BikeBiz

We all know that wheels, no matter how cheap, do not spontaneously collapse. Let's hope this doesn't open the floodgates

Got to love the 'no win no fee' culture. The claimant's lawyer will know all the tricks to pull to convince a judge that to totally disregard whatever the defence says.

I'll be doing July's industry opinions on this subject, if you'd like to put forward your opinion on why, or why we shouldn't panic, chuck me an email on: Mark.suttonATintentmediaDOTcoDOTuk

Could the wheel have been faulty for some time and the claimant could not be bothered to take it back to one of the quality workshops Halfords have - usually manned (or boyed) by teenagers on the minimum wage. Or, could he have had zero knowledge regarding bike maintainance?
I have never seen this happen in 20 years and i hope he gets to read these posts!!!

We don't know all the facts but if the wheel was faulty (perhaps a crack in the rim) which may not have been obvious to an novice cyclist then I think he's got every right to seek redress - especially if he's suffered permanent damage. If the wheel was clearly buckled or damaged/faulty in an obvious way and he just carried on riding then it's his own fault.

am i right in saying that a wheel could only buckle on impact or gradually over time as spoke nipples work loose?
in which case he couldn't have been just riding along on tarmac...
As pointed out by Zed, if he was riding on an already buckled wheel, it's his own fault.

It's a case that underlines the fact that in a compensation culture we need several things ...

We need a body the can effectively represent importers and vendors of bicycle components and give expert and impartial opinions on "JRA" and similar failures in components, which has the backing of the BA and is accredited by major manufacturers to be competent to give opinion.

We need better trained mechanics right across the industry (not just in the IBDs) who will be hopefully less liable to make mistakes & who have a better understanding of their resposibility as a mechanic to their customers.

We need all vendors bicycles' buyers to have better understanding of what they are buying - especially (but not necessarily limited to, the "Corporates").

In the IBD side of the industry, we need to work with the corporates on this one, as whilst it might be possible for the corporates to fight such cases given their vast resources, that isn't the case for many IBDs, and yet cases that arise from the corporates, like this one, have a direct effect on the IBDs ...

Jeff Beech of WeldTech (one of the most respected trainers in the business) and myself are currently, (with close involvement of Weldtite and several well-known backers in the industry) setting up a business that will address some of these points and we'd welcome contact from parties who have training, servicing or technical consultancy issues that they'd like to raise with us.

This business will run alongside my agency business, fk:marketing, and many of my existing customers will know that I have been informally offering technical advice and training on my principals' products for some time - what Jeff and I are doing with Weldtite's very active assistance is, in part, a development of that activity, and, in many ways more importantly, it's also a development of the WeldTech training initaitive that Jeff and Weldtite have been working so hard to develop over the last couple of years.

Call Graeme Freestone King on 07802 758 469 or call Jeff Beach on 07812 610 225

Not as scary as some of the bikes that come out of their stores. An acquaintance does cycle training at his school which involves him checking the children's bicycles before they are allowed to start. He tells of brand new bikes turning up with forks fitted facing backwards, brakes pads not touching the rims when the brakes are applied, handlebars stems that have not been tightened etc. If this causes them to tighten up such sloppy and scarily unsafe standards then that is for the good in my opinion.

Is anybody aware if this scenario has happened in the US/Europe yet? surely the UK trade is not the first to have been screwed by this?

As an independent bicycle consultant I have been defending importers, dealers and large retailers in cases like this for years.
I was involved in a case similar to this about 6 months ago where a rider's front wheel collapsed 'for no apparent reason.'
The solicitor acting on behalf of the rider engaged an expert and the resulting report was, in my opinion, a really excellent work of fiction - quite typical of a 'forensic-type' engineer who is more used to dealing with industrial accidents and not what can happen when a bike is used and abused.
Needless to say my report pointed the finger of blame at the rider and the case was, I believe, dropped.

Unfortunately, there are odd occasions when the truth does not prevail.

An incident such as this is rather worrying for anyone in the cycle trade.
But it's worth remembering that, generally speaking people working in independants have a higher level of skill and experiance than those in Halfords and so hopefully most of these instances can be avoided.
For example, nobody can say for certain weather or not the Halfords employee who built the bike out of the box checked the wheels for spoke tension and true (Halfords do include this check on their PDI form as it happens) to make sure that there wasn't an issue with uneven tension or damage to the wheel.
Halfords do also ask their employees to tell the customer about their right to a free '6 week safety check' and the importance of it to help with highlighting any failures which usually would have manifested in that time.
Halfords employees are even supposed to offer to the customer the opportunity to book the 6 week check when they pick the bike up.
BUT... under pressure (which their employees often are) or for some other reason that doesn't always happen.

Could those things have detected the fault before it happened?

The most alarming thing though, about this is it makes me think of something that happened to a customer of my shop recently.
He had caught a vandal loosening the spokes in his wheel!!! Imagine if he hadn't caught the vandal, he could have ended up hurt and my shop could have gotten sued because nobody would ever have known!

Sorry to say it, but I've seen this happen before on a £999 Claud Butler Olympus XT. Luckily it was the rear wheel of my mates bike whilst I was behind so he stopped before any trouble. We'd just ridden 16 miles cross country but it was very smooth and lots of tarmac. He took it back to the shop (he'd had it about 6 months) and they said "they do that sometimes".

"Sun XC rims, Shimano hubs and Continental Gravity 2.3 tyres" - these are tidy components so one has to wonder what had occured during previous rides to lead to such a failure.
This case must be a grave concern for everybody involved in the Trade - it appears that now if a wheel buckles that the dealer (and manu) is automatically held liable !

The long held belief that NO bike (or wheel) is indestructable & that owners / riders take responsibility for their own actions now seems to be turned on it's head !

If this decision is not reversed in an appeal then we ALL must get prepared to suffer similiar legal actions :-(

Like I said previously, my mate's wheel was a Mavic 117 rim, Shimano XT hub and DT Swiss DB spokes. He's a total wuss on his bike, a kerb is about the limits to his drops (mine isn't much more!) he had probably done about 500 miles so I refuse to accept it was his fault. The shop also wasn't suprised and have seen it happen before.

I have an LX hub, Mavic 717 rim and DT swiss spokes, so should I expect it to happen to me, or was the wheel not built right in the first place?

As far as I am concerned, my friend's wheel was not built properly and the shop should be held responsible. But I accept that everyone sues each other's butt over everything, so whilst I'd expect a refund or repair I wouldn't ask for compensation

Sorry, just to clarify my experience - the wheel didn't buckle, all the spokes became totally loose so the rim was slack enough to move about 4 inches in either direction by hand. No broken spokes, cracked rim or similar. The shop re-tensioned the spokes and returned it.

Anyone ever heard "I WAS RIDING ALONG AND IT JUST HAPPEND"

Isn’t it the cycle owner’s responsibility to give the bike a little pre-ride check before every journey or do you have to get your bike checked by a dealer every time you ride it? Or maybe the dealer won’t want to check it for fear of litigation?

It is obviously not the riders fault his/ her wheel collapsed, but surely he/ she would have noticed something was wrong before it failed, common sense seems to be lacking here…..

Maybe I’ll just run my bike in to the ground and when something fails I’ll just sue?

What about online bike shops that sell bikes in the box, part assembled? They can't conduct a final PDI inspection on the bike before the customer uses it, but can only advise the customer to have it built or checked by a shop. But who is liable if the wheel falls off?
That is a scary one! any thoughts anyone?

I take it that you all have a vested interest in this matter but find it clear that you do not appreciate what I am trying to say. I carry out all my work as I work as an precision engineer so this is not disimilar to my daily job. I have built wheels from spare parts, built my current bike from scratch therefore am no stranger to bike maintenance.
But what level of pre-ride check needs to be taken? Each chain link for wear? Each spoke tension? Take out the inner cable? Bleed the hydraulic brakes and check the pads?
BIKE WHEELS DO JUST COME APART. I have seen it first hand, you may have not seen it, but the shop the bike came from certainly had.
If you bought a Ford Focus and the wheel fell off would you have been expected to check the wheel nuts first? What about the bearings?

interesting point, however if you drove that car until the tyres went down to the canvas then blew, who's fault would it be, yours or Fords?

Where do you draw the line?

Well, after more than a dozen years of building wheels, none of mine have yet "just come apart" ;-)

The slackening you describe is a symptom of inadequate spoke tension - i.e. the wheel was not built correctly. Is it possible for incorrectly-built wheels to fail like this? Certainly. Is it possible for correctly-built wheels? No.

Relating to this case, the picture in the newspaper article shows a paired-spoke wheel - does anyone know if this was the wheel that failed, or was it a conventional wheel? Paired spoke wheels depend much more critically on having a very strong rim section, so that may have been the point of failure - they're a silly idea anyway ;-)

Ben Cooper - that was my point. I have never had any trouble with my wheels either. Therefore it must be down to poor wheel building.
Jones 34 - again my point was missed. If you drove the car tyres down to the canvas then you are an imbecile of the highest level and should get a lobotomy on the NHS.
But this was NOT the scenario I described. I mentioned high quality parts, low mileage and light usage. Please do not imply they were mistreated. I know the rider, and probably covered most of the 500 miles with him. He did not abuse a set of XC wheels.
If something is built so badly that it comes apart then the store deserves what it gets. However, how can you prove that? Which is why you should make reasonable steps to check your bike regularly.
My friend certainly didn't ask for compensation. I'm totally against that kind of thing too. I just think some people here automatically decided it's the rider's fault (which I actually agree with!) and stated that wheels don't fall apart for no reason. Which they don't if they are looked after AND built properly.
PS I had my Mavic/Shimano wheels custom built and they are superb - thankyou. Only minor tweeks after nearly 3 years!! So that says it all to me.....

There is some bloody big potholes on the roads around Haldon woods.
We need to ascertain what the word collapse relates to- spokes niples un wound or wheel gave up due to complete kak handeness riding.
Most wheels i have seen collapsed have been due to impact etc.
I have seen wheels unwind themselves - and this i have seen occur on certain models - but has never resulted in a complete failure.

Probably because most people have the common sense to stop when things go a bit weird..........
I think there needs to be an IQ test at the entrance to shops!

Halfords is going to have to change their ways somewhat.
Like most corperates the shareholders have the biggest effect upon how the company is run. At the moment it seems that they are willing to push their sales at the expense of the quality of the setting up and servicing of the bikes. I'm sure that some of their mechanics don't check spoke tension in the 6 week check. Perhaps better training and better staffing (at the expense of profit margins) is the way forward.
By the way I have seen wheels "just come apart before"; admittedly they were all poor quality rims, but it does happen.

Without any specific details on the circumstances, of this case, one can only state the obvious, A bicycle is a complicated machine, and like any machine requires a degree of skill and maintenance on the part of the operator. A cycle shop should not be directly responsible for the current condition of a product that it sold three months previously unless it can be proved that the goods were not fit for purpose.

to be concise, a wheel has to stable structures, the round, (rolling type) and the anticlastic shape. The anticlast is a less energetic state for the wheel and it would take a lot less lateral force than you think to go from the unstable equilibrium state of a round wheel to the stable equilibrium state of a "tacoed or pringled" wheel when they are built without care with the cheapest of materials. Thank you dorel and Pacific.

I've seen wheels slacken off to an alarming degree after a short period. I'm talking machine built OE wheels. They've always been deep section type wheels. I believe this happens because the building machine fails to distinguis between spoke tension and the inherant stiffness of the rim. When this has happened, I've retentioned by hand and the wheels have been long term stable. A wheel would have to be very very bad to collapse totally though. Loose spoked wheels handle awfully and surely a rider would notice something was wrong before total collapse?