Cool, would like it to be seamless but prefer to have confidence. Have a 4 day stage race in mtns of Thailand in 2 months and have trying to decide what to do about the fork. 90km downhills on very crap road surface requires confidence. Sprinter so want stiffness as well, Ouzo sounds perfect. Ordering Ouzo from Excel as we speak...

Thanks for getting me off my ass on this. Really think Cervelo going to have fallout from this as the internet momentum increases.
J

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"Oh man, it's going to take days to kill all these people!" - Jens Voigt

So with all this talk about fork failures in general, I've now purchased a Wolf CL fork. Question I now have is what star nut is going to fit correctly in the aluminum steerer? I've read previous posts that some fit too loose. Any recommendations?

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"Yeah you point a finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two."

Colonel Saul Tigh from Battlestar Galactica

I have no idea, but I would think any star nut would work since they are tapped in place and compress when inserted

If not, just use a compression plug (like for a carbon steerer) since this only serves to pre-load the headset bearings before tightening the stem (i.e. you don't need a lot of torque/force for this - always follow torque specs (on the high side generally) with a torque wrench if possible).

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Gotcha. OK. For some reason I always thought aluminum steerer equated to using a star nut config. I've got the FSA compressor plug, so will use that. Thanks!

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"Yeah you point a finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two."

Colonel Saul Tigh from Battlestar Galactica

It seems like all3sports is going to step up and issue me a Wolf CL. I am looking forward to finally riding my new bike with confidence. Cervelo's response (or nonresponse) to this issue has been disappointing.

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Portside Athletics Blog

http://cpsc.gov/.../prhtml08/08368.html

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2008
Release #08-368
Firm's Recall Hotline: (866) 296-3137
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Cervélo SA Recalls Bicycle Forks Due to Fall Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Wolf SL Carbon Fiber Bicycle Forks
Units: About 5,800
Importer: Cervélo SA, of Switzerland
Manufacturer: True Temper Composite Material Products Co. Ltd, of Guangzhou, China
Hazard: The forks steerer can break during normal use, causing the rider to lose control, fall and suffer serious injuries.
Incidents/Injuries: Cervelo has received 12 reports of forks cracking or breaking, resulting in one consumer suffering a broken wrist and another suffering minor abrasions.
Description: The recalled forks have a clear coating over black painted carbon fiber, with the words “Wolf Superlite” and related logo just below the crown on each fork leg, and the letters “SL” on each leg above the fork blade dropouts. There is a True Temper CRT™ logo on the inside of both fork legs. The recalled forks could have been included on the following bicycle models: R3, R3 SL, Soloist Carbon, Soloist Carbon SL, and certain P3 Carbon framesets and complete bicycles.
Sold by: Independent bicycle retailers nationwide from November 2005 through July 2007 for about $475.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using bicycles equipped with the recalled forks and contact their authorized Cervélo dealer to have a free replacement fork installed.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Cervélo toll-free at (866) 296-3137 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at http://www.cervelo.com/WolfSLRecall
Media Contact: Peter Donato at Special Assignment Inc. at (416) 964-6118.

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Send the link for this page to a friend! The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC's web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

Wow! Well, this is exactly what I hoped would/should have occured (same thing Reynolds did with their dropout bonding issues they discovered in their new fork). Funny that I'm the guy with the "abrasions" ;-) I really don't want anyone else being injured as I was heading for some serious hill work and wouldn't have wanted mine to fail at 45 mph!

Thanks for the post!

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Hmmm... I'm not too impressed by the date of your first post, and the date of this recall.

I'm even less impressed by the number of failures prior to the recall.

You think that twelve failures out of, what, probably a few thousand (?) such forks sold since 2005 represents an obvious pattern? I don't, at least not for a product where failures can be readily caused by user (installation) error or crash damage.

I do, for two reasons: 1) it seems there has been a fair bit of confusion regarding the proper installation of the fork in the first place, and 2) when you look at both the total number of reported failures, and the percentage of total failures in comparison to other bicycle products which have been recalled, both of those numbers seem quite high to me. That's my opinion, of course. People are certainly free to peruse the CPSC website and form their own conclusions, though.

Logically, wouldn't that tend to delay any eventual recall, not hasten it?

1) really? it isn't that hard to RTFM (much like the felt DA problems)... it really comes down to consumers and shop employees that think it looks like a duck and so should quack like a duck and install like a duck.

2) really - the cpsc says ~5800 in the field (hell, I have two!) so 12 represents 0.2% which I would say is a pretty pro-active response from cervelo.

FWIW, I am happy that I can get anew fork outta the deal especially considering the funda is faster than the wolf sl...

:D

g

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greg
www.wattagetraining.com

I just bought a used SLC with the Wolf SL fork. It looks like I will be calling Cervelo for a new fork once the bike arrives. This is good to know.

Hmmm...

Lawyer by chance?

