Lost a local cyclist last week
 

Here is the link to the brief article:

http://www.fingerlakesdailynews.com/...id=16&id=45395

I have been having a hard time getting my head around this. It just seems like such an unlikely way to die. There were no cars seen on the road. He didn't hit a tree. Today was the man's memorial service and my wife went and had a chance to talk to his wife. The police investigators say that all signs point to the catastrophic failure of his CF frame. The frame was in her word was "crumpled" when he was found. The coroner recommended that she not look at the body as much of the impact was to his face. I have spent the past few days trying to figure how this could happen. RIP Flick.

So sad! RIP.

Sad news.

This is local to me and this is the first I've heard of it.

Condolences.

Very sad indeed. Ya just never know when it's going to be your time.

Sorry to hear...
"Crumpled" as in ran over (hit and run)?

Same thing happened to a NY rider whose Orbea failed around 2005 (?). He was comatose for some weeks before expiring. A good number of attorneys advertise representation in "carbon fiber failure cases".

Sad nrws indeed.

I suppose that's part of the reason other vehicles aren't made of carbon fibre. Imagine the horror if Mum or Dad was driving the kids to school and their car snapped in half, kids fly onto the road and die.

Does anyone have any info on the bike make/model? I commute on my steel bike, but also have a CF bike. Every time I hear one of these stories, I think I should have gone with a Ti bike for my "fast" bike.

Holy crap. Not sure which alarms me more, the suddenness of it all (no car, no road debris, no animals, no nothing) or me thinking "holy ****, so that's how bad catastrophic failure in a carbon frame can get."

I assume a lugged carbon frame that had an epoxy failure at the lugs?

Wow

" The coroner recommended that she not look at the body as much of the impact was to his face. I have spent the past few days trying to figure how this could happen. RIP Flick."

This scares me, What a way to go. Do you know if he was wearing a helmet? RIP

Ack. Awful. The one consolation is that he died doing what he loved (I assume).

Awful news!

Yes, he was! If you read the comments at the bottom of the article, it says that the impact to the ground was so strong that the "helmet split in half."

Obviously the investigation continues, but this sounds to me like a typical case of CF fork failure leading the rest of the CF frame to "crumple" upon impact to the ground. I really hope someone finds out who is the manufacturer of this bike. They need to issue a voluntary recall on whatever part failed in this manner ASAP! Another death on a high-end CF bike happened earlier this year. Apparently the victim wasn't aware or didn't act on an issued recall. :(

Wow, terrible news.

I too am curious about the bike. There are thousands of people out riding bikes of all kinds. This kind of thing is extremely rare. I wonder if a small animal could have also been involved. I've feared squirrels would be the end of me a few times.

This all doesn't help my carbon paranoia. I don't want to be that one in a million. :(

They make planes out of carbon fiber. They make automobile chassis out of carbon fiber.

This is certainly a very sad and tragic case, but there is information missing here. You don't JRA and have your bike randomly assplode. Some kind of external force needs to act on the frame.

Jim, many high-end exotic cars are now made with carbon frames. The trend continues. Same is true for airplanes. Without more information about exactly what happened to the frame it is impossible to ascertain what role carbon played in this tragedy.

May the rider RIP.

Andy, you beat me to the punch. :)

You cannot compare the tightly-controlled processes of aircraft manufacturing with those of the bike industry.

If it's a quality control issue, then the issue is material and industry wide. Welds would be failing on metal frames as well.