Carbon fiber stem failure?
 

Does anyone know how carbon fiber stem's hold up against fixed gear riding/skids? I have a 110mm carbon fiber stem and i recently developed a fear that it is going to shatter when I'm doing a skid. Can I trust it to hold my 190 pounds while I'm doing skid stops? I did a few searches before posting this and didn't really find any answers? Thanks for any help.

My theory is if it works for cyclocross it will hold up to fixed riding.

I agree with this but if your unconfortable with it change it. It sucks riding around feeling like your bike might break.

i think you will be fine with skids, if you were jumpin gaps and stairs,that would be a different story. but i agree ^^^ you should change it if it bothers you.

letsgetsandy-what area of SD you from?

Oceanside but Im movin to city in a few weeks!!!!! how bout you?

i feel fine with mine, but i don't go down stairs, i don't even bunny hop curbs

I feel more worried about my patched up gatorskins on my back wheel then my fork. It's got 2 tear holes I replaced with tyvek, the bulge scares the crap out of me but meh

Cool, I feel better, thanks.

Carbon fiber anything scares me. But, that's totally biased and without foundation. I just don't like how the stuff fails without warning. But, I've had things like stupid-lite aluminum bars fail under me and I still run aluminum bars. I think as long as you didn't buy stupid-lite and you purchased from a known, quality company the stem will outlive you. I might be inclined to purchase carbon bar ends but at this point that would be about it for me. I think it's worth noting that the cycling industry has clearly embraced carbon fiber technology so its' only going to get better, safer, cheaper....

what stem is it? a lot of the carbon fiber stems are actually carbon wrapped alloy which wouldn't be much different than riding an alloy stem, like the fsa ones definitely aren't all carbon

only within the last few years have full carbon stems really become readily available and are quite expensive