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Shimano Announces Voluntary Inspection & Replacement Campaign for Some 11-Speed Road Cranksets

Pre-July 2019 bonded Hollowtech II cranksets part of inspection and replacement program
Shimano Ultegra and Dura Ace crankset recall
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Big news from Shimano today, especially if you’re riding an 11-speed road bike. In conjunction with the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), Shimano is announcing a “voluntary inspection and replacement recall notice.

Specifically, the recall notice applies to Shimano Ultegra & Dura Ace 11-speed road cranks manufactured before 2019, and sold as early as 2012. According to the CPSC, the recall includes 680,000 cranksets sold in the U.S. plus another 80,000 sold in Canada. There is no “recall” outside of the U.S. since that is handled by the CPSC, but Shimano does have an inspection and replacement program set up in each region around the world. Note that these numbers are the total number of cranks that exist within the production window that need to be inspected. Shimano expects the total number of cranksets that need to be replaced to be much lower.

The CPSC also notes that there have been a surprisingly high number of failures noted before the recall was put into place – 4,519 to be exact. Fortunately, there have been relatively few injuries, but of the six reported injuries there have been “bone fractures, joint displacement, and lacerations.”

For any consumer that might have an affected crankset, step one is identification. If your crankset is identified as part of the included production code range, there is an inspection process that includes listening for noise, inspecting for abnormalities, cracks, visual imperfections, or anything else that would signal the bonding could be separating. For those cranks that show signs of separation, they’ll be replaced at no charge.

For more details on the issue, check out the page from Shimano or the CPSC.

Crank Identification and Inspection Process from Shimano

Step 1 – Determine whether this notice applies to your crankset

Step 1A – Identify the model number of your crankset

The affected model numbers are DURA-ACE and ULTEGRA branded cranksets with the following model numbers: ULTEGRA FC-6800, FC-R8000 and DURA-ACE FC-9000, FC-R9100 and FC-R9100-P. The model numbers are stamped on the inside of the crank arm near the bottom of the arm (see yellow square in the] image below)

Does the model number on your crank arm match the model numbers above?

NO: The crank is not affected, and no further action is needed.

YES: Proceed to STEP 1B.

Step 1B – Identify the production code stamped on your crank arm (blue box on the image below)

Shimano crankset recall date code identification
  • A production code is stamped on the inside of the crank arm near the bottom of the arm. The affected models are pre-July 2019 production and have the following two-letter production code on backside of the crank arm where the pedals are attached: KF, KG, KH, KI, KJ, KK, KL, LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, LF, LG, LH, LI, LJ, LK, LL, MA, MB, MC, MD, ME, MF, MG, MH, MI, MJ, MK, ML, NA, NB, NC, ND, NE, NF, NG, NH, NI, NJ, NK, NL, OA, OB, OC, OD, OE, OF, OG, OH, OI, OJ, OK, OL, PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF, PG, PH, PI, PJ, PK, PL, QA, QB, QC, QD, QE, QF, QG, QH, QI, QJ, QK, QL, RA, RB, RC, RD, RE, and RF. Please proceed to Step 2 if your crank has this code. If your crankset does not have one of these codes, please proceed to step 3.
  • If you have noticed any changes in the feeling of the crank when you pedal or hear noise or creaking, please proceed to Step 2. 
  • Consumers who believe they have an applicable product or are unsure how to check the manufacturing code are asked to contact an authorized Shimano retailer to schedule a free crankset inspection. Please see below for instructions on how to figure that out. You may also call us at (844) 776-0315 for assistance. 
  • Consumers with cranksets that do not fall within the specified date codes do not need to take further action regarding this safety recall or inspection. 
  • Please proceed to Step 3. 

Step 2 – Take the Bicycle to the Retailer for Inspection

  • Shimano has developed the crank inspection process and will provide clear instructions and tutorials for retailers.
    •     You can take your bike to a participating retailer starting October 1st
  • The retailer will inspect the crankset for signs of bonding separation or delamination.
  • Retailers will submit the required information to Shimano so that we can document the inspection, results, and replacement cranks if needed. 
  • Shimano is required to maintain this information for CPSC reporting and to ensure the process is completed. 
  • Consumers whose cranksets show signs of bonding separation or delamination during the inspection will be provided a free replacement crankset* from Shimano that the retailer will professionally install. 

Step 3 – Ride safely and continue to inspect your bicycle/equipment

  • If your crankset passes the inspection and has no signs of delamination, we appreciate your patience and diligence in having the safety inspection done. You may continue using your crankset as normal.
  • If your crank requires replacement, we appreciate your patience to complete this process. 
  • We encourage all riders to maintain their bicycle and riding equipment diligently.  
  • Have your bike tuned up and inspected regularly (ask your retailer for recommendations based on your riding habits).
  • Pay attention to changes in the sound and feel of how your bike is riding. Changes could indicate wear out, breakage, or need for adjustment to some part of your bike. 

*If a replacement crankset is temporarily unavailable, Shimano will maintain a registry of retailer requests and will notify retailers when the replacement is ready.

