Yea that is my backup plan. My guess is they wont have to replace many as those that have broken, already did replace and threw them away
- Yeah, I’m pretty sure I read that they will replace any ones that people still have on hand. You can then use or sell the replacement as needed.
That term means nothing more than the agency didn’t take them to court. CPSC was likely putting the screws to Shimano and they caved before it became forced. Just like executives that screw up voluntarily leave when really they’ve been told to resign or get fired. Or maybe Shimano saw that they were legally required at this point to do the recall by the laws that created the CPSC.
Of course it could be completely voluntary and the 4500+ documented failures, many additional undocumented, many videos and social media accounts about this exact failure had not caused CPSC to give Shimano a call. It’s hard to know either way, but I think pessimism is warranted given the extreme lateness of this recall.
My reading is that Shimano was told “do it or we will make you” as in “CEO Bob decided he wanted to spend more time with his family” after screwing up. Technically, Bob wasn’t fired, but he didn’t leave voluntarily.
Voluntary recalls are typically the result of negotiations / discussion between the company in question and the appropriate government regulatory body.
To say the Shimano was “forced” to issue the recall is likely as inaccurate as saying Shimano willingly recalled the cranks on their own.
But again, these are very specific legal terms and they have specific meanings.
Can someone give me the TL/DR version of what happens next?
I have a diamond back andean with ultegra cranks…
They dont have shops, can I take it to any random LBS to get it replace?
Thanks!
You can take it to any LBS that has been authorized by Shimano to inspect the cranks. I would just call one of the larger shops in your area and see if they are doing the inspections.
ETA - I just got an e-mail form Canyon re: the bike I bought in 2018. It included the following Shimano Dealer Locator link.
I’m wondering if anyone has any concrete information on this point either from Shimano or any reputable third party? I can’t seem to find any information on this, as I recently purchased the R8100s. Cycling Tips (which is now Velo), who used to do a pretty good job delving into details such as this had this is their DA 9200 review “The new crankarms feature the same Hollowtech II design as before, with the driveside arm using a two-piece bonded construction and the non-driveside arm using a one-piece forging. Shimano is yet again sticking to its tried-and-true 24 mm-diameter splined chromoly steel spindle for the widest possible range of compatibility with various bottom bracket shells, and the bottom bracket options themselves carry over from last year.” They do reference the bolt structure changing a bit so that prior chainrings aren’t compatible, but I don’t understand that to be related to the underlying issue. In fact, in their picture gallery below the pic of their crankarm they site: “Crankarm construction supposedly hasn’t changed from previous versions, according to Shimano. The driveside arm is still a two-piece clamshell, and the bond line is clearly visible.”
Frankly, that they did not issue this “recall” ( ie inspection) to the newer cranks doesn’t give me any comfort, as the least trustworthy character on this issue is Shimano itself. In fact, if the new cranks had had some sort of reinforcement in design and/or materials, you would have thought that they would have in some manner or other made that clear so as to not have newer owners, like me, or, more importantly, potential owners, be concerned by doubts about reliability.
According to the recall, only parts made thru July 2019 are affected. After then they claim some manufacturing process change prevents the issue. So then later parts aren’t affected.
Whether you believe that is up to you
Curious to know… can you direct me to where you may have read this please?
I can’t remember where and can’t be bothered to look it up. But that’s what I recall reading. The recall specifically calls out only a certain range of manufacturing date codes. So something changed at that point and I remember some article citing Shimano saying it was a manufacturing change.
It doesn’t really matter, because the replacements are all newer models with slightly different designs than the originals, even though it uses similar construction techniques. So you have to put your trust in Shimano or spend some money and buy something else.
Yeah, I figured.
Thanks, Ken.
That’s the way it works. And for fines, they are almost always negotiated after the announcement. Stunning high fines are usually negotiated down to something ‘more realistic’, or even zero sometimes.
I’ve got 2 cases open with Stages and haven’t heard a peep from them in many months. 
Thinking I should sell the replacement crankset, and take the money and ‘rebate’ and buy a Quarq or something…
That response seems a bit harsh….
The problem is that the market will most likely be flooded with other cranksets….not certain you’ll get much for them.