Neighbour's Kids TREK

Next door neighbour's kids bike broke outside ours today. It's a TREK
somethingorother 60. For about a 6-8 year old. Looked like a nice bike.

The problem was on the front V brakes, the arm the front snake goes into had
bent out of shape allowing the end of the snake to squeeze though. Not sure
a kid should be able to exert enough force to do that?

Jc

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:00:37 -0000, "Josey" nospam@josey wrote:

Next door neighbour's kids bike broke outside ours today. It's a TREK
somethingorother 60. For about a 6-8 year old. Looked like a nice bike.

The problem was on the front V brakes, the arm the front snake goes into had
bent out of shape allowing the end of the snake to squeeze though. Not sure
a kid should be able to exert enough force to do that?

This has recently been discussed here. It seems to be a very common
problem with children's bikes especially. I have toyed with the idea
of writing to trading standards about the problem, but, as yet,
haven't got around to it.

My layman's diagnosis is that the clip which holds the 'noodle' (not
snake) in place is made of inferior quality metal which bends too
easily.

"Tom Crispin" wrote in message

My layman's diagnosis is that the clip which holds the 'noodle' (not
snake) in place is made of inferior quality metal which bends too
easily.

Sorry, yes that's it, the clip the noodle goes into. That's exactly what I
saw, too soft a metal. This is exacerbated by the slot cut in for the cable.

I think there is a real safety issue here, and as I'm the one who has bent
this one back into shape, I feel I have to do something about it. I'm going
to contact TREK in the first instance, I will report back. The bike can't be
more than a few months old.

I'd appreciate a pointer to any previous threads on the subject, as I can't
spot in google. thanks.

Jc.

Tom Crispin writes:

My layman's diagnosis is that the clip which holds the 'noodle' (not
snake) in place is made of inferior quality metal which bends too
easily.

Not to repeat the previous thread, but I think it is not so much
materials but a design that has inherent vulnerabilities:

1: one end of the noodle is embedded in this clip, the other is
relatively free to move. This gives leverage at the noodle--clip
interface, so anything that pushes at the other end of the noodle
has a lot of power to damage the clip.

2: Kids will frequently allow the handlebars to rotate too far
(dropping it, etc -- we're not all Colyers here ;-) ) and in one
direction this pushes the noodle against the down tube (my 4yo's
bike has had no unsupervised use yet -- needs a push start, but
quite good on independent UPDs -- and already has missing paint
at that spot)


Brendan


--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html

"Brendan Halpin" wrote in message

2: Kids will frequently allow the handlebars to rotate too far
(dropping it, etc -- we're not all Colyers here ;-) ) and in one
direction this pushes the noodle against the down tube

Ahh, I didn't see what happend. I'd presumed she'd *pulled* the noodle
though the clip, which is why I was scratching my head as to how it was
done. This makes sense. I've seen here with the bike on the floor with the
handlebars around the wrong way a few times.

I've just checked what model it is, and it's not exactly a cheap kids bike:

http://www.extremesports.ltd.uk/mtb/product43-1598.htm

I'll email Trek and see what they say. I'm not sure I can do anything to
protect the noodle.

Jc.

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:54:27 -0000, "Josey" nospam@josey wrote:

I'd appreciate a pointer to any previous threads on the subject, as I can't
spot in google. thanks.

http://tinyurl.com/3yleq3 from
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....582b1814e32587

"Tom Crispin" wrote in message

http://tinyurl.com/3yleq3 from
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....582b1814e32587

Ah, that thread, I had read the first couple of posts originally, but not
followed it.
It's scary how common this problem is.

I have emailed Trek, we'll se what they say. If the reply is unsatisfactory
I have a contact in Trading Standards.

Jc.

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:55:21 +0000, Brendan Halpin
wrote:

Not to repeat the previous thread, but I think it is not so much
materials but a design that has inherent vulnerabilities:

1: one end of the noodle is embedded in this clip, the other is
relatively free to move. This gives leverage at the noodle--clip
interface, so anything that pushes at the other end of the noodle
has a lot of power to damage the clip.

2: Kids will frequently allow the handlebars to rotate too far
(dropping it, etc -- we're not all Colyers here ;-) ) and in one
direction this pushes the noodle against the down tube (my 4yo's
bike has had no unsupervised use yet -- needs a push start, but
quite good on independent UPDs -- and already has missing paint
at that spot)

An excellent diagnosis.

The other day I found a child cycling a Hot Rod, which I had earlier
checked, with the front brake disconected and handlebars rotated 360
degrees.

Clearly the young lad was not one of Colyer's brood. ;-)

Tom Crispin wrote:
Clearly the young lad was not one of Colyer's brood. ;-)

My daughter's Puky doesn't have V-brakes, so it's not an issue :-P

--
Danny Colyer URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down.
Daddy, why did you put that down?" - Charlie Colyer, age 2

Tom Crispin writes:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:55:21 +0000, Brendan Halpin
wrote:

2: Kids will frequently allow the handlebars to rotate too far
(dropping it, etc -- we're not all Colyers here ;-) ) and in one
direction this pushes the noodle against the down tube (my 4yo's
bike has had no unsupervised use yet -- needs a push start, but
quite good on independent UPDs -- and already has missing paint
at that spot)

An excellent diagnosis.

The other day I found a child cycling a Hot Rod, which I had earlier
checked, with the front brake disconected and handlebars rotated 360
degrees.

I have to admit that I checked more closely and the noodle on the
4yo's bike doesn't actually touch the frame in this case (so the
paint chip is due to something else), though it does happen on his
brother's bike.

Brendan
--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html