Something else to be terrified about – fork snappage content

Just popped up on me socials.

It’s a roadie Giant – and there’s the suggestion of home-fettling causing the problem.

It does say Giant has admitted Liability now.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/01/cyclist-broke-back-bike-collapsed-beneath-him-giant-uk/

It’s been a ‘thing’ since bikes were made. It can happen, in any material.

and there’s the suggestion of home-fettling causing the problem

They were clearly reaching – changes stem and bars, fork separates at crown/steerer interface.

Buy a new bike every year, ideally winter and summer.

non-torygraph link to a readable article:

https://article.wn.com/view-lemonde/2023/11/01/Cyclist_who_broke_back_when_bike_collapsed_sues_for_200000/#/related_news

thols2
Full Member
Buy a new bike every year, ideally winter and summer.

Might’ve been the plan, he didn’t make it to 6 months

That’s a low target for a broken back…

Snapping forks on bikes and motorbikes have been a regular horror story for as long as I can remember, apart from when carbon seatposts became the unpleasant death of choice for a few years.

That’s a low target for a broken back…

Surely depend on whether there are long term repercussions. Sounds like he has some ongoing issues, but thankfully it’s not as if he’s paralyzed or  permanently disabled in any way

Another case of giant trying to weasel out of baring responsibility with the old ‘you changed a bit of the bike so it’s not our fault’..

as for snapping forks, yep it’s something that keeps me awake at night. I’d happily never have another bike with a carbon steerer, they give me the fear (although tbf this issue would have occurred with a alloy steerer as well)

apart from when carbon seatposts became the unpleasant death of choice for a few years

I’ve always imagined a failed seatpost to be a non-fatal fate worse than death. I’ve always avoided carbon parts for anything related to steering. I do have some carbon headset spacer and bar end plugs, but never really tempted to risk my life with any safety critical carbon parts.

I’d happily never have another bike with a carbon steerer, they give me the fear (although tbf this issue would have occurred with a alloy steerer as well)

It was an alu steerer. Sounds like a bonding issue

I have no carbon parts on any of my bikes. Admittedly party because I’m a cheapskate. All either 3*9 or 1*9. And reassuringly solid steel forks.

Initially, the UK arm of Giant denied liability, arguing that Norbury caused the problems with his bike by changing the stem and handlebars,

Sounds like a Warranty claim response. 😉

In written submissions to the High Court, Norbury’s barrister, Adam Korn, said that he had no time to break his fall and therefore suffered concussion, dental injuries and a broken nose in addition to the damage to his back and neck

I have a friend who was flattened by a car – ongoing brain injury, spinal breakage (chips), hips, smashed knee etc He won’t work again. His compensation was £580k That was reduced by 15% from starting figure as he was not wearing a helmet and ‘only’ a red jacket (yes I know, this also ignores he had lights on and the car driver had no MOT and tried to leave the scene – she had no ‘come back’ on that, but he lost compensation because of no helmet…ffs).
So £200k seems low….

So £200k seems low

I got a tad less than that when a Ford Galaxy pulled out on me. Two fractured vertebrae and now spine has a permanent fixation of six vertebrate.

A lot of the compensation is calculated by loss of future earnings. I’m relatively low paid and there was no certainty I wouldn’t be able to continue to retirement age.

There are fixed bands for pain and suffering. Mine was mid range and from memory that was circa £35k.

I honestly thought I had a reasonable result. The bottom line is you really don’t want a big payout as getting that means your prognosis is pretty grim.