So I was just riding along the other day, coming upto a junction and my bars suddenly tilted forward, I roll to a stop, very slowly. Get off, and see that i’ve snapped my steerer. Completely snapped clean off.

Now, It’s a road bike, I bought it 18 months ago, secondhand, have done around 12,000 miles on it. Think the previous owner had it from new about 3 years, but no proof of that.

Bike manufacturer is saying warranty is with original owner, and not me, which I understand. However I kind of find it hard to accept that “these things happen” and I should just have to buy another pair?

I know it’s their word against mine that I wasn’t hit by a car or crashed, but I didn’t.

Thoughts?

Snapped at the stem? Probs overtorqued

Bike manufacturer is saying warranty is with original owner, and not me, which I understand.

No more to say then.

Buy some new ones or just glue the old ones back together and hope for the best..

So.
4 and a half year old bike.
Bought 2nd hand.
No history of previous use.
Just.
Riding.
Along.

I kind of find it hard to accept that “these things happen” and I should just have to buy another pair?
I know it’s their word against mine that I wasn’t hit by a car or crashed, but I didn’t.

Things break – it won’t have broken suddenly – it will have been failing for a while. Crabon fibber? Perhaps over tightened

So you have done 650 plus miles a month on it, say previous owner did the same, so 36k miles total potentially ? Bike may have had a tough life, road salt, all conditions….. sounds like its ‘done’ to me….

Alu steerer. Always tightened bolts with a torque meter.

On that basis I should probably replace forks every few years then…

But did the original owner who paid for the warranty?
Correct.
And handlebars.

Not uncommon – particularly if there’s a big stack of spacers under the stem.

No spacers under the stem.

Kind of thought this was the case. But still, pretty scary that it happened.

What happened was scary.
That it does happen,less so.
Scary things occur almost constantly.It is a side effect of being alive.Scarier things will most likely happen to you in the near future, until you finally expire.

I’d be thanking my lucky stars I still had teeth, not expecting anything from anyone for what is just a load of second hand stuff bolted together and moving on.

1) weak humblebrag on mileage
2) you know for sure the steerer/fork/bike suffered no damage in the hands of the first owner, they never scored or scratched or overtightened it?

If you expect warranty support, buy new.

Remember that inquest when a guy died after his steerer snapped?

I think there was an interesting discussion on using bike components long term, particularly lightweight ones.

On a more positive note i’ve noticed that rorschach has propper uped his game on the meme’s.
Though to be fair it’s not as cutting as his pre meme words which were far more cutting/funny.
Fails to find a nmeme that is more cutting than cutting words. 😐

I kind of find it hard to accept that “these things happen” and I should just have to buy grow another pair?

Buy a lottery ticket, that sounds potentially scarier than one side of a dropped bar handlebar shearing off!

I’d say 12,000 miles in 18 months is a lot, so if the previous owner was also high mileage plus it’s an alu steerer (so it will fatigue) then, as above, it’s done.

If I was packing in that many miles I would either buy new or get something with a steel steerer and put up with the weight penalty 🙂

My understanding is that the difference between steel and aluminium is that aluminium will always fatigue under stress, whereas steel needs to be under relatively high stress before it starts to fatigue.

Sauce:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_limit