[Mike2MTB]

Note: This is a 2018 RockShox Reba RL 29, Solo Air, 51mm offset, 15x110mm thru-axle, 100mm of travel.

My story ...

I'm a huge 2018 Specialized Chisel fan. Love the bike.

Bought at end of June 2018 and rode almost everyday for 3 months.

However, 3 weeks ago I had a terrible experience.

Still not sure what happened.

Cruising down a blue run on my local trail that I ride often. (Been riding some black runs during the summer ... so mild run for me.)

Double drop (drainage rock walls) about 20 feet apart. Each drop about 1 foot high plus slope.

Cleared first drop.

Compresed fork for second drop. Did not feel push back.

Went off lip. Felt like nose dived.

Front wheel hit first. And locked up.

Went over handlebars. Smashed head (helmet on). Tried to roll somersault. Slammed shoulder into ground. Ended up on back with feet down trail and bike 15 feet down hill.

Passed out cold.

(Riding alone.)

When awoke, head hurt. Glad I had my helmet on.

Shoulder started aching. Could not lift my right arm. Moved my left hand over and felt my shoulder.

Collarbone snapped in two and pitched up like the roof to a house. Even though I've never broken a bone, first thought, "I broke my collarbone."

Tried to get up. Could not because no power in right arm. Had to roll to left.

Finally got to feet. Tried to walk towards bike. Knees buckled. Fell to ground. Out again.

Woke up. Got up. Pulled bike up with left hand. Started to walk down hill. Stumbled and fell off trail into weeds and rocks. Passed out again.

When awoke. Could not move my leg. Pined under bike. Started to worry I might not get out of this.

Slowly moved around (without use of right arm) until I could stand. Got bike up on trail. Eyes filled with white stars. Got very dizzy.

Stood still. Then started walking with very small baby steps (any fast steps jarred my shoulder and created sharp pain). Moving so slow I must have looked like a zombie from the living dead.

If I kept walking (baby steps), I was ok. If stopped, felt like I'd pass out. So I just kept walking up and down trails for the next 90 minutes (usually a 15 minute down and out). Fell into a bush or two, but made it out.

Could not stop to call anyone. Bad reception. Fear of passing out.

Strange thing ... this trail is always busy. That day. I did not see anyone on trail (mid morning on weekday). No one to help.

Went to hospital.

Bottom line. Broke my collarbone.

Due to location of break (towards outer end), needed surgery.

Surgeon (did great job) put the bone back together and held in place with a stainless steel plate, 9 screws, and a cord with button holding bone down.

Medical bills are 50k and counting (medical industry way over charges).

First, I wanted to share story with group (thanks for reading).

Second, I want to get your thoughts.

and ..

From the pictures above, does it look like the Reba fork failed?

(Notice the seal/cap on the top of the upper tubes near the crown and the leaking oil. I store bike hanging upside down in garage over car.)

Thanks for feedback.

 

[Gilgo]

Fork did likely not cause the crash. You can get some pressure build up in the outer legs, that can cause the seal to pop. If the pressure in the fork is normal you have no issues. Push the seal back and check your pressure. Then the fork is good to go.

Also have a broken collarbone. Almost 4 weeks now. No surgery though. Went by Land Rover and then Ambulance down the mountain. Pretty f*cking painful when the bones hit each other all the time.

 

[Mike2MTB]

Gilgo, thanks for input. Hope you heal quickly and completely. I crashed 4 weeks ago and had surgery 3 weeks ago. Since had new plate desing without hook (cord and button instead) already have full movement of arm. Still need to go 12 weeks before lift and full action. Already buzzing to get back on bike.

 

[phuchmileif]

What does the fork feel like now? The blown-out seal should not be affecting its function.

 

[gasmanxj]

That sucks, hope you heal up quick. My guess is the lower air spring seal head oring leaked/failed and allowed air to migrate from air spring to stanchions. This would cause the blown out wiper seal and a loss of air spring pressure, sinking fork in the travel which made it easy to bottom out and toss you over the bars. Would also explain the lack of rebound you describe after the first drop since fork was way down in travel.

