Originally Posted by
StarBiker
I talked with a guy who told me this almost happened to the Fork on his Trek Madone. The bike was more than 5 years old. Might have been a 2010. He had it in a shop for some maintenance and they discovered a crack in the fork. He was riding it the day before.
Although people don't trust the early carbon bikes I have not heard as much about failure. I will never spend a lot of money on a bike anyway so............
Structural failure tends to occur at a rate that is exponential to the loading, so with this in mind one should be extra cautious with bike parts including frames and forks.
Lighter riders are far less likely to cause the same failure in the same frame as heavier riders. Riding fast on rougher surfaces would also greatly affect the likelihood of exceeding any compromised frame's limits.
Of course this also applies to bike frames and parts made of any material, including tires that are inflated to higher pressures and chains that are shifted under heavier loading.