Broadcasting a similar message to the letter that was released earlier in the week, SRAM’s president Stan Day covers the bases in this quick video. As a reminder, if you are affected by the recall, make sure to register on the recall website to stay up to date on the progress.
Hey Stan, I know there have been issues with SRAM hydraulic brakes and I hear that you will be making the Elixirs better and more effective while in the meantime releasing road brake hydraulics which should be fantastic right out the box, seeing as how problems with Avid brakes have been legion. Wait, hang on… really?… this is about the newly released road brakes? Uh… Well… don’t know what to say at this point…
I said it before, but with naughty language.
http://lubeachainbicycles.blogspot.com/2013/11/dick-breaks.html
Having just ridden with a buddy today who just shelled out over £5000 for a new 2014 Cervelo r5 equipped with SRAM hydraulic brakes I feel peoples pain. He is lucky enough that he has other bikes that he can ride in the mean time (like his winter bike) but to be told that your large investment (these items didn’t make it onto cheap bikes) is out of commission for an unknown time I don’t feel is good enough. It’s a sincere apology and probably not more that they can do about it but I really hope that people will be compensated very well. I do feel that there was a bit of a race on to get to market as quickly as possible considering that Shimano was also releasing a disc brake that maybe they cut a few corners and we the consumer are paying for it. Please don’t let your customers do your R&D especially as this fault can be life threatening if failure occurs.
@nightfend- I am a dealer and a lot of brands haven’t recognized the recall. I called Sram directly to get to the bottom of this, and this is what I was told. And I have 3 bikes on my floor that are affected. And Sram is sending those parts. Just tell your stall to call SRAM. Thats what they are there for.
Local bike shops are going to get boned on this. It’s going to be around 8 hours of shop time to go back and forth with SRAM on the phone, uninstall the old hydros, reinstall the mech brakes and mech levers, uninstall the mech, install new hydros. This is optimistic on time too. Factor in a complete drivetrain setup each go around. God forbid the bike has internal routing. Don’t forget about cutting lines and re wrapping bars.
SRAM should cut a check to the shop for $50 hr/ labor rate x8 hrs per bike. aka $400.
I already get boned once a week on elixir warranties.
Guess what SRAM – throwing a chain at me for my trouble is not going to cut it any more. I’m sick of cleaning up your crap and taking the financial hit at the shop.
I had the Juicy Ultimates on my 2009 Sworks and they never worked. I had to replace them with XTRs. I then but a 2012 Remedy 9.9 with XX brakes. They did not work (ie. turkey garbles so loud it made my friends not want to ride with me, not to mention that some times they would seize up but other times I would squeeze them and there would be not resistance or breaking power at all). SRAM acknowledged there were problems with the 2012 XX brakes (there was never a recall however), and gave me a new pair of 2013 XX. These did the same things and so I bought XTRs. That is a major cost for something that I should have never had to buy.
It is my mission to save others from not using their brakes. I am happy to see companies like Pivot and Santa Cruz only offer Shimano brakes on all their builds regardless if they have other SRAM components.
8 Hours? Are you serious? 2 minutes with cutters and a 5mm and the shifters & hydro brakes should be off the bike. 20 minutes to route hoses & cables, and cut the brake lines. 30+ minutes for bleeds, 15 minutes to set up the derailleurs, and you should be nearing completion.
This shouldn’t be over a 2 hour job and that’s for a slow worker.
Hey Bin Judgin. You are insane. If you think that a skilled mechanic can replace Hydro stuff with cable stuff in 20 min, you must be high as a [deleted] kite. And yes, the shop I work at has had to sit on the phone for many an hour already getting information/products in line for customer bikes that are effected by this, not to mention the 20+ bikes in inventory we’ll have to sort out. So all in all SRAM needs to make good on this in a big way, not just free product, but an actual pay out for all of the time we’ll invest in making this right.
+1 to Bin Judgin.
It absolutely does not take 8 hours to run cables and housing, even internally routed on a bike. If it takes more than 2 hours in a shop, you’re either doing it wrong, or you’re smoking WAY too much weed AND you’re doing it wrong.
I’ve run service departments for many years, and I know how much time it takes to do this work. Running cables and housing, mounting the new brakes, and getting everything adjusted is an hour. Stripping the old parts off is about 15 minutes, and re-wrapping handlebars is maybe 5 minutes. That’s being generous. At home, without any distractions, I can do a job like that in an hour. In a shop where you have customers, phone calls, and other mechanics to keep track of,
Work smarter. Run cable inner housing along all of the shift cables BEFORE you pull them out of the frames to help guide the new cables through, use a sharpened, hook-bent spoke to help you fish the end of the new brake cable out of the top tube. Seriously, I know it’s a drag, but just shut up and do the job. Stop standing around the shop flailing your arms around complaining about how much it sucks that SRAM screwed up, and just get it done.
