Specialized has identified a potential manufacturing defect in the forks of around 13,000 2018 Allez road bikes, some of which have already made it to consumers and some sitting in bike shop inventory. No injuries have been reported yet. But out of caution Specialized is asking cyclists to stop riding & retailers to stop selling the affected bikes.
2018 Specialized Allez road bike fork recall
All of the affordably priced aluminum framed 2018 Allez, Allez Sport, and Allez Elite bikes appear affected by the manufacturing fault that could result in carbon fork failure at the crown. Specialized is handling the preventive recall themselves, having not been directed as usually the case for recalls by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“Owners of affected models should stop riding immediately and take their bicycle back to any Authorized Specialized Retailer in order to initiate a planned fork replacement process, and collect a complimentary $75 USD customer appreciation credit.”
Specialized does not yet have replacement forks ready, as they need to go back to manufacturing a bit to resolve the issue and then carry out some testing. If all needed approvals go as planned, Specialized expects to ramp up replacement fork production by late January, with sufficient replacement stock ready worldwide around the end of February, painted to match the existing bikes. Until then, customers who’ve already purchased (and started riding) the bikes are out of luck. But they will be first in line for the replacements ahead of bike shops. We guess that’s better than potential fork failure & injury. Then again, that also supports why they are offering monetary compensation too.
More information at: Specialized.com
