Shimano Ultegra Hollowtech Crankset Failure - Shimano refusing to help
Four years ago I bought a Canyon road bike with Ultegra components. While I was going up a hill a few weeks ago, the drivetrain crankarm suddenly began to separate from the main assembly.
Fortunately, I was seated at the time and was able to maintain control of my bicycle, but I shudder to think what could have happened if I had been in traffic and out of the saddle when my crankset failed.
Every bicycle I have ever owned has had Shimano parts. For my current bicycle I spent significantly more to upgrade to Ultegra components, as I felt Ultegra had a reputation for durability and reliability. I appreciate that even the best components age and will need to be replaced eventually, but there’s no way that a crankset failure like this can be attributed to normal wear and tear, considering that I’ve only ridden my bike an average of 120 miles a month. In my opinion, only a manufacturing flaw could explain this failure.
I have contacted Canyon’s representatives in my country in regards to this issue, but they refuse to help me. They have stated that this is not their concern, as the bicycle is outside the warranty period and the components are not their responsibility. I have asked them to merely give me contact information for Shimano so that I can handle the situation myself. Canyon has refused to do even this. They claim they have reported this to Shimano, and Shimano has decided that my case doesn't warrant issuing a replacement crankset. Needless to say, I am very unhappy with their response. I had been planning on buying a new Canyon next year, but now I think I’ll spend a few extra quid for a buy from a LBS that actually cares about its customers.
If I could contact Shimano directly, I would happily plead my case with them directly. But Shimano's website has no way to contact information, and merely says that for warranty issues we should go back to the place of purchase. As mentioned, I've tried that - to no avail.
I originally thought that this incident was just a freak occurrence, but a quick search on the internet revealed that this is a fairly widespread problem. Bikeradar has done an article on it, and there’s an Instagram account devoted mainly to pictures of Ultegra crankset failures. As I write this, there are 437 posts on this account.
I’ve heard rumors that not too long ago Shimano would quietly replace failed cranksets – even those that were past the warranty period. But now Shimano seems utterly uninterested in helping customers affected by its flawed products. I’m really disgusted by this attitude, and in the future will be patronizing their competitors.
So is it just me, or do other people also think that Shimano is currently not the company it used to be?
Comments
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This is very common ,they know and do pretty much nothing .Hambini just had a video on it
It happened to my Ultegra 6800 ,was refused for warranty .I seems some do and some don't get replaced ,more often than not they don't
Pic is my 6800 crank0 -
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Known fault, components out of warranty, not Canyon's fault but great first post.
Shimano haven't changed as a company - its a huge company churning out disposable bicycle components.
If you want their contact details just google the distributor in your country.
#shudder.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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Shimano take the view that it is rare. Depends where you live and how you use your bike. I imagine they last well in Mallorca or Arizona, but I've had this happen twice, so I don't use Shimano cranks any more.
The 105s are forged, if you do want to be able to use the bottom bracket, if thats of help.0 -
The Hambini vid gives a thorough explanation of what's happening with these hollow, bonded cranks. Water, possibly salty, gets inside and galvanic corrosion starts where the alu meets the steel spindle. It inevitably spreads and eventually results in failure of the bonding twixt outer and inner portions as all the photos attest.
I've never felt so smug having only 105 and Tiagra chainsets on my bikes0 -
Are they as ugly and heavy as Ultegra chainsets?
I hope not because that would wipe any smugness right away..The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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you don't say which country you are in, but as you mention 'quid'...
uk distributor for shimano is https://www.madison.co.uk/
customercare@madison.co.uk
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
The guy in the Bikeradar's article had had a creaking noise coming from the crankset for as long as "a couple weeks before".
Ignored it.
Then "A few days before it had that feeling like the pedal axle had been buckled".
Still ignored it and kept riding.
What a muppet.
The bond doesn't just break in an instant along the whole perimeter, but it is a gradual process which takes days if not weeks and manifests itself with those early warnings, but people choose to ignore them.
Hambini had also been hearing a clicking noise for a time, checked the ds crank arm and spotted the issue before the thing would have snapped.0 -
"Are they as ugly and heavy as Ultegra chainsets?
I hope not because that would wipe any smugness right away."
