Trek Madone 6 forks breaking!

[arielmoon]

Interesting. Are they just breaking or might you see some of the carbon fibers separating? I dont have a 6 series but my 5.1 has something that I thought just might be a thinning of the paint a few inches under the stem. I replaced the stock stem with a longer one about a month ago. Should I be worried about this?

[ridebikeme]

I haven't heard of any problems with the 5.1, but it might not be a bad idea to have your LBS check it out. At least that way, you can be sure of what is happening. You also might ask them about the stem that you just installed. I know Trek is recommending only to use their stems, and ones without a inside cut out... but I also know that some of their stems still have a cut out. More than likley, the forks on the two different models are different but again, always good to check.

[aicabsolut]

Here's a picture from the Velonews article.

Presumably, the failure was happening underneath spacer(s) below the stem (or hidden in the head tube if this stem was flush with the frame).

Where are you seeing a paint problem?

I also don't know of any issue with the 5 series.

[arielmoon]

I was at the "other" LBS and the mechanic was using a flashlight to look at the frame. He thought it looked like the paint was maybe thinner in that spot. I will take it to the Trek LBS and see what they think. This is a little lower down, in the front, and only visible with a flashlight. Off the top of my head I think the new stem is a Bontrager but I could be wrong. I will get it looked at this week and make sure I dont have it too tight. I installed it myself.

[tulip]

Get it checked out, arielmoon. Last thing you need is another crash.

[ridebikeme]

I'm assuming that you used a torque wrench when you installed it? If not, you might have the shop check that as well.

[aicabsolut]

I was at the "other" LBS and the mechanic was using a flashlight to look at the frame. He thought it looked like the paint was maybe thinner in that spot. I will take it to the Trek LBS and see what they think. This is a little lower down, in the front, and only visible with a flashlight. Off the top of my head I think the new stem is a Bontrager but I could be wrong. I will get it looked at this week and make sure I dont have it too tight. I installed it myself.

Why is there paint on the steerer? Do you mean the clearcoat on the carbon steerer (do the Madones even have this?)? Or do you mean when the bike is assembled?

[arielmoon]

I used an allen wrench when I switched out the stems. New stem is a Scott, not Bontrager though. I had a mechanic check it yesterday with with a torque wrench and everything was fine, in fact, he tightened the stem up a tad.

I meant the clear coat down below the steerer. Last night we looked for it and couldnt find it. I will still probably have the Trek guys look at it when I get a chance just to be sure.

[Aggie_Ama]

Any material can fail, I have seen some aluminum mountain bikes just crack through various places. BMC had a terrible problem with this to the point that my LBS stopped selling them, I am sure there was more to it than just the frames breaking but that was what the head of rentals told me.

The scary thought of having a faulty road bike fork is I often bomb down hills where I get going 40+ mph. I always inspect everything before doing a ride where I know this is a possibility but how many don't?

[aicabsolut]

I meant the clear coat down below the steerer.

You mean on the fork that's exposed or on the head tube? Paint chips here wouldn't have anything to do with failure at the stem. Actually, there's nothing I can think of that you can see on an assembled bike that would reveal a failure like this starting to happen unless you've got some weird gaps going on between spacers. Even if you had a stem with a cutout, you wouldn't see the problem without taking the stem off. I guess I'm not understanding what kind of blemish you're talking about...