Broken crankset spindle = man down

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has even had this happen their crankset? Coming off a steep descent (circa 35mpg) and went to stand to power up a small climb and bang, down I went heavily on my shoulder and side and went skidding up the road. I thought the crank arm had come off, but the spindle had actually broken within the bottom bracket.
Thankfully nothing broken, but I've ruined a lot of kit, lost a lot of skin, got quite a few stitches and have a reoccurrence of a old muscular/ligament after I had an heavy impact on the same side a few years ago so I'm less that impressed.
The crankset is just over two years old but was only used a spare training bike so mileage would have been around 2000miles (if that).
I don't really understand what could have caused it to happen and it certainly isn't something I would expect to happen.
Does anyone have an email address for Shimano UK/Europe?

Just wondering if anyone has even had this happen their crankset? Coming off a steep descent (circa 35mpg) and went to stand to power up a small climb and bang, down I went heavily on my shoulder and side and went skidding up the road. I thought the crank arm had come off, but the spindle had actually broken within the bottom bracket.
Thankfully nothing broken, but I've ruined a lot of kit, lost a lot of skin, got quite a few stitches and have a reoccurrence of a old muscular/ligament after I had an heavy impact on the same side a few years ago so I'm less that impressed.
The crankset is just over two years old but was only used a spare training bike so mileage would have been around 2000miles (if that).
I don't really understand what could have caused it to happen and it certainly isn't something I would expect to happen.
Does anyone have an email address for Shimano UK/Europe?


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No experience of that side, but my mate stripped the entire front spider off the opposite side on an Ultegra chainset.
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I did the same to a 105 Hollowtech and also an Ultegra Octalink. The second failure prompted my change in allegiance to Campagnolo.
That's pretty worrying that it isn't as isolated as I thought.
Definitely worth an e-mail to Shimano if you can find a contact address.
I've taken and Octalink crank off once (and a Tiagra hollowtech when I didn't bolt it back on properly- oops!) but never heard of their spindles breaking until now. Both times was seated as well to luckily no real dramas.
Literally had just stood up to chase a guy up the short hill but wouldn't say I was hammering it. Next think I remember is the impact on my shoulder, then my head then sliding up the road then passing out.....
Madison will just refer you back the dealer you bought the bike from. Your contract is with the dealer, not with Shimano.
To be honest I'm more interested on why it broke
I don't the nitty gritty, but doesn't the newish sales laws saw something along the lines of regardless of guarantee length given by a manufacturer, an item should be expected to work for a reasonable time? Is it reasonable for this component to fail after ~27 months?
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Shimano themselves have an office at the Eindhoven High Tech Campus in NL - I'm sure you can Google it.
I wouldn't be worrying about warranty or dealers either. Scary accident - hope you recover quickly.
Failing Shimano, I'd drop by my nearest university engineering department and ask someone to take a look at it to give an opinion as to the mode of failure.
Thanks and I agree totally and that's the point I'd like to make to Shimano (assuming they will care).
I don't want to be worrying everytime I put the power down but I guess it's just one of those things that could happen anytime. I just find it very strange where it actually snapped but I'm no engineer
Definitely pursue it with Ribble.
That shouldn't be happening and is a horrible way to crash.
Could have been much worse, especially if it happened on a club cycle or race. Just thankful for the kask helmet. It took a serious bang but did its job
Pretty sure Ribble don't by their Shimano parts from Madison.
Ribble, Madison or anybody else who retails or distributes the product will just pass this back to Shimano.
If the OP wants a commercial claim, then by all means go to Ribble. For the safety-related stuff, I'd go straight to Shimano in NL. They may still pass you back to Ribble or Madison (as their UK. distributor) or, more likely IMO, will want to deal with this themselves.
It would be nice if at least the crankset was replaced for free as I've lost at least £600 of kit today assuming the bike frame is ok which it seems to me
Warranty is with the manufacturer - that's above and beyond your "statutory rights". You can certainly ask Ribble to replace the crank. It's worth reading up on your rights. The first thing is to be clear what you're after.
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First thing I thought on seeing that was if there had been any play in the bottom bracket before it happened that had allowed some movement. Not in any way saying that was to blame, I still wouldn't expect that to happen, more wondering what could have caused it. Actually that was the second thing I thought after "oh Sh!t".
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Please keep us posted as I'm sure many of us have wondered about our own bikes.
Great response from Shimano, still a bit worrying though. I wouldn't say i generate a lot of power but I've got 15 stone odd bearing down on those pedals, will think twice before standing up now!
To my untrained eye, it looks like a fairly straight fracture next to the bearing in that photo; is it possible that something was lodged in the bottom-bracket sleeve and gradually scored the spindle there as the cranks rotated? Or perhaps a faulty BB cup if they extend out that far?