[dexterq20]

Today was opening day at Northstar. This happened on my 2nd run of the day:

Completely killed my bars, stripped out one of the faceplate bolts on my stem, snapped my shifter in half, and somehow managed to bend the stem (notice how it sits in relation to the rest of the bike in the first pic).

I didn't even know aluminum bars could bend like that. I've always just seen them snap clean off.

 

[bdamschen]

that's actually kind of awesome that they didn't snap

 

[SteezyWeezy]

I didn't even know aluminum bars could bend like that. I've always just seen them snap clean off.

aluminium isnt carbon

 

[bdamschen]

aluminium isnt carbon

True, but it isn't steel either. aluminum usually cracks rather then bends under gnarly stress

 

[huntandride]

And your not going to tell us what happened! That sucks least you got 1 run in my summer has started off in a full arm cast. Hope you didn't get too messed up

 

[Nagaredama]

What happened? Hit a tree?

 

[Li'l Dave]

What actually happened? Seems difficult to bend the bar upwards like that.

 

[dexterq20]

I washed out in a turn at high speed, and when I got up, the bike looked like that. For those of you familiar with Northstar, it was on Livewire. Landed a jump that leads into a right-hand berm, but I landed the jump too low and my front end washed out when I tried to lean into the turn. I fell pretty hard, but my pads and helmet did their jobs and I'm completely unscathed.

 

[Pelle]

Never seen a bent bar like that on a dh bike. Pretty big forces there.
But its nothing new that alu bars bend, MX bars bend all the time.

 

[Total Heckler]

You made it out ok?

Also, everyone panic! Things that have brand names on them bent and broke!

 

[sanjuro]

carbon doesnt bend

 

[leprechaun]

Wow that's a 7000 series aluminum too. Really happy to see them bend and not break! Yes MX bars of that grade bend too but i thought that perhaps the'yre sooo thick that might help.

I have those bars, makes me feel good.

Typed with one hand, fellow full arm cast posse too.

 

[slowmtb]

Gee, do it right next time will ya - didn't even break a lever

Glad to hear you walked away unscathed, injuries suck

 

[- seb]

That'll be fine, stop being a girl. Quit whinging and go ride

 

[offtheedge]

carbon doesnt bend

sure it does....it just doesn't stay that way.

 

[huntandride]

Typed with one hand, fellow full arm cast posse too.

Nice its so great! NOT. We should start a club!

 

[AlCapone]

That sucks. I hope your bike heals soon . When do you think the bike will be fixed?

 

[dexterq20]

I have those bars, makes me feel good.

Damn... wish I could feel good about it too. Instead I'm now turned off of Sunline products and out of riding for about a week.

 

[Kanye West]

Why? I own those bars and I'm now even more pleased seeing a failure that isn't catastrophic and deadly (*cough cough* AZONIC B52 *cough cough*).

I will admit the Sunline direct mount stems are probably about 1/2" too narrow though. That part does kinda bother me.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Sunline bars must be complete crap. A friend of mine bent a pair a while back and got another set under warranty. Last weekend he snapped them completely in half.

 

[karpi]

it all comes down to the type of aluminium being used for said parts. Depending on the allow, you have aluminium's that are prone to snapping or bending. Some with bike frames. Some times you get aluminium that will bend a lot more and there for fold or dent under hard hits, whilest others will just crack (it also dependes on thickness and other things). Good thing it bent and not broke off, scary thing would be to case a jump, have your bars snap, and whack your head on your stem or something, rather than having them bend and riding away.

 

[freeridefool]

Im glad your ok, but to be turned off to a company because you crashed and broke parts is kind dumb. If anything Im more than glad I have sunline bars. No I know they will probably bend rather than break, in a bad crash. The bend looks like what you described in you crash. Looks like they did what they were supposed to do.

 

[Polandspring88]

Sunline bars must be complete crap. A friend of mine bent a pair a while back and got another set under warranty. Last weekend he snapped them completely in half.

Oh noes, guess I'm just going to be riding along on a set of ticking time bombs. Darn.

 

[NJMX835]

That's not really a rough start, I did $700 worth of damage to my Avy fork at the US Open (my first race of the year) & since I'm not working I can't afford to fix it, I would consider that a rough start... or maybe a non start... or an end, take your pick, lol

Glad you didn't get hurt though, looks like it could have been ugly.

 

[Kntr]

Wide bars= lots of leverage.

 

[gemini2k]

That's not really a rough start, I did $700 worth of damage to my Avy fork at the US Open

How do you do $700 worth of damage to ANY fork? Did you like break your cartridge crowns and stanchions at once?

 

[ThePriceSeliger]

How do you do $700 worth of damage to ANY fork? Did you like break your cartridge crowns and stanchions at once?

Very easy to do, but most people just buy a new fork.

 

[DirtyMike]

Yeah.... My year started with a broken wrist, now its a near broken knee. I rather have broken my bike rather than myself

 

[P.T.W]

Damn... wish I could feel good about it too. Instead I'm now turned off of Sunline products and out of riding for about a week.

Dude its downhill, you crashed....sometimes things break...sometimes they dont. Just like injury's sometimes you fall over at walking speed an do heeeaps of damage, sometimes you have a hooooge ragdoll at warp speed an don't get a scratch.
Get over it an move on...you'll have bigger damage bills sooner or later

 

[Brian HCM#1]

I washed out in a turn at high speed, and when I got up, the bike looked like that. For those of you familiar with Northstar, it was on Livewire. Landed a jump that leads into a right-hand berm, but I landed the jump too low and my front end washed out when I tried to lean into the turn. I fell pretty hard, but my pads and helmet did their jobs and I'm completely unscathed.

My buddy went down hard on that same one last year.