Check air pressure in the fork. If way lower than normal then likely what happened. Had a Pike that did same thing landing a big jump, luckily didn't crash but scared the crap out of me.

 

[Harold]

Hate to hear about your crash and injury, man.

Personally, I think the whole air leaking into the lowers thing is bullshit and is unacceptable behavior. I won't buy any other RS fork because of it. I shouldn't have to "burp" my lowers with a zip tie between the seal and the stanchion. But to be fair, you may have pushed that 100mm Reba fork farther than it should have been pushed (maybe not necessarily on this particular trail, but it does sound like you'd been riding some rowdier stuff earlier in the summer).

Hey, I've been there. I got rid of a Bluto (build on the Reba chassis) because it wasn't robust enough. Mine burped air out on a long, rowdy downhill, which was probably more than the fork should have been asked to do. Mine didn't behave quite like this, though. I think what happened is that first air got into the lowers, and THEN, the fork was flexing so much from the repeated drops and chunk, that air simply burped out of the lowers on its own. I reinflated it (I was lucky I was carrying my shock pump that day) and it was fine after. But it sketched me the f* out after, and I replaced it.

 

[Mike2MTB]

gasmanxj, thanks for the comments. I'll check the air pressure. Appreciate you thinking about this issue. Your thought process makes sense.

 

[Mike2MTB]

Harold, thanks for your input and sharing your story. This event surprised the snot out of me too. Never heard of this burping concept. Learning in the School of Hard Knocks. If you don't run RS, what fork do you use now?

 

[Austin-nc]

No fun, sounds like a crash that just happened to have a really bad out come it happens, things also break and cause wrecks but that's just the risk you take. Also best to regroup after a big wreck to avoid multiple knockouts like you experienced. It let's the pain set in more but its better than brain damage.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[Mike2MTB]

Austin-nc, so true. It is a risky sport. My first bone-breaking crash in 20 years of riding. Hopefully, that means I won't crach (like this) for another 20 years. : )

 

[Mike2MTB]

Gilgo, phuchmileif, gasmanxj, Harold,

Just checked.

Air pressure in fork is way down. Was set at 135. Now at 80. 41% drop.

Pushed handlebars to compress fork. It did go down and came up, but slow to rebound.

I think your theories are correct.

Air trapped from past compression. Then some type of failure on trail.

Not sure how to handle in future. Only had bike for 90 days. Bought brand new.

Guess I'll have to "burp" future forks. How often?

Have ridden my 2003 Epic for 15 years. Never had to burp that fork (Fox). Strange. Still ride that bike.

 

[Ausable]

Mike2MTB - I believe Gilgo's analysis is correct, this issue (pressure buildup utside of the air cartrige) is quite common with rockshox "solo air" forks.
I had a similar occurence - even though not so extreme - on my sid and reba forks. The burping is not a long-terms solution, I got rid of this issue rebuilding the air springs (there is a specif seals kit from Rockshox like this https://r2-bike.com/ROCK-SHOX-Basic-Service-Kit-Reba-Solo-Air-275-29_1).

Very sorry for the shattered bone I hope you get well soon ...and get a full insurance coverage; coming from the old continent where we have free medical care , is hard to believe that medical bills for relatively simple treatments can reach such a large amount of money. All the best for your recovery:thumbsup:

 

[gasmanxj]

Guess I'll have to "burp" future forks. How often?

Have ridden my 2003 Epic for 15 years. Never had to burp that fork (Fox). Strange. Still ride that bike.

You should rarely if ever have to burp the fork. Under normal trail conditions air should not build up in the lowers if everything is working properly. If air is building up, usually the air spring is leaking. Some DH forks have pressure release valves built in but that's due to the environment they operate in with large rapid elevation changes. Just for grins I've done it from time to time on all my forks and never have I heard any air come out. But I ditched air springs all together by going to a Fox 36 with Push coil conversion.

