Yes. For instance.. look at this Nashbar fork.. which gets good customer reviews.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...0052_174894_-1

Weave in the blades so it looks.. how the steer is attached to the blades? Looks very much like the Kinesis I (carbon) bought.. and resold... which as I noted earlier I was impressed with it's construction.

I prefer stainless or silver forks. :p:

No, no, no. You're doing it wrong.

Bikeforums has shown me the real truth about bike frame materials:

Steel is too heavy.
Aluminum is too stiff.
Carbon Fiber is too fragile.
Titanium is too flexible.

And that's it. See? :)

Bamboo? Popsicle sticks, plywood, cardboard? You've only just started.

http://isolatecyclist.bostonbiker.or...isconceptions/

"Shill" link above.

"This cyclist had no reason to suspect that the bike’s behavior had anything to do with the fork. The same thing could have happened to anyone."

Getting a bit OT here but....Really?

The cyclist in the article goes on and on detailing exactly why he had EVERY reason to suspect a possible fork problem. Then we get this statement from the blogger.

I'm calling a "C'Mon Man!" here.

The Titanic's rivets were made of iron, not steel. Engineers were also not up on the fact that steel gets brittle at low tempratures.

I think BG moderators should give out a prize, like a t shirt or something, for threads that achieve 100 posts yet fail in anyway to resolve or really advance in anyway knowledge about the question or issue that was raised in the original post.

Good idea, but who gets the T shirt? The person who started the thread in good faith, or those who took it over and did everything buy respond to the OPs original question?

Uh, this thread was not started in good faith.

See, we can't even agree on that.

Sortagrey's been on the forum for a while, and while I may not always agree with him, I give him enough credit to believe he started this thread in good faith.

Bad faith might not be the right words, but it was intended to be polemical fer sure.

You don't know from polemic, amigo............but it's an excellent thing to put on the triple word score in Scrabble.

Really genius? I mean it's nice and all, but not enough to get rid of all your tiles, unless you play it first move, but then it wouldn't be anywhere near triple word score...Nah, I think you are just spouting off, uninformed. Again. That's cool though, I mean that's what the internet is here for.

I feel like if I said you were awesome, you would find some way to disagree with and try to insult me.

I would probably say I am extra awesome, and you paid attention you would realize that already.

early on someone brought up common disastrous car problems, like a wheel bearing or tie rod.
In the former, usually, you hear/feel it. Unless you always have your music up loud, are completely out of touch with how your car performs, or are in denial that there could be a concern.
Even the tie rod... you start to feel it in the loose, darting steering.
AND, every time you change oil or rotate tires on schedule, any responsible and self-interested mechanic should be happy to point out that it's becoming a problem.

Even the lady whose power steering rack broke free of what was left of the subframe --leading directly to a collision, unsurprisingly-- had had warning that her vehicle was composed of rust and it was time for a new car.

Brakes have split reservoirs, so a sudden and catastrophic leak should only affect 2 wheels. Rusted lines usually seep before they tear open, so again, you'd have had warning...

You always have plenty of time to take care of most accident-causing car issues, and they only happen because the driver fails to take care of it in the very wide window of warning that he should have had. Only tire blowouts can be sudden and unforeseen, if you hit something, but with 4 wheels you recover.



Back to bikes... before fork failure, in any of the materials, do you get warnings? Odd creakings from the shear stresses in the crack that's forming? Visible cracks? Or just inspect every couple months/ couple thousand miles?
In industry, they have replacement cycles to preempt likely failure, or at the least non-destructive sonic testing to detect developing cracks. Like, a new fork every something-thousand miles of highway, fewer if a mountain bike, if you want to be cautious?