Old style 5 bolt shiny aluminium jobbies; not the prettiest but better looking than the current crop of fugly brutalist things. Undoubtedly a couple of grams heavier but that matters not a jot to an old duffer like me.
Maybe smug was a bit strong. Inadvertently fortunate?1 -
Given the range of options a creak can come from, I don't think that's stupid to continue using. And the pedal feeling creeps up very subtly during a ride, and you tend to then notice it next time out. But if it makes you feel better to think someone who has had a failure you haven't is an idiot, knock yourself out.katani said:The guy in the Bikeradar's article had had a creaking noise coming from the crankset for as long as "a couple weeks before".
Ignored it.
Then "A few days before it had that feeling like the pedal axle had been buckled".
Still ignored it and kept riding.
What a muppet.
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We've all ignored things or failed to realise what they signified. I've ignored deteriorating shifting to the point of cable failure, and difficulty unclipping turned out to be not worn cleats but the pedal falling apart. My bike started creaking on a charity ride and I convinced myself the BB was on the way out. Eventually realised the culprit was the leather saddlebag straps.0
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👍👍Munsford0 said:"Are they as ugly and heavy as Ultegra chainsets?
I hope not because that would wipe any smugness right away."
Old style 5 bolt shiny aluminium jobbies; not the prettiest but better looking than the current crop of fugly brutalist things. Undoubtedly a couple of grams heavier but that matters not a jot to an old duffer like me.
Maybe smug was a bit strong. Inadvertently fortunate?.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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Just as ugly. Heavier.MattFalle said:Are they as ugly and heavy as Ultegra chainsets?
I hope not because that would wipe any smugness right away.0 -
I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?0
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Anything that isn't Shimanomr.b-campag said:I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?
Its a very common spindle diameter for FSA etc or just change the b/b and fit anything you want (within reason of course)
I'm using Red, Fulcrum, FSA and Ultegra 8000 as its what I'm stuck with on the S3 due to the daft Cervelo b/b until I find something else that isn't silly money and the Ultegra is by far the worst of the bunch.
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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Nothing, unless it breaks.mr.b-campag said:I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?
Shimano have a huge market share. Its not so common an issue that you need to bin what you are riding.0 -
But generally this - keep an eye on it and if it looks/sounds like its about to fall apart the hammer, fir, trebuchet.First.Aspect said:
Nothing, unless it breaks.mr.b-campag said:I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?
Shimano have a huge market share. Its not so common an issue that you need to bin what you are riding.
Remember that Shimano have probably churned out hundreds of thousands of those things so its a small percentile that have failed, so you may be ok..The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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And when it does need replacing, replace with something that doesn't look like transformers, robots in disguise. Or a Honda.MattFalle said:
But generally this - keep an eye on it and if it looks/sounds like its about to fall apart the hammer, fir, trebuchet.First.Aspect said:
Nothing, unless it breaks.mr.b-campag said:I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?
Shimano have a huge market share. Its not so common an issue that you need to bin what you are riding.
Remember that Shimano have probably churned out hundreds of thousands of those things so its a small percentile that have failed, so you may be ok.1 -
Essentislly the whole groupset was designed by someone with no talent, heart or doul.First.Aspect said:
And when it does need replacing, replace with something that doesn't look like transformers, robots in disguise. Or a Honda.MattFalle said:
But generally this - keep an eye on it and if it looks/sounds like its about to fall apart the hammer, fir, trebuchet.First.Aspect said:
Nothing, unless it breaks.mr.b-campag said:I've got one of those, slightly concerning...What do people suggest as a replacement?
Shimano have a huge market share. Its not so common an issue that you need to bin what you are riding.
Remember that Shimano have probably churned out hundreds of thousands of those things so its a small percentile that have failed, so you may be ok.
Its just meh..The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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OP - what resolution do you want i.e. would you actually want a replacement Shimano crank after this failure?
If the answer is yes, there is not much you can do. Your claim lies with the retailer, i.e. Canyon, who as you say, have been of little help. There isn't much point contacting Shimano, they have no interest in admitting it is a defect or offering a replacement as it would potentially leave them open to any similar previous or future claims.
Your best bet is to make a nuisance of yourself with Canyon and see if they will replace it for you.
