My Snapped Lapierre :(

[hickeyspecialiaze21]

I was on my last run the Saturday of the VDHS at mt Buller a few weeks back and over the last ski jump my bike snapped in 3 place's. Putting me to sleep for over 5 minutes then after a short period back under again for a while. I was in hospital for a night and was told im the luckiest person to be alive let alone walking. It bothers me that this has happened, so if your riding a 2011 Lapierre DH team i sugest you check it over before every run. would have saved me allot of pain. If anyone can help me with this issue that would be amazing.

Cheers Liam

 

[Shredden]

Is it true that you landed sideways? Any bike would fold from that at ~60kmh.

 

[thepope1986]

I like to refer to them as snapierre however I still want one. Sorry to hear bout your crash though glad you're ok

 

[Registered Nutcase]

You are one lucky guy!

I am sure Lapierre would be intersted in why the frame fails so catastrophicly bad, Have you emailed Lapierre?

 

[jrewing]

Looks like it was a furious girlfriend with an angle grinder.. Sheesh.

Lucky it wasn't carbon:flame:

 

[Dozer]

Looks like it was a furious girlfriend with an angle grinder.. Sheesh.

My thoughts exactly.
As for the breakage: Wow, I have never seen a top end bike of this era fold like that. That is full on. I hope you heal okay and get back on it soon!
Can anyone who saw it please tell us the motion of the crash? I'm intrigued to know what force broke it so bad.

 

[brendonj]

These bikes always looked weak in the middle of the downtube. Putting a shock reaction in the middle of the tube (particularly with some angle between the tube and shock) causes a whole heap of stress not generated in other designs (bending stresses can easily be 10 to 100 times higher than shear and tensile). They have also put a dirty big hole in the tube and the linkage pivot also attached to the same tube makes it worse again. FInally the shock moves to be more and more at a right angle to the frame as it compresses and the load goes up. Having said all that you would have expected that the designers would have thrown a whole heap of metal at the downtube to get the stresses down.... Obviously not, or else not paid enough attention to the weld joint details.

Not that I mean to come across as I told you so. More I am saying that any bike with a shock or linkage reaction towards the middle of a tube and with the force acting at a decent angle (ie not along the length of the tube) is vulnerable. So my point is it should be a larger warning.

 

[bikesarefun]

That is freaking rad.

 

[---Matt---]

Glad to hear you're ok Liam. Knowing that jump I can only imagine how bad that must have been and how sore you've been since!

Brendonj - You're right that having the shock mounted perpendicular to the tube is bad in terms of the tube's strength however from what I'm seeing in these pics I'd guess the top tube snapped which caused the failure, not the shock mount.
It looks like the weld between the top tube and down tube created a stress riser which caused the top tube to snap (hence the shearing of the top tube instead of folding) and once that tube was gone, the rest of the bike folded.

I agree with Liam that anyone out there with a Lapierre should be checking their frames. Both at the welds and the shock mount.

 

[aanon]

Fark, your alive, which is a good thing.
Remember the old saying ''light, cheap, strong, pick any two'' or something like that.
DH bikes are getting pretty bloody light these days, is this the result?
All bikes can break i suppose, regardless of weight.

 

[heavyp]

Glad your ok. It seems like an issue even with the newer bikes, you snapped it better than Blinki managed apply for his job haha

 

[Yippee_Ki_YayMF]

Here is a pic I took when it was brought back up the lift. I'm no expert but from looking at it in person I thought it failed at the shock mount on the down tube. Brutal though.

 

[captainmorgan]

I hope you get that warrantied!

 

[Dales Cannon]

Is that second pic the long wheelbase model?

 

[mxdame]

Looks like it was a furious girlfriend with an angle grinder.. Sheesh.:

Dont give my wife ideas, she threatens this all the time...
Harsh crash mate, glad you are ok

 

[jrewing]

I like lapierres... Can someone tell me how much I would expect to pay for a nice clean used one?:lol:

 

[moz84]

Fark man glad your ok but im goin to say it ......should have got a v10

 

[jackass'd]

Is that second pic the long wheelbase model?

extra loooong

 

[morticus]

Nah not the long wheel base, just bagged in the rear. They see me rollin... they hatin

 

[Justin Pasteur]

They have all pretty much snapped in the same spots (shock mount & top tube)