I've seen a waterford lugged steel track frame catch the fence at the velodrome and launch past riders in front of it... I'm not exactly sure how it increased in speed while crashing but that was scary stuff both from the middle of the pack and checking out that frame condition afterward. It didn't break into two pieces but it broke in so many places that I don't know how it stayed together. The good news was that nobody else in the pack went down and the rider only suffered some stitches as far as I recall. Additionally, it was a shop owned bike (for whatever that's worth). Ken
On Jul 18, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Dr. Paul Williams wrote:
> Having just watched the end of today's T de F stage, I was
> particularly
> struck by the seeming fragility of CF frames after the spectacular
> crash
> of the Gerolsteiner(?) rider and the pictures of his bike flying
> through
> the air and breaking into two halves upon landing. It got me thinking
> about past Tours (within the CR time frame) and whether any steel
> frames
> reacted the same way when crashed? I know forks broke, but did lugged
> steel framesets break in half or fly apart at the seams like this? Was
> it more a question of bent but not broken? I don't remember such
> things
> over the past 30 years of watching!
>
>
> Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD
> Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> castell5@sympatico.ca
>
> _______________________________________________
Ken Willow
Chicago, IL