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Old September 29th 09, 05:37 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
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Default Broken steel road bike fork

So, I've been noticing that the front brakes of my road bike
were acting "grabby" in that the front would shimmy pretty
badly just as I'm coming to a stop. The rims felt a little
sticky, maybe some Gatorade got on them and it hasn't really
rained in a while. I cleaned the wheels last night and rode
into work today. It was still bad, but didn't seem as bad.
This has been going on for a week, I didn't think anything of
it. I decided to not ride after work and just come home, coming
down the driveway, the grabby-ness was really pronounced, so
I figure that the brake pads must be contaminated with something.
When I took the wheel off, my heart skipped a beat. Without much
effort, this is the result:

http://www.bitrealm.com/misc/fork/p1000783.jpg
http://www.bitrealm.com/misc/fork/p1000784.jpg
http://www.bitrealm.com/misc/fork/p1000785.jpg

It was hanging by no more than 2mm of steeel. I shudder when I
think of the roads I was about to go on, including one really
bad bump at the bottom. I don't think it would have held together
and when you lose the front like this, it's going to be bad.

The shimmy was the wheel moving back and forth due to the fork
leg being fatigued. There hasn't been any accident damage since
I put this fork on the bike. The crack was almost all the way
through, starting from the BACK of the fork leg.
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