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 02/2000
Reading time 0:40 minutes

Under pressure (carbon fork steerers)

Carbon fibres are said to be very strong. But recently there have been several cases of carbon fork steerers cracking or breaking. TOUR started looking for the reason.

The photographer already pictured the magazine cover in his mind: The road cyclist in front of him was supposed to balance on his rear wheel – in front of the bright blue sky – and move slowly towards the camera. "This ought to look spectacular", thought the photographer. But what happened next took his breath away. The cyclist sped up, jerkily pulled up the handlebars – but instead of cycling on the rear wheel, only handlebars and stem shot up, the front wheel stayed right on the ground. With some acrobatic skills, the cyclist could avoid a crash – but both, cyclist and photographer, were really shocked.

What happened? It could not have been a riding mistake, the mechanics had not forgotten to tighten the bolts either. What was left was the worst option possible - a breakage. A careful check of the bike brought certainty: the lightweight-racer`s fork steerer had broken in the stem.

Author: Dirk Zedler

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