http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051129/news_1m29hart.html
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That’s the guy Gary was speaking of yesterday. 
what a(nother) sad and tragic loss. Seems to be occurring way too frequently.
that is terrible. I hope whatever it was that broke isn’t on too many other peoples bikes.
*“I hope whatever it was that broke isn’t on too many other peoples bikes.” *
Gary Tingley posted on another thread that the fork of his TREK Madonne snapped.
Thanks for the story…sounds like he was truly a good guy. How tragic. Thoughts and prayers to his family…not a great way to start off the holidays.
where is that other thread I can’t find it. seems like there might be more conversation about this topic - carbon fiber breaking that is.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=635656;search_string=search_string;#635656
It’s mentioned briefly.
I heard from a mutual acquaintance that Gary knew the fork was cracked, was advised by the shop not to ride the bike and rode it anyway. Either way it’s a tragedy and a great loss to the community.
Are you serious!? The shop new about his fork being cracked and still let him out the door with his bike!? What fucking shop monkey allowed that to happen! Unbelievable, I hope someone is held accountable for that. The athlete should not have been able to leave the shop with a cracked fork. The cyclist isn’t the expert in those matters and the shops should know that, afterall that is why they come to the shops in the first place, if we were all experts in the maintenance and well being of our equipment we would never need to go to a shop.
The shop is legally obligated to return property to its owner when requested.
Are you serious!? The shop new about his fork being cracked and still let him out the door with his bike!? What fucking shop monkey allowed that to happen! Unbelievable, I hope someone is held accountable for that. The athlete should not have been able to leave the shop with a cracked fork. The cyclist isn’t the expert in those matters and the shops should know that, afterall that is why they come to the shops in the first place, if we were all experts in the maintenance and well being of our equipment we would never need to go to a shop.
“The athlete should not have been able to leave the shop with a cracked fork. The cyclist isn’t the expert in those matters and the shops should know that”
From what I’ve read, this guy was a VERY experienced and hardcore cyclist. I don’t see how the shop could tell this guy, “dude … I can’t let you leave with your bike.” It’s sad, but it seems to me the responsible party is the experienced cyclist who knowingly rode on a cracked fork.
I’ve got a bike with a carbon fork that made a really funny noise when I hit a hard bump on the second ride. I checked it for a crack and didn’t find one. I’m gonna go check it MUCH more carefully again.
Bob C.
Come on…you have to be kidding me with your reply, right? I used to be a ski technician and people would come in with their bindings falling out of range and we could not mount them on new skiis. If they did not want to switch we would document it in the paperwork and return their old skiis and inform them of the issue. It was all we could do. You cannot take someones equipment…come on…use some common sense man. Give it back, document it, inform them of possible risks, try to upgrade them. That is ALL you can do. You are probably one of those DEEP POCKET lawyer guys who wants to sue everyone and their brother for something that was the person’s direct fault. Like suing the styrofoam cup manufacture for holding the hot coffee that Mcdonalds served that spilt on that lady’s lap. This is why insurances companies NEVER go out of business…
Wow - sounds like a guy I would have liked to know. That is just truly awful. OK, I’m kissing my wife goodbye again before every ride… ;(
The shop can only do what the customer lets them. They can’t steal his property.
“With a little more emphasis on the dangers of riding the fork, this terrible accident could have been avoided.”
Maybe you’re right. After all, we no longer have people dying from drinking and driving or smoking. There’s been a ton of emphasis and attention put on those issues.
This is a tragedy. And unfortunately IF the rider knew his fork was cracked, then I’m sorry to say that there isn’t any “blame” that lies elsewhere. But that’s a pretty big “IF”. I agree that if this problem was known about, it would have been very trivial to fix. That’s part of the tragedy.
I hope my comments don’t come across as callus to the rider and his friends and family. This is truly sad.
you all should take a collective breath and quit theorizing and speculating on hearsay. Two of my good friends were riding buddies of his, one of which was with him when he crashed. I sent my friends the link to this thread…expect a response.
Well, I could have probably gone down like that:
Bike-Mech: Your fork is cracked and has probably been for a while. Glad we caught it now. We can have Trek ship an new fork that will arive in X days (after the holidays).
Customer: What? That must have happended when … about 2 weeks ago. Please go ahead and order the fork right now. However I have that group ride comming up over the holidays I really have been looking forward to for weeks. Bike-Mech: Well, we don’t have a bike of your dimensions/quality you could borrow. I strongly suggest to you not to ride the bike.
Customer: O.K., I will bring the bike in after the holidays to get the fork swapped out.
Bike-Mech: Happy Holidays!
Customer has all the best intentions not to ride the bike when he heads out the shop with the bike. A day later the ride comes up and all the good intentions go out the window…“I did not make arrangements for another bike. The fork has been holding up so far, so I am pretty confident that it will hold up another ride”.
Don’t tell me nobody has been there with some other less vital bike parts (Chain replacement, Lube, brake-pads).
"Don’t tell me nobody has been there with some other less vital bike parts (Chain replacement, Lube, brake-pads). "
I won’t tell you that. My main bike currently has a dent in the right seatstay and a dent in the downtube. You are exactly right, it’s been holding up well for quite some time, I’m confident it’ll be fine this weekend. It’s scary. This is a sobering conversation. I just hope that if I get injured or, God forbid, worse that people don’t use those dents as an excuse to vilify any shop or bike-mech who might have seen those dents.
Maybe we should take this to a different thread. We don’t know what happened in the case of the recent tragedy. I feel like everyone is speculating.