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Felt IA aero bar fail
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Anybody else have an issue with the aero bar extension clamps failing on their IA? I just had my second one fail in the past three months. Pretty scary.
Last edited by: Greatzaa: Jun 8, 16 7:26
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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I had one fail last week while making a decent at nearly 30mph.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [skaas] [ In reply to ]
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Yep, my second one failed on a descent as well....going 35+. I emailed Felt a week ago, but they haven't responded.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Wow. How old are the bars? I assume that is the Bayonet 3?

Do you do most of your riding on a trainer (more sweat on the clamp causing corrosion) versus outdoor riding?

Mine does not look likely to fail any time soon, but I only have about 600 miles and 3 months on the bike so far.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Normally they are better at responding when going through a retailer
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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Less than a year old. The first one failed at about the six month point. I use a road bike for the small amount of indoor training that I do. Don't think the Felt has ever been on a trainer.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [dcohen24] [ In reply to ]
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I went to a retailer to get my replacement parts.

I think the problem was too much sweat from the trainer. I need to find a better way to keep the front end dry.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [dcohen24] [ In reply to ]
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I also went through my retailer. They called, but didn't have much luck either. I am interested to find out if this is a widespread issue.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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First off glad you are ok.

Just out of curiousity how often do you ride outdoors vs time on the trainer? Just looking at that pic, it looks like there is some corrosion going on. Just wondering if that is due to maybe being on the trainer and your sweat dripping down onto your bars.

Twice in 3 months is sorta scary though. I would go to your retailer you bought the bike from and see if they can help you in getting a response from Felt.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [IHOP] [ In reply to ]
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The Felt has never been on a trainer that I can remember. I don't train inside much, but when I do it is on my road bike
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks. I will watch mine closely, but it is probably too new to give you data. Mine is starting to look a little corroded from lots of trainer sweat. But, it is more likely a bad part, if yours was mostly outdoor miles.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Which IA is this? Which bar?

---------------------------
''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! đŸ˜‚ '' Murphy's Law
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Sweeney] [ In reply to ]
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2015 IA1. I think it is the Bayonet 3 bar.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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It looks like it's the alloy clamp that failed. I doubt that would be a corrosion issue. More likely due to a problem with the casting, machining or heat treatment of the parts during manufacture resulting in premature fatigue. It is concerning if this is a common occurrence. Any chance you were significantly over-tightening the bolts? It looks like that could potentially cause increased stress at the point of failure.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]
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http://www.totalmateria.com/Article17.htm


I'm guessing it's stress corrosion cracking, but that seems less likely if you're not sweating all over it on the trainer. Hopefully Felt figures it out.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [durk onion] [ In reply to ]
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I really doubt it is due to corrosion. I am pretty anal about washing my bike after every ride.....admittedly, I do see a bit of discoloration on the clamp screws in the picture.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Here's another thought... What kind of BTA do you use, and do you load it with an electrolyte drink?
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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I use Xlab Torpedo....lately, the new Versa. Only for races though. Just behind the seat in training
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Buddy of mine has a DA (bought before the IA line was introduced) and he had the same problem so it's been around for years!! He was lucky--his snapped at relatively a low speed and more importantly a few miles before we were done riding...
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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I've had my IA4 for over 2 years now and I haven't seen any issues. Have you been using a torq wrench to tighten down the bolts? Are you for some reason unscrewing them often and then re tightening them? This seems very scary and strange to see ... Hope you get it figured out.

As for stopping the sweat..... I use an old tech t shirt for that. Just pull the neck over the extensions and then put the sleeves over the bullhorns. If you cut a little 'X' in the shirt right where your computer mount goes you can slip it through before afixing the computer to it. Then just pull the shirt towards the calpac and voila, you've got coverage for all the front end.

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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This issue just happened to me recently. So I too, was wondering if this has happened anyone else. My clamp just snapped while doing 25 mph on the flats. I had a serious wreck which required surgery. I am very lucky I did not get hit by a car after wrecking. Significant injuries. The bike is just over a year old. Went through my bike shop and Felt was quick to respond. They claim however, that they know nothing about this issue. I have a problem with that - since obviously this has happened before. I ride the bike on the trainer but I have a specific cover to protect the front headset from sweat. Screws are a little rusty but the alloy used for the clamp should be somewhat sweat resistant. It cracked right at the seam - which looks like a bad (focal stress point) design to me. I doubt sweat is the issue. And if it is, recall the part for a corrosion resistant piece before someone has a catastrophic outcome. More likely it's a design flaw. This is unacceptable.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Greatzaa] [ In reply to ]
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We see this happen every once in a while in our shop. We sell quite a lot off felt's and we have this like 3 to 5 times per year. Felt isn't really very informative as a company,unfortunate, not in this or most other subjects. It happens to that part but also to the lower part where that extension clamp is mounted on. But we just stock the parts for our customers. It is very hard to tell how and why these clamps sometimes crack. One thing to make sure is not to over-torgue the 2 bolts as this seems to speed up the breaking.

You should get them replaced at no cost through your retailer. If that takes too long you can also order the parts from the felt website, i know, you pay for it and that shouldn't be the case but is sometimes to most speedy way. Heck, we as a shop sometimes just order through that channel instead of waiting for the distributor getting them from felt. We just want to have so we can help our customers the fastest way, at any cost.

Regsrds,

Jeroen
Tri-Run.com

Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [Mrfuzzypants] [ In reply to ]
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I hope you are ok.


My girlfriend's DA has the same clamp and it failed after about 3 years of riding when she hit a pot hole.

I noticed on my IA i have a little washer that goes inside the clamp and her's didnt so when you torqued the bolt down to clamp the extension the top part of the clamp would sit at an angle. Hopefully that makes sense.

I think if you can find that washer it should help prevent this problem for people in the future.
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Re: Felt IA aero bar fail [A vdLinden] [ In reply to ]
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Doesn't matter if you use the washers or not for this issue. You should use them but we have seen them break also completely and correctly built incl. all the washers.

Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands
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