[Closed] Kelly McGarry destroys another set of wheels, a bike and himself

Remind me not to buy from YT...

[img] [/img]

maybe he just needed road brake callipers, apparently they are better than discs

Boooooooooom

I've said it elsewhere, so I may as well say it here: It was a stupid, pointless, ill-conceived event. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Missing a smiley CFH?

Nope. Given the hit that Kelly's bike took at Rampage (A Diamond Back, IIRC) and the hits that many others have taken, that looks weak to me.

???
Weak?
Do you do 50ft drops to flat?
If not, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

whats even going on with that pic? headset cup come out?

No, I don't, nowhere near. But, did you ever see Josh Bender, or anyone else in that ilk, break a bike that way? Nope. Thought not. It just looks like a big frame fail to me.

DR, the whole headtube has flared out. Badly.

stupid, pointless, ill-conceived event.

Here's a better perspective of what they were going down:

ah yer i see it now,

McGarry's brakes failed riding 1000ft of steps. He was out of control, and slammed to flat conrete at full speed from 50 feet up. No surprise the bike is wrecked.

I do sometimes think this move to make DH and freeride bikes lighter and lighter is resulting in some frames that are too light, especially from the smaller manufacturer's who don't have the R&D budgets of the big boys.

YT headtubes, Atomlab wheels but mainly Saint brakes come out of this quite badly

Completely daft event but IMO criticising the frame and wheels for breaking is just daft- that's a hit way in excess of what they're built for. It's just not relevant to normal use. It's like complaining that your car broke because you drove it into a wall, and deciding that this means it wouldn't be reliable for driving to the shops

I managed to do this at a relatively low speed, so it doesn't surprise me that these guys destroy their bikes.

[url= https://c3.staticflickr.com/3/2910/14256421741_e5ae510d51_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c3.staticflickr.com/3/2910/14256421741_e5ae510d51_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nHMTuR ]IMAG0532[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/80128368@N08/ ]MattNSmith[/url], on Flickr

Absolutely no surprise something bad like this happened, it was a stupid event. Watched the course preview on PB the other day and pretty much everyone was saying it was stupid and the only way to win would be a suicide run. Some danger is OK but this race should never of happened IMO.

That was one massive impact....

This event is nothing short of exploitation by Redbull and deserves to be condemned.

Oh, and I agree that there are very few components/frames that would survive an impact like that.

mikey74 - Member
This event is nothing short of exploitation by Redbull and deserves to be condemned.

Nobody complains about Rampage or jumping out of space balloons or any of the other loony shit. People are free to take part if they like.

NcGarry would be doing daft shit like this anyway, even if he wasn't being paid.

Rampage allows riders to choose their own lines and make them as risky as they want. Plus, it's not a race. Nor is jumping out of a balloon.

I agree that both of those still have their inherent risks, but at least they allow the participants to largely be in control of their own lines/destiny and don't have the race against the clock element.

As frosty said above: To win a race of this nature you'd have to be almost suicidal. The Rampage, and all other urban dh events (for want of a better phrase) there are opportunities designed into the course for riders to check their speed accordingly and it becomes a game of skill, as much as fitness and nerve. This had none of that.

For Redbull sponsored riders, I'm sure they are "encouraged" to take part.

a nicer guy you could not hope to meet. Hope he's OK.

Completely daft event but IMO criticising the frame and wheels for breaking is just daft

If anything, the bike giving way the way it did, possibly broke his fall somewhat. You would not want to fall from that height and land on a solid object. It's completely bonkers that's he's even alive, watching that.

a nicer guy you could not hope to meet. Hope he's OK.

Very true. He was hanging around Whistler quite a bit last year when I was there. He always had a smile on his face and seemed very down-to-earth.

looking at the side on photo I would say Marzocchi forks are pretty damn tough!

Frame has done well too IMO. Head tube could have split or detached at a weld but has just yielded at the top cup.

@Dirtyrider - the top of the head tube has elongated forwards as the fork has taken a hit backwards.

The wheels have fallen to pieces though. Hell of an impact and no doubt well beyond what any part of the bike is built to survive.

there isn't a frame in the world that wouldn't break if you did that to it.

I'd be glad the headtube didn't rip clean off under impact, although regardless of the visible damage I doubt anyone would be too confident in riding the frame again...

tbh after the impact that took and still the frame is in one piece - there isnt a single person on this forum that needs to worry about the yt frame integrity 😉

Put an angleset in and it'll be good to go again

that's the world class version of riding down the steps in the local shopping precinct to look cool.

Bombers FTW!

Emergency care was slow arriving at the scene.

Is the allen bolt stem attachment used by any other manufacturer? It looks overly complicated compared to one clamped around the steerer.

