A friend of mine was in a long distance training ride last Saturday and hit a pothole and crashed. She broke a few ribs and a clavicle. I wasn't there so I can only go by what has been relayed to me. She was riding a Specialized womens specific design carbon fiber bike at the time. I know her to be a good rider so I found the incident to be a bit unnerving.
I had two incidents about 3 years ago when I owned a race oriented carbon fiber Kestrel Evoke. This was a fast riding bike. One time while descending on the Calaverous wall I braked because I forgot whether I should make a left turn or right and subsequently flipped over. Another incident was when I hit a road divider in the Saratoga maze at dusk and flipped over. I recall thinking in both incidents, "I shouldn't have flipped!" Granted there was rider error in both of my flips. However, I felt the compact frame combined with the "stiffness" of the frame compounded the dynamics and propensity to flip. I am riding steel and titanium bikes now with long wheel bases and feel more secure. My friends accident made me wonder, would she have lost control had she been riding a non carbon fiber bike? Have there been any studies on this? I don't think its just my imagination that carbon fiber bikes have a greater propensity for losing control than non carbon fiber bikes. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Cheers, Chris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
