SRAM Creates Site For Consumers to Stay Current with Road Hydraulic Recall, Plus Letter from Stan Day

Good for Sram. They seem to recognize the situation and sound as if they are going to be putting a top notch effort. I knew our somewhat colder weather than usual for December was going to be of some use. Product testing.

I think the one thing that a lot of people are losing the sight over is the fact that SRAM is assuming complete blame over the failure of the piston seals at temperatures below freezing 0C/32F. There is no denying that the product hit the market before it was tested to 100% reliability in every single condition, but SRAM is doing the “right” thing and issuing a blanket recall and stop sale/usage condition.

This truly sucks for everyone involved that owns these brakes. Don’t forget that Trek Bikes just issued a recall/stop sale on non-hydraulic, dual pivot road caliper brakes this week as well. No one is beyond a design fault, even across a large road bike line up with mechanical brakes.

It mostly sucks for the LBS who will have the job to wrench the bikes, remove the sram hydro and propose a temporary solution for their customers.

SRAM is losing credibility year after year. Many bike shops and bike brands will stop carrying SRAM products after this one. Return rates are already way higher than shimano and campagnolo according to many of them.

This will be expensive. At minimum 5000 bikes, maybe the cost of the parts to SRAM is $250 per bike (guessing), that’s 1.25 million bucks. Then the replacement costs in mechanical brakes at full comp, at a commensurate level. Guess the SRAM booth at Interbike will be a little smaller next year.

They are taking full accountability and as a good modern company should do, are being transparent about their steps and slip ups. But its a little shocking that their standard test ranges didn’t account for ‘normal riding conditions’ including the lower extremes. Makes me wonder what their high temp range is…or what else wasn’t tested to low temps.

The seal material for the Challenger lost its material properties too.

It’s a pretty weak apology, as far as I’m concerned. SRAM should have owned up to the fact that they released a product without properly testing it, in order to be first to market. And frankly, decisions like this usually come from on high, and rarely if ever from the designers. Someone, probably Stan Day, likely forced the product designers to push this thing out before testing was finished, and look at what happened.

SRAM’s going to be mailing out a lot of their garbage chains.

never trust sram

Good letter of apology IMO – clarified the problem and put their hands up. Extra point for no deflection of blame to counterfeit goods. I think there’s probably been PR lessons learnt already following last weeks’ Roubaix-gate.

I am one of the 5,000 estimated users of this stuff and am more assured today of Sram’s commitment having seen Stan’s letter.

I love ‘new’ technology and come from the school of thought that if you don’t back new ideas then stuff just doesn’t happen. That said, in this case it isn’t really ‘new’ technology, it is a reconfiguration of existing technology. It appears as though the product specification of a low value part has let them down – not great PR, but you would hope not a difficult fix.

In terms of cost, I am sure that their product liability insurer will be the one taking most of the financial bad news. Stan’s bigger worry is going to be to pacify the big brands, like Specialized, would take massive volumes of this stuff and are absolutely key to getting new products to market.

I have ridden my Specialized Crux EVO with S Series Hydro brakes since September. Since October, and especially within the past few weeks, I have ridden in freezing and sub freezing (as low as 7f) conditions everyday as I commute 20-30 miles. No issues so far! Of course I will have them looked at, but my brakes are solid.

Some people just can’t be happy. As other people have said it before, if sram did nothing, you’d b*tch. If they claim full responsibility and work to resolve the situation, you’d b*0ch.

Great work SRAM. As a test engineer myself, things can happen. Situations that are harder to replicate or you wouldn’t think would cause much issue in the lab turns out to be much bigger deals in the real world. When these issues do arise, you can take the hard way or the easy way out. The first way would be to wait for complaints, and those who call in, get the issue resolved hush hush, or take the right way. Recall ALL the brake sets regardless of whether they’re in Michigan (were 2 weeks ago, 2 of my buddies had their brakes failed) or in Florida where the weather might drop down to 40 on a cold night.

I raced most of the CX season on SRAM Red Hydraulics. I was in the Boulder Reservoir race 2 weeks ago with a temperature of 2 degrees F at the start of our race The brakes worked fine. I love the things!

Bravo to SRAM to owning the problem. I’m looking forward to the solution and resuming riding on the Hydros.

