I ride a Longbikes' built and Ryan designed Vanguard with 25,000 miles in five years (this is the
beginning of my sixth year). I have had no problems with my steering linkage. I do attend to it as I
attend to all potential single failure catastrophes.
I noticed somebody's Vanguard with a kink evident in the end of the steering tube from an excursion
as described by Mr. Ryan.
A friend that rides a Ryan Vanguard complained once of losing the forward rod end nut/bolt. We
discussed pinning the bolt. I have and will continue to use a ny-lock nut and aircraft grade rod
end bearings.
I change the two bearings in the steering/handlebar mount assemble at each annual inspection. I
changed the 5/16" steering assy bolt from the common grade bolt to Grade-8 (marked not tested) in my
first year. This bolt takes bending stresses from the barend extensions and the original common
grade bolt failed under controlled conditions due to bending fatigue.
I recently upgraded to Longbikes' hornless & hip-jointed seat frame. I have an essentially new
seat-mesh and a used/repairable mesh for the horn-ed style seat frame available in the name of good
fellowship for the cost of shipping.
"richard ryan" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> In the event of a low speed accident where the wheel gets forced to the right it will cause the
> steering rod to get jammed against the head tube, this can cause the rod end bearing to bend at
> the threaded part of it
where
> it threads into the steering rod. The result can be a crack that's not obvious and can cause it to
> break in use. We had this happen on two bikes that I know of. One was a case of the owner letting
> a friend ride the bike who had a minor accident and didn't tell the owner. We also had a case
where
> the bike shop that assembled the bike adjusted the steering by backing the rod end bearing out so
> far that there was only 1 or 2 threads holding it
in
> place, it tore out of the steering rod the first time the customer rode
the
> bike. I had designed a fix for this problem but never got around to implementing it before I sold
> the company. The rod end bearings should
last
> for a long time, we have bikes out there with 100,000 miles on them.
>
> **** Ryan
>