Catastrophic Front fork failure: Trek 5900
 

Three weeks ago today, I was riding on my usual route, a 20 miler. Perfect day, great temps, and a nice tailwind. Was having a really great ride.

Woke up in the hospital in the middle of a CT scan.

Scan said bleeding on the brain. Hit my head pretty hard, right on the front temple where my Oakleys took the brunt of the impact, causing a big slice near my left eye. Several stitches in 3 places. Road rash everywhere, including all over my face (think: zombie in Walking Dead) although no broken bones. Giordana jersey sliced as if by Wolverine.

After getting the bike from the police a week later, it turns out the crash was caused when the left blade of front fork of my 2003 Trek suddenly snapped in two. GPS says I was going 33mph at the time.

Questions: anyone have any experience with something similar? How did Trek respond?

Has anyone here sued Trek for a similar failure? Initial response from my LBS says they are unlikely to do anything for me, so I’m looking into options…

Thanks in advance.

No idea on the legal aspects but glad to hear you're still with us.

Were you wearing a helmet or just the Oakley armor?

Are you the original owner of the bike? If your not there is not telling the amount of abuse that fork might have received.

Can't offer any help with Trek, just glad to hear you're relatively ok. Heal up!

Thanks :)

Yes, I was wearing a Giro Atmos. It appears to have done its job well.

The bike was never abused…for what it’s worth, I weigh 135 pounds…put about 10k miles on the bike...

Glad your OK,Is it possible you hit something and don't remember.Wow, to happen at 33MPH

Well, that’s the thing. I spent a week trying to figure out how I could run into something large enough to cause a huge crash, without seeing it…

A woman saw the crash and stopped her car, took my iphone and called some people in my contacts list. There were also other cyclists who witnessed it. There was nothing to hit…the fork snapped. Front wheel is fine and true (Dura Ace carbon/aluminum clincher 7850.) After a week, it still had full pressure.

At this point I need a bike, but I’m having second thoughts about carbon fiber in general, and Trek in particular...

Have some pics? Specifically close ups of the fork?

Wow. That sounds crazy and is pretty much my worse cycling fear (e.g. waking up in a hospital from an accident).



I've heard of carbon forks failing, but never without some kind of impact.

Have you gone back to the place of the accident and see if there were any road imperfections or potholes you could have hit?

You have a few problems.

First is that carbon forks are ubiquitous even on steel and titanium bikes. You have to buy a pretty crap bike, or an old vintage bike, to get a non-carbon fork.

Second is that barring any previous crashes which weakened the fork-- even long ago, with your 10k miles something may have happened that you thought insignificant-- you appear to have had a very unusual freak accident. Any new fork will be statistically safe. But it might be hard for you to accept that and ride with confidence.

Do you own a MTB? They have burly forks. Start riding that to get back into shape and get your mojo back. Then, buy a new bike with a new carbon fork and ride off into the sunset.

Yes, I have pics I can post tomorrow.

Visited the crash site...like the rest of my usual route, there is nothing to hit. I've probably been on that stretch of road 200+ times...

For the love of God, get in touch with a lawyer, stop posting on a public message board. First rule of legal action is don't talk about that sht in public until everything is all said and done.

Own 2003 5200 and bought a front collision 2003 bike for parts. I'd like to see the fork pictures also. Glad you're still with us.

^ what he said.

For future stuff, regardless of the outcome of this particular case, wear a helmet cam on every ride. I do, mainly for morbid reasons like what happened to the OP. It's very, very, very cheap insurance, $300 (for the Contours I use), you can spend less on other cameras. Get a 720p minimum so that the camera will pick up license plates. 1080 is good but I found it's not necessary.

What if a car had cut you off? What if you ran a red light? If it's your fault it's your fault and it should remain that way. If it's the other person's fault then you should have absolute proof of that.

I did NOT have absolute proof when it was the other person's fault. Therefore I now wear a video camera whenever I ride. I also have forward and backward pointing cameras in my car, for the same reason. I know how I ride and drive and I stand by what I do on the bike and in the car, 100%, so I have no fear of recording myself doing something I want to hide. At the same time I have much less faith in how other people drive and ride.

