Originally Posted by
Kontact
That's all nice, in theory.
In practice the bike industry does not have any real standards for engineering, and what is done by the industry at times would not pass muster either to other engineers or mechanics.
A great example is the 2014 Cervelo/3T P5 integrated aerobar recall. The designer of the bars glued internally threaded tubular aluminum anchors into holes in the carbon stem. When you rest your weight on the aerobars the screws pull these tubular anchors straight up out of the stem, like pulling nails with a hammer.
The anchors should have been either plates or T-nuts. There is no possible defense of the design, and it nearly killed one of our customers - so I was the one explaining to Cervelo what the 'engineer' did wrong. Something a basic wood worker would have understood immediately.
Being an engineer does not impart intelligence, just the capacity to use design tools built on physics models. The bike industry is full of bad engineers that do not understand scaling engineering models designed for aviation down to bicycles and the tolerances of bicycle manufacturing.
Prior to 2009 almost no one was making molded carbon fiber frames. Then suddenly every major manufacturer gained the expertise in full carbon design and manufacturing? Nope. They were winging it, and often still are.
I mostly agree. One needn't look no further than the pedal to crank attachment. I remember a lecture when something along these lines was said:
"If you want to see how far human race has gone in terms of technology - don't look at the aircraft, spaceships, not even computers - just look at the cars. High levels of knowledge and technology in both physics, mechanics, metallurgy, chemistry - all are combined in there. Being both mass produced and made so that an average idiot can use it."
It seems to me too that the good engineers are not in the bike industry, for some reason. Not that it stops the industry - it relies on marketing and, at least the big companies, gets along just fine. If, however, you want something safe, reliable, durable (even if price is not your concern) - you'll have problems finding it.