Well, I don't know, I've heard several reports of riders winding up on the pavement when a Campy crank broke during a hard downstroke, throwing them completely off balance. This is probably more likely to happen if the crank fails at the pedal hole rather than at the spider. But Campy NR cranks were prone to cracking there also. In fact the nastiest cracks I've found in Campy NR cranks have been at the pedal hole.
Maybe I'm too complacent, but I remain unconvinced that quality alloy bicycle components fail catastrophically and without warning any more frequently than say humans being struck by lightning or being killed by an airplane crashing into their house. In my experience, alloy components have always shown visible cracks well before actual failure. So I continue to ride AVA bars, AVA stems, Campy NR/SR cranks and ALAN aluminum frames. I just inspect them regularly for cracks. And if I detect cracks, the component is removed immediately and used for display only.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
John Thompson <JohnThompson@new.rr.com> wrote:
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
> At the risk of somewhat disagreeing with the esteemed Mr. Brown, I do
> not follow his advice to automatically replace AVA stems. These
> stems have been known to fail, but then Campy NR cranks were known to
> crack at the junction of right arm and spider, and I know of no one
> automatically replacing all NR cranks just because of that.
That's true, but a stem failure is potentially much more serious than a crank failure. When a crank fails, you lose the ability to pedal, but when a stem fails you completely lose control of the bicycle.
--
John "been there, done that; had the collapsed lung to show for it --
and I got off lucky" (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA