R-Sys Wheel failure - post recall

[Johan Bornman]

that is one seriously frightening story! also a well-balanced and well-written piece of journalism.

Of course it gets a whole lot better balanced when Mavic is afforded the opportunity to respond: http://www.velonews.com/article/93240/mavic-responds-to-wheel-collapse-article

 

It gets better but nor more balanced.

 

If you do a critical analysis ofMavic's response you'll see it is hardly sensical. It starts off by trashing the report, calling it premature, out of sync with Velonews' usual  journalistic integrity and doesn't disclose all the details.

 

Then they go on to the usual bull by saying the wheels have been tested in the labs, by pro teams and in the field. Mavic forgets to either say that Arses V1.0 was either not tested at all or, their tests were crap.  Instead, they focus on the three types of tests and leaves the reader to conclude that they've done their bit and therefore the fault is somewhere else. Something sinister is hiding in the wings.

 

Then they state some facts to get the reader to nod his head and sympathise: All materials can be made to fail they say. Of course, the reader says. You can pull the arse out of a chicken with enough force and they side with Mavic.

 

Then they sprinkle some FUD on the pudding: The cause of the accident has yet to be determined. Between the lines they say that the cause may or may not have been the breaking wheel. Fair enough, but a wheel that brakes like this from a solo accident is not exactly desirable, now is it?

 

They go on and to reinforce the nodding heads, they throw in some facts: the wheel is broken, the tyre came off, the valve said goodbye and the frame is kaput. You must now nod, Mavic is right, aren't they?

 

Even worse: The tyre, tube and frame were not Mavic products. Hey okes, you're playing with fire, mixing non-approved Mavic stuff with high-tech Mavic wheels. You've been warned before and now look what happened. We told you so!

 

Then Mavic actually starts to make sense. They say that the fact that the hub doesn't have road rash (we don't know that, we're taking Mavic's word for this) and that the valve-stem was sheared off, means that the wheel was intact when the tyre deflated (I'm taking some shortcuts here) and the rider braked and the tyre bunched up and ripped the valve out which caused the tyre to jam in the fork which caused a sudden stop and hence crash.

 

And just perhaps, there could be a possibility, that the wheel broke because of all that.

 

And then the argument peters out. But, now the reader is sufficiently duped into thinking that there is balance and that Mavic may in future be proved not guilty.

 

My take on this: If the tyre lost pressure and the rider braked (not cornered as suggested but braked hard), then the tyre would bunch and jam and rip the valve off. But, a real wheel would have stayed intact and a rubbish wheel would have shattered. How much harder would the rider have fallen if the two scenarios are compared? I don't know.

 

But what I do know is that a tyre that bunches jams at the fork and brings the bike to a sudden halt. However, there is no torque transmitted to the hub in this case (as is with any rim brake) and the spokes would not have undergone significant changes in tension, causing them to break, as Mavic indicates.

 

A flat tyre and hard braking at the same time is a cycling reality and wheels should withstand whatever that throws at them.

 

Finally, the cause of the accident is not the issue but the fact that the wheel broke just like its recalled predecessors, that's the issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GoLefty!!]

Just read Mavic's response. Biggest load of sh*t of sh*t to come out of France since Renault.

 

I'll never buy another product of theirs. Their response is criminal and so is the R-SYS wheel system. I do hope someone in yankeeville sues the crap out of them and froces them to to fire the MBA marketing box and replace that person with an engineer.

Agree with Johan's assessment on their response 110%. Their reasoning is illogical and disjointed.

 

[Christie]

Mavic just recalled hundreds of RSYS front wheels. Could not have been cheap. World economic downturn must also be causing them some discomfort. No way they will admit that the RSYS is a crap design, recall the product off the market, and replace them with Cosmic Ultimates.

My take on this: Give the journalist some credit! He's the editor in chief of Velonews - he'll know if he puctured. Sounds like he was streightening out after the corner, and not braking, at the moment the wheel imploded. So I don't buy Mavics response.

 

Mavic is simply doing damage control - this must be one of the worst things that could have happened to them from a PR perspective - short of it happening to a sponsored rider on TV during the TDF. Only a matter of time, though, if they continue riding them. It will be interesting to see if anyone rides RSYS during the TDf...

Christie2009-06-15 08:46:34

[Tumbleweed]

 

My take on this: Give the journalist some credit! He's the editor in chief of Velonews - he'll know if he puctured. Sounds like he was streightening out after the corner' date=' and not braking, at the moment the wheel imploded. So I don't buy Mavics response.

 

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as i said, i think his reportage was very balanced. his take was objective - not subjective, as turtlek suggests - and exhaustive. the only thing he didn't have was mavic's full response. and still doesn't.