Stupidest Bike Accessory Ever?? (you be the judge ...)

Here's my vote, anyhow: ;)

Carbon spokes

From the article:

Coming around a corner, I felt a shimmy through the front of my bike. I straightened up out of the turn to bring the bike under control. A second or two later I catapulted over the handlebars. The rim of my front wheel had completely detached from the hub. I had not hit anything — not another rider, a curb or even a rock. I landed on my head and broke my shoulder.

The front wheel was Mavic's second generation, post-recall carbon-spoke R-Sys wheel.

[...]

In a steel-spoke wheel, at least four or five spokes must break before the wheel will crumple or taco. With the original R-Sys, it appeared that only one spoke needed to fail before the whole system came undone. Mavic contends that this problem was solved in the second-generation wheel.

Well, err, notsomuch.

Check out the photos in the article of what was left of the wheel . :eek:

the really stupid part of that is it's not an accessory, it's a necessity.
There's a need for weight saving but this ain't it.

The ridiculous lengths some people go to save a little weight amazes me. Carbon spokes, srly?!!:rolleyes:

I <3 Lugged Steel.

gotta get the t-shirt

hrm. I'd say carbon spokes are pretty stupid... but I still ride on a set of old spinergy rev-x's that can collapse catastrophically. I just pretend it's okay because I'm not that heavy and I don't warp/twist them like heavier riders did - and I don't ride with groups of people where someone's pedals gonna get caught in my wheel.

However, they're not really light wheels - they've very fast, but the main benefit to me is that they really do just absolutely soak up road vibration. I can go down chip seal on them and not feel a thing. Very nice on my wrists.

IIRC, R-Sys wheels use tubular carbon spokes, rather than solid bladed ones, and compression rather than tension to hold the wheel's shape. Neither of which helps their durability.....

Then again, I'm not fast enough to ever benefit from carbon wheels or spokes, so it's sort of a moot point from my perspective.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Catriona

I don't ride with groups of people where someone's pedals gonna get caught in my wheel.

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But a stick might.

You go ahead, I'll catch up :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zen

But a stick might.

You go ahead, I'll catch up :rolleyes:

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*rolleyes*

Did I tell you about the time I drove to ocean city during a thunderstorm and a stick went through the air scoops of my subaru and stabbed & took out my radiator?

Sticks have it in for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Becky

IIRC, R-Sys wheels use tubular carbon spokes, rather than solid bladed ones, and compression rather than tension to hold the wheel's shape. Neither of which helps their durability.....

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This is the key. There are plenty of great wheels that use (not tubular) carbon spokes under tension. Works fine. I think the wagon wheel construction idea is a good one, but in practice, if you have one spoke fail, you have total wheel failure.

So creepy!!! :( :( :(

Mavic's response:

http://www.velonews.com/article/9324...llapse-article

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ny biker

Mavic's response:

http://www.velonews.com/article/9324...llapse-article

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I'm not sure exactly what they're trying to say - if your tire comes off the rim or your innertube bursts or the valve shears off... your wheel should still not implode & have all the spokes shatter.

The same.. if your carbon frame breaks, your wheel shouldn't implode either.

And whether or not the frame or tire/inntertube damage occured as a consequence of the crash...

I don't think innertubes bursting or tires coming off rims should have caused him to go over the handlebars like that - I think that's sort of a characteristic crash that happens when your wheel implodes - least from what I was reading yesterday.

I'm not sure what kind of crash main tube on frames breaking causes.

"Carbon acts differently in a crash situation than steel or aluminum, but all bike components can be pushed to failure with enough force."

Right.
I suppose if you dropped a car on a steel-spoked wheel you'd get the same kind of failure seen on the carbon-spoked wheel discussed in the article. :cool:

I wasn't impressed with their response. I think I'd rather take my chances with something a little sturdier than carbon spokes!

Ummm very interesting to say the least. I am NOT surprised by the response from Mavic; why would they admit that they might be at fault? What I find interesting is that they simply mention the failure of the frame, tire, tube... what about the wheel? One could argue that the broken spoke(wheel) punctured the tube and caused the failure with the tire and tube. The reality is that is would be EXTREMELY difficult to alienate any of these problems in a lab! What came first the horse or the wagon? And even IF the person on the bike had a flat, it SHOULD NOT cause this amount of damage!! It's simply irressponsible of Mavic to try and place the blame elsewhere UNLESS it's something that they can prove!

AS a bike shop owner,and cyclist myself, it tells me that there are many quality companies out there that produce wheels, rims etc... and my money will be spent with those other companies. I encourage all of you to think about where you spend your money and look for support from those companies, not companies that place the blame elsewhere!

ZEN, thanks for info about the t-shirt... I'll definitely be buying one!!:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Catriona

I'm not sure what kind of crash main tube on frames breaking causes.

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A friend of mine broke his (aluminum) top tube in half crashing on (or off of) a steep downhill switchback. His bike was totally trashed, but the wheels didn't explode.