Originally Posted by mpetry912

here's the failure. From what I could see in the video - it literally popped "while riding along". IMHO - the quest for ever lighter frames and components inevitably will lead to (some) structural failures. Remember that racers get new bikes every season ! Maybe every race! but carbon fails catastrophically where even the cracked and bent frame posted by Cuda above was still rideable - would not have dumped it's rider on the pavement.

I'm reminded of the failure of Artemis Racing's America's cup yacht - it literally exploded. Boats and bikes have high concentrations of stress - unlike an aircraft stabilizer for example - and there are some limits in the finite element models that validate the designs.

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA