Yesterday, while testing my bike to compete in a local triathlon that was scheduled for today, my Cobra S stem broke while riding at low speed (thank God) on a flat surface, this caused me to fell forward with the handlebar on my hands and hurt my stomach area with the front tube, as well as my hand when it reached the ground. Needless to say the injury prevented me to compete, but thankfully, I went for that test ride, because if that were to happen today during the tri at high speed, I could have ended seriously injured or worst. My mechanic told me that this could have happened because long term exposure to sweat on the stem, however, I find that hard to believe, since the stem was 2 years old.


Could this have been a defective product? Has this happened to someone else? Or is it wise to change your stem every year or something like that? I got really scared about this, and I am glad that it happened yesterday and not today at full speed. But now I am seriously concerned and afraid of why this happened. Any ideas?


Here are the photos of how the stem broke: