TdF equipment

[tch]

Does it seem like there has been more equipment failure than usual this tour? Especially Phonak (Tyler's team)? Phil and Bob mentioned it and I had already noticed that Phonak has had a number of flats and broken two handlebars over the course of the last two days. What's up? Untested stuff? Using stuff that is too light and just not up to the rigors? Until this tour, I had never even heard of handlebars breaking. Obviously carbon fiber doesn't bend...but you gotta wonder about the "advantages" of stuff that's not up to strength.

[Climb01742]

to your point, postal seems to never have mechanicals. i can't even remember a flat. worst i can remember is lance's rear brake rubbing for half of a mountain stage last year. ouch! maybe postal tests stuff earlier in the year? lots of teams seem to get gear just before the tour, without time to test it.

[MartyE]

my understanding was that most teams avoided using super light
carbon fibre bars for that very reason.
It does seem there have been an awful lot of punctures so far,
however previous tours stayed off pave and the roads for the
most part seemed better that those of northern france or Belgium.

Marty

[slowgoing]

I think the bars that broke today were the result of a crash. The guy got up, the bike seemed fine, then as he was riding he realized the bars were broken.

Not too much unlike Lance's broken seat stay after the his crash in the tour last year, although Lance didn't realize it till after the stage was over.

[bfd]

which caused him to come unclipped, Twice!, in that same race that he broke his chainstay. Its interesting that prior to that happening, it seemed just about *everybody* wanted those "Lance pedals". Then when he had problems, nothing, demand just dropped! I bet Shimano wasn't too happy....

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . a lot of this new stuff is just crazy light and it doesn't surprise me that it breaks more often for them than it does for you or me. We have had our own tales of woe here on the forum about snapping seatposts and killer napkins, and these racers are putting this stuff through conditions much harsher than what we ride in. doesn't surprise me a bit . . .

BBDave

[dirtdigger88]

didn't tyler blow up a hub a few years back because they (his team) removed some of the engagement prawls to lighten the hub? at what point is it too light...

Jason

[xcandrew]

The pedals were and are fine. He's still using them isn't he? I thought it was obvious to everyone :rolleyes: that the chainstay break and the immediate following near crashes were connected, especially on hindsight. The reason the pedals unclipped was because of the cracked chainstay allowing some flex and derailleur misalignment causing the chain to skip. When the chain skips when you are out of the saddle, all of a sudden you're pushing on nothing and that's why he came down on the top tube. He had two good saves... I destroyed my first hand-me-down road bike back in high school crashing down after a chain skip on a worn out drivetrain (though this was after many saves over the previous year). The pedals unclipped as his body was crashing down towards the top tube, when his legs and feet were no longer aligned for pedaling.

[tom2517]

The pedals were and are fine. He's still using them isn't he? I thought it was obvious to everyone :rolleyes: that the chainstay break and the immediate following near crashes were connected, especially on hindsight. The reason the pedals unclipped was because of the cracked chainstay allowing some flex and derailleur misalignment causing the chain to skip. When the chain skips when you are out of the saddle, all of a sudden you're pushing on nothing and that's why he came down on the top tube. He had two good saves... I destroyed my first hand-me-down road bike back in high school crashing down after a chain skip on a worn out drivetrain (though this was after many saves over the previous year). The pedals unclipped as his body was crashing down towards the top tube, when his legs and feet were no longer aligned for pedaling.


I'll second to that, everyone knows Lance is very serious about his equipment, if there is a problem with the pedals, he wouldn't have used it again.

[tch]

That this evening as I turned on the TV to check weather, it was still on OLN. Lance was being "interviewed" by one of the Cutters from this morning. When asked about some of the problems other teams had during the TTT, he said something to the effect that he questioned some of the equipment choices other teams had made for the time trial. He said Postal went with fat tires for the rain and always uses heavier aero bars -- precisely because "we don't want to have any problems out there on the road".