[Yeti]

So today I was having a great day on the bike. Was really on it hammering the track. Then I decide to start taking lap times. At my first try as I'm in the middle of a bermed turn I hear a loud metallic *snap* and all of the sudden my bars just twist in the opposite direction as my front wheel. I crash kind of hard and then my trusty bike follows and hits my head. Luckily this happened at tight turn and not at some high speed part of the track. Anyway here is what caused my crash. My first theory is that they messed up the alloy. The fork has around a month of use and I haven't had any hard crashes that involved directly twisting or bending the fork. I'm pretty sure it's a warranty thing and hope this doesn't happen to anyone else...I still love the fork.

 

[Broken_Spoke]

That isn't good at all, hope the warranty covers it.

 

[BenP]

hey there, could you please upload the last picture in hi-res? i'd like to the fracture surface... that gonna tell you alot.
or even better, please take another closeup and upload somewhere in hi-res...

 

[Yeti]

hey there, could you please upload the last picture in hi-res? i'd like to the fracture surface...

It has "bubbles" that don't seem to have a corresponding filling counterpart on the other side of the fracture and the magnesium seems a bit to corny and therefore brittle. Any materials engineer out there thinks the same?
Here it is:

 

[banrider]

that zip tie just was too tight...sorry I have to say it! anyway I hope RS solves that quickly and w/o any cost to you....and it seems a very dangerous spot for a fork to fail w/o a crash so RS should check that asap! good luck...!

 

[P.T.W]

It has "bubbles" that don't seem to have a corresponding filling counterpart on the other side of the fracture and the MAGNESIUM seems a bit to corny and therefore brittle. Any materials engineer out there thinks the same?

There i fixed it for you
Oh im not a huge expert on this sorta thing so no comment

 

[dhmike]

glad your ok yeti but fock buying a '10 boxxer . sure they look cool , but there's way too many horror stories about the '10 boxxer .

 

[Kanye West]

Awesome....

Yeah I'm with dhmike on that one. That could be a cool fork if it weren't a SRAM product maybe.

 

[rayhaan]

it does look very porous.hmmm it looks like a poor casting, it might have been 1 in a 1000 that it happened to. It shouldn't happen at all but sometimes in a high volume manufacturing process these things can occur. I am not sure what process SRAM uses for the casting of their lowers, but perhaps they should double check the results before they allow them to be sold...

on the positive side, good thing you are still alive and not too seriously hurt yeti...

 

[tatankainlondon]

Dude, I hope you are ok yourself.

 

[S.K.C.]

Jesus...



Yeti - glad to hear you are OK and that this didn't happen on a steep/rough/rocky part of the track. I'm no materials engineer, but to have this happen in a bermed corner of all places...

I've seen first gen. FOX 40's snap in nearly the exact same location - but that was due to stresses induced from high speed hits such as hard bottom-out on landings.

Call SRAM, get someone's email in the tech. dept., and send them the hi-res pics - they will definitely want to see this.

EDIT: Have the serial number from your fork handy when you contact them.

 

[gemini2k]

glad your ok yeti but fock buying a '10 boxxer . sure they look cool , but there's way too many horror stories about the '10 boxxer .

When will people learn not to buy 1st year Rock Shox products....

 

[wachtourak]

Looks like it's snapped in the same place as Danice Uyesugi's fork when she crashed at La Bresse...

 

[raretypeofbird]

soap stone!

 

[DirtyMike]

Holy crap, a Boxxer with a snapped arch...... No way, that just isnt possible, Boxxers never break like that, never ever.



Seriously, just a thought, maybe not the best idea to post up yet untill after warranty issues have all been resolved.

 

[time-bomb]

Seriously, just a thought, maybe not the best idea to post up yet untill after warranty issues have all been resolved.

LOL, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Salami]

LOL, I was thinking the same thing.

Thirded. Click the delete button on the first post.

 

[RUFUS]

But it is something wrong with a 2010 boxxer on ridemonkey, it MUST be posted.

 

[eater]

go for Marzocchi! i saled my 2010 after 5 ride!!!

 

[fred.r]

Holy crap, a Boxxer with a snapped arch...... No way, that just isnt possible, Boxxers never break like that, never ever.



Seriously, just a thought, maybe not the best idea to post up yet untill after warranty issues have all been resolved.

Why not? In no way is he bashing the product. If anything, if/when SRAM sees this, they'll hook him up big time so he comes back on here and posts how awesome SRAMS CS is etc... Sh1t happens, and manufactures know this. I'll still be on a BoXXer next season, after all this first year run stuff's ironed out.

 

[toodles]

Seriously, just a thought, maybe not the best idea to post up yet untill after warranty issues have all been resolved.

Why? Good on him I reckon... Might be a heads up for other owners to check their forks.

Staying silent about that kind of issue won't affect the company's response at all.

 

[tatankainlondon]

Are 2010 Marzocchi already available?

go for Marzocchi! i saled my 2010 after 5 ride!!!

