Carbon fibre is an amazingly strong material, but sometimes (thankfully very rarely these days) it can fail. But when it does, it usually goes in dramatic and spectacular style. Such as this moment when a carbon disc wheel disintegrated during a 200m flying track sprint.
The spectacular crash happened to Team GB’s Matthew Crampton at the Coupe de France Fenioux Piste event held on the Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines velodrome recently. We don’t know the details of the incident and what actually caused the rear wheel to fail. Was it a puncture that initiated the total destruction of the wheel, or was it another cause? It looks like hthe aluminium rim separates from the carbon disc, which could perhaps suggest a delamination has occured.
Thankfully Matthew was okay and he’s seen picking himself up off the track, presumably a bit bemused at the whole incident.

8 thoughts on “What happens when a carbon track disc wheel fails?”
Although imagine being a
Although imagine being a visually impaired rider on a tandem when the front wheel fails in the same way!
Impressive that the captain kept the bike upright for so long.
benborp wrote:
Is that Barney Storey (Sighted Pilot) and Neil Fachie (Blind Stoker)? Not that it is that important, but, it would be nice to know who to applaud.
Exceptional skills on display to mitigate the consequences of the event. Bravo!
Surprisingly safe, managed to
Surprisingly safe, managed to stay upright whilst losing a lot of momentum. I wonder what it did to the track surface.
It looks like the rim came
It looks like the rim came off first, and after a few metres, the rest of the wheel followed suit.
If you look at the images of
If you look at the images of the wheel, I’d say the carbon has somehow come away from the rim at one point and then it has let loose.
Other image
Other image
I wonder where the 5k euros
I wonder where the 5k euros mavic asks for this wheel go… items of that price cannot fail!!
You know, the more I see, the
You know, the more I see, the more nervous I get about this new fangled plastic stuff!