On the bright side........

.... my ride home could have gone a lot worse.

I bought an early model Trice back in August and have been having much
fun riding it since. Tonight though I was taking the last (sharp) turn
into our road, 50 yards from home when the front nearside stub axle
snapped. I stopped fairly sharpish, but under control, and once I picked
the bits up and thought about things, I realised how lucky I was.

I was only 50 yards from home, when I could so easily have been miles
away.
I was only travelling slowly for the final turn into a quiet residential
street - it could have happened at high speed down a hill on a busy
road.
Losing a wheel on a bike would definitely have had me eating tarmac - on
the trike I've just lost some paint as the cross-member scraped down the
road on one side.

I've emailed I.C.E in the hope that they have some replacements for my
model (as one failed, I shall replace both), so I await their reply with
crossed fingers. For the metalurgists on U.R.C, I've put a picture of
the snapped axle on the web at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8ou2n - I'm
curious about the line of bright metal in the center of the axle.

The major downside is until it's fixed, I've got to ride the spare hack
bike (a ladies Raleigh hybrid) to work, and I've not ridden an ass
hatchet further than the shops for years.

--
Colin

Coincidence is the alibi of the Gods

(remove FOOT to reply)

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:56:15 -0000, Colin
wrote:

I've put a picture of
the snapped axle on the web at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8ou2n - I'm
curious about the line of bright metal in the center of the axle.


A quick glance suggests that the two semicircular areas are places
where the crack(s) grew slowly, possibly with the two faces fretting
against each other; and the centre section was a final fast break.

Have a look at the other axle is what I suggest. Look for a crack in
the shaft, and look for a design flaw that might give rise to a crack
- a shoulder with a sharp corner, a bearing or mounting flange with
same. Is perhaps the crack at the end of a threaded portion?

In article t
Colin wrote:
snip
I've emailed I.C.E in the hope that they have some replacements for my
model (as one failed, I shall replace both), so I await their reply with
crossed fingers. For the metalurgists on U.R.C, I've put a picture of
the snapped axle on the web at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8ou2n - I'm
curious about the line of bright metal in the center of the axle.

That's the bit that suddenly let go and dumped you on the tarmac - the
other parts of the surface are smoothed where they've been fretting
together as the cracks developed. I expect poor machining left a sharp-
edged stress raiser between the bit of the spindle that goes through the
bearing and the shoulder that the bearing sits against. Was there a
missing spacer? The bearings should be clamped up, but there isn't an
obvious mark on the rusty washer to show that it was sitting tight
against anything. What is the orientation of the fracture?

Colin wrote:

I bought an early model Trice back in August and have been having much
fun riding it since. Tonight though I was taking the last (sharp) turn
into our road, 50 yards from home when the front nearside stub axle
snapped.

I've emailed I.C.E in the hope that they have some replacements for my
model (as one failed, I shall replace both), so I await their reply
with crossed fingers.

Is this a 12 mm axle? If it is smaller in diameter you might want to ask
ICE about the possibility and costs for a replacement with 12mm. Thin
stub axles have a long history of failing, especially on dutch
velomobiles and trikes, so 12 mm has become a sort of standard for this
application.

I put a picture of the axles used on the current single letter models
he
http://de-rec-fahrrad.de/technik/sturmey_archer_trommelbremsnabe_fuer_dreiraeder

Günther

Following on from Colin's message. . .
... my ride home could have gone a lot worse.

I bought an early model Trice back in August and have been having much

crossed fingers. For the metalurgists on U.R.C, I've put a picture of
the snapped axle on the web at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8ou2n - I'm
curious about the line of bright metal in the center of the axle.

Interesting picture. A classic. Well worth posting.
(For future reference, it is useful to put something in the picture to
scale it, a coin for example.)

There appears to be a rusty 'old' crack at 6 o'clock which may be
irrelevant. It is VERY worrying that there are TWO cracks here. It
suggests some intrinsic problem rather than a rogue stress-raiser.