 

[Biffff]

Why not? In no way is he bashing the product. If anything, if/when SRAM sees this, they'll hook him up big time so he comes back on here and posts how awesome SRAMS CS is etc... Sh1t happens, and manufactures know this. I'll still be on a BoXXer next season, after all this first year run stuff's ironed out.

2011 Boxxers will break too, and 2012's.........and forever.
I'd never trust one. I thought maybe I'd trust the new ones, but maybe not.

 

[dilzy]

Definitely a bad casting. You can see the gas pockets everywhere. Not only that, but the way it's crystalized just doesn't look right. I'm figuring maybe the melt wasn't hot enough or there was a serious amount of air in there, because it looks very strange to me.

I only briefly touched on this a couple of years ago, but I'm sure no metalurgist.

 

[eater]

Are 2010 Marzocchi already available?

no, but i got a nice 2009 66rc3 ata !
i got a 2010 boxxer team and sale after 5 ride.

 

[Muttely]

Ive seen this happen to an 07 one aswel, bear in mind the guy hit a tree at about 25,but i still trust sram, which is why i ordered an 010 race yesterday....

 

[banrider]

If he didn't hit a tree or had a hard crash on the fork, I don't see any reason to delete his post...it seems a clear example of warranty issue for me...

 

[Yeti]

Jesus...



Yeti - glad to hear you are OK and that this didn't happen on a steep/rough/rocky part of the track. I'm no materials engineer, but to have this happen in a bermed corner of all places...
I've seen first gen. FOX 40's snap in nearly the exact same location - but that was due to stresses induced from high speed hits such as hard bottom-out on landings.
Call SRAM, get someone's email in the tech. dept., and send them the hi-res pics - they will definitely want to see this.

I live in Switzerland so I will contact the RS dealer on monday. At the shop we have another brand new Boxxer Team which I will take. I don't want to bash the product in any way. I hope this was just some misshappening in the production on that day. Otherwise I love the fork and this is the reason why I still want to keep using it.

Why? Good on him I reckon... Might be a heads up for other owners to check their forks.
Staying silent about that kind of issue won't affect the company's response at all.

If he didn't hit a tree or had a hard crash on the fork, I don't see any reason to delete his post...it seems a clear example of warranty issue for me...

Like you say, there is no reason to stay silent about something like this. I didn't crash against a tree and then complained about the product nor am I bashing it. Sure it's not good for their image, but it's a rider's safety issue. From the looks of the fracture I don't think one could have seen it coming though. Before the ride I cleaned the bike and don't remember seeing anything suspicious about the fork in that area. It also happened after about 9 runs on that day. Still if you're a riding a boxxer I would certainly check it a bit more often.


And I'm ok. Only some bruises here and there and my neck is still a bit stiff but nothing serious luckily. Cheers!

 

[offtheedge]

I bet the zip tie was too tight

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Seriously, just a thought, maybe not the best idea to post up yet untill after warranty issues have all been resolved.

I disagree. There may have been a few bad batches of lowers out there, and if this can save someone from a serious injury it is well worth it. I'm sure Sram will step up and cover him as well as anyone else with this issue.

 

[Jonnyc]

I was just riding along when all of a sudden...

 

[iRider]

Just buy a Dorado and you will NEVER have this problem!

 

[RUFUS]

Just buy a Dorado and you will NEVER have this problem!

Yeah, just spend double than what you did for the boxxer and you will never have a problem again and you won't ride for the rest of the season.

 

[demo 9]

Yeah, just spend double than what you did for the boxxer and you will never have a problem again and you won't ride for the rest of the season.

But it comes in a really nice case....

 

[JeffKill]

2011 Boxxers will break too, and 2012's.........and forever.
I'd never trust one. I thought maybe I'd trust the new ones, but maybe not.

I've seen EVERY and ANY kind of fork break at the arch. Not just Boxxers. I've seen just as many Marzocchi's and Fox's broken in the same exact place. So your comment is completely irrelevant.

 

[allsk8sno]

everything breaks, its just the what caused it that matters, he was JRA for the most part, but did he hit a tree or case something or crash hard previous to this to cause a micro crack which worked till he hit this corner?

 

[ohio]

Definitely a bad casting. You can see the gas pockets everywhere. Not only that, but the way it's crystalized just doesn't look right. I'm figuring maybe the melt wasn't hot enough or there was a serious amount of air in there, because it looks very strange to me.

Nah, you can't judge cast magnesium against cast aluminum. It fails more like MMC than an aluminum alloy. That looks right except for the two spots that may be voids, or it may that there are two corresponding protrusions on the other side of the fracture. But the rest of it looks normal to me.

 

[jonKranked]

Even with 6σ yer still gonna get rejects...

 

[DHperu]

good to hear your ok Yeti, saw the pic on facebook and though you had a nasty crash but not that i would have broken while you were still on the bike...i get my 2010 team tommorow, wish me luck haha

 

[dilzy]

Even with 6σ yer still gonna get rejects...

I don't think Rockshox even heard of that. In fact I reckon Thomson is the only company that seems to be up to that level.