Wheel Fanatyk documents 3 gems in Seattle. Ric is so right about Elliott Bay Bicycles. Hard to believe how many years have passed since Bill Davidson, Bob Freeman and the rest of us on Team Green Death were the young rebels forging a vision of cycling for Puget Sound.

Ouch! Not something you want to happen on the Tour Divide!

It’s water water everywhere, but when Kent Peterson looks out the window he has a different take than you and I. Kent thinks: Time for another run at the Tour Divide! I have to admit that I, too, have looked longingly at cattle stock water tanks. Somehow, though, I’ve managed to resist the temptation…

Sorry to hear downhiller Sam Blenkinsop’s wrist is broken. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

For full list click on photo

Sold aftermarket and on Salsa bikes

CromotoStem has the full list of affected stems. About 8,600 units were produced.

The second mountain bike I owned, one of those Rockhopper hardtails with the tan elastomer forks, had a bad set of bars that I snapped right off coming down a slope. Fortunately I was able, one-handed, to maintain control of the bike. I took the bars back to Elliott Bay Bicycles, where Bill Davidson examined them and said they were the result of a bad casting. Specialized replaced the bars but I also wrote a letter advocating a recall. Within a few months the whole batch got recalled.

Although I’ve suffered a lot of breakage over the years, mostly on frames, that was by far the scariest. It disturbs me that Salsa quality control did not catch these stems, but such is the state of global manufacturing these days.