# The Front Fell Off
2020-08-03
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I had an atypical ride last week, the front fell off [1] my
bike.

Specifically, I snapped my handlebar 25km from home.

As best I can tell it was a fatigue failure, a small crack
formed at the clamp point and slowly propagated around the
tube.

There was no drama, it didn't snap off in my hand and I
didn't crash. Between one second and the next, riding along,
_something_ changed and stuffed the handling. It took me
several seconds to figure out what had happened, my first
thought was that the rear quick-release had snapped. I soon
realised that one side of my handlebar was now floppy and
braked gingerly to a halt.

Looking at my recorded distances over the last few years I
can account for over 17,000km on these bars and I estimate
over 21,000km ridden total on two different bikes, with one
_(very minor)_ crash several years ago. I hadn't noticed any
oddness prior to failure and have no idea how long the crack
was propagating for.

I don't think I can be mad at the bars for failing given
those distances. Aluminium is prone to these kinds of
fatigue failures over time.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

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