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35 Comments
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Dann
Dann
1 year ago

#thanksShimano

Joe Bond
Joe Bond
1 year ago

How will Shimano be handling warranties on cranks that have had Stages or 4iiii power meters retrofitted?

Seraph
Seraph
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe Bond

Don’t both of those go on the non-drive side crank arms? I imagine they won’t replace the NDS arm, as it’s not technically affected by this recall anyway.

Lucas
Lucas
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe Bond

They are going to supply a new crank arm without a powermeter, and give the customer a credit to repurchase the power meter from the third party. It’s detailed in the shop instructions.

Anonymous
Anonymous
1 year ago

I’ve lost faith in Shimano. Between this crank issue which they denied were a real problem for years and the decreasing material and build quality going down generation by generation, I just don’t trust Shimano to make durable reliable workhorse components anymore. For the past couple generations they’ve been introducing new “tech” but reducing the quality of manufacture while raising prices.

0.7% reported (not including anything unreported) failures is not that low, especially for something that can seriously injure you. I don’t buy China direct mystery carbon because even if it’s fine 99% of the time, the 1% risk of serious injury isn’t worth the savings to me.

Fig Ciocc
Fig Ciocc
1 year ago
Reply to  Anonymous

I agree. The difference in build quality between my 6800 groupsets and r8000 groupsets are quite apparent. The shifters on 6800 performed better at 60000+ miles of use better than the r8000s did after a year ~10,000 miles or so.

tertius_decimus
tertius_decimus
1 year ago
Reply to  Anonymous

I’ve held new 105 Di2 in my hands. Rather low quality for $2000. Shimano has dropped the ball. I lost faith in this brand a while ago. On the MTB front they still haven’t done a shit to fix leaking XT brake levers.

El Luchador
El Luchador
1 year ago

I seem to find full 105 Di2 2X12 groupsets for around $850

tertius_decimus
tertius_decimus
1 year ago
Reply to  El Luchador

Doesn’t matter where you can source 105 Di2 for $850 because Shimano has a policy to sell stuff only from dealer to consumer in the country a consumer is residing in. Say, if I see a component by Shimano at a discount price on bike24 or bikediscount, I can not buy it no matter how hard I wanna throw money at Shimano. Shimano says I have to buy from the dealer in my country at the price a dealer is selling it to me.

SteveT
SteveT
1 year ago
Reply to  Anonymous

I stopped trusting SRAM years ago. Can’t manufacture or design a functioning front derailleur, inferior brakes to Shimano, a ridiculous new BB standard that forces the actual BB to use tiny undersized bearings, poor quality control of components across the various product ranges, hubs on their Zipp wheelsets that are a laughable joke, DOT fluid in their hydraulic brakes which is a ridiculous choice for several reasons, and too much more to name in one post. 🙂

Samuel Vrooman
Samuel Vrooman
1 year ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Nonsense. My dad and Grandpa both said the same thing…. About ford, gm, and the contractor that built my house. God. Boomers….

pizzaface
pizzaface
1 year ago

They sure care about their customers waiting that long and that many failures

Fig Ciocc
Fig Ciocc
1 year ago

Nice how they waited so long to issue this recall. I remember first seeing delaminated Shimano cranks during the Obama administration.

Oliver
Oliver
1 year ago

0.6% *reported and declared* failure rate on a system critical component that can and will cause death or serious injury when catastrophic failure occurs (which is what will happen eventually). Shimano have no shame leaving this 10 years – and I also don’t believe for a second this was fixed in 2019.

Jon G
Jon G
1 year ago
Reply to  Oliver

If they fixed the design/manufacturing in 2019, that is actually worse, because they are admitting 4 years later that they knew there was a problem and didn’t tell anyone

Tim
Tim
1 year ago

Kind of similar thing with Servo Wave brakes and their famous wandering bite point. That’s been an issue for over a decade, no?

tertius_decimus
tertius_decimus
1 year ago

What an arrogant, incompetent company. Shimano has been the make that dethroned mighty Campagnolo back in the day. Dura Ace 7400 even today is considered the best groupset ever made. Oh how things have changed since then… The more Shimano releases new stuff, the less quality you get for more money. You got to handle 105 Di2 groupset in your hands to see how low the quality is nowadays… Believe or not, Chinese groupsets have better machining than Malaysia-made Shimano these days.

SteveT
SteveT
1 year ago

LOL, go feel SRAM Rival AXS in your hands. It is an even bigger laughable joke. Heck, the rubber hand grips on the top of the levers do not even sit flush with any bar you use. I won’t even bother going into the complete garbage design of their DUB cranksets and the tiny undersized bearings that laughable design forces one to use. 🙂

Joshua
Joshua
1 year ago
Reply to  SteveT

You are the only one here talking about SRAM

tertius_decimus
tertius_decimus
1 year ago
Reply to  SteveT

Proposing SRAM to Campagnolo guy, lol, what a joker…

Collin S
1 year ago

First Point: This inspection is completely pointless. The cranks fail rather quickly/catastrophically with little signs before hand. A visual inspection from a bike mechanic without the aid of say an ultrasonic probe or other advanced engineering aids is just a PR move and a false sense of securtiy and nothing more. Cranks will continue to break a week/month/year after it has been inspected.