The original video makes that event look a bit lame, but when you see it from another angle..... 😯

Is the allen bolt stem attachment used by any other manufacturer? It looks overly complicated compared to one clamped around the steerer.

It's been pretty much the standard on DC-forks for years now.

Iirc the Bombers on his Diamondback were bent backwards by his Rampage crash while the frame looked less abused.

He may be the one person on earth who can actually recreate that German mag test that melted an Ice-Tech rotor.

Hope he recovers soon.

Typical chinese reaction of ignore the injured person whos just crashed / been run over / fallen over etc...

Nasty. And looks a sadly pointless event.

That could have been one of the rare times when Hope V4s (or V2s) with vented rotors would have been appropriate rather than overkill.

there isn't a frame in the world that wouldn't break if you did that to it.

See Josh Benders Karpiel Apocalypse/Armageddon frames, for which that was the norm!

A Raleigh Grifter wouldn't have broke.

Frame has done well too IMO. Head tube could have split or detached at a weld but has just yielded at the top cup.

This.

 

cloudnine - Member

Typical chinese reaction of ignore the injured person whos just crashed / been run over / fallen over etc...

Perspective is key here, those guys were apparently a lot further away than it looks on the video.

See Josh Benders Karpiel Apocalypse/Armageddon frames, for which that was the norm!

Those ill thought out monstrosities would've spat him off long before he got where he did

Those ill thought out monstrosities would've spat him off long before he got where he did

Yeah, the suspension on those things were designed for massive, single hits. The slow rebound and hard compression alone would have rendered the suspension useless before he'd even reached that point.

LOL`d @ enfht comment!

I had a Grifter when I was a kid, No way it would have broke! 😉

See Josh Benders Karpiel Apocalypse/Armageddon frames, for which that was the norm!

they dropped him as he broke too many, and he ended up buying multiple bikes out of his own pocket.

Landing on dirt with wheels flat on a slight slope is slightly different to nose diving flat concrete.

Shit, pointless event. I watched the headcam that was out the other day and thought wtf... Asking for trouble

Very impressive YT frame strength, would have ripped off the headtube at the welds with the top and downtube on most other frames.

but mainly Saint brakes come out of this quite badly

No they don't. Shimano (or for that matter any other manufacturer) design their brakes for normal use, whereby you don't just drag them for ages, but come off them at times, to give them time to cool down.

If you really are going to do that event then you need someone to design you a custom set of brakes for the task in hand.

NcGarry would be doing daft shit like this anyway, even if he wasn't being paid

I doubt this. If you make a living doing extreme stuff then you need to do extreme stuff to make a living.

No they don't. Shimano (or for that matter any other manufacturer) design their brakes for normal use, whereby you don't just drag them for ages, but come off them at times, to give them time to cool down.

Yeah but sooner or later someone will remember that Aaron Gwin also had Saints fail on him and teh interweb will go into mass-histeria 😯

Would be interesting to know how may other riders were using Saints, presumably a few, and they didn't have any issues.

I think the frame and fork stood up well to the impact...which is good seeing as I have the exact same setup...including shimano Zees... (off to buy a set of Hopes now!)

Hope he heals quickly.

Some daft comments in this thread 😐

You need to watch the other videos to get perspective of just how steep it is, 50 degree slope is insanely steep and a massive vertical height drop. The bit he landed on was also still stairs.

“Hey team thanks for the messages, I’m all good, munched my foot a bit and got two cuts on arm totalling 7 stitches. Brakes cooked and pulled to the bar half way down course ( 1000 ft of 50 degree stairs + 97 kg bloke at race pace) …was on a runaway train …Scary moment for sure .Stoked to be ok. Cheers”.

Typical chinese reaction of ignore the injured person whos just crashed / been run over / fallen over etc...

Nice, real nice.

Hopefully Saint brakes drop in price following this so I can pick up a pair cheap!....they are awesome by the way and that was a freak incident.

The frame stayed together well, could've ripped the headtube off but didn't...likewise the forks are immense...he needs to change wheel sponsor however.

To the folk slagging the wheels off, surely something had to give?

He was going at a mad out of control speed off a big drop. If the wheel stayed in one piece it's not like he'd have smoothly ridden away from that. The possibilities (in order of likelihood):

1) His arms, legs and face absorb all of the impact and he slides away in a more mangled heap.
2) He gets horribly impaled or cut in half by the bike
3) He somehow stays on the bike going at 70mph towards the massive jump and is launched into oblivion, and then dies.

I think it's a good thing that McGarry and YT are willing to show the damage done. One year at a Rampage there was a reported 14 pairs of broken forks but no pictures.

I think it makes a nice change to show these things. It's not like the paying public will be doing anything as big as this (unless it's really foggy and you miss that alpine switchback).

