That’s a super nice ride. I have been looking to get a c59 myself. Any clues on he weight?

Cadence of 50 is certainly too low unless you want to seriously f*** your knees up. I read that training should be abandoned if you cannot keep above 55. Check your seat height and then look at the ratios on the front and back.

Yes, this “…” chap seems a little suspicious. I challenged him to identify himself and he responded by saying my opinion did not matter since i was too far down the rankings. The next day he removed his comment.

So, presumably if he is on this forum he will identify himself quite soon. If not I vote to ditch his ass from the challenge. Pitchfork at the ready!

Hi guys,

There were a few questions about identities the other month on the STW road challenge.

This month we have someone called “…” at the top of the list do not identify himself to my knowledge. Of course being at the top draws some attention to your identity, so I’m wondering if anyone else knows whether he has an stw login?

Who’s going to pay for that? Do you think for a second it will be cost-effective?

Crashtest, well this is a good point. What you suggest is that no one with the right knowledge has looked at this because of the potential cost involved.

To be fair from the fracture it’s be fairly obvious to someone with a bit of engineering training whether the fault is from the manufacturering process or not and the forks if they have been returned to SRAMTECH either here or in europe should have been looked at by the workshop manager who would have a good idea on this.

Loco, this is simply not correct. You must see the fracture surface to determine whether its a materials or process problem.

Hi there,

well lets get things straight. You bought some forks, used them and they broke. You initially said that you had a soft landing so you will agree that the forks have experienced some trauma.

SRAM say that they will not honour the warranty as they have been crashed. Or experienced trauma.

The first thing I would say is that forks should be designed to experience a certain level of trauma. So the question relates to just how much trauma your forks have experienced and whether the forks should have withstood this.

Incidentally do you still have these forks in your position?

So the first thing we must do is establish whether there are any other physical sighs of crash to the fork. Gashes, missing paint dents etc? if your answer is yes then it could be reasonable to say that they have been crashed. If the answer is no, we probably cant blame the damage on a crash and perhaps should look deeper. Again if the answer to this question is no than there is no way that SRAM can categorically say that your forks have been crashed.

I would say that in general your forks will not have been looked at someone who knows much about the materials and the processes employed. I would guess that they are some customer service guy or rep whose default response is to refuse. (I generally find that people who work for bike companies are not that clued up). Anyway, its unlikely that they will have been looked at by a metallurgist and a failure investigation done. Particularly if the forks are still in your possession.

So whats next. if there are no other marks on the fork, we will never know the level of trauma the forks have seen. So we have to look at something else. We should investigate the materials. This will involve looking at the two fracture surfaces in some detail.

So the question is has this been done?

Hey Paul,

Interesting, but personally I would not take the chance on a DH bike or any in fact. I’m sure they would be OK, but handlebars are really an important area. Would want to know that they meet certain standards.

I often see the reference to “high quality” carbon fibre, yet I’m not really sure what this definition means.

I have to say reading this post has made me chuckle…. But seriously in this day and age how can you run a business in this way? Its a wonder he is still going. A google search of this Hinde fella brings up all kinds of worrying information. And those ebay responses?? WTF? I think this man seriously lacks any sort of business acumen.

you could try ebay for a carbon set… about 6 quid each last time i checked.

Cheers

OK thanks chaps,

I will give the buggers a tune up today!

Hello mate,

Are you sure you got the sizing correct here? I always size my bikes by Effective top tube length. It’s probably the most important. So maybe i misunderstood, but you jut went from a 565 effective top tube to a 528? almost 40mm shorter. That’s quite a lot shorter. How tall are you? I’m 181 cm and im riding road bikes which are 560-565 effective top tube.

Hold on Kryton, i’m not I just mentioned above that restricting the challenge to UK is not going to deter pothunters.What is the reasoning behind this other than “that guy has more miles than me, oh he lives in another country, lets ban him” ?

Is it me or are random people joining? Random guy from Milan in number 2 who does no mountain biking and a guy from Slovakia in number 1?

Random, I’m not random and I am not from Milan…

Moaning on the forums seemed like an easier way up going up a position, rather than going out and riding 2.1 miles to overtake Mick.

I agree with this statement.

Does that mean Robot Bob in Switzerland is legit?

I’m here and logged in today, so I’m legit…..

I have no idea what you mean by pot hunters and I do not know why discriminating against people out side of the UK will get rid of them, are there not any pot hunters in the UK or something?

Thanks andy,

It seems that my mileage has now registered, maybe there was a lag. Thanks for the response.

Spazz

Hey Kryton,

I just joined up to STW and thought I would have a crack at the road challenge. Is it only open to people riding in the UK?