I say bravo SRAM. The problem has to deal with the manufacturing company making a part swap. The engineers more than likely tested the brakes with the part that they originally spec’d. And then tested 1/1000 brakes in production. The other brakes were probably tested in a controlled environment. We are talking about 5000/38000 brakes. Look at the issues with I-phones. The difference is, that we can’t download a update for our phone. The other thing is you roadies and cyclocross racers (I probably put more miles and race more CX races than most of you here) should of asked a mountain biker how hydraulics work in the cold first….

Great to see such an appology like this from SRAM’s President. Sounds like they more than “get” the severity of the issue. Hopefully this will inspire them to put even more emphasis on engineering and QA. There XX1 drivetrain has been a huge success in these areas. Hopefully whoever was in charge of that program can influence the hydro brake department in the future. Was about to get a Crux with Red hydros. Not sure if I will go ahead with that one now…

@wheelz i have a crux with red hydros and it’s great (and i havent had any issue with it) – but given the recall i’d just wait a little. either price might fall or you’ll get fixed red hydros.
the mechanical avids aren’t nearly as good as far as power and modulation goes. most importantly, the mechanicals need constant care as the wire stretches quickly

That is how you face a situation like that. Kudos for Stan day for telling the truth from day one and not waiting until everything explodes on the Internet like the Cafe Roubaix situation. SRAM is a genuine american company that is bringing this industry to the next level. It really irritates me when certain riders criticize the company not even knowing what these guys do for cycling. Thank you Stan and thanks SRAM for giving us amazing and fun product.

I would be nice if SRAM would reimburse ALL the bike shops for ALL the free labor they’ll be doing. Shops do the replacements for free! Sram has great customer service no doubt but Sram creates too many headaches for bike shops.

And……. if you bought them online… your computer can help you fix it not your LBS.
(my .02)

my husband and I both have Crux Pros with Hydro-R discs and we have been racing and training non stop through single digit and below freezing temps the past 2 weeks at Boulder Rez, RLW and CO State CX. I see J-Pow is still riding his, too. Not to say that nothing can ever happen, but this is by far the best bike setup I’ve ever ridden. I see on this morning’s release that they can fail regardless of temp however the BB7s I have on my SS cross bike absolutely suck in comparison. We are both registered for Natz and in the absence of better info not sure what to do. I’m going to probably just put my SS in the pit and wait it out.

this is a very quick reaction, and a very eloquent response. good on you SRAM for owning up and putting it all out there. People who want to “Boycott SRAM” do it, they dont want your support any way, you are a fair-weather friend. i have watched SRAM grow and gain recognition and respect from all cycling communities over the last few years, and i understand yes this is annoying and inconvenient for those of you with the brakes and the issue, at least SRAM has confronted the issue, giving you truth, not making any promises they cannot keep. ill continue to ride SRAM exclusively on all of my bikes because as they stated, they are a “high performance product development company” and if we want to see a company continue to push the envelope in terms of form, function, and weight, people should not be so quick to write them off.

SRAM should recall all their brakes ever made. They just absolutely suck – as in, don’t work. After three pairs of XX brakes I finally just paid for XTRs and have had zero problems ever since.

Shimano just recalled their mechanical brakes 4 months ago and no one seemed to care.

https://bikerumor.com/2013/08/26/shimano-recalls-select-mechanical-disc-brake-calipers/

Seems like people either just love to bash SRAM or put Shimano on too high of a pedastal.

Seems that most people here don’t understand that SRAM had to do it this way. This is a safety issue and therefore SRAM must act as quickly as possible to deal with the problem to limit damages that may be claimed against them if there are any injuries. This part of it is technically voluntary but had to happen as soon as they knew about the issue.

The official recall will follow.

@elan – Choosing not to buy SRAM products because they are cheaply made, perform poorly, and suffer from frequent recalls is not exactly a boycott. Why bother with their garbage? Is it to save 100g over a competing, less-expensive, better-performing Shimano product? Other companies make high performance components and aren’t constantly suffering the same troubles.

Stan,

Best recall ever! We mean that in the nicest way. Things happen and some react well, some poorly. Your letter, openness and obvious desire to do right by the customer is top notch! Would not be surprised at all if some business college somewhere some day will likely use it as an example of how best to do a recall some day. Super.

While many customers have been inconvenienced the more astute ones will appreciate the care and dedication. There will of course be some who will whine and complain bitterly but in general terms these are people who do so on a daily basis about most everything anyway.

Cheers,

The Goats