If I have a catastrophic mechanical failure at least it'll be apparent on video that it was that, not a car or a truck etc.

First, VERY glad to hear you are recovering well from this horrible accident with the snapped fork. Very few people survive to tell the story and those who do are normally left paralyzed. Do contact Trek immediately or seek an attorney if you don't even know where to start. Smaller bike companies would rather work in good faith directly with the victim instead of getting lawyers invoved. Trek, however, is a huge company and their legal department can crush you very quickly. Do not publish anything else in the forums in regard to the accident.

As far as options for a new bike, there are some very nice all-steel framesets out there. If you can afford going custom, consider a road bike from a mfrer like Rodriguez that come with steel fork. Non-custom steel options include bikes from Surly, Salsa and Rawland.

Hope all is well recovering.

I recently had a little accident myself: brand new chain snapped, ripped rear derrailer and got solidly lodged between spokes and cassette. Fortunately I was climbing at slow speed, should that happen descending results would've been horrific.

With all these recent talks about carbon life expectancy, actually I was reflecting about it, my personal fear is that the steerer becomes separated at the base.
I would've never expected to happen at the blades which are thick and the strongest part of forks, of course conducting forces in the direction they were designed for.
Good luck if you decide to sue Trek, it's going to be nearly impossible to determine if its a defective fork and given the age it's most likely to be adjudicated to accumulation of fatigue/abuse. I don't think you can argue mfg product liability given Trek's manufacturing standards and damages of "soft tissue" type only garnish peanuts in Courts but hey, maybe you can score a new ride and some hospital compensations.

1) Stop talking about this online until you figure out what you're going to do.
2) Once resolved, please post pics of the fork.

Not just the current thread, the OP might also want to consider any other current or past posts (if any) regarding the bike or his condition as well.

Fork failure is my worst nightmare. I have never had it happen to me however I have witnessed it first hand on a group ride and do not wish to go through that experience. I have full carbon and carbon forked Ti bikes, but I do most of my training rides on a full steel Soma frame/fork just for peace of mind.

Helmet or no helmet? (professional curiosity)
your LBS 'unlikely to do anything for you'?
THat sounds like a ****ty answer to me.
At the very least they should have gathered the info and tell you they will kick it up to the Trek rep, who then can take it to the corporate and decide what to do.

Often (from what I am hearing) in situations like that the injured person's lawyer sues EVERYBODY from the retailer up, and usually ends up with a settlement before trial.
I personally would give Trek a fair chance to make things right, then lawyer up.
If everything you say is as you say it, the part had no reason to fail like that.


Now, One thing I have to mention is that where I am, our regional trek rep is awesome.
He always goes above and beyond.

I remember one time some dude came in for a tuneup with an old Klein, turned out the BB welds were cracked.
Frame with lifetime, but the guy readily admitted he was not the original owner, no receipt, and technically it was a Klein from the time they were still independent.

He did not have to do ****, but he made some phonecalls, and got the guy a replacement equivalent Trek frame at Crash replacement pricing.

I think the least they can do for you is replace all your gear free of charge.

spontaneous fork failure without impact on a dry sunny street?? hmmm......maybe the OP should consider the possibility that something caused him to loose control before the crash, which then resulted in the broken fork...dunno, maybe he sneezed and lost control. i had a coworker who had a bee get behind his sunglasses, sting him and wham, broken collarbone. not saying the fork didn't snap because of fatigue but you have to consider other causes as well.

Crashing due to the front fork snapping while going 30+ mph is like every cyclists nightmare. Hope you are ok and make a fast recovery.

Stories like this do make me doubt whether the switch to carbon is a good idea for those of use for whom it is not strictly necessary. Though, as has been mentioned before, practically all bikes, except the absolute cheapest entry level ones, have carbon forks nowadays.

Scary.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Haven’t posted anything here that would compromise a legal effort, so no worries. :)

Helmet cam: good idea, but a little late for this event unfortunately.

Anyone want a photo, email me at digitalintrigue at yahoo.com