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Specialized announces steerer tube collar recall for Roubaix, Ruby, Diverge & Sirrus

Written by Zach Overholt
38 Comments
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If you own a Specialized bike with a Future Shock, listen up. Specialized just announced a voluntary safety recall which affects the Roubaix, Ruby, Diverge & Sirrus, and includes bikes from the 2017 to 2019 model years.

Specialized announces steerer tube collar recall for Roubaix, Ruby, Diverge, & Sirrus
All of the bikes included in the recall are equipped with the Specialized Future Shock

Apparently, the steerer tube collar on some of these bikes may crack as a result of “stress corrosion”. Due to the unique design of the Future Shock, cracks in the steerer collar may result in loss of steering control while riding.

Specialized announces steerer tube collar recall for Roubaix, Ruby, Diverge, & Sirrus
Above is a chart of the affected models by year. If your bike is included, you should stop riding it and head to your local Specialized dealer. There they will replace the collar with a revised design which also has a different torque value to prevent issues in the future. The full recall in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will be announced soon.

specialized.com
Zach Overholt
5,726 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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38 Comments
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Champs
Champs
5 years ago

Future Shock indeed, for believers and cynics alike.

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JBikes
JBikes
5 years ago

interesting to know if its actually stress corrosion cracking and what the corrosive element is (electrochemical…carbon?)
Good recall.

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Richard
Richard
5 years ago
Reply to  JBikes

Most likely salty corrosion coming from riders swear. Would not be a first time…

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Biker
Biker
5 years ago

Do not “head to you local Specialized dealer” without calling first to make sure they have the replacement parts available to install. This was just announced and parts are on the way…

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2018 Roubaix
2018 Roubaix
5 years ago
Reply to  Biker

Yeah, I called my “dealer” and it was the first they had heard of it. They called me back and said that Specialized was sending their stores (Bike Barn in Houston) a total of 150 today, which was only like 25% of their registered buyers who fall under the recall. More coming in a few weeks. But if you have one of these it’s best to get out in front now.

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REBentz
REBentz
5 years ago

Raise your hand if you did not see this coming…

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Ross
Ross
5 years ago
Reply to  REBentz

Sagan raised his hand during the 2018 Roubaix – but that was to get an allen key to tighten the collar up again 🙂 (He was definitely not tighten his stem – whatever it might say in his book!)

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Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
5 years ago
Reply to  Ross

Watch the video. He’s clearly loosening and tightening stem bolts.

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Hexsense
Hexsense
5 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

So the stem is knocked out of plane to the point that he need to correct it mid ride by undo stem bolt, make it straight then tighten it back?
Man, he is a legend. I’d just keep riding with tilted bar because i’m afraid of crashing while correcting it.

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Diddy dave
Diddy dave
5 years ago

Mmmh,mine snapped the day before 8/1/19 when unfortunately I lightly clipped a car at about 10mph no other damage to bike,wheel etc,(broke the cars rear light lens)and Specialized has no spares as in forks/frames for diverge’s are not likely to have in the near future.so cannot give me a price.
Thanks Specialized your throw away bike manufacturers.

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Mike
Mike
5 years ago
Reply to  Diddy dave

“the day before 8/1/19”. I don’t believe you. But in case you’re not lying, can you tell me the winning Powerball numbers for that day? I’m going to have to buy a ticket!

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dh5z
dh5z
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

He’s European… January 8th, 2019.

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WC
WC
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

You realize most countries write the date DAY:MONTH:YEAR, right?

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Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Euro date. D/m/y. It makes more sense.

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Aaron
Aaron
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

I guess this may not be general knowledge, but there are some countries that use the day/month/year configuration.

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Budgieman
Budgieman
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Mike. I happen to know Diddy Dave who did clip a car 8/1/19 and suffered a snapped steering tube. I have seen the pics he posted 8/1/19. I can’t give you tonight’s Lotto numbers but i’ll happily send you some humble pie!!

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OriginalMV
OriginalMV
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Some countries even use (year.month.day), which makes sense in a lot of circumstances.

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Josh
Josh
5 years ago
Reply to  Diddy dave

CAN YOU STILL PULL THE BRAKES AFTER THIS HAPPENS?! PLEASE

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STS
STS
5 years ago

And the bike industry will continue to use aluminum alloys like 7075 that have been forbidden for decades in other industries for their susceptibility to that corrosion.