You are right to be concerned about the other axle as this could be due
to poor design, material or manufacturing (or use beyond intended
limits, or poor maintenance) which could affect:
(a) the other axle
(b) other axles in the same manufacturing batch
(c) all axles by this manufacturer/assembler
(d) all users relying on inappropriate assembly/maintenance
documentation (included in this case for completeness)
(e) all axles of this general design
(f) other 'mis-users' who don't realise they are pushing the vehicle
beyond its designed limits. (eg too heavy a rider).

Failures like this are, as you know, caused by cyclic load. Presumably
in this case one cycle per wheel revolution. The important calculation
to make is how many cycles have there been? If this was new in August
then there is no way this design is safe and ICE should be doing a
product recall. If it is less than 5 years old then (assuming a generic
problem which may be a bit hasty from a single photograph) ICE need to
take some general remedial action such as "replace your axle after 5000
miles for model XYZ" adverts in the cycling press.

As far as I know there is no official way to deal with this sort of
safety-related issue. It might be worth sending a pleasant email to
Cornwall Trading Standards suggesting they have a chat with ICE to
advise them on possible ways of dealing with what could be a fatal (to
the businesses reputation) issue if it develops further.

Conclusion
I am not a metallurgist, but I can see _two_ cracks. This makes me a
bit worried that this is an intrinsic problem not a one-off. Given the
safety-related nature of the failure it is important that (a) the full
scope of issue is determined and (b) properly addressed.


--
PETER FOX Not the same since the poster business went to the wall

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...


Failures like this are, as you know, caused by cyclic load. Presumably in
this case one cycle per wheel revolution. The important calculation to
make is how many cycles have there been? If this was new in August then
there is no way this design is safe and ICE should be doing a product
recall. If it is less than 5 years old then (assuming a generic problem
which may be a bit hasty from a single photograph) ICE need to take some
general remedial action such as "replace your axle after 5000 miles for
model XYZ" adverts in the cycling press.

If you look at pictures of the whole trike on the site, it's clear it's not
a new model and looks like one of the very early ones - indeed that it is
what it says on the site. Indeed it looks like a model from 1990'ish

In article , Peter Fox wrote:
Following on from Colin's message. . .

I bought an early model Trice back in August and have been having much
[...]
in this case one cycle per wheel revolution. The important calculation
to make is how many cycles have there been? If this was new in August
then there is no way this design is safe and ICE should be doing a
product recall. If it is less than 5 years old

"early model Trice" could be up to twenty years old. He'd need to know
how far the previous owners rode it to have an idea of the number of
load cycles. Even an early ICE (rather than Peter Ross) model could be
more than five.

Following on from wafflycat's message. . .
If you look at pictures of the whole trike on the site, it's clear it's not
a new model and looks like one of the very early ones - indeed that it is
what it says on the site. Indeed it looks like a model from 1990'ish
Are you saying "That's only to be expected - older things break" or "No
need to worry - It's well known that modern designs are 'better' " or
what?

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the statuette business went bust

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...
Following on from wafflycat's message. . .
If you look at pictures of the whole trike on the site, it's clear it's
not
a new model and looks like one of the very early ones - indeed that it is
what it says on the site. Indeed it looks like a model from 1990'ish
Are you saying "That's only to be expected - older things break" or "No
need to worry - It's well known that modern designs are 'better' " or
what?

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the statuette business went bust

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

All she was saying is that it is an old model. Nothing else

Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.

Peter Fox wrote:

Following on from wafflycat's message. . .

If you look at pictures of the whole trike on the site, it's clear it's not
a new model and looks like one of the very early ones - indeed that it is
what it says on the site. Indeed it looks like a model from 1990'ish

Are you saying "That's only to be expected - older things break" or "No
need to worry - It's well known that modern designs are 'better' " or
what?

It's a response to this part of your earlier post:

If this was new in August then there is no way this design is safe
and ICE should be doing a product recall.

waffles is simply pointing out that it is an old model.

Product recalls are a nightmare for old stuff. Unless you catch a
fault early it is virtually impossible to trace products down the
chain of ownership. It's hard enough to do for things like cars where
each change of keeper should be registered, let alone things like
bikes that can be bought and sold at will with no need to log who owns
them.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"