Its trick camera angles :) In all seriousness, if you were to step on a carbon bike in the center of a tube would it break? Understandably when a big old honkin Ford drives over it its going to crush it. Same question with a Ti frame; when the tubes are worked and paper thin are they still super-duper-strong like when in the tube form in the video.

It's a pointless exercise and proves nothing, but I posted it because of the humour in it.

that video is hilarious.

Dan
http://www.aiatriathlon.com

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http://www.aiatriathlon.com

Seen it before, but wondered why the wheel spin/slip on the Ti tube and not the other two?? Interesting though...

Well it proves if you reverse over your bike in a Ford F250 you stand a better chance if it is titanium.

Maybe because the tyre was at a lower level between two uneven concrete sections when the tube was placed under the wheel?

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

I wonder if using the curb had anything to do with it?
I have seen a Ti bike snap however when run over by a bus. It does not bend it just snaps with a very loud bang. It was enough to make 4 grown men cry at the sight of it:(

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Scott McNamee
Cranks Bicycle Shoppe

Think aboutit this way: since the titananium tube did not crush, the truck was effectively driving on a set of rollers. Just like on rollers, when your wheels spins in one direction the roller spins in the opposite. So, as his tire roatated, the tube spun. Since its a truck, and three other wheels where on the ground, forward progress continued, but that wheel spun against the tube.

it did not happen with the other two because they crushed rather than rotated.

I've been riding carbon framed bikes for the past 15 years and haven't had a truck drive over me or my bike yet. So I think I will take my chances with carbon ;-)

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18x Ironman, 3x Hawaii
US Army (Ret.), Vietnam Vet ('71-'72)

that makes sense, although I wouldn't want my frame to be spinning underneath me as I'm trying to ride it. Not exactly a good selling point for Ti, I'm sticking to carbon...

The video has actually an interesting background. A few years back a German TV network came by do do a story on our factory and how we build bikes here. During those 3 days of shooting they also asked if we could do some kind of stunt that gives the audience something really visual.
The idea was brought up to run over a bike frame with a truck versus driving a bike on a roofrack into a garage, as the latter may have damaged the garage and the car.

We then had an aluminum road frame, a carbon road frame and a titanium one and test ran over the front triangle, as the rear would have collapsed on all three with no wheel in it. Both the carbon frame and the aluminum frame were crushed and the ti frame had minimal damage. But then the concern came up that viewers might suspect that something was welded inside the titanium frame or that the titanium frame was filled with some type of material, so the decision was made to do it with just tubes as you could easily see that nothing was inside and how thick the wall diameter was.

The video in the end came together more entertaining than we thought, and that is really what it was for. Entertainment.


Herbert
Litespeed
www.litespeed.com
The Litespeed Blog

I wonder what would happen if they drove over the center of the tubes? Wouldn't the weakest point on the tube be the ends and the strongest in the middle?

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"This wheel definitely beat the 808 in this test, no question, and I do commend Hed on producing a really fast wheel...the wheel is fast, I am not disputing that." - joshatzipp on the Stinger 9
My Website
HEDmafia.com

actually, if the tube is butted, the center is the thinnest and therefore the weakest (also, due to neither end being closed: a hoop is a hoop is a hoop). In a round tubed frame structure the ends see the highest forces, not the middle.

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-Pete S.

Long Standing Champion of the Training Trifecta

From a rider perspective... if my frame is subjected to any of the forces that can crush a carbon or aluminum tube and I am a part of this event there will be other things on my mind, if I conscious.

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Jay

Entertainment, yes, but it does show Ti well. I love the cackling laugh of the guy in the video too! :-)

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One cannot enlighten the unconscious.
Stuff that rocks: <fawning links here>