Shimano Crankset Recall

[Hank Scorpio]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

It has been a while, but aren't those chainrings half plastic?

Yeah that inner portion/plate is plastic. My friend said it shouldn’t affect performance. Maybe fill it with epoxy? I think he is going to send to shimano for official word but he said don’t count on a new ring.

[giordana93]

I most certainly have not read most of this thread but wanted to share a data point / pov.

have seen a good handful of these failures in the shop. Happily, none of them led to serious accident and the ones with truly catastrophic failure (ie. became instantly undrideable) had a few things in common:
-- high number of cycles (20,000 miles) + sweaty corrosive guys
--symptoms of noise/creaking and a "swimming pedal" sensation well before failure
--the scariest ones were those initiated cracks around pedal threads, but I can't imagine that would not cause some creaking or odd sensations

in one case my boss felt it on a test ride. owner did not even feel, but it had clearly begun to separate.
I myself had a failure replaced under warranty cause it happened after about 2 years: little tick that would not go away with grease on all parts; nowhere near 20000, but maybe 7-10
I get the consumer side because I am one. All my cranks in all my life are still functioning as designed. Hollowtech gave us ugly but reasonably light for their stiffness cranks but the aluminum chosen and the inability to protect it from corrosion after the bonding process on the inside plus the ridiculous number of cycles of sometimes fairly high stress (my body weight!) has lead to the failure of 1%, most of which were probably outside their warranty period (2 years?)

Shimano has now moved away from the quick "visual only" check and mandated that all affected cranks get the full "pull, wash, inspect with chainrings removed" treatment (after date code verification) and they will compensate shops to perform them.

Lesson being: inspect your equipment at least monthly and don't ignore noises or weird feeling in the pedal like your cleats are off or the pedal crossthreaded. If you need the peace of mind make an appointment at a participating shop now, or wait for the winter when the shop needs revenue anyway. and please choose an lbs, not a corporate. shop needs to be big enough for a shimano account but that should be most that are still in business

[mjf]

Originally Posted by giordana93

Shimano has now moved away from the quick "visual only" check and mandated that all affected cranks get the full "pull, wash, inspect with chainrings removed" treatment (after date code verification) and they will compensate shops to perform them.

I'm out of shops over the past year, but this sounds about what I would have expected to see on S-Tec

Good to hear that this is moving in the right direction, and I still hold onto the idea that Shimano will eventually announce that they'll replace ALL cranks that were produced under this manufacturing process, regardless of symptoms.

[Hank Scorpio]

In addition to removal and washing I think shimano is also requesting detailed pictures from the shop before anything is sent.

[smellymcfatfats]

More real world data:

I dropped off my affected 9100 cranks on September 23rd. The bike shop made sure they were a part of the recalled lot, kept the bike and said they'll send them off to Shimano.

Side note, upon my inspection, the cranks were perfectly fine. I've also never heard any creaks while using them.

I got a call from the Trek Store today (October 4th) saying the cranks failed the strength test at Shimano and I'm due a brand new set of 9200 cranks in the exact specifications as my 9100 set.

The Trek Store employee mentioned Shimano was paying for everything, no cost to the bike shop. He also mentioned that if I had a power meter on my cranks, I'd get back non power meter cranks and be issued a credit of the value of the power meter to use.

I'll update when I get my 9200 set.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by giordana93

*snip* has lead to the failure of 1%, most of which were probably outside their warranty period (2 years?) *snip*

I think the 1% (or whatever % shimano quoted) is a bit of a red herring here.

There is a lot of discussion around the circumstances in which Shimano H/tech cranks fail, one common thread is time/kilometers ridden.

Of the squillions of affected hollowtech cranks, you can bet your bottom dollar that a huge number are sitting in garages around the world gathering dust. The percentage of bikes that are purchased with the best of intentions but don't get ridden must be insane. And then consider the number of bikes that only get ridden in decent conditions.

My point is that if you ride those cranks for a decent number of kilometers and include some wet weather time, they'll fail eventually. That is more like a failure rate of 100% if you ask me.

[unterhausen]

If a company thinks that a crank is only going to last 2 years, then they really should lead with that as their main bullet point in advertising. I ain't buying such a thing.

That would represent a very dangerous bike part.

[Caballero]

I had 2 sets fail that were said by Shimano were due to use and not covered by warranty etc… they were disposed of. I wonder what is the recourse in that situation now it’s been confirmed there really was a manufacturing/design fault.

[peanutgallery]

Though I have never had shimano turn down one of my warranty claims on a crankset, I am aware of several failures that were not presented for warranty or were turned down. Like you, some folks didn't get hurt and just got another crank and moved on. Or the failure was noticed in the stand and the consumer moved on

The failure rate admitted to by shimano (a publicly traded company) and the failure rate in real world are probably quite different. They (shimano) have done the research and I am sure they have a better grasp on the actual numbers, they just won't share it

If you're smart and don't want to be liable for a customer's injury, just choose "fail" on the drop down menu after the "inspection". Don't even waste your time disassembling it and cleaning it

The oddest thing I have learned in the process of the Training to be a Metallurgist in 12 Minutes or Less videos is how adamant and specific shimano has been in their description of how one is supposed to clean the cranks for inspection. Warm water, dawn, gentle brushes, no parts washer, no degreaser, no simple green and so on. This...I was never really aware of and had not been mentioned by shimano over the last 11 years. Probably not the only one. I think that this type of cleaning contributing to failure was also an issue that shimano has discovered and not really shared due to liability or whatever

As the situation progresses, shimano will probably end up replacing all that are presented

Originally Posted by Caballero

I had 2 sets fail that were said by Shimano were due to use and not covered by warranty etc… they were disposed of. I wonder what is the recourse in that situation now it’s been confirmed there really was a manufacturing/design fault.

