Classic & Vintage - Anyone ever break a Miyata Mangalight fork?

In case the thread title didn't give it away, I just broke the fork on my Miyata 210 touring bike. The right fork blade is broken through almost all the way around, right up near the crown. The LBS guy thinks that my lowrider front rack holding everything together is the only reason that I'm not in the hospital now. It really is broken almost completely off. The weird thing is that I'm not sure how this failure happened! I haven't really mistreated this bike, and I'm a lightweight - 125 lbs. The position of the crack is such that braking forces would aggravate it, but I have no idea how it could have gotten started. Do these forks have a record of breaking that I'm not aware of? I've never heard of such a thing, but I wonder if anyone else has broken one of these, and if so, how did you do it?

Thanks!

I have around 80K miles on one, no problems. Sheldon Brown answered a question about Mangalight forks in some forum somewhere recently, and said no worries. It's certainly not a notorious known 'Death Fork.'

Mangalight is a good Miyata steel alloy, and their stuff was always known as top notch.

Still, anything can fail. I have a feeling your fork's number just came up.

In case the thread title didn't give it away, I just broke the fork on my Miyata 210 touring bike. The right fork blade is broken through almost all the way around, right up near the crown. The LBS guy thinks that my lowrider front rack holding everything together is the only reason that I'm not in the hospital now. It really is broken almost completely off. The weird thing is that I'm not sure how this failure happened! I haven't really mistreated this bike, and I'm a lightweight - 125 lbs. The position of the crack is such that braking forces would aggravate it, but I have no idea how it could have gotten started. Do these forks have a record of breaking that I'm not aware of? I've never heard of such a thing, but I wonder if anyone else has broken one of these, and if so, how did you do it?

Thanks!

Did the break appear suddenly? Did you/ the bike drop down to the street quickly? I am worried about this happening on one of my old bikes...

Sitting out in the barn is the Mangalight fork off my crushed Miyata 312. PM me if you'd like to work something out.
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