A Bike Depot Team rider with his broken Kestrel R700 frame after he crashed into a guard rail at high speed during the Tour of the Catskills stage race a couple of weeks back [See more race pictures here]. I'm not sure what speed he was going down at. Separation occurred in the front triangle at the headtube junction.
Take care out there, man!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
4 Broken Kestrel RT700 Carbon Frame
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Hey ron,
ReplyDeleteIsn't all of this exploding stuff suppose to be safer? Remember when race cars first started flying apart instead of crushing the occupant? They said that the driver was saved because the car took the impact and flew apart?
Pretty soon we won't get smashed up but will just fly apart to be put back together to race another day.
Wake me up I'll be late for work...
-B
Blue :
ReplyDeleteIn racing cars, I'm visualizing speeds exceeding 135 miles per hour, impact G-forces up to multiples of 10 tons and the potent lung blackening/disfiguring amalgam of fire and carbon monoxide...hell, I'll want to get my ass out of there quickly!!
I'm not a race car expert but the use of a triangulated roll-cage around the driver helps a lot in preventing roll over injuries...and the driver is centered more in relation to car body for added crumpling protection before he's crushed. :)
Am I answering your question? There is a roll cage in race cars for added protection but in bicycles, with just you and the tarmac and nothing between except for some sweaty gloves and a sub 250 gram helmet, I really dont want to get thrown out.
Wouldn't a high-speed collision with an obstacle cause catastrophic damage regardless of the frame material? The nature of this failure is ugly, but I don't think that this is really any different than a cracked weld or a bent frame. I'm not at all surprised to see this type of failure under these circumstances--you hit a guardrail hard, you need a new frame.
ReplyDeleteMatt : Metal alloy will probably bent, unless these frame thicknesses are hair width like. I can see carbon breaking, but not metal. I have not tried it, so you could probably be right.
ReplyDelete