[giordana93]

Originally Posted by smellymcfatfats

More real world data:

I dropped off my affected 9100 cranks on September 23rd. The bike shop made sure they were a part of the recalled lot, kept the bike and said they'll send them off to Shimano.

Side note, upon my inspection, the cranks were perfectly fine. I've also never heard any creaks while using them.

I got a call from the Trek Store today (October 4th) saying the cranks failed the strength test at Shimano and I'm due a brand new set of 9200 cranks in the exact specifications as my 9100 set.

The Trek Store employee mentioned Shimano was paying for everything, no cost to the bike shop. He also mentioned that if I had a power meter on my cranks, I'd get back non power meter cranks and be issued a credit of the value of the power meter to use.

I'll update when I get my 9200 set.

weird, any kind of strength test is the first I'm hearing as well as sending in perfectly fine, no visual or acoustic symptoms. official word is full inspection by shop for a pass or fail, send fails in clearly marked with sharpie and send the passes on their merry way.

clearly a moving target in policy; it is a pretty complicated case. have not read all the recent responses above, but obviously we all expect our cranks to last forever. I kind of feel the same way with my hanbdlebars but I started a thread across the hall about how common corrosion failures are down here in Louisiana with the latest generation of bars and how they are finished. It is a very difficult environment for sure; you could compare the need to use marine grade hardware in certain places. The broken cranks I saw all had a corrosion issue, probably possibly caused by a seam that failed after a bunch of cycles that then allowed contamination/wetting of the site. Mine, a very early production run of r8000 just picked up a tick that was never visible and could not be felt but went from occasional to often to still present after the greased dis/-reassembly (where I did note a good deal of corrosion on rings/crank interface, no doubt a possible starting point, which by the way looks like the corrosion seen on my and others' brake calipers (disk). I think they got some lightweight alloy that works great in engineering but may need more comprehensive surface treatment. Mine has flaked off the caliper for the most part, but same thing happened to the cover plate on my carbon frame where the di2/hydro hoses route. Like I said, harsh evironment: we ride pretty much all year with high humidity and dripping sweat that doesn't get a chance to dry out before you head out the next day. Instead of drying on your arm in the air and leaving salt on your skin it all goes on the bike as a sweat slurry and some guys get sweaty legs. Shoes drenched by long ride's end. I won't ride behind certain guys anymore, but even 2-3 places ahead of you a sweat bomb can be launched/incoming. It's gross.

[giordana93]

Originally Posted by jimoots

I think the 1% (or whatever % shimano quoted) is a bit of a red herring here.

There is a lot of discussion around the circumstances in which Shimano H/tech cranks fail, one common thread is time/kilometers ridden.

Of the squillions of affected hollowtech cranks, you can bet your bottom dollar that a huge number are sitting in garages around the world gathering dust. The percentage of bikes that are purchased with the best of intentions but don't get ridden must be insane. And then consider the number of bikes that only get ridden in decent conditions.

My point is that if you ride those cranks for a decent number of kilometers and include some wet weather time, they'll fail eventually. That is more like a failure rate of 100% if you ask me.

even steel frames break, so I agree with all of this which gets back to the question of how long should we expect them to last. I was in Ithaca in the years when a local guy was famously breaking (routinely) the Campagnolo original crank with its design flaw stress riser. Did Campagnolo replace all those in the field? and you can bet that failure was more catastrophic than a peeling seam unless they caught some early cracks with regular inspection....

[elvisthehorse]

Strength test?

At first just an inspection but now a strength test?

I own many 11 speed cranks. All of mine look fine. But now a strength test.

This is getting more scary by the day.

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by giordana93

I was in Ithaca in the years when a local guy was famously breaking (routinely) the Campagnolo original crank with its design flaw stress riser. Did Campagnolo replace all those in the field? and you can bet that failure was more catastrophic than a peeling seam unless they caught some early cracks with regular inspection....

Did the crank arms break on those, or just the spider? If someone was breaking a lot of those arms, they probably should have finally figured out to smooth out the sharp edge. I know they would crack on the arm too, usually out of the machined slot.

[smellymcfatfats]

Originally Posted by elvisthehorse

Strength test?

At first just an inspection but now a strength test?

I own many 11 speed cranks. All of mine look fine. But now a strength test.

This is getting more scary by the day.

I'd take yours in if I were you. I mean, what could it hurt?

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by giordana93

even steel frames break, so I agree with all of this which gets back to the question of how long should we expect them to last. I was in Ithaca in the years when a local guy was famously breaking (routinely) the Campagnolo original crank with its design flaw stress riser. Did Campagnolo replace all those in the field? and you can bet that failure was more catastrophic than a peeling seam unless they caught some early cracks with regular inspection....

The ol buffalo street stress test!