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Eli
Eli
5 years ago
Reply to  STS

But you save a few grams :-p

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Ross
Ross
5 years ago

No surprise – the method they were using to preload the headset bearings didn’t work (see Peter Sagan at Roubaix 2018 – he wasn’t tighting this stem!). I guess it was failing because it was almost always loose, so due to stress. Not sure about corrosion, it’s covered by a plastic cap – perhaps salt off the road might have had an effect.

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jim
jim
5 years ago

Called it! I knew this nightmare of a front end was going to have problems.

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Brent
Brent
5 years ago

Niki Terpstra’s is glad that Specialized found the cause of his direction failure 2 years ago in Paris Roubaix #sarcasms
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/specialized-takes-blame-catastrophic-component-failure-caused-niki-terpstras-paris-roubaix-crash-325298

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Dirty Tires
Dirty Tires
5 years ago

I just talked to our spec rep about this. The original failure came from a trainer and someone sweating buckets over the stem area. 99% don’t have to worry about a failure. Would i still have it replaced…you bet.

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Brent
Brent
5 years ago

Niki Terpstra’s is glad that Specialized found the cause of his direction failure 2 years ago in Paris Roubaix #sarcasms
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/specialized-takes-blame-catastrophic-component-failure-caused-niki-terpstras-paris-roubaix-crash-325298

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I Trueman
I Trueman
5 years ago

I wonder where buyers of second hand bikes stand?…..

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Josh
Josh
5 years ago
Reply to  I Trueman

Doesn’t matter if it is the first or 10th owner when something is recalled.

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JNH
JNH
5 years ago
Reply to  I Trueman

In Europe Specialized will have to give them the parts since Spesh have issued a product safety recall, which applies to the bikes regardless of whether the owner is the original one or not. How it will or won’t work in the US I have no clue.

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Skip
Skip
5 years ago

What?! But it looks so safe and robust…..

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Qiuyuan Chen
Qiuyuan Chen
5 years ago

Recall is a responsible action by a company, not a shame for its quality. I can’t find my fitting on Specialized but I still like what this company make.

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Craig
Craig
5 years ago

I’d never buy a Specialized. Never have, never will.

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Shafty
Shafty
5 years ago

That slotted stub of carbon in the top picture is frightening. No way I’d ride that design. That’s a poor way to clamp a carbon tube.

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Josh
Josh
5 years ago
Reply to  Shafty

I guess you’ll just never ride at carbon bike at all then since its exactly how a seat post is clamped? This design has obvious flaws but that is definitely not one of them.

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Ben
Ben
5 years ago

Does an X in the table indicate that the associated model is impacted?

Thanks

Ben

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Huffagnolo SuperMagna
Huffagnolo SuperMagna
5 years ago

I hope the specialized haters out there realize that a lot of companies issue recalls and sometimes things happen that are beyond what someone might normally test for. You can’t make a product that is going to always be absolutely 100% all the time for all conditions it might face.

If you have had a chance to ride the futureshock it is quite nice and gives a great ride quality without cutting back on efficiency! It may not be for everyone and certainly I would rather have a nice steel or titanium bike with some wider tires but for those that lin plastics and aluminum bikes this is nice!

Sure the recall sucks but other brands have recalled stuff or stopped making it do to problems and everything is OK in the end. People more and more want a little suspension on their bike without all the weight so Products like this, eeSilk,Isospeed, shockstop stems…exist for that purpose. I don’t want a mountain bike for mostly road and gravel riding but a little smidge of extra comfort ain’t bad.

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Neil Kelly
Neil Kelly
5 years ago

To be honest Carbon corrosion is a general design problem where alloys and carbon touch, especially on friction based components like the FSR mentioned here. My sworks epic came from the factory with a carbon crown steerer on the fork that had to be replaced too due to corrosion between the stancions and steerer which led to an air leak eventually. I think what the designers underestimated when designing the FSR clamp was that sweat in the equation can accelerate things somewhat. Good to see all the spez haters here too – folks is it Friday yet?

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Joe Siczpak
Joe Siczpak
5 years ago

Yesterday, I tested a new Roubaix with disc brakes. On sudden hard application of front brake, then damn front end would make an ominous CLUNK. It was as though the steer tube assembly was flopping around within the head tube, or that something inside was extremely loose or missing.

No thanks. Don’t like the bouncy bars anyway.

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alan
alan
5 years ago

Wondering if they will change it to a carbon collar in the future models.
I see a lot of newer Roubaix’s on Craigslist fairly cheap, I guess this explains why.

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