Timeline for How to tell when to change steel front fork?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 25, 2022 at 10:35 | comment | added | Uli Alskelung Von Hornbol | I had both a steel brake and a steel crank fail. No cracks beforehand. The brake failure was scary as hell and I skidded towards a crowd of shocked pedestrians downhill at a fast pace. I keep the broken brake as a reminder to myself to take seriously failure of bike components. The crank failure I think caused the my leg to be sent into the front cogwheel and was quite painful (at least I vividly remember the shock of the event and not wanting to experience it again). It should be noted this was on a retro bike from the 70s with original components but happened after only a few miles. | |
| May 12, 2018 at 17:06 | vote | accept | Uli Alskelung Von Hornbol | ||
| May 12, 2018 at 8:34 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | @Rider_X Of course, they do "consider" dynamic loads. But, (assuming you own a car) for what mileage was it advertised? And what do you actually get? Am I right in saying that the later is significantly worse? You see, the standardized testing of mileage includes all kinds of load conditions, and still its results are generally way off what real drivers actually get. Same thing for bike testing: Call me a pessimist, but I'd wager they are off in the same way. They are not wrong, they just allow the parts to look better than they are. And this is in accordance with the (anecdotal) data I got. | |
| May 11, 2018 at 20:51 | comment | added | Rider_X | @cmaster - Bike manufacturer weight ratings do account for usage over rough roads, potholes, etc., within what is deemed appropriate for the product class. So yes they do consider static and dynamic loads otherwise bikes would be constantly breaking under normal usage and the companies would be sued out of existence. | |
| May 11, 2018 at 20:42 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | @Rider_X There is a huge difference between static load and dynamic load. It is one thing to carry 300 lbs on a smooth road at 15 km/h, and a totally different thing to carry 150 lbs over roots with 30 km/h. The forces are much higher in the second case. When you see this 250-300 lbs rating, that's for "normal" usage, whatever the manufacturer considers normal. If you are riding smooth roads only, you are likely within that "normal" usage, or only slightly above. However, riding in any normal city with bad bike lanes can easily make you exceed that normal usage drastically. | |
| May 11, 2018 at 19:19 | comment | added | Rider_X | I feel like you may be a bit of an outlier. Most modern mainstream bikes have a weight limit of about 250-300 lbs. If the load on the bike is high (e.g., 300 lbs rider and luggage) then I could see this happening, otherwise this advice is largely anecdotal. | |
| May 11, 2018 at 10:26 | comment | added | gaurwraith | Yea some people would be changing forks every 9 months this way | |
| May 10, 2018 at 22:55 | comment | added | Criggie♦ | I see your point about replacement, but rather than simple unilateral replacement at a mileage, consider doing the monthly M check for safety and keep an eye on anything suspect. IE, I have a dented seat stay on a steel road bike, so I check it for change. No change and its fine to keep riding - if it started bending more I'd make a decision then. | |
| May 10, 2018 at 19:14 | history | edited | cmaster - reinstate monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 10, 2018 at 14:52 | comment | added | cmaster - reinstate monica | @juhist I'm talking about steel parts only, and I have never managed to find a crack before the part failed. Of course, if you are content with giving your fork a close inspection after every few hundred kilometers, you may get lucky and spot a developing crack. But I wouldn't trust myself to do it. Some new parts at an interval of 10000km seems to be the less costly variant to me. | |
| May 10, 2018 at 10:55 | comment | added | juhist | There's no reason to periodically replace fork or stem, since cracks can be investigated easily. The non-carbon-fiber parts don't fail suddenly; they fail by developing cracks. Handlebar replacement periodically is sane if it's one of these modern lightweight handlebars. You cannot investigate a handlebar for cracks on a road bike, as it's covered by handlebar tape. | |
| May 10, 2018 at 10:43 | history | answered | cmaster - reinstate monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |