Carbon specialist M. S. is one of the winners of the coronavirus pandemic, or more precisely the bike boom that has been going on for a year now. He puts the fact that more damaged carbon frames have landed in his workshop since the outbreak of the pandemic than ever before down to the popularity of mountain bikes. However, over the course of the summer of 2020, he noticed an accumulation of a rare type of damage. In certain places, the carbon fibers became porous and brittle - even brand new models that had only been used a few times. Until then, the common diagnosis for this damage was a production error. However, the cause of the problem is unlikely to lie with the manufacturers, who have now introduced strict quality controls. "As a joke, I made the comment that perhaps the 5G radiation from mobile communications was responsible. We compared maps of active 5G antennas in Switzerland and Germany with the known cases of damage and found that the brittle carbon frames all came from areas with a high 5G network density."

The causal link was established a little later by an independent test laboratory, which exposed carbon frames to different levels of mobile phone radiation. The result: the permanent 5G radiation exposure combined with the mechanical stress caused by mountain biking led to a molecular change in the carbon fibers. The carbon becomes brittle, particularly in areas subject to high stress, such as the bottom bracket and the headset, and can break even under low loads. It doesn't matter how many carbon layers are installed, the rays penetrate the layers and damage them all equally. In other words: Mountain biking becomes life-threatening in the area of 5G antennas.

The great fear of authorities and industry

M. S. wanted to publish his findings, but in doing so, he brought politics and the telecommunications industry onto the scene. In the background, they are trying to silence him. He had already been offered a seven-figure sum in Swiss francs and the authorities had promised him attractive jobs - if only he didn't go public with his findings. But his urge to shed light was greater. On April 1, 2021, he sent Ride the first copies of the study. He didn't trust the major media outlets because they had long been infiltrated by politics anyway. M. S. now also wants to send the complete data set to Wikileaks.

The findings of the study are explosive, and not just because of the direct health risks to the cycling population. The booming bicycle industry would have to develop a completely new carbon fiber and would be affected by the biggest recall of all time as a result. It fears that it will have to replace all carbon frames produced in the last five years. Experts see this as the de facto death knell for around 80 percent of all bicycle manufacturers. It is unclear to what extent the telecommunications industry can be held accountable, especially as this is a global problem. Against this background, the explosive power of the study is obvious. The investigation into the scandal has only just begun thanks to the whistleblower M. S. on April 1.

This article was published on April 1, 2021.