CPSC judgement on disk brakes and QR forks - Page 11

still_the_same_me@hotmail.com (James Annan) writes:

> "Doug Taylor" <dtaylor@dreamscape.com> wrote in message
> news:<vl56gmbgj01gc6@corp.supernews.com>...
>
> > As for you, please supply the name, date and place for *any* cyclist who has been severly
> > injured, paralyzed or killed due to your pet problem. Bet you can't find one.
>
> www.russ-appeal.org.uk is perhaps the most well-known, and provided much of the motivation for my
> research.
>
> I've heard of about 20 cases of actual wheel loss, roughly half of which have resulted in
> overnight (or longer) hospital stays - in the cash-strapped UK National Health Service, this is
> something that is far from routine and indicates that there were severe head and neck injuries.

There's serious misinformation here. The UK health system, like any other, could do with more money
than it has, but this doesn't limit overnight stays. In June of this year I was kept in for five
days for observation because of a blood clot in my leg. People with suspected concussion are almost
always kept in hospital at least twenty four hours for observation, so an overnight stay is no
indication of anything more than a minor bump on the head.

This isn't to say I have any opinion one way or the other regarding ejecting front wheels; merely
that the paragraph quoted doesn't provide any evidence of repeated serious injuries. Nor, on the
evidence I can find on the Russ Appeal site, is there conclusive evidence that the disk brake caused
the wheel to eject in Russell Pinder's accident - again, there may be evidence I don't know about -
but you have to remember that front wheels have been falling off bikes for a lot longer than we've
been using disk brakes.

--
simon@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; I'll have a proper rant later, when I get the time.

Simon Brooke <simon@jasmine.org.uk> wrote in message
news:<871xupps34.fsf@gododdin.internal.jasmine.org.uk>...
> still_the_same_me@hotmail.com (James Annan) writes:
>
> > I've heard of about 20 cases of actual wheel loss, roughly half of which have resulted in
> > overnight (or longer) hospital stays - in the cash-strapped UK National Health Service, this is
> > something that is far from routine and indicates that there were severe head and neck injuries.
>
> There's serious misinformation here. The UK health system, like any other, could do with more
> money than it has, but this doesn't limit overnight stays. In June of this year I was kept in for
> five days for observation because of a blood clot in my leg. People with suspected concussion are
> almost always kept in hospital at least twenty four hours for observation, so an overnight stay is
> no indication of anything more than a minor bump on the head.

Good grief, hasn't everyone on this thread packed up and gone home long ago?

Ok, I agree that the mere fact of an overnight stay does not in itself prove beyond any doubt that
the injuries were very serious. Nevertheless, many of the injuries _were_ very serious, I just
couldn't be bothered listing them all. They are not just a handful of the comedy over-the-bar
moments that most MTB riders will have learnt to love.

As an aside, I didn't think that an overnight stay was routine for mere concussion, let alone
`suspected concussion'. But I'll take your word for it, and it may even apply to one of the cases I
have heard about.

James

James Annan <still_the_same_me@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<3F4BD86E.7020402@hotmail.com>...
> This is not actually the 'official' signed letter which is in the post, but I received the
> following via email recently:
>
> "Based upon the information currently available, the staff does not believe the problem identified
> necessitates further action by the Commission under Section 15 of the CPSA. However, the
> Commission has recommended that the ASTM Bicycle Committee, which meets in October 2003, take this
> matter under advisement for further discussion, additional testing and problem examination."
>
> Section 15 of the CPSA can be found at https://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/cpsa15b.html
>
I thought the following article might be pertinent to this discussion:

<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Bicycle%20Defects%20Fine>

In a nutshell: a manufacturer of cheap department store bikes was fined US $1 million by the CPSC
for failing to report injuries caused by defective forks. I suppose it's reassuring to know the CPSC
is capable of taking strong action, even if it is after the fact. Perhaps that will motivate fork
makers to address the problem with disk brakes.