On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:57:16 -0600, A Muzi wrote:
>> Tim McNamara wrote:
>>> In article <[email protected]>,
>>> jim beam <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Tim McNamara wrote:
>>>>> In article <[email protected]>,
>>>>> jim beam <[email protected]> wrote:
> -disc Q/R wheels eject on braking-
> -does not / does too-
> -repeat-
>
> jim beam wrote:
>>i mean it seriously
>> - globally, how many ejections have there been? aren't they all from
>> custom forks without lawyer lips? and how can we definitely disprove
>> user error?
>
> That's the compelling argument for me..
>
> Now that millions of XMart bikes equipped with disc brakes, sloppy
> assembly, inattentive owners and CPSC quick releases have been on the
> road a few years, we'd expect more than a couple of anecdotal incidents
> if the situation were truly dire.
Years ago I was prescribed a medication that had a rather bothersome side
effect. When I told my doctor, he looked in the Physician's Desk
Reference (PDR), and told me that that side effect had not previously been
reported. He took me off the medication, but strongly hinted that it was
all in my head. Years later I read an article about the medication that
mentioned that very side effect.
The list of side effects in the PDR was probably drawn up during the
manufacturer's clinical trials, which may not have caught all side effects
because the trials are fairly short-term (among other possible reasons).
What happens when someone complains about a side effect not on the PDR
list? That list tends to be used as a filter to distinguish valid versus
invalid complaints, leading to the purportedly invalid complaints being
ignored. That's particularly true where there an alternative explanation
ready at hand -- "It's all in his head," in my case. "He must not have
tightened the skewer properly," in the case at hand.
Actually, it's worse in the case at hand -- this problem could
occur with some frequency and yet not be reported at all because most
riders probably say to themselves, "I must not have tightened the skewer
properly."
My doctor probably would have caught on when the second person walked in
with my side effect, but if the incidence is fairly low, that could take a
long time.
This kind of thing happens all the time. I think it took years for people
to realize that the Ford/Firestone problem was the common thread among
several accidents.
You only have to look at the rbt threads on this subject to see the filter
in use -- just look at how many people dismiss the reports as being the
product of misuse of skewers without knowing anything about the facts of
individual cases.
Finally, I think this is a significant problem even if it occurs rarely --
first of all because it can cause very serious injury and secondly because
it's a trivial matter to correct (trivial at least with respect to future
production of forks).
If fork manufacturers continue to put the brake on the back of the fork,
knowing that producing a fork with forward mounting would cost
little more to produce and might save even a few lives, then that's just
criminal in my book and I expect juries would agree. At the very
least, they should tell their customers about the problem.