Personally, I’ve got very little love for SRAM products. Grip shifters work well. XX1 is a good idea, and one of their best product lines to date. It’s well thought out, it fills a need. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive, and didn’t require a special freehub body. Their road shifters feel clunky and cheap in my hands compare to Shimano and Campy. Don’t even get me started on Avid brakes and Rock Shox. I’ve had to replace so many brakes, air spring assemblies and damper assemblies than I care to recount. SRAM’s worst offense is rushing products to market without adequate testing just to beat the other guys to the punch. Shimano is not without their fault in the warranty/recall arena (M435 brakes a few years ago, 105 double/triple shifters the year after that), but they definitely do not have as many issues as SRAM.
@reynard2ki,
im only speculating, but it might be because this article is directly related to a particular sram part sucking. the zerogravity article is just about their reduced backlog (because nobody wants to deal with him or his brakes anymore) and new colors.
let’s see if this one squeezes through…
As far as Avid brakes are concerned, I am still a skeptic. As far as the video response, I am impressed. He owned it. That said, owning it requires physical evidence and follow up. Time will tell. I am personally less concerned about the individual consumer than I am the shop staff and how this affects the shops bottom line. I hope the physical follow through for the affected shops is equal…or at least close to the execution of the video apology. The reality is that until things go wrong, one can not show their worth.
I’m a mechanic with 35 years spannering and love SRAM brakes in all forms! they make us lots of money, please make sure you fit them so we can make money fixing them and fitting proper brakes when they go wrong. Apologies for the sarcasm but boy they are ALL rubbish! Just avoid them people. When you look at that new bike, don’t be fool buy fancy graphic and bling gear. Bikes cost a lot of money so choose wisely. Ask how much it would be to have Shimano fitted instead and save your self the pain.
Reynard2ki. This seems to be the new trend here. I am still waiting for the Trek Madone Brake recall notice to show up here. It was announced the same day as the SRAM. I think it affects more actual customers while SRAM is more if you include what is in distribution. I know I shouldn’t expect this to be an impartial website but I hate when things get rubbed in my face.
@Pablo – We already got replacement Madone brakes from Trek. It was a hiccup, but not a major one, especially since removing and installing a new cable-actuated front brake is a whole lot easier than what SRAM is going to make us go through to get their garbage working. Not sure how Trek is working on compensation, though. Will be curious to see, but I imagine it’ll be discounts at wholesale, which is what they’ve done in the past.
I think this is so amazing that somehow people still by sram products. Like somehow they are still “wanted”. I think the only thing they have going for them is the xx1 group and technically if you watch I am pretty sure those shifters will break as fast as the xx group did. If you are a bike mechanic you now this for the most part. How many sram warranties do you have do deal with? How many shimano? Shimano is an engineering company. Sram is a marketing company.
About Brakes: Sram needs to just give up. Period end of story. Their elixiers sucked, their xx brakes were seriously a major f up and should have been a mass recall just like these. Now these are jacked.
Personally they should have been recalled from day 1 just based on the looks. Those high airplane horizontal stabilizer looking hoods are as ugly as it gets.
You want something built right. Shimano, and campy.
Karma’s a B***h!
Took money out the family savings (w/out communicating, bet to beg 4 4give, then ask 4perm)
Bought a set of sram road hydro’s, sold the old red sifter’s & BB7 RSL on E-bay within 2week’s
Money place back in the account with no one being any the wiser,
Now my smartass got a $10,000.00 Gravely bike I can’t ride!
I would love if the only people who commented in this post and others associated with this problem were only the people who actually have the brakes. If it is just to go bash SRAM go elsewhere. I actually have these brakes and have had the issues described prior to both callbacks. All my dealings with SRAM reps/distributors and staff has been great. It will be sorted in the near future. My bike is unusable for the meantime (luckily my cx season is over) but it will be fixed. Bike Manufactures know as much as the PR that is released and are taking steps to recall. Its actually only about 5000 bikes that are in the market, maybe 3000max sold.
Lets just have facts in this post. Use other web forums to SRAM bash.
P.S. I manage a Bike Store and know all the issues with Elixirs and so on. Any brakes I have sent back have been replaced with new ones. Most annoying part is when OE spec bikes with brakes in colours and styles that are not off the shelf units.
