Darth Lefty 

CHP: Man Thought to Be Hit-and-Run Victim Actually Injured When Bike Came Apart | FOX40

He's in the hospital. At first the family and authorities thought it was a hit and run, which is why it's in the news at all, but it seems like the bike fell apart. He was working on it before the ride. "Officer Tommy Riggins said the spokes were separated from the rim of the bike and the wheels fell off."

megalowmatt

That's a head scratcher. The spokes were separated from the rim and *both* wheels fell off?

I guess this is where we begin speculating whether it was Chinese carbon or a "BSO."

Whatever happened, that really sucks!

tjspiel

There seems to be some contradictory information. On the one hand the bike was described as being in two pieces. In another place it said both wheels fell off, - which would be three pieces.

"Officer Tommy Riggins said the spokes were separated from the rim of the bike and the wheels fell off"

"She said she saw Taylor and his bike split in two pieces laying in the street."

"California Highway Patrol has been investigating the cause of the 22-year-old's injuries and determined he was not hit by a car or beat up, but rather a mechanical issue with the bike he was riding caused it to fall apart. He hit his face on the sidewalk."

"Riggins said although the bike was in pieces, it was not bent or damaged in a way that would indicate it was hit by a car"


It seems really unlikely that both wheels would fall off. I can imagine a broken hub flange or maybe just broken spokes. Hard to believe that all the spokes would just work themselves loose from the rim.

I wonder if the officer meant "fork" instead of "spokes". Maybe the kid tried to jump a curb and the wheel just fell off? Witness says she found him lying in the street. Cop says he hit his face on the sidewalk.

Darth Lefty 

Yeah, I deliberately didn't speculate in my post. Not enough info.

There is serious construction right now going downhill from that intersection, which is a busy one, and the traffic is frequently taken down to one lane with cones even before the intersection. The bike lanes are replaced by a SHARE THE ROAD sign which would be cold comfort at 6:30 pm and infuriating to the massive stack of drivers who are there.

I did see the mentioned social media post, it looked like this.

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

HardyWeinberg

That would make sense. "rim of bike" could have been more literal on "bike" than what we would think of as "rim". If the fork snapped off it and the front wheel would be one of the two pieces lying in the street.

My FIL helpfully sent me an article about a local guy killed when his CF fork shattered on a screaming descent.

tjspiel

My son got dinged up a few years ago when twig/small branch got caught in his front spokes. It destroyed the (steel) fork and broke a few spokes. The wheel was still attached to one of the fork blades. He thinks he was going from 12 to 15 mph. I could see if you were flying down a hill how the results could be that much more devastating.

79pmooney

Have you guys ever been at an emergency scene after hearing the dispatcher's report? Or been there and read the write up after? Not a whole lotta correlation in general.

The officer's report here? I'm guessing the "s" in "wheels" is a slip-up; that only one wheel disintegrated.

Ben

kickstart

I served in the Coast Guard, and had to do both radio watch and incident response. Everyone sees things differently, and logging events is often done after the fact, leading to omissions and mistakes.

CliffordK

Any actual photos of the bike? I'm not seeing any.

Without the photos of the bike, and perhaps speed, direction, hills, etc, this is all just speculation.

I .like the stick in the wheel theory. There was a spectacular video of a stick in the wheel crash a year or so ago.

Nipples could pop through a rim, perhaps several of them, but I find it doubtful that they would all pop out without any warning. Perhaps a broken flange on a hub could take out a half dozen spokes.

Doing bike maintenance may be a red herring too... Many of us do quite a bit of maintenance on our bikes without them disintegrating. But, one would have to know what he was doing.

ItsJustMe

That darned "area man" again. Everything seems to happen to him.

Area Man Nostalgic For Time When Ads Targeting Him Not As Sad - The Onion - America's Finest News Source

JohnJ80

Lets just hope this the victim has a speedy and good recovery. Probably a serious TBI and looking at a year or more to full recovery (if he's lucky).

J.

no motor?

Scrolling down to see the other stories at the bottom of the link show 2 other bicycle related fatalities and a hit and run with a bicycle. That's a lot!!

rhm

Well, consider... Fox News. Open Secret. Pretty ugly. Military intelligence. Original Copy.

no motor?

Yep!

bigbenaugust 

I took off down the block for a test ride once without my V-brakes connected. Thankfully, I found a yard down the street (no curbs in that neighborhood) and coasted to a stop in the grass.
Being a test ride, I wasn't even wearing my helmet.

HardyWeinberg

I think about that when I run a quick test ride, I should probably have knee and elbow pads as well as a helmet...