The widow of a Dunedin man who died after a cycling accident on the Pinellas Trail last fall has sued the bicycle's manufacturer and a local bike shop, contending that they failed to disclose or address a mechanical defect that caused the crash.

A little after 6 p.m. Nov. 11, Terry Joyce set out on a group ride with the Suncoast Cycling Club. The pack was about 15 minutes into the ride, heading north at 19 to 20 mph when several cyclists heard "a loud snapping sound," according to a Pinellas County sheriff's report.

Joyce, 69, flew over the handlebars of his Trek Madone 5.9 and hit his head and neck on the pavement. Four days later, he died at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg due to "complications of blunt trauma," the medical examiner concluded.

Janet Joyce, his wife of 42 years, sued in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court in January, contending that defective design and manufacturing had rendered her husband's bike unsafe.

Joyce's complaint seeks unspecified damages over $15,000 and asserts that Trek had knowledge that the light-weight carbon fiber material used to manufacture the forks was susceptible to cracking and collapse.

Employees at Trek Bicycle Corp. in Waterloo, Wis., Friday referred questions to a company attorney, who said Trek does not comment on pending litigation.

Mrs. Joyce is not alone in thinking the bike had problems.

A report from the sheriff's investigation states that both of the forks holding the front wheel had cracked. Investigators cited "mechanical failure in the front forks of Terry's bicycle," not environmental factors or human error, according to the report.

Joyce's attorney, Henry E. Valenzuela of Tampa, said defects in the Trek forks have caused other crashes, and evidence gleaned from public documents indicates that Trek had "actual or constructive knowledge" of them.

Valenzuela declined to cite specifics, saying that disclosing the details would hurt his client at this stage of the lawsuit.

Witnesses said that Joyce, an avid cyclist who competed in the Senior Games, had been complaining about strange noises before he crashed that night, the sheriff's report says.

Records from the lawsuit indicate that Joyce had had other complaints about the bike since he bought it over the Internet from a woman in Honolulu in June 2005.

When Joyce received the bike, which retails for about $5,000, it was still in the original box, never ridden, the lawsuit says. He brought it into Chainwheel Drive bike shop in Clearwater to be assembled.

It worked fine for a few months, but Joyce brought it back to Chainwheel Drive in September, complaining about vibrations from the front wheel.

Personnel at the shop said a different wheel or new brake pads might solve the problem, and "assured Joyce that the bike was safe to use and not defective," despite "actual or constructive knowledge" of manufacturing defects, the suit states.

Tom Jessup, owner of Chainwheel Drive, did not return phone calls Friday, but he told Times in November that in his 25 years of selling Trek bikes, he had never heard of a structural problem with a bike's fork.

[Last modified March 6, 2006, 00:57:06]