FWIW, I run an engineering company. Warranty is a very tricky subject, no manufacturer is ever going to admit fault unless it is a clear and obvious defect. Whenever time and use get thrown into the mix, i.e. a four year old bike, they will always claim it is wear and tear or misuse. It is hard to categorically prove otherwise so you are left relying on goodwill to get a suitable resolution.0 -
OP here - I'm probably a muppet as well.katani said:The guy in the Bikeradar's article had had a creaking noise coming from the crankset for as long as "a couple weeks before".
Ignored it.
Then "A few days before it had that feeling like the pedal axle had been buckled".
Still ignored it and kept riding.
What a muppet.
The bond doesn't just break in an instant along the whole perimeter, but it is a gradual process which takes days if not weeks and manifests itself with those early warnings, but people choose to ignore them.
Hambini had also been hearing a clicking noise for a time, checked the ds crank arm and spotted the issue before the thing would have snapped.
The problem initially manifested itself as a problem with the pedals. A few weeks ago, my shoes started to disengage themselves at that slightest movement. I can't adjust the pedals anymore, so I just decided to order a new set. The incident happened while I was waiting for the new set of pedals to arrive from ChainReactionCycles.
Maybe I'm just not that experienced, but I've never heard of a crankset breaking, so I never bothered to check the crankarms. Turns out there was a crack on the inside of the crankarm which was responsible for this incident.
Live and learn. Thankfully I lived through this incident, as a crankset failure in the wrong situation could easily be fatal. Shimano should really be more proactive in warning people about this, but they're more worried about their reputation.
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OP here: Thanks for info. I actually live in the same country where Shimano is headquartered. I mentioned 'quid' because I was under the impression that this was mainly a British site.sungod said:you don't say which country you are in, but as you mention 'quid'...
uk distributor for shimano is https://www.madison.co.uk/
customercare@madison.co.uk
I've tried for the last three weeks to get in touch with Shimano, but to no avail. There's no contact information on their website - either the Japanese version or the English version.
My local LBS is run by a little old man who has no direct contact with Shimano. There is an authorized Shimano dealership in the city where I live, but I've never once visited them, and I doubt they would want to offer much help to someone who has never been a customer of theirs. The other problem is that I have only a working knowledge of Japanese, and if order to convince the staff at the authorized dealership to intervene I would need to bring a translator with me. Frankly, that would be too much hassle for me, which I why I'm trying to resolve this online.0 -
I think this is generally true - keep an eye on it and you should be okay. In my case, the pedals suddenly started to develop a lot of play, and there was a clicking sound whenever I was out of the saddle. I initially thought there was a problem with my pedals, but in retrospect this was a sign that my crankset was coming apart.MattFalle said:
But generally this - keep an eye on it and if it looks/sounds like its about to fall apart the hammer, fir, trebuchet.
Remember that Shimano have probably churned out hundreds of thousands of those things so its a small percentile that have failed, so you may be ok.
I did a back of the envelope calculation and reckoned that there's maybe a 1:10,000 chance that these cranks will fail in their lifetime.
I've come across literally hundreds of cases of failed Shimano cranks: This insta account has tons of photographic evidence. If I assume that only half of the people who experience failures like this post photos online, I can hypothesize that there have been maybe 1,000 failures like this. I have no idea how many road bikes there are in the world today, but 20,000,000 seems like a reasonable figure to me. If we suppose that half of those have high-end Shimano parts, we get 1,000 failures for 10,000,000 bikes, or a rate of about 1 in 10,000.
I'm sure you can find fault with my math - it's total guesswork. But I reckon it's not too far from the actual number.
So if you think 1:10,000 odds are acceptable, then I wouldn't worry. But if this seems too high to you, I would advise you to shop around. First.Aspect is right: Shimano does have a huge market share, so you will be hard pressed to avoid them completely.
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Its not Canyon's problem - the parts are out of warranty.UnhappyPappy said:
OP here - I would like compensation for the replacement. I've gone out and already had a new crankshaft installed - can't be arsed with waiting for Shimano to get back to me - so I would like Shimano to compensate me for this.MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:OP - what resolution do you want i.e. would you actually want a replacement Shimano crank after this failure?
If the answer is yes, there is not much you can do. Your claim lies with the retailer, i.e. Canyon, who as you say, have been of little help. There isn't much point contacting Shimano, they have no interest in admitting it is a defect or offering a replacement as it would potentially leave them open to any similar previous or future claims.
