`Eastern Pennsylvania bicycle handlebar failure`

Hydrogen embrittlement from chrome electroplating without proper bake-out. 21-year-old rider doing jumping stunts on a 4130 steel jumping bike; handlebars fracture mid-jump. Crack initiated brittle (hydrogen embrittlement), grew by fatigue to ~60% of the cross-section, then ductile final failure. Plating shop in California didn't bake out the hydrogen per the ASM spec (1–4 hours from plating bath to oven; 375°F for 23 hours).

So there was this kid in eastern Pennsylvania, and he was 21 years old, and they liked to do jumps with bicycles. If you've been watching the Olympics and you see the people doing the slopes — these people are idiots. Going up 300 feet in the air, doing four flips in the air. There was actually an article in the paper, one of these guys came down on their head and they're in trouble. They're dead, or worse.