I cannot express strongly enough just how unappealing the idea of riding that is to me.

I think it's a good thing that McGarry and YT are willing to show the damage done. One year at a Rampage there was a reported 14 pairs of broken forks but no pictures.

You can't really blame the manufacturer's for not showing that, though: Once the internet gets hold of something it will get twisted, misunderstood and turned into a stick to beat [insert mtb component brand] with, regardless of the mitigating factors behind the story.

Exhibit A: This thread:

A Raleigh Grifter wouldn't have broke.

No but the Sturmey Archer gear chain definately would have .

Irrespective of the willing participation of the riders, some of these events are becoming a form of gonzo pron for mountain biking. In the same sense that a lot of pron is so far removed from what normal people experience, this stuff is more like circus performers. Why not get them to juggle flaming torches whilst they go down the steps, or maybe swallow a sword at the bottom?

There comes a point where skill and courage can be trumped by simply being willing to risk death, that is the point beyond which entertainment turns into something a bit more sinister.

umop3pisdn - Member

I cannot express strongly enough just how unappealing the idea of riding that is to me.

It's just a natural progression, first you ride off a kerb, then you ride down the steps at the shops, then down that big set at the school... Mountain biking when I was a kid was basically 9/10ths about riding down steps, then it went into this weird "singletrack" trend which we now see for the perverted cul-de-sac it was. It's all steps from here on in.

If anyone wants me, I'll be stuck halfway down the wooden steps beside the bridge.

There comes a point where skill and courage can be trumped by simply being willing to risk death, that is the point beyond which entertainment turns into something a bit more sinister.

+100

And that's my point, really. This event is just putting riders at risk for nothing other that spectator gratification.

His crash looks even more brutal in this vid good to see him waving to the crowd [url=

Sky Gate[/url] most riders are definitely controlling their speed and braking on the way down, such a long drag I’m surprised more didn’t suffer brake problems.

TBH it looks like a relatively dull "Event" completely setup for the knovel location and not much else, batter down the steps, one big final jump for them to try and style it over at the end, and not enough run-off space in the finish area...

Well done to the riders for managing to stay on message (let's not upset the sponsors) and not complain about a "Course" that was obviously not setup by someone without any concept of what MTBing actually is...

Mountain biking when I was a kid was basically 9/10ths about riding down steps, then it went into this weird "singletrack" trend

I've said this before- I'm not comfortable or happy with these 'big' events that redbull push that can result in a very serious injury or death one day. All to push/market their vile brew.

hope he gets better and is back on the bike soon.
but another set of atomlab dhr rims trashed and the frame borked...the the forks look to be unscathed...bombers eh? 😀
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I've said this before- I'm not comfortable or happy with these 'big' events that redbull push that can result in a very serious injury or death one day. All to push/market their vile brew.

Redbull sponsor these events, they don't dream them up. That'll be the riders/XXXXtreme atheletics who come up with the idea and then approach companies like Redbull, Monster, Mountain Dew etc to organise/pay for them.

China has some amazing mountains. I'd be much more interested in seeing a big mountain freeride kind of event out there than this nonsense, personally.

Good job his front wheel did disintegrate IMO, it must've took a decent portion of the blow.

[i]Typical chinese reaction of ignore the injured person whos just crashed / been run over / fallen over etc...[/i]

needs perspective...

Riders have insurance, they know what they're getting into, it's not like they're being press-ganged. I don't see event as any worse or gonzo as any city based DH races, some of the favela based ones are stupid steep, and full of obstacles, natural and man made, it's no better/worse than Rampage.

China also has that mountain with a home made wood walkway / via ferrata above a thousand feet or so of air...

Where is Danny Mac when you need him?

Forks look unscathed, but I wouldn't be bidding if they come up on EBay

Saw an x-ray posted on Facebook earlier, I'm no doctor, but McGarry has two broken legs for his trouble.

Where is the x-ray? Linky?

The helmet came out of this pretty good, it was a tasty face plant, think it just bent the visor and scuffed it a bit.

[img] ?oh=77216c6b1f3237228a62e2a36bcfb6ae&oe=56037CD3[/img]

That's a sticker.

Which FB page? Provenence an all that..

You kind of wonder given that his brakes had failed what would have been the best way of getting out of that situation? Making it to the end then overshooting that last jump could have been much much worse.

Seems like he came out of it pretty damn well all considered.

You kind of wonder given that his brakes had failed what would have been the best way of getting out of that situation?

Doesn't really bear thinking about.

grum - Member
You kind of wonder given that his brakes had failed what would have been the best way of getting out of that situation?

I'm not even sure the old "foot on the back wheel" trick would have worked