Your fork should be warrantied by SRAM, unknown what exactly is damaged/broken until taken apart but should not happen on a 3 month old fork. Frankly I'd see if your LBS will just swap it out for something else.

 

[TwiceHorn]

Sorry to hear of your crash and wishing a speedy recovery. Was unaware of this issue with the lower-end RS forks.

Re: the medical bills. Hopefully you have insurance that is limiting your losses. Otherwise, if you are a "cash customer," you should be able to negotiate them down to a fraction of that $50k. US medical bills are in play money. Probably no one on earth knows what is actually billed/paid for a medical procedure in toto unless it is agreed in advance.

 

[Mike2MTB]

Mike2MTB - I believe Gilgo's analysis is correct, this issue (pressure buildup utside of the air cartrige) is quite common with rockshox "solo air" forks.
I had a similar occurence - even though not so extreme - on my sid and reba forks. The burping is not a long-terms solution, I got rid of this issue rebuilding the air springs (there is a specif seals kit from Rockshox like this https://r2-bike.com/ROCK-SHOX-Basic-Service-Kit-Reba-Solo-Air-275-29_1).

Very sorry for the shattered bone I hope you get well soon ...and get a full insurance coverage; coming from the old continent where we have free medical care , is hard to believe that medical bills for relatively simple treatments can reach such a large amount of money. All the best for your recovery:thumbsup:

Ausable, thank you for info on rebuild option.

Europe had it figured out with health care. We get raped in US for medical cost. No one is watching the store. During the entire process, I asked for cost estimates before service. Most doctors and providers said they did not know the amounts. The few that did quote, lied. I was quoted $1050 for 2 CT Scans. Bill shows 4 CT Scans costing $23,000. Sad that medical industry is now the wild west. Next, huge time suck battling inflated cost (wonder what the loss is in productivity). My problem now.

Thanks again for input.

 

[Mike2MTB]

gasmanxj, thanks. Good ideas.

 

[Mike2MTB]

Sorry to hear of your crash and wishing a speedy recovery. Was unaware of this issue with the lower-end RS forks.

Re: the medical bills. Hopefully you have insurance that is limiting your losses. Otherwise, if you are a "cash customer," you should be able to negotiate them down to a fraction of that $50k. US medical bills are in play money. Probably no one on earth knows what is actually billed/paid for a medical procedure in toto unless it is agreed in advance.

TwiceHorn, thanks for postitive thoughts.

My medical team did a great job, just too expensive.

I can already move my arm 90%. Amazing!

But now I have to battle billing departments. I'll need the arm to punch back : ) . David vs Goliath. Major time suck.

Thanks again for input.

 

[Mike2MTB]

Update. Took bike to LBS yesterday. Shipping fork back to SRAM to investigate. I'll let you know what they discover. Should find out in 1-2 weeks.

 

[mullen119]

Very sorry to hear about your wreck/injury. It is definitely a air spring seal head seal and SRAM will very likely warranty it for you. They are pretty good with that stuff.

Here's the thing. You said you have been riding almost every day for 3 months. I'm going to estimate 1.5 hours per ride. 90 rides x 1.5 hours per ride = 135 hours (roughly) on the bike. This is well past due for service if it's accurate. Dry/worn seals are going to leak and it's very important to keep up with proper maintenance intervals to keep issues like this from popping up.

Hope you heal fast!

 

[Mike2MTB]

mullen119, thanks for input and kind words.

Most of my rides are less than an hour (local trail), but I appreciate your logic.

No doubt, there was some rider error (no ride is perfect).

And there is need to maintain equipment.

Just surprised this happened on a 90 day old fork/bike.

I really want to get out and ride, but I don't want to worry about my equipment failing.

And now that the medical bills are coming in (66k and counting), its depressing. (Can't believe how health providers are doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling the quoted costs. Sick.)

I'm out of commission for 12 weeks to let the collarbone heal anyway.

Too much time to ponder. : )