This is in reference to a friend’s bike. He asked me what I thought about his dilemma, and I’m kind of in the dark about it. Maybe some of you can help. Last year, he purchased a P2K from a shop about 2 hours from our hometown. He replaced the fork with a Profile Design fork with a carbon steerer (don’t know the exact model). Last week, he noticed his front end was loose. Turns out that the carbon steerer tube had broken. The fork is 14 months old. According to what I’ve been told, the shop left 40mm of steerer tube in the head tube (am I properly describing this procedure?). Profile Design says they recommend cutting the steerer tube to no longer than 30mm. Shop says it did not know this. Neither Profile Design nor the shop have any plans on making his fork good (either in full or by offering a discount on another fork). My inclination is that if Profile Design is being truthful about the 30mm, then the shop made a mistake. And I would think that the shop should at least offer a discount on a new fork (since the warranty had expired).
So what do y’all think? I have never used this shop before, so I don’t have any personal experience with how they do business.
I would say if Profile is making a fork thats going to fail just because the spacers were to tall i would never buy from them again,your talking less then a half inch,maybe something else caused the fork to break,like putting on the race.Were did it break?
I don’t think, I know: The shop owes you a new fork, some schwag, a sincere apology and time on their knees thanking the good Lord this isn’t being decided by attornies in a court of law during a personal injury lawsuit.
“I would say if Profile is making a fork thats going to fail”
you’re asking one of two appropriate questions when you ask, “where did it break?” forks almost always fail just above the crown when subjected to fatigue testing. in this case, however, i must assume it failed around the stem area.
however, don’t assume that ANY fork is going to hold up when a carbon steerer is clamped by a stem and ridden with no wedge or exander inside. “of course there was a wedge inside!” you might reply, and you’d be right. however, the problem with overlong steerers is only party the extra unsupported length that sits between the headsets top cap and the stem. it’s also the fact that the wedge might be in a part of the steerer distant from the stem. let us say, for example, that the user started with the stem flipped up and close to the headset, and ended up flipped down, with 30mm or 40mm of spacers between the headset and the stem. unless you move the wedge your stem is clamping a steerer with no wedge supporting it.
therefore, profile isn’t making this stuff up for no good reason, and i support profile in this case (i suspect all this is also explained in profile’s supporting documentation accompanying the fork). you don’t need to tell an RD not to have 40mm of excess carbon steerer. any RD ought to know not to do that, with ANY carbon fork. that’s because you can’t expect the end user to properly position the wedge after moving spacers around. profile is right, the LBS is wrong, and in this narrow case you are wrong.
but i’m sure you’ll otherwise be right 20 or 30 times today
40mm is reasonable, although it’s the limit of what I’ve seen manfs allow. If Profile says 30mm, their lawyers are probably being conservative. There are too many factors to say why or how the crack formed. Over tightening of the stem can do the trick, along with a pile of other issues. Too often the component breaks when the person was “JRA” (just riding along). The fail to mention the crash, the neglect, the 300lb brother-in-law who borrowed it, driving it into the carport, that they’ve been ignoring this craking sound for months, etc. There’s a reason slowman is leary of carbon steerers. Sounds like your friend should go shopping for a new fork.
A part as important as as fork should be over built enough to withstand being installed incorrectly,its just going to happen.This also addresses one failing on the AHeadset type headset,not enough selection of stems to get the correct handlebar location,so people use spacers to get the correct height,resulting in to many spacers.
I can say with quite a bit of certainty that the bike hasn’t been misused, abused or otherwise crashed. I train and race with this guy quite a bit, and he takes care of his bike. In fact, I was with him when he noticed his front end was loose. He tinkered around with the stem, then we finished our ride. We were about 35 miles into a 54 miler when he discovered it.
Now you’re scaring me. This year, I upgraded to a Litespeed Saber with a full carbon Ouzo Pro. It came stock with the frame. My LBS installed it, I assumed they know what they’re doing. Should I be concerned?
It’s sad that some truely innovative people who think up and build amazing products simply don’t because the hassle factor is too high compared to the payoff.
Not too many of these builders make a ton of money yet they keep going despite the people who want it better and cheaper and free.
do you have less than 25mm of spacers underneath your stem? then no, you’re fine.
if you have more than 25mm, is your wedge about where your stem is?
if you have 40mm of spacers between the top of your headset and your stem, why the hell did you buy that bike?
as an addendum to the point just above, not to worry. a FIST fit will fix you and you’ll be able to ditch the spacers and save both your fork and your ass
