"Crunch" a sound you never want to hear.

https://esigrips.com/A very loud "crunch" is never a sound you want hear, especially when your riding a relatively new Lykke carbon trials bike. Alas, this Sunday with snow on the ground, and the guys setting up for an afternoon of Pallet Hero's Training Camp it happened. An hour in, I noticed that my bars were pointing a little to starboard, no big deal I think, likely my sloppy riding and maybe loose clamp bolts. Allen keys came out and confirmed bolt tension/torque was a little low, however this was the second or third time over the last few weeks this same problem has occurred. I attributed it to the extreme cold we've been having and the differential CTE of the carbon steering tube vs the aluminum stem clamp. Who knows maybe on the new Lykke bike I'm just hitting new moves harder, after all even at my age improvement IS possible. Come to think of it, I have been making some moves that I thought previously impossible. Any-who my remedy was to add a little dab of that gritty gel for keeping carbon parts from slipping and never gave it another thought. So with a quick pallet side straighten up a re-torque the clamp bolts and back to business. All seemed well for ten minutes, then on a no big deal transfer gap ... "CRACK" the whole front end of the bike went akimbo! My bars were 30 degrees off and diagonally angled toward the ground, and me...a feeling of sinking horror! With a ride-stopping noise of that level I figured I either broke the top off the steering tube, ruptured head tube, or broken the fork, or all three. To my relief nope, nope, nope and none of that, the stem had exploded! The stem in question was my pride and joy, with little sparkly titanium socket head cap bolts and elegantly machined out of pure billet stock, anodized black it was a work of art, reflected not only in its visual perfection but in the price tag as well. So with the dumpster fire quelled what to do? As we were at my office in the parking lot a stem was procured, (forged and welded Try-all this time) some air to puff the ESI grip off one end of the bar, (see link) brake lever released, old parts cleared off the bike, re-assemble, alcohol (not beer) to reinstall the grip and all was done in maybe 15 minutes. Not a trail side rebuild but in this case luck was with me in two ways; one, this could have led to a very painful crash in other circumstances two, we happened to be someplace with tools, air, parts etc. Lesson learned, next time I notice a bit or piece of my bike giving repeated trouble a closer inspection is in order!