Your best bet is to make a nuisance of yourself with Canyon and see if they will replace it for you.
FWIW, I run an engineering company. Warranty is a very tricky subject, no manufacturer is ever going to admit fault unless it is a clear and obvious defect. Whenever time and use get thrown into the mix, i.e. a four year old bike, they will always claim it is wear and tear or misuse. It is hard to categorically prove otherwise so you are left relying on goodwill to get a suitable resolution.
Canyon has done nothing but repeatedly say it's Shimano's problem, not theirs. I completely understand this - and somewhat agree with this . But I didn't buy my bike from Shimano: I bought a finished bike from Canyon with Shimano parts.
Canyon is a huge customer for Shimano. They could very easily pressurize Shimano to replace these crankshafts by threatening to take their business elsewhere. Incidents like these don't just make Shimano look bad - they tarnish the reputations of manufacturers who rely on Shimano's parts. But so far, Canyon doesn't seem interested on advocating with Shimano on my behalf.
I think I've got as far as I can with Canyon's local representatives (i.e., nowhere), so I'm going to seek out contact details for Canyon management and reach out to them directly..The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
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This is the unfortunate truth of the matter.MattFalle said:.
Its not Canyon's problem - the parts are out of warranty.UnhappyPappy said:
OP here - I would like compensation for the replacement. I've gone out and already had a new crankshaft installed - can't be arsed with waiting for Shimano to get back to me - so I would like Shimano to compensate me for this.MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:OP - what resolution do you want i.e. would you actually want a replacement Shimano crank after this failure?
If the answer is yes, there is not much you can do. Your claim lies with the retailer, i.e. Canyon, who as you say, have been of little help. There isn't much point contacting Shimano, they have no interest in admitting it is a defect or offering a replacement as it would potentially leave them open to any similar previous or future claims.
Your best bet is to make a nuisance of yourself with Canyon and see if they will replace it for you.
FWIW, I run an engineering company. Warranty is a very tricky subject, no manufacturer is ever going to admit fault unless it is a clear and obvious defect. Whenever time and use get thrown into the mix, i.e. a four year old bike, they will always claim it is wear and tear or misuse. It is hard to categorically prove otherwise so you are left relying on goodwill to get a suitable resolution.
Canyon has done nothing but repeatedly say it's Shimano's problem, not theirs. I completely understand this - and somewhat agree with this . But I didn't buy my bike from Shimano: I bought a finished bike from Canyon with Shimano parts.
Canyon is a huge customer for Shimano. They could very easily pressurize Shimano to replace these crankshafts by threatening to take their business elsewhere. Incidents like these don't just make Shimano look bad - they tarnish the reputations of manufacturers who rely on Shimano's parts. But so far, Canyon doesn't seem interested on advocating with Shimano on my behalf.
I think I've got as far as I can with Canyon's local representatives (i.e., nowhere), so I'm going to seek out contact details for Canyon management and reach out to them directly.
The OP (and all those others going public) is doing what they canned basically giving Shimano a bad name so that they have to redesign. Good for the future, no use to those affected.
Course of action is that while Shimano is prevalent there are other manufacturers.
As an aside, it has been mentioned that 105 is not affected. What about Dura-Ace?
PS - The Americans have the right idea, a class action.
https://chimicles.com/shimano-bike-crank-class-action-investigation/The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
105 is forged. Ultegra and DA made the same way - with a shell glued on.
So presumably the same issues, but a smaller number of sales and examples, so you don't hear as much about DA.0 -
So advice for everyone.First.Aspect said:105 is forged. Ultegra and DA made the same way - with a shell glued on.
So presumably the same issues, but a smaller number of sales and examples, so you don't hear as much about DA.
105 or another manufacturer.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
It might be called a crankset, or chainset, but it's not a crankshaft.
It's well out of warranty so nobody is interested from a retail side, other than a shop that will happily sell you a replacement.0 -
Would we not be seeing examples of Dura Ace failure in the pro peloton given the stick they get.First.Aspect said:105 is forged. Ultegra and DA made the same way - with a shell glued on.
So presumably the same issues, but a smaller number of sales and examples, so you don't hear as much about DA.0 -
It sounds like corrosion is the problem - doubt many pro bikes are kept long enough plus teams generally don't advertise their sponsors produce scrap[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]2