Manufacturers of car shocks recommend 50k intervals. Some of that really is fact, some of it is self interest to sell more shocks sooner, and it's definitely a CYA agenda.
Maybe fork manufacturers can respond to concern, by saying "you should replace your fork every ____, and if you don't we're not liable"
Timing belts are a good example. They snap, and statistical models have been made. Some snap at 40k, maybe all of them snap by 400k, but 60-100k is a safe interval for most people. It's all chance, good belts can still fail suddenly. So someone looked at the numbers and found a place where failure rates sharply rose past that number, and 60-100,000 miles is a best compromise for peace of mind but not too much cost. Replace your timing belt after every grocery trip if you need to feel that safe.
As a side advantage, if you purchased an extended warranty on your car and did not replace the timing belt at the manufacturer suggested interval, well, your ruined (if interference) engine is no longer a warranty concern.

Think plurals dip****.......................kids these days.http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...mages/sigh.gif

http://www.blueskycycling.com/cat-fo.../group-143/1/n

WIDOW MAKERS ........on sale no less.

I don't know if they are quite that bad but I certainly wouldn't install any of them on MY bike! The saying "you get what you pay for" isn't quite right. I should be "at best, you get what you pay for".

Since OP more or less closed the topic there is a related question about the failure mode that you'd probably know about HillRider. Or FBinNY or others still reading. Conventional wisdom is that carbon fiber forks can fail without warning, and some are skeptical about the usual recommendation of tapping the material with a metal object listening for variations. So what ARE the signs of impending failure, even if you couldn't detect them riding? With the cheap hobbyist electronics these days, accelerometers, strain sensors etc, I suspect you could put together a testing circuit for what a decent fork costs. IF you were confident about what to look for. More flex? Changes in vibrations? Any idea?

A good ambulance chaser.

You've hit on my main reason for avoiding carbon fiber in critical parts. There is no practical, reliable, non-destructive test for carbon structures. They have to be built correctly, and then it becomes almost a matter of faith that they'll hold up if not stressed beyond the design limits.

For me that's OK for aircraft because there are good protocols in place. Likewise many builders of CF bikes a d forks have equally good protocols, but I won't accept on faith that all do. Then there's the issue of stress. CF forks may be fine for racing where equipment is treated with some care, and replaced on a regular basis. But I'm not sure about the real world where bikes often get little or no maintenance and where some ride road bikes as if they were Range Rovers.

I take decent care of my equipment, but all of my bikes have been involved in crashes, or had serious run ins with water filled potholes bad enough to dent a front wheel. I'm sure a carbon fork would survive that, but unwilling to then face the decision of replacing it, or wondering about it the next time I'm descending a bumpy road at a good clip.

BTW- this shouldn't be read as an indictment of CF forks as dangerous. The experience so far shows that they aren't. If I were racing and the lower weight mattered I'd likely be another user of CF forks, but I'm not so I don't. For my purposes, for the way I ride, and for the amount of time I keep a bike, the feeling of security that an overbuilt steel steerer offers is worth the weight penalty. (to me)

I saw the clip on the boob tube whereas Boeing is using carbon fiber wings on the 'dream machine plain'. Yet when testing the wings for flex.. seems the carbon fibers started to separate. So.. they band-aided the problem and put titanium ribs over the carbon. As I understood it.. to get an OK for the flex test. Makes me wanna go out and buy a bushel load of tickets on that 'plain'.

Now the batteries ok'd are catching fire... who in the f ok'd those? Seems to me any sound pro-toe-calls per building safe 'plains' went out the window in hopes of rescuing Boeing.

I know.. I no.. jobs and all that rat. $$ has to be served. But serving that worthless paper means allot of actual living.. will die. Too many today view that as 'business as usual'.

Carbon forks are just that.. something for racers... a part with very limited service life. Branded names being sold with actual liability being covered via the concern.. I guess I can understand some mounting those. Otherwise I'd rather ride in four lanes of heavy traffic.. in an ice storm.. with slicks. At least that way I'd see who ran me over.

That seems to be more of a rant about Boeing than about carbon-fibre, except for the last bit...