I’ve broken mine across the brace and it surprised me, I’d have thought they would have failed elsewhere, maybe the dropout or something.. I wondered if fork snappage was pretty common, mine were good forks up until now, shame really.

Ive bent a set of pace rc36 by hitting a tree stump steerer crown and one of the stanchions. Was a good crash knocked me clean out.

Haven’t snapped a set (yet) but did managed to puncture a hole in the lowers after a recent ‘incident’ @BPW. Surprised as to how thin the metal is on the lowers.

Learnt the hard way not to have your maxle lever in front of the fork!

When you do a lower leg service it’s impressive how light the lowers are. Are they still magnesium?

A heavy nose dive took care of some 32mm boxxers and the head tube…

My riding buddy snapped the steerer on his Fox Talas forks landing a small jump; it snapped just below the stem causing him to go over the bars (missing the snapped steerer end fortunately). 😯

I’ve snapped 3 sets in total. Two sets of Manitou and a set of Bombers.

1 pair of Manitou snapped half way up the fork lowers on the non disc side, really strange and 1 pair sheared the steerer tube from getting a relatively small jump very wrong.

The pair of Bombers also flaired out the head tube of a Spooky Metalhead when they snapped at the steerer was gutted that day.

Gah!! I did once….

edit – not my pic!

Learnt the hard way not to have your maxle lever in front of the fork!

but you’re still doing it?

I wish I could say I was doing something heroic to break mine but I got caught in a rut on a bend twisted them and they snapped, pretty tame really.

I once snapped a pair of rigid forks with one finger. Well, one finger braking on a Magura rim brake that was so powerful it eventually snapped a fork leg.

I snapped the disc mount off an old set of bombers years ago.

I’m not gnar enough to break my forks.

But i did slightly bend the end of my shifter lever when i fell off my bike in a car park due to not being able to get my SPDs unclipped in time.

(see, i’m RAD i am!) 😉

snapped the steerer in Pace rc31’s, ended up junconcious in hospital and lot of stitches, dont make me post the picture again! 😉

PS. Sure Stevo or Iona will be along in a minute to show this summers “Fork Carnage” from Les Arcs 😉

Bent a set of Psylos so badly the front wheel wouldn’t go round in them, over jumping a double, so far that I hit the front face of the next double 😯 then my mate landed on me to top it off, everyone watching was rolling about of the floor crying laughing.
Seen plenty snapped and bent usually from being side loaded. Wookie, forks have now been fixed too with new lowers as no damage to the internals. 😀

A mate broke his Pace RC36s at CyB. One of the legs snapped clean in two pitching him face first into the ground. He looked a right mess but Oakley gave him a load of free gear after he sent them a picture and his knackered glasses and told them his Oakleys saved his eyesight – they were scratched to **** but intact.

After that he
a) never used Pace forks again
b) always wore a helmet with a chinguard

b) always wore a helmet with a chinguard

Those MET helmets are always a favourite on STW

I snapped the steerer on my Fox 36 Talas. I’d just ridden the rock drop at Stainburn, stopped to watch a mate go over it, then as I went to pedal away the bars came away in my hands 😯

A mate snapped his Bombers riding ‘Rutsville’ back in 2004. Thankfully no damage was done to the rider.

Snapped a set of Judy’s on my LTS1 back in the late 90’s but they weren’t exactly tough by modern standards. They were classed as long travel in those days – 80mm would be short for many XC forks now!

Pulled the steerer out of the crown on my MAG20s at The Malverns in ’94 just after the bombhole. Thankfully haven’t repeated it since.

There was a thread on this forum a couple months ago from someone who broke their fork in the same place as the OP. He was pursuing a warrantee claim…

Baldman – nice I ripped the head tube off my STS but the bombers on it were fine!

Learnt the hard way not to have your maxle lever in front of the fork!

Why not?

bent a set of 100mm bombers back in the day, was riding along when a mates steerer let go on a fast bit in the lakes 🙂

Snapped the dropout on one pair. I’m not naming and shaming though as they were replaced outside warranty and the second pair have just run and run and run and run … for years.

A Friend had one of the lowers tubes come out of crown. PACE!

Paceman – Member

Learnt the hard way not to have your maxle lever in front of the fork!

Why not?
Did you actually look at the pic? Impact on the Maxle lever caused the lever to rotate into the fork lowers, puncturing them. 🙄

I have a semi-circular scar on my leg from where the snapped 1″ steerer (fork crown end) dug into my leg… Forks were Pace RC35’s on my Retro bike so about 15 years old at the time!

I managed to break a set of RC31’s which came unbonded at the dropouts and the crown.

Cracked a few arches on Manitou forks

Broke two Manitou Sherman Breakout 170’s

Nothing for a few years (touches wood).

Snapped the steerer tube on a pair of Pace Pro Class 2, just above the crown, on a smooth track. Put me in hospital overnight. Two days later Pace recalled the whole batch to replace the steerers with one twice the weight.

Two months later, when the crown cracked in 9 separate places they refused to warranty it on the grounds that their engineer could tell I’d been jumping on them. Fantastic customer relations there…

theres a lot of paces on here, or is it me? 😉

Bent some boxxers once but never snapped any. Have seen the after mass of a couple of failures and it wasn’t pretty.

Snapped a pair of Manitou Threes landing a small double at a BMX track in the mid 90s. Stanchions just below the crown. I was still holding the bars when my face hit the floor apparently. Took half my face off and put me in hospital for a few days. Won the MBi monthly injury photo comp though and the insurance paid for my first Turner. Made an expensive hobby even more expensive in the long run.

I snapped a set of super ts coming up short on a creek gap in Williams Lake, BC. I made it across said creek, but the bike didn’t! That was 10 years ago and you wouldn’t catch me doing any of that nonsense now! I also got to borrow a much nicer set of forks for the rest of the trip…

Did you actually look at the pic? Impact on the Maxle lever caused the lever to rotate into the fork lowers, puncturing them.

If whatever hit the maxle lever hit the lower directly instead, would the result have been similar?

a sharp rock will puncture lowers, if hit just right, seen a few do this.

YETIMAN – my bikes in that picture!! Who are you, where was this, I can’t remember – Les Arc??

edit to add – that’s Iain, no? I can’t remember this, have I lost an entire year of my life????

CrispyCSW – that is not the forst set of Fox’s to snap there, I had a hasty repair to do on the trails at the beginning of the year!

LoCo – Member

a sharp rock will puncture lowers, if hit just right, seen a few do this.

So it’s just bad luck, and not a result of having your maxle forward of your lower?

I only ask as I always run mine forward.