I was the second day out during my ride to Spearfish, on US 83 north of Childress (just into the Panhandle) when my Cee Bailey +6 totally came apart. Here is the photo.
I am still a bit amazed I was not hit in the head when it let go - but I found no mark on my helmet. I had no warning - no spider web - no cracks - no nothing. I might add, it was quite a shock to get a sudden blast of wind while at 70mph, but the back rest of my Russell Day Long saddle actually made it fairly easy to ride.
Of course, I contacted Cee Bailey as soon as possible. My windshield was out of warranty, but they didn't care - they offered to replace my windshield at no cost. I did ask that the new one be two-day shipped to Spearfish, and I was willing to pay that extra cost. While talking to the tech at Cee Bailey, he warned me to be sure the motel desk knew of the arriving package and to sign for it. On the day it was supposed to arrive, I did indeed check with the desk - - and found that Cee Bailey had already called and told them the package was on the way. Now that is excellent customer service.
I had a chance to talk to Joe, a technician in production, about the failure. He said he had worked there for 17 years, and this was only the second total failure he had seen. He seemed genuinely interested. Yes - he knew of a number of windshields that had cracked and all that - but a total failure was something else. (To myself, I'm saying "If this is the stuff airplanes windows are made of, I might starting getting a little nervous the next time I fly.)
After a lot of conversation, this is what we came up with: I had just ridden past a large truck. As you see often in Texas, slower traffic will often pull over onto the paved shoulder to let faster traffic pass. The truck kicked up a lot of rocks from the shoulder - I remember a rock hitting my left glove and right boot as I was passing. If you look at the bottom of the broken windshield, you can see that a crack began right at the edge. This is the vulnerable area for the windshield. If the rock had hit on the main surface, it would have done what all the other rocks do when they hit our windshield - leave a little pock mark. But this one hit directly on the edge itself, and was probably quite large. That makes sense to me - the edges of an aircraft window are inside the body, so there is no edge to hit. Most likely, there was a crack when the rock hit, but I couldn't see it as the lower edge of the windshield is below my line of sight.
With all that, I am very very happy with Cee Bailey's customer service. They were prompt, courteous and professional - and they technically didn't even have to replace the windshield, but they did. Good company to do business with.
I am still a bit amazed I was not hit in the head when it let go - but I found no mark on my helmet. I had no warning - no spider web - no cracks - no nothing. I might add, it was quite a shock to get a sudden blast of wind while at 70mph, but the back rest of my Russell Day Long saddle actually made it fairly easy to ride.
Of course, I contacted Cee Bailey as soon as possible. My windshield was out of warranty, but they didn't care - they offered to replace my windshield at no cost. I did ask that the new one be two-day shipped to Spearfish, and I was willing to pay that extra cost. While talking to the tech at Cee Bailey, he warned me to be sure the motel desk knew of the arriving package and to sign for it. On the day it was supposed to arrive, I did indeed check with the desk - - and found that Cee Bailey had already called and told them the package was on the way. Now that is excellent customer service.
I had a chance to talk to Joe, a technician in production, about the failure. He said he had worked there for 17 years, and this was only the second total failure he had seen. He seemed genuinely interested. Yes - he knew of a number of windshields that had cracked and all that - but a total failure was something else. (To myself, I'm saying "If this is the stuff airplanes windows are made of, I might starting getting a little nervous the next time I fly.)
After a lot of conversation, this is what we came up with: I had just ridden past a large truck. As you see often in Texas, slower traffic will often pull over onto the paved shoulder to let faster traffic pass. The truck kicked up a lot of rocks from the shoulder - I remember a rock hitting my left glove and right boot as I was passing. If you look at the bottom of the broken windshield, you can see that a crack began right at the edge. This is the vulnerable area for the windshield. If the rock had hit on the main surface, it would have done what all the other rocks do when they hit our windshield - leave a little pock mark. But this one hit directly on the edge itself, and was probably quite large. That makes sense to me - the edges of an aircraft window are inside the body, so there is no edge to hit. Most likely, there was a crack when the rock hit, but I couldn't see it as the lower edge of the windshield is below my line of sight.
With all that, I am very very happy with Cee Bailey's customer service. They were prompt, courteous and professional - and they technically didn't even have to replace the windshield, but they did. Good company to do business with.