Comments on: Fox Issues Warning Against Use Of Forks For 650B

By: Dirt McGirt

Dirt McGirt — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:34:31 +0000

BRAY sounds like a genius. I always cut integral parts of my bike’s front end out. no matter what. It’s actually become something of principal to me. The best part? You don’t have to brush dentures every day like the real teeth i used to have…. pesky teeth. I’m glad I cut my arch, glad I say!

By: martini

martini — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:55:52 +0000

One thing not mentioned here, and I would suspect that not very many of us would actually DO it, is the experiement from BRAY on mtbeer. bcd cut out some of the arch so BRAY could run a 36 on his Spyder. A questionable move for sure – but this is mountain biking, and we DO take the risk that comes with the sport. I think FOX saw this a kinda shit thier pants too. If they pay attention to the interweb chatter – they probably know that there are fools out there clamoring for big hit stuff on thier 29″s. Both BRAY and bcd fully acknowledge that as soon as material was cut away, any kind of involvment form FOX is off the books, so to speak. Hell bcd ran his 40 in last season’s DH campaign. Said it held up fine. I’m sure FOX is worried they may see more of these modifications too.

By: Oderus

Oderus — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:43:03 +0000

It’s nothing more than a CYA statement. Hell, if anyone read and followed the owners manual that came with their bikes, no of us would ride off road for fear of voiding our warranty.

By: Desert9r

Desert9r — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:12:08 +0000

To me, though I am not interested 27.5, its just another reason not to like Fox.

Here is my take on it-

Fox issued the statement due to there design, and how it uses the max amount of the stauntion, and how a larger wheel/tire would effect that, I.e. lowering their service from having to rebuild yearly, even lower.
In turn not loosing future sales

By: BunE

BunE — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:44:31 +0000

Tim,

You are absolutely right, but releasing negative results of tests is a strategic issue that many manufacturers struggle with. They are conditioned to worry about profits first, safety later. I think that if there are negative results or examples of real world failure that are out there, FOX could go a long way towards reinforcing their crediblity and creating a marketing opportunity by publicizing things.

IF there are more nefarious thoughts out at FOX, they could also kill the 27.5er movement with bad press too.

The press release is not about deterring anyone, its about CYA.

Who the hell knows. I have multiple 29ers and that is the way I likes it.

By: Tim Grahl

Tim Grahl — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:29:24 +0000

BunE, I agree it doesn’t matter from a legal standpoint, but I think it absolutely matters from a “real world” standpoint.

People do things all the time even though they know it “could” be dangerous and I highly doubt that a press release from Fox saying as much will curtail anyone from actually trying it that was going to anyway.

But if they do have specific information on 27.5 causing breaks in lab tests or real world incidents then I think it’s important they share that information as well because THAT could stop people from doing it way more than just a cover-your-ass press release.

By: BunE

BunE — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:21:54 +0000

Really, it does not matter whether or not there was a break or an accident. The bottom line is the “reasonable person standard”. It is reasonble that an individual would not see a problem with using a FOX fork, if the wheel in question fit on the fork, spun freely and rolled. Further, a fork is intended for use as a front wheel/tire holder. A jury (remember, of your peers) could reasonably find that the use of 650c size tire/wheel is a perfectly reasonable use of the FOX product.

By specifically stating that the FOX 26″ forks do not work for 650c sized wheels, they are creating a baseline standard putting the public on notice of what is not reasoable in their opinion. The question will then be, was it enough? Was the release widely dissemnated, Did the manufacturer have some sort of device to protect the user from making the mistake of using a 650c, etc. These are all questions of interpretation.

The Flip side of this action is now, FOX has acknowledged that some people may be using the fork for 650cs. Will this action be enough to protect them from lawsuits and liability for a product that may not be designed well enough to account for the safety issues that come across from misuse?

Ahhhhh the law.

By: Tim Grahl

Tim Grahl — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:06:28 +0000

I would like to know if they had any particular problems, whether in the real world or in the lab, that caused this release. Seems to me they are covered under the normal “don’t use this in any way other than intended” disclaimer that comes with every mtb product. So I wonder if they’ve seen something actually break under the 27.5 condition.

By: AC

AC — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:35:37 +0000

…after submitting my post, I noticed BunE’s post.

Yup, I total agree that’s the deal.

By: AC

AC — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:33:22 +0000

I’m sure the bottom line is they haven’t done any QA testing with anything other than a 26″ wheel.