a fork steerer tube with a rag slightly soaked with acetone. If you drown however the fork steerer tube with acetone or if you let the acetone act on it for a long period of time, it cannot be excluded that the fork steerer tube will be damaged as a consequence. As I do not know how you’ve treated your fork steerer tube, I cannot give any further advise. If you decide not to replace your fork, make sure to check the secure fit of the stem at regular intervals. Do not exceed the maximum torque values specified by the bicycle or stem manufacturer and always apply the lower one.

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