2nd point: Its about freaking time. They themselves admit they had over 4500 reported incidents and for every one that’s reported, I am sure there are several that don’t. Road.cc, Velonews, and Bikeradar each have ran storys over the past few years highlighting this issue and in the comments section, there will be plenty of people claiming to have one or more fail on them over the years. I personally know a local bike rep who injured himself when his Dura Ace crank failed.

In the automotive industry, investigations would have began after 45 incidents. Keep in mind, the Takata airbag saga that has effected every auto manufacture from Honda to Ferrari has “only” had 400 injuries and 27 deaths and lead to one of the largest, most widespread recall in history. Just clicking on Ford’s website, they have recalls for various cars after just 7 incidents (Ford Fusion PHEV)

SteveT
SteveT
1 year ago
Reply to  Collin S

Sounds like you are posting made up BS. How would you know the cranksets fail quickly/catastrophically? What data do you have to back up your BS claim or do you just enjoy posting BS on the internet as your “job” loser? 🙂

Fitness
Fitness
1 year ago
Reply to  SteveT

Steve sounds triggered based on the amounts of posts he’s made. Probably works for shimano and about to lose his job

Collin S
1 year ago
Reply to  SteveT

What part are you calling BS claims?

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/shimano-crank-failure/ This was post in April 2020, thus 3 years ago. Yes, there was a creakyness that started getting louder, but if you have any bikes with any sort of miles on them, you probably have a squeak or two. The 4500 number is right from this article (4519 to be exact). As for saying that a bike shop may not be qualified to diagnose a soon to fail crank is that I’ve worked in the automotive industry doing failure analysis and product testing for over a decade and visual inspections with the un-aided eye are not as clear cut as one would think and its very easy to miss cracks and other faults, especially something that has been used and abused for up to 10 years. In steel parts, we do fluorescent magnetic particle inspection which can reveal a whole spider webs of cracks that would be nearly impossible to see without. The automotive claims are right from the NTSB regarding Takata, and Fords website regarding the Fusion. … your move

Anonymous
Anonymous
1 year ago
Reply to  Collin S

If you watch their video on doing the inspection, their solution is to keep doing pre-ride inspections forever. It’s not a one and done deal. It’s quite ridiculous.

Stan T
Stan T
1 year ago

Colin S is not wrong.
My Dura-Ace crank arm snapped quickly and without notic on a short uphill. Happy to post a photo.
Shimano told me tough luck and I was forced to purchase a new arm.
I still have the PoS broken arm and hope to get a replacement … a symbolic victory at least.

Tim
Tim
1 year ago

Over the years, I’ve heard now and again the statement that Shimano, in contrast to SRAM, develops product slowly and only releases it when it’s really ready. I think this idea can now resoundingly be put to rest.

Fig Ciocc
Fig Ciocc
1 year ago
Reply to  Tim

Shimano cycling used to be quite Japanese about how they approached things. Slower to market with new trends at time but what they moved on was sound from an engineering, manufacturing, and general design perspective. At one point the major knock on them was fraying the heads off of cables inside the shifter, having JIS screws for derailleur limit screws, and not selling individual replacement parts for shifters. Very different company these days haven’t been happy with my Shimano stuff since R8000 feels like just typical cycling products (e.g. overpriced garbage for snootie patooties).

Tim
Tim
1 year ago

Also, did Shimano do this voluntarily, or did the Consumer Protection and Safety Commission force them to do it? It looks like the latter.

Andreas
Andreas
1 year ago
Reply to  Tim

There is definitely the possibility of the CPSC offering shimano the rock and a hard place option of either taking the initiative to the recall themselves or being ordered to do so.Voluntary does sound better when the end result is the same either way. About time though!

Wuffles
Wuffles
1 year ago
Reply to  Tim

It’s the good old “voluntold” option. They were told to do a voluntary recall, or it would be made mandatory shortly after.

Joe
Joe
1 year ago

if it’s a bonding issue and all recent generations of cranks have issues, then i’d expect that the type of adhesive they’ve used is at fault therefore ALL cranks should be replaced regardless of their visual inspection. they are still trying to be slippery, what a joke and insult to their customer base.

No way I’m sending my crank back and have my bike not ridable for weeks or more to hear that everything is okay.

Takes a lot for me personally to swear off a company, but I’ll stick to sram until they screw me even worse.

Wuffles
Wuffles
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe

It’s not a bonding issue, but a fundamental materials incompatibility issue. Shimano uses a steel axle connected to a bonded aluminum crank arm with no isolation barrier. This produces a galvanic cell in the presence of a suitable elctrolyte (dirty water from the road, sweat, bike cleaners, etc), and the aluminum crank arm starts corroding. Due to the bonded nature of the crank arms, the bondline is the first thing that happens to fail (it’s the most sensitive to small dimensional changes), but given enough time the entire aluminum crank arm will fail.

Robert Miskines
Robert Miskines
1 year ago

My advice is to never get out of the saddle when riding any of these suspected cranks.

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