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

Cervelo's take (from their "eNews" email):

True Temper Sports Wolf SL Fork Voluntary Recall

Cervélo has identified a potential safety issue involving the Wolf SL fork. This fork is designed and manufactured by True Temper Sports of Memphis, Tennessee, using a blade shape supplied by Cervélo. All other aspects of the structural design, development and manufacture were done by True Temper Sports.

Under certain conditions, the fork steerer can crack and eventually break during normal use, which may cause the rider to lose control, fall and suffer potentially serious injuries. To date, there have been reports of injuries in the field resulting in minor abrasions and one broken wrist.

Though the fork passes US and international standards, this particular problem was not uncovered during those standard tests and the fork only showed this weakness in the field, typically after being damaged. After much work, we did develop a new test protocol that was able to replicate the same failure mode as seen in the field. If the fork steerer is damaged by impact (eg. by a crash, a fall from a roof rack, or another impact) then the damage may progress very quickly during use to complete separation.

We have seen that incidence of failure on this fork is higher than on other forks, and there is a potential for injury upon failure. True Temper Sports feels that the fork meets the industry standards and that the fork is therefore acceptable and no further action is required. Cervélo does not share this opinion and therefore, is proceeding with a recall of the True Temper designed and manufactured Wolf SL forks ourselves. True Temper Sports has declined to participate.

In order to conduct a recall one must be able to demonstrate that any replacement product does not display the same failure mode. We have demonstrated to the authorities that the forks we will use as a replacement - the 3T Funda Pro and the Easton EC90 SLX - pass all standard industry tests as well as the new Cervélo test that the True Temper Wolf SL fork fails.

We have obviously discontinued all use of the True Temper Wolf SL carbon bicycle fork. However, please note that this does not affect the Wolf CL and Wolf TT in any way, as both have a completely different structural design (and have passed the new Cervélo test protocol).

Although it is not usual for a third party to recall a product manufactured by another company, we feel it is a necessary step to take care of our customer, and we will proceed with the full recall at no cost to the dealer or consumer.

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Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze

This is the new fork that came with my SLC that I just bought but this is the fork that I will not be riding now.

Twelve per 5800 is more than a pattern, it's a freaking five alarm fire. There is simply no excuse for a consumer product failing twice for every 1000 sold. Particularly when consequences of the failure could result in serious injury. (Based on the Cervelo notices posted by Keyser, it doens't look like installation error was the culprit, but even if it was, design of a product that invites such a high rate of installation error is, in itself, a defect.) For comparison, in the notorious Bridgestone/Firestone-Ford Explorer cases, the alleged defect rate was 241 per million tires, or 0.02 %.

Now, having said that, Cervelo's response appears to have been prompt and reasonable. The delay in the recall apparently was the result of having to design and implement testing protocols to determine why the forks were failing. Also, to do the recall when True Temper wouldn't reflects very favorably on Cervelo (and poorly on True Temper).

From a business standpoint, the recall was a no-brainer. Suppose the cost for replacement forks is $300 x 5800 plus additional costs, it will come to about $2,000,000. If you have even one bad injury resulting from steerer failure, that case can easily cost you over $2,000,000.
.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

really? it isn't that hard to RTFM (much like the felt DA problems)...

Normally, I would agree with you, but if you knew the details of this situation, you would know that the FM changed. My Wolf SL fork was installed fine according to the original FM, but then the FM was revised as the first reports of these failures came out and my fork which had been fine was now improperly installed (with regards to the steerer tube length).

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Portside Athletics Blog

I am not sure that number is that high, but I can give you the reason for the time span between the first report and the recall. We had to recall a product we did not design or manufacturer, so we had to proof to the CPSC that we knew what the problem was, and that any replacement would not have that problem. In this particular case, that would have been difficult to do by the desiging company as the way to achieve the problem was unusual, and the fork passed all standard industry tests for forks without a problem. It was even more difficult for us, since we did not have the design history or manufacturing history, and could not even obtain the lay-up schedules.

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

I read a post made by someone claiming to know someone from True Temper who said there was no general Wolf SL fork problem, but only a problem in combination with FSA stems. And that the FSA stem clamping area has since been changed to help this problem. But I can't find this post again, has it been deleted?

Maybe it was on the other thread, bike shop owners cervelo fork recall, or something like that.
.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Yes, I think that was deleted ...

And yes, it was a 3rd party saying his "friend" at True Temper was faulting some FSA stems. And yes, I did have an FSA stem since that is what the spec was (including team CSC). I highly doubt this was the problem, but we don't know the specifics of Cervelo's in house failure protocal that they did for the USPSC (but I doubt it involved a specific stem).

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

No matter what I replace my Alu bars every three years or so..

Damn, my alu bars are 12 years old! Maybe I'll go pick up a new one.

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Don't hold back

I ran into a friend of mine in California who had a terrible bike wreck about 3 months ago. He was doing one of the big descents near San Jose and lost control of his bike... Then he got to ride on the helicopter.

Anyway. I asked how he was doing and he said that it turned out that it wasnt his bike handling skills... it was fork.

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