Pro riders aren't carrying extra weight like your typical weekend warrior also pro riders have their bikes checked often and go through many frames in a season.spartacus wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:08 pmI know I'm coming off as a specialized fanboy, but I honestly wonder how many other bikes would survive this supposed massive pothole hit, especially with a heavy/clumsy rider and full spacer stack.
I'm pretty sure the "pros are on different frames" thing has been debunked many times. Sure it's happened before but for the most part they're on normal frames. Everyone is hyper fixated on the top pro peloton but there are fk tons of lower level teams sponsored by various brands.
Take legion for example. They have been riding sl7's and I guarantee they have off the shelf ones. I've seen non WT pros in CA riding non s-works sl7's even.
Also the idea that teams are making headset parts on a lathe is laughable. Pro bike mechanics aren't engineers and machinists with the time and equipment to make their own parts. If someone can show me evidence that I'm wrong I would be interested to hear about it. I'm sure there are a few fringe cases but this just seems super far fetched.
Lastly yes I agree the old design was not good and the new inner ring is much better and should have always been there.
Your average recreational cyclist has a completely different use case and servicing schedule. Look at canyon and their seatpost woes, pros were riding the frame for a while but it took real world cyclists who are 10-20kg heavier than the pros to show wear issues. I think using pros to test equipment can be flawed because end consumers use the equipment differently.
Besides it's clear the pros were having issues in this case as we saw sagan's bike built up with an alluminum insert bonded to his fork steerer. I know cervelo has been doing that with their bikes for years when they had issues with forks failing several years ago.
I think bike makers just need to accept the extra weight it takes to make these forks much safer and look for other ways to save those grams.
Also I hate with a passion the split ring design on the top bearing of forks, it's prone to sliding and cutting if preload isn't right, people can ride months with loose headsets before they take their bikes in for a service. There has to be a better way to do it on such a critical component.
